royal mail strike

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royal mail strike

oh and for those questioning the reasons behind the strikes.
what do you do? your told your working hours are changing,okay for some genuine reasons.
told you are getting 2.5% wage rise but are losing the early start allowance
told savings and job cuts are being made but with no infoand theres more.
bsically it was RM who drew the line in the sand and said its 2.5% and thats it regardless of any savings made.

oh and to give you an idea of how organised it gets @ RM
we do print outs for signed items for our big buisness deliveries.
these get the info from the scanning guns and send the info to the printers.
our printers been broken for 4 days now.
so every morning a drivers drives a phg to another office 3 miles away with the gun to do the printouts.
efficient,eh?
 
I don't believe we wil win this strike, Leighton has Government and Public support, any pay rise will not be back-dated to April 1st, 40,000 jobs will still go, we have nothing to gain, we are losing money for no particular reason, I've even contemplated going in, but with 1200 employees on our site it would be suicide.

I'll be glad when it's over!

same here,only one went in and he's in coventry ;) now with the digs etc you expect.
 
oh and for those questioning the reasons behind the strikes.
what do you do? your told your working hours are changing,okay for some genuine reasons.
told you are getting 2.5% wage rise but are losing the early start allowance
told savings and job cuts are being made but with no infoand theres more.
bsically it was RM who drew the line in the sand and said its 2.5% and thats it regardless of any savings made.

My brother in law told me all this,said they (postal workers) just cannot afford to lose this fight.....quite sure everyone here is behind you custard(y)
 
Sorry to say this sort of behavior is Rife lately, my wife WAS working for the PCT Trust (NHS), last Sept they were all due a wage rise & a band upgrade , it was frozen until April 07. They were all waiting for the rise only to be told there was going to be a DROP in wages & a drop in grades ie from 3 to 2 which affects Pension etc. They also told 45 out of the 58 workers there that there full time hours were now part time so on top of the hourly cut there was a huge pay cut! So my wife & a few others had to look for other work as we needed her income, which is exactly what they wanted as it was cheaper than having to pay them redundancy money!! Sad but true.
Good Luck with though & I hope it ends soon.

oh and for those questioning the reasons behind the strikes.
what do you do? your told your working hours are changing,okay for some genuine reasons.
told you are getting 2.5% wage rise but are losing the early start allowance
told savings and job cuts are being made but with no infoand theres more.
bsically it was RM who drew the line in the sand and said its 2.5% and thats it regardless of any savings made.

oh and to give you an idea of how organised it gets @ RM
we do print outs for signed items for our big buisness deliveries.
these get the info from the scanning guns and send the info to the printers.
our printers been broken for 4 days now.
so every morning a drivers drives a phg to another office 3 miles away with the gun to do the printouts.
efficient,eh?
 
They are following a Dutch model, in Holland they privatised the industry, mechanised, reduced the workforce by 60%, stopped supplying uniform, got rid of 85% full time staff and went for the mummy employee, they drop the mail off at mums houses once they drop the kids off at school, they deliver from 0900 to 1300, all part time, Royal Mail believes this model will work here, oh and all new entrants at RM are now being given 30 hour contracts and are not entitled to join the pension scheme by the way.

The RM business plan is set to be in full action by 2010, full mechanisation, 85% of staff part time, no new entrees to get pensions, some of the drivers to be self employed owner drivers, no weekend working, no night working, no Saturday deliveries, no uniform, the list of cost cutting exercises goes on, it's frightening for both employees and the service. Eventually the place will be run on part time or casual labour, yes, profits may rise, but service, security and the prestige the RM has built over 350 years will cease to exist.
 
Good point twincams.

Will air my view, but its probably inaccurate.

All because of competition it means the RM cant compete so they continue to cut everything back until they can't anymore, leaving a inadequate service which will ultimately eventually be taken over by a private contractor who'll do it cheaper.

Same situation with BT having to now compete with talktalk, orange, etc. etc. Although there still making money through line rental and lease of lines and exchanges.

In a few years time were probably end up having big letterboxes at the ends of our roads, having to collect our own mail from our neighbours and it being delivered in a yellow and green van all for the sake of costcutting.

Matt
 
Paul, here's one for you, let's have one of your responses please................


News
25 July 2007
Government must force Royal Mail to the negotiating table
A succession of speakers at a CWU lobby of Parliament called on Gordon Brown to put pressure on Royal Mail management to negotiate or suffer the consequences with the public. Addressing a packed House of Commons meeting, deputy general secretary Dave Ward warned that the union was set to “escalate the dispute politically and with the public. “If Gordon Brown, John Hutton and other members of the government will not put pressure on Royal Mail management to negotiate that must mean they are backing them 100 per cent,” said Dave, who accused RM of “using competition as a stick to beat the workers with.” Dave suggested that the reason why publication of the RM accounts had been delayed was to avoid exposure of the £300,000 bonus that chief executive Adam Crozier had received. Dave also questioned how Allan Leighton, “a man who works one day a week for the Post Office can write to our members claiming they are 40 per cent under worked.” “You face 2,000 post office closures and the systematic destruction of the postal service in the UK. The union has made offer after offer. If RM came round the negotiating table we would call off the strikes,” said Dave. General secretary Billy Hayes declared that Leighton and Crozier only believed in profit while the union supported public service. “We will fight to defend our public service and will win this dispute,” said Billy. Labour MP John McDonnell called on the government as the sole shareholder in Royal Mail to “intervene in the postal dispute to force the management to negotiate with the union.” The former Labour leadership candidate pointed out that Gordon Brown became leader on a mandate of change and this was his chance to prove the point by intervening in the dispute. “Some in government believe the market can cure everything, others of us believe in public service,” said John. Former Postmaster General and Labour MP Tony Benn described the people who now manage the Post Office as “rubbish“ and Royal Mail chairman Allan Leighton as “a part timer” “Your allies are the public. If they knew what was being done they would not stand for it. The public will put the pressure on the government,” said Tony, who confirmed he had been out on picket lines for the first two days of strikes. Labour MP Geraldine Smith warned that if the government disowned responsibility for the Post Office they would get blamed by the public. “This is a battle that can be won. It is important that the message gets through to the government and MPs,” said Ms Smith. Unite T&G general secretary Tony Woodley declared that the trade unions face a government that is actively working against them. “This is a battle for what sort of postal service we want today. We know the sacrifices you have made and it is important that the resolve of members remains strong,” said Tony, who said now is not the time for members to sit on the fence. Lord Tony Clarke admitted that “it was my government that rushed into liberalisation .. with indecent haste.” Tony called for some macro management from government in the form of sacking Leighton and Crozier. “Postal workers have given nothing but the best of service to the British people,” said Tony. More than 30 MPs attended the meeting, including Denis Skinner, Jim Dobbin, John Grogan, Tony Lloyd, Bob Wareing and Gordon Marston. There were messages of support from London Mayor Ken Livingstone and TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.
 
I am taking early retirement in 4 hrs 45 minutes, I don't mind to slack today :p

But the unions and a measely 30 MPs 'completely objectively' saying things doesn't change my view ;) It's painful but RM's business model will not work unless it is changed. Digs at Leighton for working at RM for 1 day a week (not because he is underworked or lazy) saying that he can't therefore suggest RM workers are "underworked" is awful logic. RM need to find their cost centres which lose disproportionate amounts of money for the service offered and cut them. RM need to highlight the areas in which they can save money by modernising and save money.

It will hurt but it's better than 20 years of forced and uncontrollable losses as the elephant that RM is dies kicking and screaming.

You're getting out anyway, you shouldn't care ;)
 
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