Jump to content

Royal Mail Strike


GenevaSaint

Recommended Posts

I would like to state my full 100% support for the CWU.

This time in a month I expect to be going down the same road.

 

I do not believe in political strikes or militancy whatsoever. But what I do believe in is people fighting to maintain what they have been promised when the people trying to take away those promises are nothing more than carpetbaggers - and, come on folks, you all know Adam Crozier's track record.

 

I will leave you with some words Neal Lawson wrote in the Guardian this week -

 

"The government see ony one Route to Royal Mail modernisation - take out the union. The hard core of New Labour believes that the private sector is best, despite all the evidence of collapsing banks and the services we get from the likes of Virgin media and BT. It believes unions get in the way and stop reforms that enable organisations to compete efficiently, despite the fact that the best companies see their workers as an asset to be utilised, not a nuisance to be crushed".

 

Speaking from front line experience those lines ring so tune.

 

I know who I would rather trust - my local postie who has been doing rounds round here for 40 years looking after old dears, shutting gates, checking on people on holiday etc etc or Crozier who paracuted away from a disaster in the FA into a million pound plus salary in the GPO who wouls not know one end of a letter to the other.

 

This country is going to the dogs not because of the workers but because of the people at the top of the finance world whose greed very nearly did for us all. And meanwhile lets all give the decent postman a damn good kicking.

Anyone see Dell Days knitting while they cut heads off during the French Revolution?

 

Well that Neal Lawson is full of sh*t isn't he:

 

"Best Customer Service

 

09 October 2009

 

Winner: Virgin Media

 

There's no stopping Virgin Media who win this award for a ninth consecutive yearWe "

 

Bloody idiot.

 

The CWU are disgraceful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If they are going back on their agreement of 2007 then they have lost the moral high ground IMO

I still think getting a letter posted is very cheap. The posties i know are decent people and perhaps are being led badly...not for the first time

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got post today

 

But do we really need a delivery every day?

 

 

I dont really think so but it is a good service and quite cheap

 

Twice or three times a week would be OK I would have thought.

I dont know , I suppose if you are waiting for a doctors/hospital appointment , your saints tickets or birthday /xmas money then it is rather iportant
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dont know , I suppose if you are waiting for a doctors/hospital appointment , your saints tickets or birthday /xmas money then it is rather iportant

 

Yes but surely you could wait for one day

 

 

But important stuff could be sent special delivery

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You've been reading the Daily Mail or as it is known in my house - the paramilitary wing of Womans Realm magazine.

 

FF, you've read my posts and know my thoughts on the Daily Mail and the Guardian for that matter. If my thoughts at times mirror the political and moral grounds of these two dailies then so be it but it is by accident rather than by design as my opinions reflect how I interpret the issues of the day, not rehashing some over-zealous journo or editor pushing their own political agenda.

 

Politically, I have a foot (of varying sizes) in every major political party but none seem to support enough of my views to warrant me to vote for them on a lesser of the 3 evils basis unlike a recent analogy in football of course. Still hardly matters in my neck of woods as abstaining is as pointless as voting but the former saves a bit of time and hassle.

 

Still I enjoyed your houshold's nickname for the Mail and no doubt you upset at least 10% of this forum plus another 10% who won't admit to being upset as they are still trying to work out what the problem is with reading it.

 

BTW did you buy the Observer last Sunday? If you did, no doubt you enjoyed the term Autobiographical Immunity. Before you say anything I was around some 'friends' having my yearly, can't avoid it any longer, indoctrination to a carbon neutral lifestyle. Reading that quote almost made the visit worthwhile before it was whisked from me to fire up the wood burner.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No Sunday collections, no guaranteed next day delivery even if you do stump up for a "first class" delivery, post turns up well after you have left for work, when did last see a friendly postman shut a gate as he whislted away on his round? Your lucky if some b*gger doesn't open your kids birthday cards and nick their money!

 

The world has moved on but this union wouldn't know that. Where I work most people work long hours in difficult conditions and many of them earn £16k. We have one person join us for a year on no pay because they are desparate to get work down the line and want the experience. We have people with degrees banging on the door to become a reprograhics officer.

