CWU board - Time to resign?

[Nickvilla20]

Imagine what the job would be like without the union?

In hindsight mistakes probably have been made we all knew a no strings attached payrise wasn’t going to happen not no one expected the top of the company to go all out attack on its workforce.

The people at the top aren’t perfect and the media comms are amateurish sometimes but at least these people have our best interests at heart. Just look how well the teaching unions are doing their strikes has already gone to pot.

I mean if anyone thinks they can do better they can always nominate themselves to be at the top.

[Woody Guthrie]

Meanwhile in the real world....

[koolishy67]

I'm proud of my union and hence when I read negative posts about the CWU leadership, I think the poster is usually a deluded dickhead.

It's been an impossible situation, the worst attack on a workforce in my 32 years. I think Dave and Andy, UncleTerry, all of them have been brilliant. My local reps have been fantastic too. Everybody.

Negative posts like this deserve to be in the bin with the 10% pay rise back dated from April, the 35 hour week, and going home an hour early dream brigade.

well said

[rambo1]

It's time for not only the RM board to go for mismanagement /bullying etc, but also time for a clean sweep at the union.

The CWU shafted BT Openreach at the back end of last year, now the Vaseline is being applied to us also.

I think we should withhold our subs for 2 months, Dave and Andy have been doing very well out of us for next to nothing in return!

I couldn’t believe what I was reading, the union leadership have played a blinder and I’ve been inspired by Dave Ward in particular, he sussed out what RM were up to and led us accordingly and now we are on the verge of an agreement rather than being battered on t&c’s with no union in the workplace. It’s got to be said but some people on here are extremely naive on the matter of industrial relations.

I'd be inclined to wait until end of March before singing their praises.

[rambo1]

An old lady customer once told me on my round. . When you're young , you think all these people in suits are very clever . Politicians, Council leaders , the union men the company directors the lot. And when you get older you realise non of them know F@@@ all ( her words ) other than what they get out of it themselves. A Very simplistic view but very true.. so if the union leaders resigned today do you think life will be great ? Even if Simon Thompson goes or we get Labour government? We always think life will be better and you'll always going to get more of the same.

On the whole, very true.

[darkgable]

with out the union we would be in a worse state. But thats not saying their actually doing a good job

[norris9]

I like Ward and Furey's work so far during this war..... but in the end it's about the deal we eventually get.

Our rep is going to bend over to all the change that is planned at our office even though the union has come out and said that executive action must stop unless it is warranted and there is room to fit in that change and meet USO requirements. So if I was to criticise the union - office reps are pretty useless.


Are Dave and Andy going to listen to all the posties who are now telling them that changes are still going forward in multiple offices across the country even though they won't meet USO requirements etc.... ?????

Local reps are complicit with helping Royal Mail put in these ridiculous changes!

[Kenfandango]

"I was promised in my interview and induction that there would 'always be overtime to make you up to full time hours' and now they've just stopped offering it"
CWU rep (laughing): "you signed the contract mate"

"I was explicitly told that Sundays were 'occasional' and would be no more than 2 a year and now it's once every 3 weeks"
CWU rep (laughing): "you signed the contract mate"

"I explained that I took the job for childcare reasons and now you've rota'd me on to do 12-6pm LATs for 2 weeks despite the hours advertised being 8-2"
CWU rep (laughing): "you signed the contract mate"

For all the good they've done, they let some pretty awful stuff slide completely. A lot of people who've worked other jobs before are used to managers being relatively truthful when you get the job, and not to have the constant worry of how much money are you going to make each week depending on the whims of management.

Before you say "if you take a 30 hour contract you need to make sure you can live on those hours" or similar, our DOM (as it was then) and Union rep both told those who started with me that we would ALWAYS have the opportunity to make our money up to full time, then actively laughed in our faces when the overtime ban came in

[neviboss]

3 wise monkeys?

[rambo1]

I like Ward and Furey's work so far during this war..... but in the end it's about the deal we eventually get.

Our rep is going to bend over to all the change that is planned at our office even though the union has come out and said that executive action must stop unless it is warranted and there is room to fit in that change and meet USO requirements. So if I was to criticise the union - office reps are pretty useless.


Are Dave and Andy going to listen to all the posties who are now telling them that changes are still going forward in multiple offices across the country even though they won't meet USO requirements etc.... ?????

Local reps are complicit with helping Royal Mail put in these ridiculous changes!

Maybe if they got paid for their trouble it may be different.

