FIRMS COUNTING COST OF POSTAL WALK-OUTS

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 27 Aug 2007, 16:26

http://tinyurl.com/2fwx7u

9:40 - 26 August 2007

Businesses are still counting the cost of postal strikes and say the action has the potential to lose them thousands of pounds.Royal Mail workers walked out in two 24-hour strikes followed by a campaign of staggered action, in which each division was allocated a different day to revolt in a bid to cause continuous disruption.

Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) were protesting at job losses which they say will come from modernisation of the firm and have rejected a 2.5 per cent pay offer.

Royal Mail, which has been losing business to rivals since the postal market was opened to competition, says the changes are needed for it to stay competitive and vowed to keep delivering mail during the action.

Smaller businesses have felt the biggest impact from the strikes as orders and deliveries have been delayed.

Burslem-based Lorna Bailey Artware depends on Royal Mail to bring in responses to its mailshots.

Director Lionel Bailey said postal strikes have the potential to cost the company thousands of pounds.

He said: "All our business relies on the post so nothing happens when Royal Mail employees go on strike.

"The worst case is when they strike on a Friday. It means our post doesn't go out until Monday and the customers don't get it until Thursday. That's an extra four days to send something out, and if they go on strike again it takes another four days to get a reply.

"Potentially, it could cost us thousands of pounds. When mailshots go out they can turn over Â£20,000. If it is late, it puts back the manufacturing and painting - all very problematic.

"The strikes are more aggravation than they are worth, but what can you do when there is nowhere else to go?"

He added: "We would go and pick our post up if we could - at least that would mean we still had stuff coming in. But they won't let us do it."

Lesley Walker says the strikes cause problems for both of her Stafford-based businesses: stationery business Sherry Trifle and corporate clothing and branding company The Brand Warehouse.

She said: "We get a lot of orders and proofs for Sherry Trifle through the post as well as using Royal Mail to send our products out.

"Things often go missing or turn up late. We can't rely on the post even when there isn't a strike.

"It puts us in an awkward situation because we can use Parcelforce for larger parcels, but we don't want to pass extra charges on to the customers.

"Nine times out of 10 we don't put ourselves in the situation where it will cost us money, but I don't trust the post.

"The last thing you want when you have got a business to run is to have to chase up the post and keep up with the strikes."

Toy and book supplier Everything Dinosaur, based in Middlewich, relies heavily on the post for its mail order service.

Owner Mike Walley said the biggest concern was not knowing which division was on strike each day.

He said: "There can be a collection from a local post office, but we won't know if the mail will be sent out to other centres because of a lack of information and understanding of what is going on.

"We have done everything we can to advise customers and get out urgent parcels, but it is hard to provide them with information if we don't have it ourselves.

"We are fortunate to have some very helpful staff in the post offices near us and they have tried to tell us what part is being interrupted by the strikes, but they don't always have the information."

Mr Walley has introduced a new service using couriers in an attempt to overcome disruptions but said this is costing the company money.

He added: "We're using couriers for some of the larger parcels, but it's costing us money because we have offered it at a discounted rate.

"We find more and more people are wanting to use the service, though, because they are concerned about getting items for things like parties.

"If you're planning a party and have a dozen young children coming to your house, the last thing you want to worry about is not getting things on time.

"I worry how much the strikes will affect business because if people loose their faith in Royal Mail they may stray from using mail order."

Major employers have experienced inconveniences, but have been able to step around major disruption. Waterford Wedgwood, which employs about 700 office and distribution staff at sites across North Staffordshire, has been able to increase its use of couriers to ensure minimum disruption.

A spokesman said: "Wedgwood uses a variety of national and international courier firms for its external mail and purchases as well as Royal Mail services.

"We have been able to increase the use of these courier firms for urgent, time-critical mail during the dispute, and as such the day-to-day operation of the business has not been adversely affected."

A spokesman for JCB, the digger giant which employs more than 4,000 people at factories in Cheadle, Uttoxeter, and at its headquarters in Rocester, said: "The postal strikes did not have a significant impact on JCB's operations or on the business as a whole."

The national strikes have now been called off and Royal Mail and the CWU are expected to reach an agreement by September 4. Royal Mail has pledged to get services back to normal as quickly as possible.

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 27 Aug 2007, 16:28

But that's not the reason I posted this here are the readers comments so far:

I agree with the other 3 comments, useless the lot of them, some mornings I dont get my mail until midday...who do they think they are doctors?, police?, ambulance?...glorified paperboys is all they are, lets get rid and sack them all
Lindy, Newcastle under Lyme

2.5% for what is basically a paperboy or van drivers job is more than enough. This is the last bastion of the trade unions and their 1970s ideas. Thats more than I can do, and my pay increase was less than 1%. Modernisation is essential to any company - private or not. Let them get away with the strikes and perhaps they will all have lots of time as the private companies take up the slack.
Dave, Longton

royal mail strike for any thing. Sack the lot of them !!!!
jan, stoke

Over to you lads and lasses.

http://tinyurl.com/2fwx7u

madelin4 · Post by **madelin4** » 27 Aug 2007, 16:56

Message for those readers . U know nout.

mailman71 · Post by **mailman71** » 27 Aug 2007, 17:22

these comments are typical of people who see an article in the paper and respond with a sack em attitude, the problem is the public when the strikes affect them will turn against us as well.
we are seen as the last of the old type unions left so we are a target for all the employers who want to drive down wages and conditions

BELIAL · Post by **BELIAL** » 27 Aug 2007, 17:37

Don't seem to be able to add any further comments ,am i surprised?

