Strike impact..

[LaggyBand]

Should the Union give notice for 10-20 strike dates but announce to workforce that
we will only be on strike for 2 or 3 as the Union will call off the rest just before we are due
to go on strike. If RM don't know what ones are the actual strike days then they will need to get agency staff
to come in. Businesses wont know which days will be strike and so may end up going with another courier.

This is an amazing strategy if allowed..?

[LaggyBand]

Ours was fairly busy.

Just don't do any overtime over the next weeks. I am going to be rolling my eyes at people doing extra work during these weeks where we have strike days.

If anyone is thinking of doing overtime the day after a strike then you might as well just come in on the strike day and work. What is the point in striking and then coming in the following day and doing overtime to clear the backlog?

I think we need to do a week long strike at some point.

Mate I couldn’t disagree more..

You’ve really got to ask yourself, what are you trying to achieve?

1. Disruption, backlog?

2. RM to have a striking workforce ongoing, causing uncertainty and loss of business (sorry we can’t guarantee deliveries on this day or that day)


If it’s target 1 then I agree, you need people to do as little overtime as possible when they’re at work, but how long do you expect this could go on? If it was just one solid week or so then I think RM can just have agency staff ready to help with the backlog and after that people are going to start to break the strike; it’s a temporary disruption RM can tough it out and get through to the other side.

But if it’s target 2. then all you really need is one day a week strike. Ongoing. Union says “yeah work your days off etc we don’t care just make sure you strike on the day” and this can go on for absolutely ages. Royal Mail have no light at the end of the tunnel to get through to, because it’s every week, and there is still a bit of disruption, as our network needs that constant flow, and customers would have the uncertainty of having to check all the time if their expected delivery date was a strike day.

One things for sure is you can’t have 1. and 2. I’d suggest because major disruption requires successive day strikes and no overtime etc, plus striking for long times, you’re not going to get enough people sticking with it.

So in summary striking over a long period and having no backlog pressures the board more than striking over a short period and causing a big backlog. How is that wrong.

[Clappedoutpostie]

Should the Union give notice for 10-20 strike dates but announce to workforce that
we will only be on strike for 2 or 3 as the Union will call off the rest just before we are due
to go on strike. If RM don't know what ones are the actual strike days then they will need to get agency staff
to come in. Businesses wont know which days will be strike and so may end up going with another courier.

That’s an interesting one, I’m not sure of the legality’s of it but a couple of mates who work for Network Rail were saying the RMT planned to do this with at least one of their next strikes, they have been told to be ready to work and they will be given 1 hours notice.

[Cazlew]

Strike days set in week blocks. And short notice of which / if any days to strike. Any contingency plans royal mail have will cost them greatly. Scenario... RM hire vans and agency for set day/s . Union inform members not to strike at short notice. 50000 plus work force need paying at a cost of £5million plus per day. Uncertainty for RM would have greater impact.

[LaggyBand]

f**k me Terry and Dave get on this, this is the move surely? Get dirty or go home

[blacov]

Ours was fairly busy.

Just don't do any overtime over the next weeks. I am going to be rolling my eyes at people doing extra work during these weeks where we have strike days.

<snipped>

I'll be doing some that I would have normally agreed to, because... that's normal, even RM have said 'pay the normal stuff, just not catch up stuff'. I'll still be a solid day of pay down, like the rest, and I won't be helping on Wednesday, or the 8th/9th.

Exactly that. This is my tactic too. At the end of the day next week pay will be less of 2days of strike. As this weeks pay hasn't been deducted yet.

[baldrick]

Should the Union give notice for 10-20 strike dates but announce to workforce that
we will only be on strike for 2 or 3 as the Union will call off the rest just before we are due
to go on strike. If RM don't know what ones are the actual strike days then they will need to get agency staff
to come in.

Wouldn't RM just cancel the agency staff as soon as they know they won't be needed. Or send them away if they come in.