[stevejm]

Lots of Harry Hindsight types on here. The union have made mistakes but this is the real world and its akin to a real war - the enemy you start out fighting doesn't show their hand from the start, becomes more aggressive as the war drags on, introduces new weapons as the war progresses and uses propaganda to create uncertainty as the battle rages.

Now tell me, HONESTLY! , that you could have done better. If you answer "yes" then tell us why you are not at least a member of the PEC.

The only thing we can ask the Union to do is listen to our grievances and act quickly. The last few weeks the biggest griebance has been E.A. The Union has taken action to halt it - probably too late in many cases - but this is the nature of warfare - often you are reacting rather than preventing.

[Flashman_]

So what have the union achieved?

I know, we'll agree to overtime rates that pay less than normal hourly rate! Absolute classic.

Our union is toothless and as effective as the NUM!

RM are laughing at us and the CWU, I know it has it's fan boys, but they've cancelled strikes because RM's legal team outwitted them, they also did it in 2017 and on other occasions!

I'm quite happy doing a full day's work for a decent wage, however, I'm not happy having to work extra hours to put food on the table, having to walk to work, because I've had to mothball the car etc.

What's wrong with a backdated payrise? Aren't paydeals supposed to run from April? Guess what it's April next month!

Also I object profusely to being called a deluded dickhead, if you haven't anything sensible to say, then don't say it.
Manners cost nothing, jog on.

Absolutely with you on this. We are not asking for the world just a fair pay deal and decent terms. Anyone who thinks that is absurd is the d**ckhead. Accepting anything lower than inflation is literally saying I am not worth what I was a year ago.

[Flashman_]

I think the union need to remember how the work force were treated at the beginning of covid and what we the work force achieved for the company during that time. While board members got a 2/3yr free pass to stay at home still earning their big wages from doing absolutely nothing and just watching the money roll in.

They knew when covid was coming to an end and that the boom will slow down. Yet they chose to award themselves and shareholders. I'm not against money given out, but to the amounts that were given, absolutely disgusting and obvious what they are doing. They don't care about the company and we all know once they are done and dusted they will just go elsewhere, paid off and doing the same bs again.

I didn't like the recent union video as it seemed like they were sympathetic to what RM told them about the finances. Get it into their heads, WE DID NOT CAUSE THIS! They threw money away to agency, bonuses for strike breaking, vouchers, contracts to our competitors like Evri. While they stopped overtime, rest days, suspending colleagues, enforcing ea etc. We have fellow colleagues leaving in huge numbers because they have had enough.

Union need to wake up, and they definitely need to sack the pr guy because he is just embarassing and unprofessional. Back dated pay has to be on the table, all ea stopped immediately and suspended colleagues reinstated immediately. Then we can talk about change, till then announce some dates and stop extending deadlines just because RM need more time to counter the bs coming from themselves.

[postslippete]

Now tell me, HONESTLY! , that you could have done better. If you answer "yes" then tell us why you are not at least a member of the PEC.

The only thing we can ask the Union to do is listen to our grievances and act quickly. but this is the nature of warfare - often you are reacting rather than preventing.

Back in August last year I started a thread of "why we should work to rule". What I really meant was that the CWU could have had that in their strike ballot and maybe pursued this instead of an all-out strike.

Now, I know at the time many of you believed that it wouldn't work; that part-timers need full-time work and that there will always be docket kings running round grabbing all the loops that other postie's have left. However, the business has been entirely run on overtime for the last few years. Offices are deliberately under staffed to allow for these changes of longer delivery spans to occur. That is why whenever anyone rings in sick the managers just can't get everything covered and the USO has been failing for quite some time. Sure, the business would continue using agency staff but it's never a long term viable solution because it costs them more money.

The only thing these all-out strikes have really achieved is that the business will have lost millions by stealth and most postie's have lost around one and half grand in wages. And after all that you've still got bigger walks and later start times anyway!

It's quite ironic that many postie's are now waking up to the fact after RM has given them extra workloads that all they need to do is work their hours and bring stuff back. But really they should have doing this months ago!! The CWU should have really got on board to allow this to happen as part of the strike protest which in our industry would have been very effective. The media campaign by the CWU could have the narrative that postie's were simply working their hours that they are paid for instead of being forced to work extra for a below inflation pay deal. Do you think that would gain public support?

It's all good having the benefit of hindsight - it comes with years of experience.

[richietns]

Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts.

Molly Ivins.