Reality check

[Tallyman]

I have every sympathy with the individual posties, but as an organisation the Royal Mail hasn't got a chance to succeed in the modern world.

The majority of my post these days is either paper confirmation of information I already have access to - on-line banking, on-line orders, on-line insurance etc. etc, or it is junk mail that I can very easily live without. The only mail I may miss is the birthday & Christmas cards that come twice a year, but that's no real loss in my eyes.

I regularly use a mail order company that used to have RM as its delivery option, however, after a few missed & lost items they have moved over to the dreaded German company & I have had no problems at all with their deliveries (ok, they may get worse when they have more of a monopoly, but there are others in the wings...).

The RM has, along with all former public owned industries, been mis-managed over the years - pension funds have been raided, profits have been the main target way beyond customer service & employee retention has been at the bottom of the list, but this is the way of the commercial world that RM has been forced to be part of. Private industry has always had the opportunity to do great things, but RM thinking that it wants a slice of that has led to the realisation that certain organisations can never be profitable by any means - how many other countries have a non-publicly funded daily postal delivery service?

From any moral perspective a strike may be the only option left to RM employees but it will only be aiming towards the final nail in the coffin - do you honestly think that the government will think 'Oooh, we can't do without Auntie Gladys getting her birthday card, let's tell RM to go back to the good old days'? It will never happen. The current government have the knives out for RM & any future government will be in the same situation, even if they don't declare it now. Public sympathy will disappear from the minority that don't get their dole cheques on time - the middle classes will just get on using other carriers...

Looking through these forums the general consensus is that those posties who've already retired/left are well out of it & are happy - those that are left are stuck with the remains & can only do what they are doing - striking didn't work for the miners before the last Tory landslide & RM will be the miners of this millenium.

Maybe management can persuade the government to keep RM alive in some form, though personally I think it will be another MG/Rover - election fodder & then discarded.

Best of luck with the strike, but I'm already contacting all relatives to tell them I'm sending e-cards this year or visiting them personally if they haven't got on-line (yet), after which I'll block up my letterbox & avoid the 'excitement' of rushing for more junk mail from Southall et al.

[shelanda]

You say the firm has moved to the dreaded german company.... if it's letter mail who delivers it? Have you looked at the array of companies that RM are delivering for?

[keo]

Troll Alert!!!
Don't rise to it!
It's amazing how they can all join just after a vote for industrial action, Just like 2007 all over again

[Tallyman]

Go on then, entertain this troll. Counter arguments are welcome but you've really got to take a look at the real world or else you're just deceiving yourselves. I have every sympathy with the doorstep postie - one of my friends is a local union rep, I have customers who are current and retired posties, and my partner is a local government employee (potentially a dying breed if the government has its way) so I'm not totally blinkered in this current situation. I just want to know what the eventual hopes of the strikers are, bearing in mind the current financial situation of RM and the government.....

Just as a small aside, I've been through this whole scenario, as in the early 80's I was part of a fairly successful organisation that worked you hard but paid well, got taken over, got me to the point of a nervous breakdown after which i vowed never to be beholden to a large organisation again. I now have my own small business & I would never go back to my former life. I know how big business works & I know how they treat their minions, I just think those minions have got to get real to what is happening.....

Actually, I've just noticed the link below my post, to an organisation called 'interparcel.com'? - isn't it a bit two-faced to get support from your competitors? Oh, let me guess, they use you as the 'final mile' delivery - the bit they can't justify the cost of?

[pinstripe]

So should we just roll over and accept it then? You say that you know how large companies treat their employees and in the same paragraph suggest we have to accept it. Fortunately, we have a union and I'd like to point out that the membership are a lot stronger than the leadership, so we do not need to accept it, not without a fight anyway. The biggest problem in this country is that too many people cannot be bothered to fight for what is right, well, we can and will (again).

[Tallyman]

The trouble is that the organisation cannot afford to sustain it's current situation. Your pension fund, just like many, is in dire straits because previous management mishandled it. The organisation is trying to run with its hands tied by government directives, but without the safety net of the government being able/willing to bail it out. Yes, I agree that the union is more powerful than the management, but, just like the miners, what do you aim to achieve? The industry is unsustainable in its present form: it's like the local milkman - you'll get a few customers who will stick with you through thick & thin, even though they pay well over the odds but the majority will vote with their wallets & go where the product is cheaper. (How many of your colleagues support their local milkman - silly analogy possibly, but it's a thought..)

