UNITE ON ROYAL MAIL: OUR MEMBERS HAVE HAD ENOUGH

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://postandparcel.info/148895/news/ ... ad-enough/

Royal Mail faces UK-wide strikes this summer over plans to remove 542 frontline delivery managers, Unite the union said today. Royal Mail has said: “There are no grounds for industrial action.”

About 2,400 managers across over 1,000 delivery offices have voted by 86 % for strike action and by 91 % for industrial action short of a strike – and the union warned that letter and parcel delivery chaos was inevitable. In Northern Ireland, Unite’s members voted by 89 % for strike action and 88 % for industrial action short of a strike.

Unite said that it would announce strike dates in the coming days and called for the management to return to the negotiating table to reach a settlement to avoid disruption.

Unite claims that the job cuts are driven by shareholder greed, despite the service returning a record £416 million in profits only months ago – up by 20.9 %. The union also fears that the business’s cuts threaten the universal service obligation whereby it must deliver to every household in the UK six days per week.

The ballot result comes after Unite members rejected proposals because Royal Mail bosses, who have already cut 420 jobs, have refused to row back from their demand for 542 further jobs to go, continue to undermine agreed existing pay arrangements and are failing to act on the ‘long hours’ culture prevalent in the company.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “It is no surprise at all that these workers have voted overwhelmingly for industrial action. Make no mistake, Royal Mail is awash with cash – there is no need whatsoever to sack workers, drive down pay or pursue this ill-thought out redeployment programme.

These plans are all about boardroom greed and profiteering and nothing whatsoever to do with securing this vital public service. Shareholders have been seizing the Royal Mail profits, while our members have been holding the service together. Enough is enough.

“Our Royal Mail members are guaranteed Unite’s 100 per cent support in any industrial action they take this summer to get the company off this ruinous path.”

A recent survey of Unite members revealed that the current service is built on unpaid work by the postal managers and can ill-afford to lose more managers from the workforce. Members regularly go without lunch breaks, work unpaid at weekends and even forego annual leave to provide the public with a service. Unite firmly believes these changes do nothing to assist these issues

Unite national officer with responsibility for Royal Mail, Mike Eatwell added: “Our members have had enough. They are pivotal to the smooth running of the Royal Mail’s operations and therefore strike action will cause severe disruption to services.

“As our recent survey highlighted, the Royal Mail is already running on fumes, depending on an outrageous amount of unpaid hours by our members to keep services operating. But they have had enough of poor treatment and not being listened to.

“Senior management at Royal Mail has lost the support of their own managers and need to reflect carefully on their next steps. They need to come back to the negotiating table with a set of constructive proposals, otherwise strike action will go-ahead causing chaos to letter and parcel deliveries across the UK.”

Coming out of the pandemic where Unite’s members worked tirelessly to ensure that the mail got delivered and collected, including personally assisting deliveries, when Covid depleted postal operative numbers, Royal Mail senior management has rewarded them by increasing the workload, relocating them unreasonably and destroying their career progression.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We are disappointed by the announcement that Unite/CMA members have voted in favour of both industrial action and industrial action short of a strike, also known as work to rule. Unite have stated they will be informing us in due course in relation to the terms of any industrial action.

“Throughout the ballot process, Unite head office has misled members about additional job losses. This is not true. Unite has ignored our request to correct these claims.

“There are no grounds for industrial action. The extended consultation on these changes concluded earlier this year, and the restructuring is complete. We committed to protecting pay for all managers who stay with Royal Mail, and the vast majority will see an increase in their earnings. We allowed managers to request voluntary redundancy with a package of up to two years’ salary, which was over-subscribed. We also made several concessions during the process, which Unite declined.

“The ballot covers around a third of our 6,000 managers and we have contingency plans in place to keep letters and parcels moving in the event of a strike.”

[hans solo]

And we’ve had enough of their bullying members

[derricksmyth]

Get your dates in , I think you will get majority support from most OPG s , we are all being screwed !!

[aiden01]

Get your dates in , I think you will get majority support from most OPG s , we are all being screwed !!

You honestly think most opg's will back managers????

[Woody Guthrie]

What's their beef?

That there are too many of them doing f**k all for their money?
I'm sorry but I've had far too much interaction with useless overpaid control freaks to have much sympathy for their cause.

There are of course good managers but in my experience they're hugely outnumbered by the bad and the ugly.

And it's the bad and the ugly that move up the greasy pole.

[clashcityrocker]

What's their beef?

I will give you one example.
We have a former line manager who has been promoted to a COM.
He is a failed DOM.

His whole raison d'etre as a line manager was to produce the rota for the week ahead (badly) and oversee the holiday allocation (badly)
He now has to do other stuff which is way beyond his intellectual capacity and he has to interact with people who hate him after being screwed over by his former work on rotas and holidays.
He is completely out of his depth and doesn't have a clue how to run a section of a DO.
Going on strike might be his only way of getting some respite from the daily grind of being completely useless at his job.

Apart from all that he is a top bloke.

[derricksmyth]

Get your dates in , I think you will get majority support from most OPG s , we are all being screwed !!

You honestly think most opg's will back managers????

On this occasion yes, I think united we stand more of a chance of achieving a decent settlement

[Dorset Plodder]

https://postandparcel.info/148895/news/ ... ad-enough/

About 2,400 managers across over 1,000 delivery offices have voted by 86 % for strike action and by 91 % for industrial action short of a strike – and the union warned that letter and parcel delivery chaos was inevitable. In Northern Ireland, Unite’s members voted by 89 % for strike action and 88 % for industrial action short of a strike.

So what are they talking about when they say "short of a strike"?

I don't think we'd even notice if the useless bastards didn't turn up for work .... Things might run more smoothly!

If they're considering something like not entering correct overtime details, or messing up staff holidays ....... whose going to notice the difference?

I can't actually think of ANYTHING they can do that would affect the Business, in anyway!

[Woody Guthrie]

On this occasion yes, I think united we stand more of a chance of achieving a decent settlement

But we're not united.
Our goals are completely opposite.
We're needed but underpaid.
We're fighting for a pay rise.
They are overpaid but unneeded.
They're throwing their toys out of the pram because the business has asked them questions they should have been asking 20 years ago.

[richietns]

How would the managers striking affect an office on the actual day of the strike,would we just turn up as normal and mug through with a coach in charge or somthing.

[iHateD2Ds]

We are all getting screwed over by the Greedy Corporates
!@#% them!

[olilew]

would we just turn up as normal and mug through with a coach in charge or somthing.

Yes as long as there's no picket line!

[pieoftheday]

I'd cross a management picket line, they would cross ours.

[daveyeff]

how much is correct in that manager saying ''we couldn't go in to graft anyway, as there needs to be a 'p.i.c.' in the office''? our rep said we just need a H&S rep in? anyone?

[richietns]

I don't give two sh***s about the managers they couldnt care less about us there's never more than two usually only one in our depot cant see him picketing on his tod at the gate it is a weird situation though.