Royal Mail's boss was bullied out by militant unions

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/20 ... -thompson/

Pay wall.

But, really.....

[adb2aber]

The threat of administration at Royal Mail appears to have passed, at least for the time being, after a deal with the trade unions brought a desperately needed end to one of the most protracted and bitter pay disputes of our times.

That is to be warmly welcomed. One can understand why the company felt compelled to consider extreme measures to break the deadlock but subjecting an institution of such rich heritage to the upheaval and uncertainty of insolvency would have been tantamount to vandalism.

Perhaps it’s naïve to think that the threat of bankruptcy was ever a realistic prospect. It may only have been a negotiation tactic – an attempt to focus minds as the talks repeatedly hit a brick wall. Nevertheless, for thousands of posties no doubt exhausted by the saga, it must be a huge relief to no longer have such speculation hanging over them.

Still, any hope there might have been that the company was poised to sail serenely through calmer waters will have been dashed by the news that chief executive Simon Thompson is expected to fall on his sword in the coming weeks.

It risks creating more instability at the Royal Mail, at a time when the exact opposite is needed. Worse, it risks handing the Communication Workers Union (CWU) a spectacular public relations coup in its fraught battle with the board.

It sends the wrong message and risks emboldening union bosses in future disputes if they think they hold the power to unseat senior executives. Thompson had only been in the job for two years – a desperately short time even by the somewhat flighty standards of UK plc.

There is no doubt that he has proven to be a divisive figure, and at times Thompson didn’t help himself with his robotic style. The moment that he was caught reading from an autocue on breakfast TV when talks were at a delicate stage will go down as one of the PR gaffes of the decade.

But then at times the impression was that the CWU was so dead-set on a fight that even the Dalai Lama would have struggled to negotiate a peace settlement.

Thompson’s appearance at a select committee of senior MPs appears to have sealed his fate, which is unfortunate. The episode had all the look of a man that had been thrown to the wolves by colleagues only too glad for the spotlight to be on someone else.

Thompson has to accept some responsibility for arriving unprepared for the showdown. Ditto for sounding so uncooperative at times during the proceedings.

But surely there is an army of advisers whose job it is to ensure that management is briefed to within an inch of their life before such high profile events, especially when this particular one had all the look of a giant stitch-up in the hands of chairman Darren Jones.

The Labour MP has built up something of a following on the Left for his perceived skewering of company bosses during his time overseeing the business select committee but the impression was that he had already made up his mind about the Royal Mail chief.

This was reinforced by the relatively easy ride that was given to CWU general secretary Dave Ward, who comes across as a man who would fight his own reflection. Once the committee had decided to recall Thompson for a second hearing, with chairman Keith Williams in tow this time, on the basis that he may have provided “inaccurate information” to parliament, there was almost certainly no going back.

Yet Royal Mail should have stood by him. Very few people would have emerged from an ordeal as bruising as this with their reputations enhanced. Indeed, he deserves credit for coming away with any resolution at all. It was the mother of all hospital passes, and if Thompson at times lacked warmth, is it any wonder?

The CWU and some of its members were about as hostile as it is possible to be from the very start. They set the tone for talks, and not once did the union soften its stance, leaving the company little choice but to meet them head on.

Nor was there ever any acknowledgement that modernisation was needed at an organisation where many of the working practices are from a bygone era. Thompson was right: without change, Royal Mail would soon be rendered an irrelevant dinosaur in an industry being turned upside down by Amazon and others.


Can you imagine a more thankless task than trying to drag a company, where the union gets to choose which posties get the coveted flat routes, into the 21st century? But in trying to speed up change, Thompson was wrongly attacked as an enemy of the honest working man, rather than a harbinger of much-needed reform that would ironically help secure the future of the Royal Mail.

The postal service was taken to the brink by the dispute. In the end, in the face of such fierce resistance, and with Royal Mail losing millions of pounds a day, the board was forced to water down many of its proposals, and the union was able to declare victory despite the fact it accepted a below-inflation pay deal.

Industrial action has brought the country to a standstill over the last year, at a cost to the economy of billions of pounds, and to the repeated detriment to the lives of the working people that the trade union movement claims to represent.


Thompson’s premature exit risks giving bullying union bosses the last laugh.

[hazzeem025]

Which Tory arse licker wrote that article?

[cows777]

Yes and we will bullied the CWU leadership to a massive no vote as well as being weak and giving in to RM demands to make the union look good.

[Whinealot]

Thompson is no victim, he embarked along with his “team” to attempt to break the CWU by hammering our T&C’s to compensate for the catastrophic errors HE made by giving away most of the company profit to shareholders. He actively took an aggressive stance against the workforce by breaking a so say watertight binding agreement (2021 PTC) then used a clause in it to serve notice on some content within it, all after breaking it first. Militant union? CWU had and renewed a strike mandate but haven’t used it since Christmas, yes we know it was pretty pointless striking when it would have little impact in quieter times.
This article is a total pile of s**t from start to finish written probably by a Tory or a board member! ST won’t be remembered with any respect or fondness by anyone. Unless we have a new top table at RM and asses to be kicked at CWU HQ we will have a very hard future ahead. Self interest and greed are stained all over his tenure. Under a possible shake up for RM the CWU need to up their game too. The current offering is paltry and derisory.

[DGH]

It is absolutely not the policy of the CWU to bully RM chief executives . . .
But I'd be happy to offer poor Simon some 'constructive counselling' on his productivity as CEO as measured by the data.

[baldrick]

Fairly predictable from the Torygraph.

[olilew]

Poor Simon! Are they 'Managing you out of the business?'

[DirtyHarry]

Well, I've read some s**t in my time, mainly CWU agreements made with Royal Mail, but that article nearly had me choking on my fish fingers!

[BenacreNick]

Do me a favour, what utter tosh.

This bloke has affected my mental health badly for the last 13 months, so good riddance.

[Mr Rush]

Nor was there ever any acknowledgement that modernisation was needed at an organisation where many of the working practices are from a bygone era.

No-one expects the Spanish Practices! They're back, apparently, ready to be vanquished all over again.

[guardianangel]

He is leaving for fear of being charged with criminal activity and being imprisoned that's the real story.

[Slim2none]

Leaving should make zero difference to the law. He is guilty of lying under oath for gawd sake! If that was you or me....how long til we see the inside of a cell?

[enskied]

Bullied out.
Isn't that what the big bad boys do when they someone stands up to them. Go running back snotty nosed into their mothers apron.

The bullying and harassment has been all one sided.

Why do these "reporters" not come looking for the true story.