GBP1.7 billion warchest to destroy union - Williams & Thompson

[mattick]

Even if RM propaganda is to be believed that 12,000 OPG’s have crossed the picket lines. That’s still 90%+ of union members still holding out. The company not doing a very good of destroying the union.
Yeah some discontented and disillusioned members will leave the union next year. Reality is most will rejoin the fold in time. 6 months into 2023, when Xmas is on the horizon again, RM won’t have the heart to fight again.

[Binsey]

[quote=mattick post_id=1022058 time=1671134424 user_id=102554]
Even if RM propaganda is to be believed that 12,000 OPG’s have crossed the picket lines. That’s still 90%+ of union members still holding out. The company not doing a very good of destroying the union.
Yeah some discontented and disillusioned members will leave the union next year. Reality is most will rejoin the fold in time. 6 months into 2023, when Xmas is on the horizon again, RM won’t have the heart to fight again.
[/quote]

The Unions huge problem on the horizon is when RM stop taking the Union subs from your wages.

Are all 115k going to set up Individual DD?????

[jessicarabbit]

"I can't pay my mortgage this month, because I'm saving £500 to pay for my holiday to Florida"

How can they even think this is normal business behaviour. Mismanagement on a criminal scale.

Have a windfall due to a terrible global pandemic and then spaff the profits on new mail centres and dividends for faceless investment organisations. Put aside a war chest then tell everyone your losing a million a day to push through unacceptable changes.

The union need to get this out to the wider media as soon as possible. These crooks need taking out!!!

[zz666]

If they have a war chest of £1.7b, then they should be investigated. And shareholders told because of their zero dvidend. I kind of think it's a made up story.

[theotherone]

If they have a war chest of £1.7b, then they should be investigated. And shareholders told because of their zero dvidend. I kind of think it's a made up story.

CWU Can tell them all about it at the shareholders meeting.

[Eduardo]

"I can't pay my mortgage this month, because I'm saving £500 to pay for my holiday to Florida"

How can they even think this is normal business behaviour. Mismanagement on a criminal scale.

Have a windfall due to a terrible global pandemic and then spaff the profits on new mail centres and dividends for faceless investment organisations. Put aside a war chest then tell everyone your losing a million a day to push through unacceptable changes.

The union need to get this out to the wider media as soon as possible. These crooks need taking out!!!

Nicely put, sums it up perfectly although I don't get the £500 for my holiday to Florida bit, what's that bit mean?
Thanks.

[Dorset Plodder]

We all know why more posties are returning to work .... and it's not because ST has won them over with his Magnetic Personality

I firmly believe a lot of the Posties going back to work now would not need to do so if they weren't skint. ST and Co should be ashamed of themselves

[Gasman11]

"The Unions huge problem on the horizon is when RM stop taking the Union subs from your wages.

Are all 115k going to set up Individual DD?????"

Already happened in HMRC a year or so ago, PCS contacted members to obtain bank details, simple.

[Ddarko85]

£1.7 billion and don’t forget they’re losing £1 million a day. That’s just in general that £1 million, just keep repeating that one.

An absolute circus from the RM board

[GRS]

2,000 lawyers and accountants hitting the Frontline to deliver the Christmas post

First of all why is one company employing so many people with this job title?

Secondly I can't somehow envisage a load of spruced up office workers who look like boy band wannabes going out loaded up with mail in the winter weather in their noddy pointed shoes Christ they might chip a nail on their manicured hands!!!!

Would love it if they did though and got the arse ripped out of their trousers by the rabid dog that someone's got round the neck when they open the door to take their parcel in.

Oh God I hope one or two of these pussies end up at our place........ What fun it's gonna be ripping the piss out of them!!!

[posted]

Unbelievable

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/20 ... ss-picket/

Royal Mail vows to ignore striking workers as thousands cross picket line
Company leaders say they have built up £1.7bn war chest to defeat union

By
Oliver Gill,
CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT
15 December 2022 • 4:51pm

The leaders of Royal Mail have vowed to ignore striking workers as thousands cross the picket lines and support for industrial action crumbles.

Chairman Keith Williams and chief executive Simon Thompson said that they intend to ram through reforms to the business with or without the backing of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), ahead of another round of walkouts in the days before Christmas.

In an interview with The Telegraph, they said that 12,000 postal workers are prepared to cross the picket lines each day - a sixfold increase since autumn - and that the company has built up a £1.7bn war chest to defeat the CWU.

