Opinions

[main frame fuse]

Whilst im aware that working conditions etc are prominent issues regarding strike action, im becoming more aware of peoples attitudes (RM customers) towards the striking posties, people are now very angry they are not getting mail delivered on time or at all as the strikes continue. The blame seems to be soley placed on the heads of the posties and not the management, they seem to be getting away with passing the buck.
Does anyone think the strikes could do more harm than good, taking into consideration the point i have brought up?
BTW posties, im in total understanding of your plight.....

[shadow]

But customers should be aware that we are fighting for the service as well. We posties know how bad the service has become and thats down to bad management, not the posties. If we don't take this action the service will get even worse in the future.

[pinstripe]

At the end of the day we have to save our jobs first and the service second. The public will believe whatever they are told and will have little impact on our determination to do what we see is right. Too many people give up without a fight and then blame everyone else for their problems, then they resent anyone who has the courage to stand up for their rights.

[apple]

I think the fact that we are also fighting to keep and improve the service for customers is one thing that the union often or maybe the press overlook, how many people have commented that they are not happy about the time of the delivery "i used to get my mail in the morning, now it's the afternoon"
well that has nothing to do with the postie it's what Royal mail has decided to do, giving the public a worse service, get used to it, with the bigger and bigger rounds then you will be getting it even later

i hope that the CWU and RM come to some agreement,

[BELIAL]

Can we just have another smilie thing that says management twonk? It would be more modern and more efficient

[baldrick]

RM management do not regard the public or small posters as 'customers'.
Only the large banks and mailing businesses.
They do not care if your post does not arrive on time.
We are taking action to defend the postal service for all users, but the press
is not likely to tell the truth about this as they too are owned by rich business men.

[luft1957]

the whole point of taking industrial action is to cause as much inconveniance to customers as possible if they are not compaining the IA is not working. we need to cause as much disruption as possible so the businesses that use RM will put pressure on management to come to an agreement with the union

[andy2007]

Really?
I thought that the whole point, was to cause RM as much inconvenience, and expense as possible. The fact that we're making the Public suffer, is an unfortunate side effect IMHO.

[luft1957]

if it wasnt causing inconveniance to business and the public no one would even know or care if we were on strike to withdraw our labour is to make the management suffer at the expense of the customers IMHO

[BELIAL]

Really?
I thought that the whole point, was to cause RM as much inconvenience, and expense as possible. The fact that we're making the Public suffer, is an unfortunate side effect IMHO.

But surely Andy you are forgetting the wise words of our management paymasters, "the public are not our customers,banks utilities and the other bulk mailers are our customers"

[cotc2001]

It's chicken and egg.
As a mail order retailer whilst I fully support better pay to postal workers as it's a long hard job which we are thankful for (and lets face it as a business there isn't a more cost effective method than Royal Mail to get orders to our customers) the only thing that will happen from our businesses point of view is

1. Strike Occurs
2. We increase our postage cost by £1 or so to cover moving to another postal soloution
3. When/if strike is over we drop postage cost and go back to Royal Mail

so the chicken and egg bit is
RM workers strike -> businesses move to different method of postal services -> less work for RM workers -> Redundancies happen

but then without the strike RM workers won't get what they want.

[luft1957]

It's chicken and egg.
As a mail order retailer whilst I fully support better pay to postal workers as it's a long hard job which we are thankful for (and lets face it as a business there isn't a more cost effective method than Royal Mail to get orders to our customers) the only thing that will happen from our businesses point of view is

1. Strike Occurs
2. We increase our postage cost by £1 or so to cover moving to another postal soloution
3. When/if strike is over we drop postage cost and go back to Royal Mail

so the chicken and egg bit is
RM workers strike -> businesses move to different method of postal services -> less work for RM workers -> Redundancies happen

but then without the strike RM workers won't get what they want.

most of our so called competitors do not deliver any post at all they just pass it on to RM for the final mile delivery so moving to another postal provider is not really a solution no matter how much they hype themselves up in the media as providing competition they are nothing but leeches on the arse of all taxpayers

[TrueBlueTerrier]

cotc 2001 - well put however, you do seem to have fallen into the trap that RM set in that this is a dispute about pay.

It isn't - its about RM sticking to all agreements not just the ones they want. Its about treating their staff with respect and honesty, not knocking on doors to check when they got their deliveries or stopping their pay because they won't or perhaps can't work beyond their agreed hours. Its about not counting accidents on deliveries towards disciplinary procedures that can lead to sacking - even a tribunal agreed with us on that one. Its about bringing in work measuring tools (BSI100) that don't take into account such processes as going to collect the next batch of mail, incorrect machine sorting, human needs such as toilets and refreshment requirements. Its about RM not allowing outside experts in to measure productivity so that a fair and achievable workload is agreed. Its about RM contacting you on your 1st day of sickness absence even if you have already done so, it hardly promotes recovery if you have to get out of bed to answer the phone or door to tell them exactly the same thing you did a few hours earlier. Its about RM saying they are talking to the CWU, when in actual fact they are talking AT the union. Its about interpretation of existing agreements one of which is the 30minute flexibility which should be used in exceptional circumstances, yet RM managers use it on a weekly basis and posties find it hard to get back the 30 minutes as per the agreement, this means that posties are working unpaid overtime in a physically demanding job. I could go on but I don't want to bore you rigid but I hope you have more respect for your staff than RM executives appear to have towards theirs.

[cotc2001]

Thanks for going over that, I was aware it wasn't just about pay , i just included that as I didn't want to go over all the other facts that were already mentioned elsewhere.

All I can say is good luck to you and hopefully an amicable solution can be found that will benefit both Royal Mail management, the workers and ultimately the customers soon.

[BELIAL]

Just out of interest coct2001 ,how will it affect your trade when all these redundancies occur ,competition is established and postal charges are doubled to bring us in line with other european operators? If you can think of any industry that has been privatised and now has lower charges could you let us know.