CWU RESPONSE TO RM PLAN, CSHARE ANNOUNCEMENT AND PRIVAT....

[robd]

At least we're not as unpopular as Cameron and Clegg

[MinisterofCucumber]

I like this bit:

" In order to create a culture of mutual interest we need to reach agreement on a new form of governance including consideration of the principles of industrial democracy. This means ending the continuing command and control managerial culture that has been a constant obstacle to progress."

However, we need to get our own house in order too and change the top-down culture in parts of our union.

The RMT have just got London Underground to reinstate two workers who were unfairly dismissed because misconduct got bumped up to gross misconduct and they were victimised for being union activists.

Members look at the RMT and see it as the minimum benchmark for how effective a union should be.

Our members are not 'pussies' and the CWU should not behave like a 'pussy' union.

Local reps are fighting on the front line and they should feel that the Union considers them as important as the Branch Secretaries, Regional Secretaries and other support staff. Some dubious agreements have been brought in using the block vote system eg. the POL IR Framework. Only IR reps should vote on IR agreements and it should be one rep, one vote.

We need to end the continuing command and control managerial culture that has been a constant obstacle to progress both in RMG and parts of the CWU.

[fishtank]

My main worry Minister is the Branch Network,it has in many cases become the weak link in the union.
Many Branches have been allowed to stagnate and evolve into nothing more than Social Clubs where the No1 priority is the continued survival of the Club.
The voting structure does not help either because these Branches are usually positioned next to or indeed inside one of the largest units in the area which means that as long as a high profile is maintained in that unit by the Branch Officials and a state of apathy continues across the rest of the Branch then the same old faces occupy the same old places and the Branch slides further and further down the scale of usefulness.
There is very little accountability at national level for these branches to worry about and in many cases very little interest from members...both of these things have to change if we are to regain our position as a strong industrial union.

[Martin Walsh]

Minster the RMT are strong in London and weak nationally. The deal which they got for their two, the CWU have done the same deal dozens of times who remembers the case when Royal Mail and Pol sacked the Doherty brothers over the fact that they caught on camera at an Arsenal Match.

The RMT have a tactic which they used very well is to ballot and use the threat to strike as the pressure point to get the deal. They only take action on certain issues and dont think for one minute the members are totally happy at all the deals they have done, I have been at a few of their regional meetings and lets say some of them do not believe Bob is strong enough. So it is all a matter of opinion.

Now in terms of changing the CWU , what do we change ? The union should be about the power of the Branch , and Division. The fact is that some areas have always been weak and some strong. How would change things which would change the union for the better. Lots of POL reps believe your IR framework is better than it was. There are many Branch"s which are good but I could give you a fair amount who are not that great.

The Union is trying to consult the members and hopefully the lay member will get his/her opportunity to give their view on the issues on delivery and hopefully we will get the true picture and then the union can tackle it.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

You are probably right about Bob and RMT Dingo but there's no arguing that he does know how to attract members. Since he became leader RMT's membership increased from around 57,000 in 2002 to more than 80,000 in 2008, making it one of Britain's fastest growing trade unions at the time.

[fishtank]

Now in terms of changing the CWU , what do we change ?

Democracy and accountability.
An end to unopposed "elections"....the idea that you can hold office without a mandate is laughable.
A clear,fair minimum vote threshold in Branch elections...Branch officials should have to get out and work for the support of members...not rely on apathy and a 12-15% turnout.
Maximum terms of office with a minimum of one year out of office before reselection.
An end to the "job for life" closed shop mentality that is prevalent in many branches.
Unions should be setting the bar on democratic process not hiding behind archaic rules and practices.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Now in terms of changing the CWU , what do we change ?

Democracy and accountability.
An end to unopposed "elections"....the idea that you can hold office without a mandate is laughable.
A clear,fair minimum vote threshold in Branch elections...Branch officials should have to get out and work for the support of members...not rely on apathy and a 12-15% turnout.
Maximum terms of office with a minimum of one year out of office before reselection.
An end to the "job for life" closed shop mentality that is prevalent in many branches.
Unions should be setting the bar on democratic process not hiding behind archaic rules and practices.

[Big Daz]

View of delivery members eh?


From my D.O

Lets see ah yes they are as still as anti as ever the loss of DTD payments and the introduction of a 52 week supplement pro rata.

It may have seen a good plan to Bob Gibson but if he thinks he will ever get the vast majority of delivery office based mbrs/workers to accept it was a good deal then he is unfortunatley mistaken. Not one single mbr/worker that was against the changes has changed thier mind and now think it was a good idea.

If the supplement had been £30 a week BG might have got more support for the changes.

More DTD work fine
DTD work into measured workload fine
Scrapping the ppi payment/shift allowance fine and using the money saved to create a 52 week supplement fine if the supplement is high enough and fairly distributed.

A bit hit and miss in terms of increased DTD work still a way to go gain a really big super sized share of the market. This has led to greater varations in DTD workload which does not sit well with mbrs.


DTD into workload, well it seems RML have conned us on that even BG admits RML havent given enough time for it (see March/April voice letters page)

The supplement being set at £20 has one year on proved not to be high enough to win a fan club at my D.O and I assume its the same with many other D.O's. Too late now but a £30 week DTD supplement payable on delivery duties with DTD may well have gained more support.

They are against taking deliveries out but still get back early from delivery and then claim the time made is simply down to them working hard and not the workload that they have had that day. They are either incredibly brave given RML push for savings or incredibly nieve if they think their excuse will ever be accepted by management.

They dont want later starts but that will come to down to where the D.O ends up in the processing schedule of CSS machines. Currently we are proposed to be high up which would mean IPS duties do not need to start later but non IPS delivery duties may well have to.

