Telegraph article.

[NEWS]

The Communication Workers' Union, which includes many postal staff, says there is 98 per cent support for its current wave of strikes. Yesterday saw another 24-hour stoppage, and there is more action scheduled for sorting offices today.

The union is asking for Royal Mail's top management to come into serious negotiations with it: the management continues to refuse to do so, having made what it considers to be a satisfactory pay offer of 2.5 per cent plus £800 for each worker.

There was a time when such antics greatly disobliged the public - as of course in some measure they still do - but that was also a time when the public had little choice but to wait upon the decisions of the postal unions and managers. Those days are gone: it is not merely that there are innumerable other carriers greedy for Royal Mail's current traffic (as many leading customers of Royal Mail, notably Amazon, have recently shown), but also that modern technologies, notably email, are eating into what used to be its monopoly.

As we have written before, many postal workers (and perhaps some of the managers) appear still to be stuck in a time-warp, but this seems to make no odds to them.

It does, though, increasingly make odds to the public. Allan Leighton, the chairman of Royal Mail, and his chief executive, Adam Crozier, must be aware that the hourglass has nearly run out for their enterprise. It is questionable whether they have relayed this news to the union, for the tactics of the management seem to be locked, like the attitudes of the workers, in the worst sort of 1970s mindset.

If this dispute carries on much longer, many more businesses will take their custom elsewhere, and for good. That will imperil the jobs of all postal workers, not to mention the service the public currently depends upon from Royal Mail.

Both management and union need to decide, and urgently, whether they wish to continue to have a business.

LINK

[Alzaman]

If this dispute carries on much longer, many more businesses will take their custom elsewhere, and for good.

Maybe if they do then companies will eventually realise that ALL mail picked up by our so called competitors actually comes through us for "the last mile" and that it's those competitors that are deceiving them.

[genesis]

All it is ,is a form of cherry picking, these companys only go to the so called competition with full knowledge that we deliver it, otherwise theyd be delivering it today wouldnt they.

[mdtomuk]

ACTUALLY AS THIS PAPERS REPORTING GOES - ITS PRETTY SUPPORTIVE. 1970s MINDSET STUFF IS B*LL*X OF COURSE AS THEY DONT OR AREN'T PREPARED TO UNDERSTAND WHERE WE ARE COMING FROM. BUT THEY SEEM REASONABLY CRITICAL OF AL AND ADAM - YOU KNOW, HEY?
I MEAN WHO READS THAT PAPER ANYWAY. PRETTY GOOD FOR SPORT THOUGH, ESPECIALLY THE MONDAY SUPPLEMENT. CAN'T STAND THE RED TOPS WAY OF SHOCK HORROR, PROBE SPORT STUFF. I WANT TO KNOW THE FACTS ABOUT WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED. (he's drifting again . . . . . . . . . . ed!) - OH YES. ANYWAY, BLAH BLAH!!!

:cfo :lfo from the TELEGRAPH!!!

[johno47]

Just posted a reply, dont know if they will print it...UNITY IS STRENGTH.

[IWW Fellow Worker]

1970's mindset? That's a good one! This is a paper read by old Tory farts who still think we rule India, can send a gunboat in to scare restless natives, who think hanging is too good for trade unionists and who think listening to jazz music will corrupt the nation's youth.

[Rowdy]

"The union is asking for Royal Mail's top management to come into serious negotiations with it: the management continues to refuse to do so, having made what it considers to be a satisfactory pay offer of 2.5 per cent plus £800 for each worker."

If you read this you would think we were guaranteed the 800 quid. Why can't the media report these things correctly. We'd be lucky to see a penny of that.

[cruisey]

Yet again the telegraph base the dispute on money. Again they don't print the full picture. Why are they not saying anything about the amount of job losses and cut hours that will contribute to the £800, which is now unachievable because of the fantastic support for the dispute.
Papers like the telegraph should be set on fire when bought so no one gets the chance to read them. Mind you, when the CWU meet the tory party the torygraph might change it's tune