5 day week deliveries!!

[DirtyHarry]

i am all for mon to friday deliveries who wants to be out there till 3 on saturday if it means job losses so be it union should have listened and did more to get rid of saturdays during the dispute

Doing away with Saturday deliveries will take an Act of Parliament. It isn't within the CWU's power to negotiate it away.
And if it means YOU LOSE YOUR JOB, will you be so keen?
Let's put 16 000 people on the dole queue so I don't have to work on Saturday?

Vince Cable has indeed let the Cat out of the bag.
Acts of parliament aren't used to force Asda to open whenever parliament likes, nor will acts of parliament be used to tell the new owner of Royal Mail when his/her company delivers and on what days. It will not belong to the British people, including the thieves and liars who laughingly call themselves "the Right Honourable" and sit in parliament.
I myself, didn't mind working up to a certain time on a Saturday, then the hopelessly incompetent CWU decided to back RM management's plans to turn postal worker's Saturdays into normal, hum-drum, working days. Now, I want to see Saturdays completely removed from a postal workers working week, MON-FRI, just like in the worlds of the CWU top bods, and RM's senior management.
As for job losses, look at this 2010 & beyond agreement and the 24,000 job losses which it will open the door to, regardless of whether we stay in bed on Saturday mornings, or get up at the crack of a Jackdaws fart to attend on a day which for donkey's years has been the only highlight of a postie's working week.

CWU members need to win something from bosses that will be a marked improvement on what they have now, a civilised MON-FRI working week would fit the bill nicely.
Whatever you want, whatever I want, management will still take their pound of flesh by way of reductions in jobs, it's what the remainder of the workforce gets by way of recompense that matters, for now.

[swoosta]

what's stopping them doing away with the Saturdays and then you doing 8 hour days Monday - Friday thus getting 32 hours pay?

[OnAFlyer]

Why is everyone automatically thinking it's Saturdays that will be binned? It would make more sense to cut the lightest mail day.

[Martin Walsh]

Both the USA and the Canadian postal unions are fighting against their respective owners decision to move to Monday to Friday service.

Look it is not as simple as then having 100% of the work being done on 5 days rather than 6. As what services would be lost priority services or what DSA would be then moved to bypass as a result of such a decision. Years ago parcelforce lost readers digest as the biggest customer as they refused to deliver on Saturdays.

Plus its not just rest day covers which will be lost but look at what it will do in mail centres as you would not need an inward operation on Friday and Sunday nights. You would have lost hundreds of VOC runs lost as they run weekends now and on Friday into Saturdays now.

Plus you will not be finishing earlier on the other days of the week as your will still have your batches of mail on two waves but this time you will have the full 100% of mail over 5 days as opposed to 6 days.

Thankfully it will need an act of parliment to change the licence which was given to Royal Mail and provides the USO.

What is more concerning is that the LiB Cons want to reduce what is within the USO as TNT and others are seeking the removal of mailsort and press stream prodcuts as leave the USO mainly stamp mail or as its known snail mail. This would then allow TNT who have within their business plan to set up a final mile delivery service not as we provide every day to every address. But a service which would mean on a given day every week in say Liverpool they would deliver Barclays mail , NAT West Mail and who ever else they can attract to deliver the final mile or less than Royal Mail. Not hard when 60% of all Royal Mails costs are in the final mile as we have to delivery from Lands end to John OGroats.

[dvbuk55]

Both the USA and the Canadian postal unions are fighting against their respective owners decision to move to Monday to Friday service.

Look it is not as simple as then having 100% of the work being done on 5 days rather than 6. As what services would be lost priority services or what DSA would be then moved to bypass as a result of such a decision. Years ago parcelforce lost readers digest as the biggest customer as they refused to deliver on Saturdays.

Plus its not just rest day covers which will be lost but look at what it will do in mail centres as you would not need an inward operation on Friday and Sunday nights. You would have lost hundreds of VOC runs lost as they run weekends now and on Friday into Saturdays now.

Plus you will not be finishing earlier on the other days of the week as your will still have your batches of mail on two waves but this time you will have the full 100% of mail over 5 days as opposed to 6 days.

Thankfully it will need an act of parliment to change the licence which was given to Royal Mail and provides the USO.

What is more concerning is that the LiB Cons want to reduce what is within the USO as TNT and others are seeking the removal of mailsort and press stream prodcuts as leave the USO mainly stamp mail or as its known snail mail. This would then allow TNT who have within their business plan to set up a final mile delivery service not as we provide every day to every address. But a service which would mean on a given day every week in say Liverpool they would deliver Barclays mail , NAT West Mail and who ever else they can attract to deliver the final mile or less than Royal Mail. Not hard when 60% of all Royal Mails costs are in the final mile as we have to delivery from Lands end to John OGroats.

That old nugget again - they may be finishing early where you are but our office is struggling with time issues as I would imagine many PART TIME offices are. So the ones who stand to gain the most are part time members who would most certainly have to be made full time to cover the duties OR split the duties to cover the work without loss of staff BUT that is only where there is a plethora of part timers. In areas where there is full time employment..............well you would be in trouble.