They dont want delivery methods, but if the workload is achiveable when new duties are planned and implemented its not the end of the world.

[Danelectro]

Now in terms of changing the CWU , what do we change ?

Democracy and accountability.
An end to unopposed "elections"....the idea that you can hold office without a mandate is laughable.
A clear,fair minimum vote threshold in Branch elections...Branch officials should have to get out and work for the support of members...not rely on apathy and a 12-15% turnout.
Maximum terms of office with a minimum of one year out of office before reselection.
An end to the "job for life" closed shop mentality that is prevalent in many branches.
Unions should be setting the bar on democratic process not hiding behind archaic rules and practices.

Agree with all those points,think their also has to be a direct line to HQ,they need to respond to any local issue and not hide behind the div/area/local structure,their should be accountability built into every level of the union,this does happen in the RMT,if a local rep asks Bob Crow a question he will get a direct answer.

[teletubby]

Too little ...too late i think.Do not think posties have got the stomach for striking etc.The only thing that will make RM take notice is striking.Sadly..striking could be exactly what they want...public turn against posties and thus good reason to privatise.

[MinisterofCucumber]

A strike has to be for the right reasons.

The public don't like their local post offices being closed or mucked around with.

Health and Safety is being ignored to cut costs and workers have been injured.

Managers are getting bonuses based on how much they can cut costs.

Cost cutting is giving the public a poorer service.

Workers are still being sacked for trivial infringements that are wrongly classified as gross misconduct. Even if the Union wins the case, the victim still had to go through the stress of a situation they should have never experienced.

The conduct code is being used as a whip to show the workers who the master is and this sort of harassment should not be tolerated in a civilised society.

[hatetheboss]

A strike has to be for the right reasons.

The public don't like their local post offices being closed or mucked around with.

Health and Safety is being ignored to cut costs and workers have been injured.

Managers are getting bonuses based on how much they can cut costs.

Cost cutting is giving the public a poorer service.

Workers are still being sacked for trivial infringements that are wrongly classified as gross misconduct. Even if the Union wins the case, the victim still had to go through the stress of a situation they should have never experienced.

The conduct code is being used as a whip to show the workers who the master is and this sort of harassment should not be tolerated in a civilised society.

I totally agree the staff are sick of the bullying tactics that cause stress and even though they put a grievance in it is internally covered up. the union must have this independently investigated not ignored like last time because, we are putting the past behind us

[Martin Walsh]

Strikes will be criticised regardless of what it is about. Thats is the simple selfish outlook of todays world. Of course we will have certain support and some of the customers our members meet everyday will support us once they have heard what it is about. Remember we have a right wing media who hate trade unions and love privitiasation.

The facts are that the bill will get Royal Assent in late June. Who knows if the government know the future owners. Billy and Dave met Ed Davey the Minster in Charge of the bill last Thursday and certainly they have accepted a lot of amendments to the bill but they will not stop the bill as the fact is that the Govenment have the numbers to achieve it.

Now what does this mean to the members ? Well lets just see the Government have just agreed the new business plan with Royal Mail. It has not been agreed with the CWU but it has obviously wiped the value out of the business as colleague share money has disapperaed meaning the industry wont pay colleague share which is £200 million. We all know thats a con. Secondly the bussiness plan is designed to catch up the orginal business plan which is what the BTA agreement is about because it is not producing the bottom line they thought it would. Thridly Royal Mail could have stopped the trusttees from moving the old POSS scheme to CPI by undertaking a consultation exercise.

In additon Royal Mail have obviously had their heads turned by the looming privitisation and now are stepping up their plan and now ready to move to complusory redundnacies.

The reality is that the PEC will submit this motion , but we all know that regardless of the BTA agreement or indeed PAY and MOD the reality is that there will need to be a long campaign to get a yes vote. The arguements are there but the membership has to be listened too and I mean in the workplace not just on this site or indeed facebook etc.

The Problem is some of us will be fighting the plan well before the rest of the UK is ready and may not still be in a job when and if the rest of the union is ready to fight. Complusory redundancies is the genie we dont want to let out of the bottle. However my reading is that the members and reps in London will left on their own by the rest of the country as its easy to turn a blind eye if you cant be bothered to do the work. I and other know where we will get support but sadly I dont believe it will be nationally and then Royal Mail will have broken the union forever and be ready to attack anywhere in the full knowledge that the National Union is a busted flush. Our members in London who have never let any office down by handling their work when they are in dispute desrve better.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

The facts are that the bill will get Royal Assent in late June. Who knows if the government know the future owners. Billy and Dave met Ed Davey the Minster in Charge of the bill last Thursday and certainly they have accepted a lot of amendments to the bill but they will not stop the bill as the fact is that the Govenment have the numbers to achieve it.

Doesn't this story have any effect then http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13394634" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The government admits "the complexity of the privatisation process [of Royal Mail] has become more apparent since November" and ministers say they are delaying the process of getting EU approval for state aid to the company until next year, which means there will be no early sell-off.

[MinisterofCucumber]

The RMT have a tactic which they used very well is to ballot and use the threat to strike as the pressure point to get the deal.

We need to be able to use this tactic ourselves because it works. The RMT have worked hard to gain the confidence and respect of their members and that is why they can get people out.

In RMG management have been using favouritism to win over enough staff to keep their units running during a strike. Workers, including some CWU reps, are being allowed to do less than their fair share of work and receive more than their fair share of benefits.

The Union has not done itself any favours and a lot of members think that union officials collaborate with management. The mandelsonian spinning of the 2010 agreement did the CWU a lot of harm. Members are not idiots and they resent being told that very average agreements are the 'deal of the century'.

The Union needs to sort itself out quickly and it should start with the senior representatives who represent our members in POL.