Post by **dvbuk55** » 27 Aug 2007, 17:41

We can be critical of those people commenting on the article but lets face it - they are joe bloggs and RM are totally oblivious to their wants and needs.

Take for example the lady who gets her mail at 11 or whatever - RM couldn't give a toss - because under the new regime it will be more like 2.

What shone out to me was:

a. No one does an end to end like we do
b. The public have no idea how the mail is moved round the country by whom and who delivers it
c. The courier competition - which IS the closest to our service is more expensive
d. The CWU has failed to notify the public of the underlying problems and how they would affect them

tommymac · Post by **tommymac** » 27 Aug 2007, 18:29

The firm mentioned in the article now occupy our old office.Ask Lionel Bailey of Lorna Bailey Artware about the free redirections he has had each time his firm has moved address or the number of times the postman has called two or three times because the factory wasn't open when he first called. Mr Bailey never made any complaints then.

DGP1 · Post by **DGP1** » 27 Aug 2007, 18:49

tommymac wrote:The firm mentioned in the article now occupy our old office.Ask Lionel Bailey of Lorna Bailey Artware about the free redirections he has had each time his firm has moved address or the number of times the postman has called two or three times because the factory wasn't open when he first called. Mr Bailey never made any complaints then.

That's always the same, people never remember the favours/good things you do for them only the bad things. They have short memories.

Post by **ade@cambs** » 27 Aug 2007, 19:19

A couple of months back i would of registered and posted our side of things but i can't be bothered with these ignorant morons
anymore, besides they are in the minority anyway and this glorified paperboy starts his degree in Labour/ Trade union studies in 2 weeks but to them i will still be as thick as s**t

vigilante · Post by **vigilante** » 27 Aug 2007, 19:20

REPLY MADE!!
AND I HAD TO REFRAIN MYSELF FROM SWEARING BADLY AT THESE F*****G A*****S

pistol · Post by **pistol** » 27 Aug 2007, 19:23

the public are fickle..always have been..they live in cloud cuckoo land..which is..incidentally..where they are best left.

DirtyHarry · Post by **DirtyHarry** » 27 Aug 2007, 19:37

I wouldn't concern myself with the idiotic comments left by some of the world's most useless flotsem, we , postal workers, are members of a union
and always will be. We'll strike, not because we fancy a few days without any wages, but because we have the heart, and the stomach, to stand up
against mercenary privateers like the two buffoons, Leighton & Crozier. We'll defend our hard fought for, and hard won, terms and conditions of work,
and treat with the most absolute scorn, any paltry, downright insulting, pay offer.

We don't need the approval of the public, never have done. All we need is each other.

Stay strong. UNITY IS STRENGTH.

Post by **baldrick** » 27 Aug 2007, 19:46

BELIAL · Post by **BELIAL** » 27 Aug 2007, 20:32

DirtyHarry wrote:I wouldn't concern myself with the idiotic comments left by some of the world's most useless flotsem, we , postal workers, are members of a union
and always will be. We'll strike, not because we fancy a few days without any wages, but because we have the heart, and the stomach, to stand up
against mercenary privateers like the two buffoons, Leighton & Crozier. We'll defend our hard fought for, and hard won, terms and conditions of work,
and treat with the most absolute scorn, any paltry, downright insulting, pay offer.

We don't need the approval of the public, never have done. All we need is each other.

Stay strong. UNITY IS STRENGTH.

Yep, and we are also defending the public service that these ignorant commentors seem to desire. So if you want to pay lots more for your postage and subsidise the profits of Barclays ,EDF , TNT, etc., keep spouting your ill informed bigoted invective,Youll pay for it in the end, through the nose.

DirtyHarry · Post by **DirtyHarry** » 27 Aug 2007, 20:56

Those morons are 80's throwbacks, let your imagination take hold, and you'd swear blind that the ignorant responses were from arch buffoons,
Thatcher, Tebbit, Clarke, et al. These morons would even have the brass neck to call trade unionists, Dinosaurs!

I don't need, nor do I seek, the approval of a largely apathetic public, to do what I know to be right. The fact that part of our present struggle is to
keep our postal service in public hands, goes right over the heads of a large percentage of that public, quite a few of whom believe a worker should be
seen, and not heard. That's the result of 18 continuous years of Tory need for greed, and the following 10 years of a sham Labour government, and a
media mainly under the control of billionaires with little or no regard for basic workers rights.

ROYALMAILCHAT

FIRMS COUNTING COST OF POSTAL WALK-OUTS

FIRMS COUNTING COST OF POSTAL WALK-OUTS

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