Royal Mail Strike - Quick Question?

[MattyD]

It depends on your contract. If you're on a one-hour wonder contract like the casuals at my office they will probably offer you to come in and work on the strike days. If you're any kind of schedule or rota though they won't expect you to come in on your day off, although they may offer you to do that.

What I would say though is that if the turnout at the office is very low they won't send you out on delivery but will probably have you inside cutting and tipping mail sacks or just doing some sorting work.

[stainboy]

If people accept work on strike days does it make the striker's sacrifice all for nothing? Since the work is gettng covered it's obviously making less of an impact. Or am I thinking too much? It seems unfair to be taking the work of people who'd rather be working but are giving it up for what they believe in but on the other hand sometimes you need to be selfish and think "it's not my fault this work is available and since it is I should take advantage".

[Jebus]

It's worth mentioning stainboy that even the most ardent of union based staff have said they cannot afford 4 days of no pay in 2 weeks...it's gonna be a bit different this time around...

[MattyD]

If people accept work on strike days does it make the striker's sacrifice all for nothing? Since the work is gettng covered it's obviously making less of an impact. Or am I thinking too much? It seems unfair to be taking the work of people who'd rather be working but are giving it up for what they believe in but on the other hand sometimes you need to be selfish and think "it's not my fault this work is available and since it is I should take advantage".

I'd say you're better off staying out of it and carrying on as normal. You've got absolutely nothing to worry about. Nobody could think it unreasonable for a new starter to stay out of a dispute that was already ongoing when they joined. If you do decide to stay out the only difference it will make is to your wage packet.

As far as the bigger picture is concerned, I think the result will be the same whether the strike attracts good support or not, as Royal Mail management have already stated their intention to impose changes by executive action whether the union likes it or not. As much as I believe in the cause and in trade unionism I have to admit that this dispute seems close to being a lost cause.

[Gradius]

I'm on a 4 day, 40 hour week so i'm going to lose a full weeks pay including 20 hours night allowance, thats a fair amount of wedge to lose. Lucky for me personally i can afford to take this hit at the mo, but in the future i'm not so sure.

In my office a work to rule and no overtime policy would cripple it quite badly, it's a shame the union doesn't agree.

[stainboy]

Man, if the RM can and will do whatever it wants in the end then what's the point of the union and why are they pretending to negotiate with them if they're going to end up with everything their own way?

Thanks for answering my questions guys, it must sound like I'm just thinking of myself and how this will affect me if/when I enter your world but I do appreciate what you've already been through what what the strikes coming up will do to you. I hope the union appreciates it, especially if you get a result you'd have ended up with anyway without having to lose any pay.

[MattyD]

Man, if the RM can and will do whatever it wants in the end then what's the point of the union and why are they pretending to negotiate with them if they're going to end up with everything their own way?

In an ideal world a well-organised trade union could make a company better and more profitable. It's a dialectical process - if a company's management liaise with the unions and take their suggestions on board, they should end up with better processes, policies that help the workers become more efficient instead of hindering them, and ultimately happier employees, which is clearly beneficial to people's lives as well as company profits.

Unions can and do achieve this in all sorts of areas (just look at the safety improvements in railways and higher standards of practice generally in nursing) and until recently it's been the same with the CWU and Royal Mail. Unfortunately the two men currently at the top of Royal Mail management are both extremely anti-union and are doing all they can to destroy support for the CWU.

By way of illustration, the current Chief Executive of Royal Mail, Allan Leighton, had in the past effectively ruined organised labour amongst Asda staff in preparation for the chain's take-over by Wal-Mart. He did this by dividing the staff into small, semi-autonomous 'teams' so that all decisions were made amongst small groups of employees in a very ad-hoc fashion, which prevented the unions within Asda from forging any national agreements on low-level issues like hours and attendance. An attempt to do the same scheme at Royal Mail is one of the issues of contention in this dispute.

[Jebus]

The thing is though Matty, both the Union and RM have their own seperate agendas. Neither work for us posties in the long run.

[stainboy]

Is everyone jumping ship? Even more jobs come up when I do a search

These hours made me laugh though:

Hours of work: 34.45 hours per week, 5 days across Monday to Saturday between 07.15am and 14.32pm

[MattyD]

Just quick reminder that the strike is coming up; normal operations as far as the public is concerned will cease Friday morning and will not resume until Wednesday next week.

If you have ongoing trades in the trading forum I would recommend getting the stuff posted out by close of play today (Tuesday) if you want to make sure it arrives in time for the last regular delivery on Thursday morning.

Also bear in mind that having the network basically stopped for four days will cause a tremendous backlog to build up so delays are inevitable.

[ChrisF]

Strike starts on Thursday lunchtime doesn't it? My postman doesn't deliver until 2/3pm usually so I guess he'll be knocking off before he's started?

[Jebus]

Thursday 12 lunchtime yep. But no debug, your postman WON'T be knocking off before he starts, strikes only consist of shifts starting AFTER 12 noon. His shift will have started up to 3 hours earlier.

The days your post will be affected are...
Friday + Saturday this week.
Monday + Tuesday next week.

Basically you're very unlikely to get any post between friday and tuesday.

[Jebus]

Is everyone jumping ship? Even more jobs come up when I do a search

These hours made me laugh though:

Hours of work: 34.45 hours per week, 5 days across Monday to Saturday between 07.15am and 14.32pm

RM now operate "long and short" days in selected offices, 7 hours saturday, 8 1/2 wed, thur, fri etc. It's also a 5 day week with a rotated day off, depending on the job you get within the office.

[Shez]

Out of interest, does anyone know what the precentage of union membership per office is?

I don't know what the exact figures where in our office, but I was privvy to the union vote numbers when an internal rep election was done. I calculated it at about 65%

[Yoshimax]

Might be old news I dunno but they've announced PO's they're going to close :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7023244.stm

The Post Office has announced the first 180 branches chosen for closure under plans to shut 2,500 by the end of 2008.

Some 58 branches have been earmarked in Kent, 77 in the East Midlands and 45 in the East Yorkshire area.
Another 35 branches could be replaced by "outreach services", such as mobile offices or services in shops and pubs.
Ministers say cuts are needed as the network has been losing £4m a week. A six-week public consultation is being held before final decisions are made. Consumer watchdog Postwatch said closures were bad news but it accepted the current network was unsustainable.

Surprised at the Postwatch comment tbh !