 

All that will happen is that the Post Office will become privatised and the workforce will be replaced by people who will be paid less, but will take the cash and not inconvenience the customers....go for it boys and join the ranks of the miners and print workers etc. You will never win and the more you strike the more you put your own future at risk.

 

People are getting fed up with these people who seem to think they have it harder than anyone else...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess the likely truth is that RM bosses are under instruction to weaken the postal service so that it can be privatised.

 

I struggle to think of one public service that has improved with privatisation.

 

I think the net result will be that we will all pay a realistic price for posting letters instead of a heavily subsidised price and that the longer the 'journey' the higher the cost. I do worry for people living in remote areas. Will their post get collected / delivered in the future?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess the likely truth is that RM bosses are under instruction to weaken the postal service so that it can be privatised.

 

I struggle to think of one public service that has improved with privatisation.

 

I think the net result will be that we will all pay a realistic price for posting letters instead of a heavily subsidised price and that the longer the 'journey' the higher the cost. I do worry for people living in remote areas. Will their post get collected / delivered in the future?

 

 

British Telecom, British Gas and British Airways as a starter for 10.

Edited by Johnny Bognor
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

Well here is a poll that says different:

http://www.justtheflight.co.uk/news/18197738-british-airways-and-virgin-top-customer-poll.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS105470+16-Mar-2009+PRN20090316

 

 

ANyway, BTF talked about improvement, so unless you can provide customer satisfaction ratings from when they were nationalised, then your point is?????

Edited by Johnny Bognor
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well here is a poll that says different:

http://www.justtheflight.co.uk/news/18197738-british-airways-and-virgin-top-customer-poll.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS105470+16-Mar-2009+PRN20090316

 

 

ANyway, BTF talked about improvement, so unless you can provide customer satisfaction ratings from when they were nationalised, then your point is?????

Define 'improved'.

 

Privatisation of any service means that the profitable parts are bolstered and cultivated, those bits that need to be provided because the 'public service mandate' requires it, are reluctantly tolerated, ( and with any luck wither and die ), unless public subsidy can be provided. Classic examples are found everywhere a previously public service has to maintain it's presence in rural areas, an obvious example being bus services. ( Admittedly British Airways does not fall into this general argument, but most air passengers don't use them, preferring much cheaper alternatives ).

BT have an unfair advantage over other TELCOs as they are the only one with full national coverage, and they use their monopoly position to force prices of many business related services upwards, because they know there is no alternative - something I have direct professional experience of in the field of high-speed computer network provision.

If the Post Office is fully privatised, will the new commercial master wish to maintain the current mandate of 'next day delivery of first class post, ANYWHERE on mainland Britain, at a single fixed price', I doubt it very much.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Define 'improved'.

 

Privatisation of any service means that the profitable parts are bolstered and cultivated, those bits that need to be provided because the 'public service mandate' requires it, are reluctantly tolerated, ( and with any luck wither and die ), unless public subsidy can be provided. Classic examples are found everywhere a previously public service has to maintain it's presence in rural areas, an obvious example being bus services. ( Admittedly British Airways does not fall into this general argument, but most air passengers don't use them, preferring much cheaper alternatives ).

BT have an unfair advantage over other TELCOs as they are the only one with full national coverage, and they use their monopoly position to force prices of many business related services upwards, because they know there is no alternative - something I have direct professional experience of in the field of high-speed computer network provision.

If the Post Office is fully privatised, will the new commercial master wish to maintain the current mandate of 'next day delivery of first class post, ANYWHERE on mainland Britain, at a single fixed price', I doubt it very much.

 

To be fair I'd settle for 'next day delivery of first class post, ANYWHERE on mainland Britain' from the current commercial master.

 

Failing that, just plain old delivery at some time would do me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back on topic - it's quite interesting to hear the views of someone who actually knows how the organisation works / doesn't work:

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/24/postal-worker-blog-innovation-idiocy

 

To be fair BTF, that's his/her interpretation of what's happening to them.

 

There are lots of other staff in other companies who have a mantra of more for less in the same situation. My working week is 37 hours, everyone I know does at least 1-2 hours every day unpaid as we're salaried. Rightly or wrongly we do as there is a risk of losing your job if you're in the bottom 20% come appraisal time due to unsatisfactory performance.