The interview came just hours after CWU general secretary Dave Ward upped the ante on Wednesday evening, describing the Government as a “shower of corrupt b******* in Westminster" as he voiced support for striking nurses.

Royal Mail is pushing through automation that it says is essential for the future of the business, but which the CWU claims will lead to waves of unnecessary job cuts. Workers have been offered a 9pc pay rise which the CWU has so far rejected.

Mr Williams said: “It's an important point which people miss, which is: we have the ability to change.

“The change is going to happen anyway. We'd like to secure the change that we need from the people, which is pretty limited, to give them the 9pc pay rise that's on offer.

“[But] change can happen as a result of the cancellation of the agreements [earlier this year], and will happen regardless of whether there's an agreement with the union or not.”

A wave of strikes has forced Royal Mail to warn that customers should post all their Christmas cards and presents by Friday this week or risk them not arriving in time. Workers walked out on Wednesday and Thursday this week, and will be striking again on Dec 23 and Christmas Eve.

Strike calendar – Winter of discontent
Proposed reforms include Royal Mail’s parcel arm switching to hundreds of freelance “owner-driver” postal workers. Until recently, only a quarter of Parcelforce drivers could be self-employed, but the changes will mean this can be lifted to 100pc, for instance.

Royal Mail expects to rack up losses between £350m and £450m this year.

Mr Williams, a veteran of disputes during his time as British Airways chief executive, said: “Most of that loss is not attributable to strikes. it's actually attributable to the change that you need in the business.

“As you change the business, you're actually improving the business. Yeah, they can be out on strikes, but the strikes are not are not the big element of the loss.”

Mr Thompson said that Royal Mail was determined to ensure that Christmas parcels would be delivered on time, with 2,000 administrative staff dispatched to the front line to help.

Mr Williams said: “We've now got all the accountants and lawyers on the front line delivering post.”

In autumn around 2,000 postal workers were prepared to cross the picket line, a figure that has now swelled to 12,000 members of staff.

Tempers have flared with the police called in earlier this month amid claims of physical violence and vandalism. One CWU representative is facing accusations of headbutting.

Mr Williams said: “The irony of this one is that because it's Christmas, the parcels market holds up nicely.”

But the strikes did impact on the letters business, he added. A quarter of Royal Mail’s letter volumes are typically delivered in December. “They [the CWU] are actually destroying Christmas cards, which are letters, which is what they're trying to preserve.”

The CWU will ballot its 115,000 members at Royal Mail for another six-month mandate to strike in January.

Mr Williams said: “What they're saying is that we're threatening 25,000 compulsory redundancies. It is nothing more than a scaremongering tactic going into the next ballot.”

Meanwhile he sprang to the defence of Mr Thompson, who Mr Ward has attacked for being “out of his depth” as CWU members held placards saying “Thompson out”.

He said: “If you look at the history of this one, it was [ex-CEO, Adam] Crozier out. Moya [Greene] out. Rico [Back] out. And now it’s Simon [Thompson] out. There’s a fact pattern here of playing the man not the ball.”

Mr Thompson added: “I am representing the voice of the customers. So is it ‘customers out’ when they say ‘Thompson out’?

“I don't think it is nice. And I don't think it's necessary. But I think more fundamentally, it diverts us away from what are the real true issues.”

the article mentions £1.7bn but doesn't quote them. Would like to see this 'interview'

[mattick]

Even if RM propaganda is to be believed that 12,000 OPG’s have crossed the picket lines. That’s still 90%+ of union members still holding out. The company not doing a very good of destroying the union.
Yeah some discontented and disillusioned members will leave the union next year. Reality is most will rejoin the fold in time. 6 months into 2023, when Xmas is on the horizon again, RM won’t have the heart to fight again.

The Unions huge problem on the horizon is when RM stop taking the Union subs from your wages.

Are all 115k going to set up Individual DD?????

What’s to stop the Union setting up a direct-debit on the members behalf? The union pay RM for the admin process of deducting subs. Redirect those funds so the union can hire their own admin staff.

[jessicarabbit]

"I can't pay my mortgage this month, because I'm saving £500 to pay for my holiday to Florida"

How can they even think this is normal business behaviour. Mismanagement on a criminal scale.

Have a windfall due to a terrible global pandemic and then spaff the profits on new mail centres and dividends for faceless investment organisations. Put aside a war chest then tell everyone your losing a million a day to push through unacceptable changes.

The union need to get this out to the wider media as soon as possible. These crooks need taking out!!!

Nicely put, sums it up perfectly although I don't get the £500 for my holiday to Florida bit, what's that bit mean?
Thanks.