I don't advocate that your should 'roll over & accept it', but the only way you'll get anywhere is by keeping the public on your side and that you just ain't doing. In the current climate, anyone with a decent job and a (supposedly) guaranteed pension is considered to be very well off - you won't get a sympathy vote from Joe Public.

Every company has to adapt these days and RM is not an exception - the cuts will be painfull, but if you carry on in the current vein, they will be terminal.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Every company has to adapt these days and RM is not an exception - the cuts will be painfull, but if you carry on in the current vein, they will be terminal.

How many times do we have to say this are people blinkered and deaf because its a Union thats saying it:

WE ARE NOT AGAINST CHANGE - we signed up to the Pay and Mod Agreement. RM ignored Phase 4 till we started local strikes.
WE ARE AWARE THERE WILL BE JOB LOSSES - 60,000 gone in recent years,
WE ARE NOT ASKING FOR A PAY RISE PER SE - We had a pay freeze this year which was imposed against the spirit of the 2007 agreement.
WE ARE NOT AGAINST MODERNISATION - But we haven't seen it in deliveries unless you count longer routes with heavier bags.
WE ARE NOT AGAINST WORKING HARD - The Union suggested having independent organisations help both sides come up with a fair and balanced way of measuring workload and standard - Royal Mail refused.
WE OFFERED A MORATORIUM ON STRIKES IF RM DISCUSSED CHANGES - RM refused saying it was a stalling tactic but now they want it when unagreed systems are in place.

We are and will strike against - Bullying and Harrasment such as.

Being suspended for pointing out H&S concerns.

Being sent home without pay when we can't complete a delivery in the time allotted especially if managers are not willing to Walk Test us or check individual posties frames to see how busy they are.

Genuine Overtime being struck off when you go over your contracted hours on a busy day.

Being sent home without pay when you cant do the half hour flexibility when asked - even if it personal reasons are meant to be taken into account.

When you do the 1/2hr flexibility not being able to claw it back or be paid it on overtime. Or being given it back in 5 minute chunks.

---------------------------------------------------

Workers have rights and responsibilities just like a business has. When one side ignores the concerns of its work force and actively briefs against them is it any wonder that we are in this situation.

Even Hooper said RMs approach to industrial relations was appalling so why has there been no Modernisation in Management and its approach to the work force.


With all due respect please research both sides of an dispute before passing comment, you will then be arguing from a position of strength even if you disagree with me.

[DirtyHarry]

The trouble is that the organisation cannot afford to sustain it's current situation. Your pension fund, just like many, is in dire straits because previous management mishandled it. The organisation is trying to run with its hands tied by government directives, but without the safety net of the government being able/willing to bail it out. Yes, I agree that the union is more powerful than the management, but, just like the miners, what do you aim to achieve? The industry is unsustainable in its present form: it's like the local milkman - you'll get a few customers who will stick with you through thick & thin, even though they pay well over the odds but the majority will vote with their wallets & go where the product is cheaper. (How many of your colleagues support their local milkman - silly analogy possibly, but it's a thought..)

I don't advocate that your should 'roll over & accept it', but the only way you'll get anywhere is by keeping the public on your side and that you just ain't doing. In the current climate, anyone with a decent job and a (supposedly) guaranteed pension is considered to be very well off - you won't get a sympathy vote from Joe Public.

Every company has to adapt these days and RM is not an exception - the cuts will be painfull, but if you carry on in the current vein, they will be terminal.

The organisation is taxpayer funded, in order to give the taxpayer a first class service. The Government, whether it be Labour or Tory, doesn't want to spend taxpayers money ensuring the public get value for money. The Royal Mail is not a private company, it has no leeching shareholders to fanny about with, it shouldn't be profit driven.
Our pension fund was fecked by our owner, HM government. It's down to HM government to put right the wrongs it's made.
As for the CWU, I suppose like any good union, it's aim is for it's members to be treated with dignity at work, that it's members are rightly rewarded when the company makes a handsome profit thanks to the aforementioned members efforts, and that it's members health & safety is never compromised by management intent on making a fast buck.
Customers deserting us for the competition. Errr, is this the same competition that cannot deliver to every address in the UK because they simply cannot afford the infrastructure necessary? I note with great satisfaction the lack of any shouting from the rooftops from our competitors as a result of our strikes, could it be because our strikes bring to attention the real truth about so-called competition in this country? The milkman analogy is frankly laughable.
The same arguments from anti-strikers is identical to the one's I heard in 2003, and 2007, and no doubt will be for the next 30 years, as I have little faith in the penny ever dropping with some of my hapless countrymen.