[SpacePhoenix]

Should the Union give notice for 10-20 strike dates but announce to workforce that
we will only be on strike for 2 or 3 as the Union will call off the rest just before we are due
to go on strike. If RM don't know what ones are the actual strike days then they will need to get agency staff
to come in.

Wouldn't RM just cancel the agency staff as soon as they know they won't be needed. Or send them away if they come in.

iirc last time RM got all the agency in on fixed contracts with guaranteed hours so they still had to use them

[N|M]

Should the Union give notice for 10-20 strike dates but announce to workforce that
we will only be on strike for 2 or 3 as the Union will call off the rest just before we are due
to go on strike. If RM don't know what ones are the actual strike days then they will need to get agency staff
to come in.

Wouldn't RM just cancel the agency staff as soon as they know they won't be needed. Or send them away if they come in.

Depending on how much notice they get, sure they cant cancel 1hr before shift and they have to have at least a few hrs work, for nights its around 4hrs before they can send them home (so ive been told many times from different people)

[yubin282]

Tuesday will be bad, which is a shame for our office as it's the shortest day of the week.

RM have promised not to pay any catch up overtime, so that means... cut off. Finish on time, just do it properly. Tell them before you tie up if you reckon it's too much, if they take nothing off you, ring them around 12 to tell them what you expect to bring back, then get back with your full 10 minutes to unload, do so, and do one. IF you need help, get the union rep involved at step one and just hang up once you've informed them, don't listen to the bullying. You might get an invite to conduct, but nothing will come of it, just another fear-tool they will try to hold over you, if they think it's working.

I meant it's bad RM not for for me, this is exactly what I will be doing.

[Clappedoutpostie]

Wouldn't RM just cancel the agency staff as soon as they know they won't be needed. Or send them away if they come in.

They can only get a handful of agency staff as things stand, if they did that the pool would shrink even more.

[spaceman07]

I read somewhere that the impact will be felt more on Tuesday, that’s when the backlog will come through. We’ll see.

I thought the strike was about causing maximum disruption else what's the point. It'll drag on for ages if people on Tuesday just keep bailing them out clearing the backlog on overtime. Others coming in early and racing round as well.

Let them sort all the crap out!
It'll have little affect whilst all this continues.

[wandle]

We are fast approaching the point at which the CWU need to announce a new strike date or dates, to avoid a gap after the 2-day action on 8th/9th September.
Given a minimum notice of 14 days required by law, tomorrow is 29th August and so the earliest possible date for an additional strike is already Monday 12th September.
Boss of my unit says some customers have signed one-month contracts with Evri (formerly Hermes). I assume the directors of RM may come under pressure from institutional investors pretty soon if the business starts losing contracts. Yes, shareholders want profits and dividends maximised, but RM has high fixed costs and the loss of customers threatens profitability and the ability to pay dividends.
For all his tough-talking and confrontational stance, it was Rico Back that lost his job, not us, the employees.
Stand together. Hold the line. We have seen off previous bullies. We can win again this time. We must defeat these proposed changes, or else the job won’t be one worth having

[POSTPERSON50]

I read somewhere that the impact will be felt more on Tuesday, that’s when the backlog will come through. We’ll see.

I thought the strike was about causing maximum disruption else what's the point. It'll drag on for ages if people on Tuesday just keep bailing them out clearing the backlog on overtime. Others coming in early and racing round as well.

Let them sort all the crap out!
It'll have little affect whilst all this continues.

Ridiculously enough, a load of our colleagues still feel guilty when they go back into work after strike days and feel obliged to clear the mail from a strike day which they haven't been paid for. The business plays on the good nature of those people. They feel that it's their duty to serve the customers as best they can, and that is only natural. The disconnect is between managers and staff, not customers and staff.

[Cedar_Room]

Pretty busy at ours yesterday- our gaffer is on AL so we had a stand in who quite honestly couldn’t tell his arse from his elbow.

I told him that we wouldn’t be able to clear all of the packets & would take half. He was fine with that as he though that someone was being sent from a local office to lend a hand,when we arrived back at 14.30 the all the packets (including many tracked) were still on the york,untouched.

Next week will be absolute chaos…