[kiltyscot]

Im up for working monday to friday 7-3 if it means getting rid of of jobs so be it.
I know that a few more thousand jobs may have to go but hopefully for those like myself who have been with RM for years will be ok.
My only concearn will be what kind of contract will we be on in a few months time and what kind of salary we will have ....
Future is looking grim .

[TrueBlueTerrier]

mon fri.jpg

The writing is on the wall as they say but would we or should we accept it. My feeling is that although I would fight the job losses, which means I am against it, I think that if put to a vote it would be accepted.

There is, I fear, a lot of apathy and fear in RM at the moment and some will see this as an escape solution.

[DirtyHarry]

Why is everyone automatically thinking it's Saturdays that will be binned? It would make more sense to cut the lightest mail day.

Common sense tells me that on Saturdays most buinesses, small & large, are closed. These businesses would expect some sort of service from MONDAY through to FRIDAY, this is where I would suggest cost savings would play a key part in the new owners decision to go to MON-FRI rather than a MON-SAT but skipping Tuesday, a day which really is a normal working day for many. Skip Saturday equals minimal disruption, and negates any need for overtime. Skip Tuesday, and some sort of scratch service would be needed and dependancy on costly overtime would be nescessary.

Still, what do I know, eh?

Anyway, Universal Service Obligation, are there still people out there who think such a money-down-the-drain facet of a quality public service, will survive privatisation long? Anyone?
Now, what was it Bob Dylan sang? Ah, yes, "the times they are a changin' ", or words to that effect.

[DirtyHarry]

Why is everyone automatically thinking it's Saturdays that will be binned? It would make more sense to cut the lightest mail day.

For fear of sounding like a broken record, because Tuesday REALLY is a normal working day for many businesses, Saturday, quite rightly, ISN'T.
Royal Mail is already geared to putting business customers before domestic ones, and under the capitalist that will eventually buy it, this will become more apparent in no time at all.
If, on Tuesday, Royal Mail were to shut down, there would be uproar from businesses nationwide. Here, in London, when we were striking on only one day every fortnight, and that strike day happened to be on any day between MON-FRI, I bet the bleating, the stamping of feet, the sheer frustration, from the Chambers of Commerce could be heard all the way to the Orkney Islands.
When the strike day fell on a Saturday, which it did several times, the silence from the chambers of commerce, and it has to be said, the general public as a whole, the silence was deafening.
What do you think RM, big business, and union members manning picket lines, gleaned from this experience?
That, Tuesday = big headache, Saturday = So, what?

[POSTMAN]

A while back,about 2-3 years ago when this surfaced this non Sat thing businesses went mad,not joes plummer or the like on the high st,but big mailers.
Local businesses have nothing to do with this,big businesses wanted to keep Sat as a delivery so their customers can mull over the catalogues and sale stuff and the like over the weekend.

PostCon were getting their arse chewed over it.

[fishtank]

If big business is the issue...and big business mail can be advanced,unlike the box collection sh*t...why can't the USO be adapted to suit business mail only on a saturday and give us the chance of an early finish again.
I know it's not that simple but if you were really looking for a solution to the later saturday nonsense i'm sure one could be found.

[DirtyHarry]

A while back,about 2-3 years ago when this surfaced this non Sat thing businesses went mad,not joes plummer or the like on the high st,but big mailers.
Local businesses have nothing to do with this,big businesses wanted to keep Sat as a delivery so their customers can mull over the catalogues and sale stuff and the like over the weekend.

PostCon were getting their arse chewed over it.

They'll work around that, POSTMAN....Just as they have to in Ireland, and soon, the United States of America, two countries who are polar opposites in economic terms.
We will have to wait and see, but a six day delivery isn't going to survive too long into the next decade, and my money's on us working what is generally regarded as being the "normal" working week for the vast majority of people, which happens to be MON-FRI.
It's straight-forward, more easily managed, and this is the rub of it, will be more cost-effective for whoever buys Royal Mail, and who will then be a member of the private sector, the do-anything-they-damn-well-like, private sector.

[DirtyHarry]

If big business is the issue...and big business mail can be advanced,unlike the box collection sh*t...why can't the USO be adapted to suit business mail only on a saturday and give us the chance of an early finish again.
I know it's not that simple but if you were really looking for a solution to the later saturday nonsense i'm sure one could be found.

Quite right, and I myself have never had any qualms about working until 1pm on a Saturday at the latest, but I draw the line at allowing RM a snide dig at postal workers by entirely ruining the little bit of a weekend they had, and this in effect is what the CWU did.
"We can't, won't, change a workplan we devised without consulting the CWU first." Sorry, but the CWU should never have allowed that to slide, not in a month of Sundays.
Postal workers delivering crap up until 3.00pm on a Saturday afternoon is completely unnecessary, no if's, no but's, completely unnecessary.

[dvbuk55]

I had a similar discussion at work recently and in truth there is no obstacle other than parliament and considering privatisation is the here and now I don't think they'll have much of a problem changing whatever they want.

[adrianjames]

Im up for working monday to friday 7-3 if it means getting rid of of jobs so be it.
I know that a few more thousand jobs may have to go but hopefully for those like myself who have been with RM for years will be ok.
My only concearn will be what kind of contract will we be on in a few months time and what kind of salary we will have ....
Future is looking grim .

bring it on mon-sat cant wait