 

Given the current state of the economy, with 2.5m (?) people unemployed I don't think it's the right time to be bleating on about change. I honestly think the CWU leadership are leading their members in the wrong direction on this one.

Edited by GenevaSaint
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thread title is really beginning to irk me now. The Post Office aren't on strike!!

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one - oi, Admins, can one of you pleeeease change this to "Royal Mail Strike". Ta.

 

Another three days of carnage due from Thursday too. Meh.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm glad I'm not the only one - oi, Admins, can one of you pleeeease change this to "Royal Mail Strike". Ta.

 

Another three days of carnage due from Thursday too. Meh.

 

Why not? I'm embracing change lately. "Royal Mail Strike" it is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was a time when you could post a letter in London, addressed to your personal banker in Zurich (as you do), and it would arrive later that same day. That time was the 1890s.

 

How? All that nasty old technology, like mail sorting offices on railways, an efficient railway system, properly staffed - plus a bit of co-ordinated planning across national boundaries.

 

There's a best-selling book to be written by someone about how successive waves of new technology have degraded our lives in quite measurable ways. Newer isn't always better.

 

I'm not entirely sure what the detailed issues are in the Royal Mail strike. But this current outbreak of 1970s-style industrial relations does seem to have been stirred up by a peeved Peter Mandelson, angry at his thwarted attempt to privatise the RM, and ably assisted by a worse-than-useless Crozier and a poorly communicating Communications Workers' Union led by someone doing a fair impression of Peter I'm-Alright-Jack Sellers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BEWARE GENUINE WARNING TO all my fellow posters. Hopefully this will not happen to you or your family.......

 

POSTAL SCAM leading up to xmas.

 

 

If you get a card through your door PDS..Parcel Delivery Service request to ring 0906 6611911....DO NOT RING THIS NUMBER

 

DO NOT RESPOND...Scam Alert......£15 as soon as you ring mounting up very quickly thereafter. Scam origin in Belize.

 

If you recieve a card contact....http://www.icstis.org.uk.....02072396655 Royal Mail Fraud Squad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone read Viz with Postman Plod (I think). One episode had him desperate for the toilet during his break, but he refused to go. As soon as it was time to go back to work, he duly parked himself on the loo with the paper! Hilarious, and true words said in jest etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To be fair BTF, that's his/her interpretation of what's happening to them.

 

There are lots of other staff in other companies who have a mantra of more for less in the same situation. My working week is 37 hours, everyone I know does at least 1-2 hours every day unpaid as we're salaried. Rightly or wrongly we do as there is a risk of losing your job if you're in the bottom 20% come appraisal time due to unsatisfactory performance.

 

Yep, working extra hours for 'free' is completely normal in most companies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Next round planned for this coming Friday, and next Monday - not split operations this time, all staff out... :/

 

 

So the CWU are continuing with their customer recruitment drive on behalf of DHL.

 

I see that other ad agency, Unite, is also about to go on a customer recruitment drive on behalf of Virgin Atlantic.

 

Ad Agencies (disguised as unions) rock!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To be fair BTF, that's his/her interpretation of what's happening to them.

 

There are lots of other staff in other companies who have a mantra of more for less in the same situation. My working week is 37 hours, everyone I know does at least 1-2 hours every day unpaid as we're salaried. Rightly or wrongly we do as there is a risk of losing your job if you're in the bottom 20% come appraisal time due to unsatisfactory performance.

 

Given the current state of the economy, with 2.5m (?) people unemployed I don't think it's the right time to be bleating on about change. I honestly think the CWU leadership are leading their members in the wrong direction on this one.

 

I would think the postal staff would be happy to do this if they were as overpaid as you are.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would think the postal staff would be happy to do this if they were as overpaid as you are.

 

And you know how much I earn how exactly? Unless you know me personally how can you make such a statement?

 

It's just crossed my mind who you might be! Overpaid in your opinion mate, it's all relative in regards to responsibility. Do I feel overpaid in relation to a postie no, a paramedic, yes.

Edited by GenevaSaint
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...