Just illustrating how ridiculous it is to build up a war chest whilst not paying your workers a decent payrise. If I went to my mortgage company and told them I couldn't pay my mortgage because I was saving for a holiday they would take my house.

[theotherone]

Unbelievable

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/20 ... ss-picket/

Royal Mail vows to ignore striking workers as thousands cross picket line
Company leaders say they have built up £1.7bn war chest to defeat union

By
Oliver Gill,
CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT
15 December 2022 • 4:51pm

The leaders of Royal Mail have vowed to ignore striking workers as thousands cross the picket lines and support for industrial action crumbles.

Chairman Keith Williams and chief executive Simon Thompson said that they intend to ram through reforms to the business with or without the backing of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), ahead of another round of walkouts in the days before Christmas.

In an interview with The Telegraph, they said that 12,000 postal workers are prepared to cross the picket lines each day - a sixfold increase since autumn - and that the company has built up a £1.7bn war chest to defeat the CWU.

The interview came just hours after CWU general secretary Dave Ward upped the ante on Wednesday evening, describing the Government as a “shower of corrupt b******* in Westminster" as he voiced support for striking nurses.

Royal Mail is pushing through automation that it says is essential for the future of the business, but which the CWU claims will lead to waves of unnecessary job cuts. Workers have been offered a 9pc pay rise which the CWU has so far rejected.

Mr Williams said: “It's an important point which people miss, which is: we have the ability to change.

“The change is going to happen anyway. We'd like to secure the change that we need from the people, which is pretty limited, to give them the 9pc pay rise that's on offer.

“[But] change can happen as a result of the cancellation of the agreements [earlier this year], and will happen regardless of whether there's an agreement with the union or not.”

A wave of strikes has forced Royal Mail to warn that customers should post all their Christmas cards and presents by Friday this week or risk them not arriving in time. Workers walked out on Wednesday and Thursday this week, and will be striking again on Dec 23 and Christmas Eve.

Strike calendar – Winter of discontent
Proposed reforms include Royal Mail’s parcel arm switching to hundreds of freelance “owner-driver” postal workers. Until recently, only a quarter of Parcelforce drivers could be self-employed, but the changes will mean this can be lifted to 100pc, for instance.

Royal Mail expects to rack up losses between £350m and £450m this year.

Mr Williams, a veteran of disputes during his time as British Airways chief executive, said: “Most of that loss is not attributable to strikes. it's actually attributable to the change that you need in the business.

“As you change the business, you're actually improving the business. Yeah, they can be out on strikes, but the strikes are not are not the big element of the loss.”

Mr Thompson said that Royal Mail was determined to ensure that Christmas parcels would be delivered on time, with 2,000 administrative staff dispatched to the front line to help.

Mr Williams said: “We've now got all the accountants and lawyers on the front line delivering post.”

In autumn around 2,000 postal workers were prepared to cross the picket line, a figure that has now swelled to 12,000 members of staff.

Tempers have flared with the police called in earlier this month amid claims of physical violence and vandalism. One CWU representative is facing accusations of headbutting.

Mr Williams said: “The irony of this one is that because it's Christmas, the parcels market holds up nicely.”

But the strikes did impact on the letters business, he added. A quarter of Royal Mail’s letter volumes are typically delivered in December. “They [the CWU] are actually destroying Christmas cards, which are letters, which is what they're trying to preserve.”

The CWU will ballot its 115,000 members at Royal Mail for another six-month mandate to strike in January.

Mr Williams said: “What they're saying is that we're threatening 25,000 compulsory redundancies. It is nothing more than a scaremongering tactic going into the next ballot.”

Meanwhile he sprang to the defence of Mr Thompson, who Mr Ward has attacked for being “out of his depth” as CWU members held placards saying “Thompson out”.

He said: “If you look at the history of this one, it was [ex-CEO, Adam] Crozier out. Moya [Greene] out. Rico [Back] out. And now it’s Simon [Thompson] out. There’s a fact pattern here of playing the man not the ball.”

Mr Thompson added: “I am representing the voice of the customers. So is it ‘customers out’ when they say ‘Thompson out’?

“I don't think it is nice. And I don't think it's necessary. But I think more fundamentally, it diverts us away from what are the real true issues.”

the article mentions £1.7bn but doesn't quote them. Would like to see this 'interview'

Granted no direct quote but the 1.7bill figure has to come from somewhere.

[jessicarabbit]

Hopefully the CWU get all over this before the Telegraph get asked to pull the article