Billy hasn't learnt the lessons from Arthur.

[NEWS]

Let me introduce you to Billy Hayes. You should get to know him because he's going to be the nation's next Arthur Scargill. Like the former NUM boss, Hayes has launched his union, the Communication Workers Union, on a doomed attempt to deny reality and reverse the facts of commercial life. He obviously hasn't learnt the lessons from Scargill's failures in 1984-85.

UK mining was impossible to justify and defend on the scale it was operating back then, just as the Royal Mail is now. Tactically, calling posties out during the summer is flawed in the same way that miners striking during summer lacked clout, although it was much better rioting weather.


The miners' strike lasted from March to March but peaked during the summer and there had been plenty of time to stockpile foreign coal for the winter. Mail volumes halve during the summer months.

Politically, Hayes is on his own. Gordon Brown, as Chancellor, agreed to the Royal Mail's business plan which included a £1.2bn investment to modernise the business. Although Hayes's strike is over pay and conditions, it is this modernisation plan that the union is really against.

Brown also agreed that Allan Leighton, the Royal Mail chairman, could set aside another £1bn to pay the posties' pensions. Hayes's opposition to Leighton's plans also lack any commercial rationale.

The Royal Mail has already lost 40pc of its bulk mail business from corporate customers who have moved accounts to the competition because they are 40pc more efficient and operate on a cost base 25pc lower than the one represented by the Royal Mail's outdated machinery and enormous workforce.

Competition against the Royal Mail is going to grow, not reduce. The organisation needs to start work immediately to stop this crippling rate of attrition by investing in modern machinery and axing jobs. Leighton isn't just competing against the likes of Deutsche Post. Email, text messaging and blogs are all modern equivalents of sending letters.

Gordon Brown is not going to bail out the Royal Mail, just as Margaret Thatcher refused to bankroll mining. If Hayes wants to avoid the Royal Mail becoming as irrelevant as the National Coal Board he should lead his union in partnership with management to create a modern business with a chance of thriving, instead of one that's barely surviving.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.j ... com130.xml

[jamwell]

The telegraph: another paper to wipe your arse on

[IWW Fellow Worker]

The telegraph: another paper to wipe your arse on

Dead right!

I'm always suspicious of these Tory papers who have more people writing for them than they have readers.

[jamwell]

We are never going to get a fair press of of most of the daily papers, thats a fact of life, but in my view we seem to be getting a lot of public support and hopefully this will be taken note of by the clowns that run this country, the public are the people who put them into office to start with.

[DirtyHarry]

What a rag that 'Daily Torygraph' is , and what a runt of a reporter. It propogates a centuries old belief that ordinary working
people should get as little as possible for as much as possible , and trade unionists get called Dinosaurs !!!

[IWW Fellow Worker]

We are never going to get a fair press of of most of the daily papers, thats a fact of life, but in my view we seem to be getting a lot of public support and hopefully this will be taken note of by the clowns that run this country, the public are the people who put them into office to start with.

I was very surprised by the support from people on my delivery this morning. I've been on that walk for almost 20 years and I've got to know them quite well. One woman had her birthday cards a day late so I apologised. She said "It's not your fault lad. It's them bastards in charge. I hope you win!" But as these people don't have a few million quid knocking about to be able to buy a few printing presses or donate to some political party or other, their views don't matter to Leighton and Crozier.

[DirtyHarry]

It's not just the views of the customers on your walk , IWW, that don't matter to Leighton & Crozier ,
their custom doesn't amount to a hill of beans either.

[Edward Hunter]

The thing about Scargill and the timing of the action is correct, . If we are to be noticed,not brushed aside the only thing to do is to trot along with one strike a month till christmas and then go ALL OUT. Something will have to be done then. IMO the government are in bed with AL and AC and are looking to privatize us.Another british public service down the drain in favour of profit. Shame on you "labour"

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Yeah they do seem to be getting RM ready for privatisation. If you wanted to this is what you would do.

Get rid of the pension fund - They are starting to do that but saying won't be open to new starters and saying the deficit is to big for them.

Cut down the wage bill - well we know there doing that by derisory wage rises and 40K cuts in jobs.

Destroy the Union - Well I never No more comment needed on that one.

Demoralize the work force - Doing as part of the above comment.

Divide the work force -

Get rid of middle management - we all know their next for the chop.

Get rid of loss making parts of the business - They did this better than any I've seen before as the withdraw products from the Post Offices and they say with surprise - look they are not making money.

Sell off property - Doing that already

Talk down the business and talk up the competition.


Well it seems as though they are ticking most of the boxes ready for privatisation and sell off.

[lovejoy]

I agree that there is more trurth in the Beano than in the Telegraph but IMO the less we see of Hayes in this dispute the better. When Dave Ward has been interview he has come across very well. He's the postal leader and this is a postal dispute.

[vigilante]

they must get the paper they print on recycled from the sewers as it is the only paper fit enough.

as for the 1.2b investment, they need that two pay dumber and dumber's wages for the year

[norbet colon]

I agree that there is more truth in the Beano than in the Telegraph but IMO the less we see of Hayes in this dispute the better. When Dave Ward has been interview he has come across very well. He's the postal leader and this is a postal dispute.

People hear Hayes accent and will stereotype him as the thick postie in a suit, that's life!, Dave Ward does come over better to people outside the industry, some right wing posties find him to be complex and suspect that he has a hidden agenda.
A mate of mine left the railway to go to Ruskin College and then onto Uni, when he came back he thought he'd be "looked after by the union "and became a lay member; this is the TUC Young Trade Unionist 1994.
The Union knocked him back, they said we want people trained in business at the likes of Cranfield, Warwick etc. You have to know the enemy , second guess where they are coming from . Crozier's from Satchi & Satchi , remember Labour isn't working with the dole Queue poster,
Leighton's the master of hype and spin. New Labour put these people in for a reason.

[Davie]

Eveyone is talking about the competition,if they were made to deliver the mail they have contracts for, then they would`nt be able to do it so cheaply.It`s time to let them do the whole job,then we`ll see just how much buisness they pick up...