Royal Mail Strike - Quick Question?

[prinnysquad]

Just spoke to my postie and he says that people are walking away from Royal Mail with this raft of modernisation coming in. He said that they're introducing some kind of trolley system that constitutes a security risk, though I didn't ask whether he meant in the depots or on the rounds. He said that they're forcing posties to do almost twice the work - 3 posties doing the work of 5, meaning they don't finish the round til 4 or 5pm, and getting all sorts of grief off customers and the financial sector, who sometimes don't get things like cheques delivered in time to process or whatever.

Hooray for modernisation! A great service made ****.

15 years ago you had 2 deliveries, guaranteed 1st class post, and a morning delivery. Now you've got one delivery, next day if you're lucky, and before teatime if you're lucky. Yes, competition has worked wonders in this sector.

[Kongster]

And the latest strike has begun

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8188834.stm

[buster_broon]

question of the posties on who i should go about a claim

recently i've had a fence built and the postie has decided (i think) that he cant be bothered using the gate, but he cant reach across the fence to post the stuff so he is just leaving it on my doorstep, so the mail sits outside my house all day until the wife gets in at 7pm

but 3 parcels have now disappeared, now i appreciate they may have went missing in the mail elsewhere, but when i tell the companies (play.com, playusa.com and amazon) should i mention what my postie is doing or just say they've not turned up

[Jebus]

Buster, I wouldn't mention the issue with the posty, because they will then turn around and say "It's not an issue with us, make a claim with Royal Mail"...and you dont really want to do that, not unless you want to wait a month.

Prinners, they are getting rid of bikes in the future. Every delivery will be done from a trolley, which will be a f*cking nightmare and will take us all day. Every time a customer doesn't have post, we can cycle past, if we don't have a bike, we'll have to walk past them. I've done a trolley delivery once, it took me nearly 6 hours, as opposed the 3-4 it normally takes me.

[ezee ryder]

Question, what is the deal with current Royal Mail strikes? When are they gonna be over?

[redael]

Further strikes are scheduled between Wednesday - Saturday this week , the ballot for a possible national strike closes on Thursday 8th.

I'm lead to believe there are some talks planned at the end of the week between CWU and Royal Mail management , if it all goes wrong a weeks notice would have to be given before a national strike kicks in.

[Kieran76]

Nooo!
I need my contact lenses!

Stupid Royal Mail Management.

[Neon Ignition]

It's getting stupid now, they should just suck it up and privatise the whole thing and be done with it. They've been offered a pay rise which for the moment is a perfectly average amount but because they've got this figure in their head of what they want and won't let go it's gonna blow up in their faces. At the end of the day, pushing for more isn't an issue but the employee also has to accept a certain level of responsibility for the fact that they knowingly joined the profession knowing what it pays. Royal Mail will never dish out the desired 27% total increase and if they did they'd need to massively ramp up post costs to cover the extra expenditure which would damage their business ultimately leading to privatisation and all these whining posties being out of work.

It's like some people forget there's a recession going on.

[Herbalizer]

I've never understood workers who strike on pay issues. You knew the pay when you took the job, if you want more money, get another job.

[Jebus]

They've been offered a pay rise

No. We have not.

I've never understood workers who strike on pay issues. You knew the pay when you took the job, if you want more money, get another job.

So it's acceptable in your eyes for an employer to decide to pay you LESS then? Because that's whats happening. The afternoon collections that were voluntary contracted additional hours have been cancelled, which means £120 a month less for me, up to £200-300 less for others. That work that was CONTRACTED additional work has been cancelled and turned into part of the standard working hours. No reason has been given for the cancelation of those additional contracts.

Honestly, you think it's over pay and pay alone? You would not believe the harrasment, bullying and downright abuse people are getting from line managers! People who are off sick are being demanded to come in to work, and people are so scared of losing their job that they are doing it.

You think it's reasonable for a company to change your start and finish time twice in a year? You think it's reasonable that when you use the arguement "But my hours weren't that when I started, who is supposed to pick my kids up now?" you get told "Quit then"?

You think it's fair that people are asked if they want redundancy, sign a piece of paper that confirms they are going to get it, then RM decides "no" and all the plans made because they have previously been told BY Royal Mail are changed because they aren't paying redundancy any more?

You think it's fair that people who have worked for the company for 10 years are being forced to do dog work while RM's new "20 hour" contract guys get the best duties, the easiest work, while the people who've worked their 10-20 years get shafted?

I could go on, that's just scratching the surface, I haven't touched on the equipment that we have to use, broken, damaged and dangerous, but I doubt anyone cares. We're the enemy as far as the public are concerned.

[Herbalizer]

Fair enough, that sounds rough. Apologies for my completely ignorant comment.

[Jebus]

Don't apologise mate, I don't blame people for feeling angry at us. I truly don't.

The reason most people feel that way is that the press have reported RM's side, and ONLY RM's side.

The last strikes a few years back were due to pay, they were. It's so much more this time, SO much more.

We don't want to go on strike, we can't afford it! However, our pay IS ****e.

I work 40 hours a week now, my wife works 30, I earn £50 more than her a MONTH.

However, we get by, but the other issues...So many of us now have real issues with childcare because our hours have gone back 45-60 minutes. We were just coping before, but now it's too much.

I don't want to whinge, because I'm lucky to have a job. I'd just like a job that equates to the year I live in, and not the 70s/80s.

Honestly, one day I'm going to record a day at work and give it to the papers, you've never heard language like it, racism like it, bigotry and homophobia like it.

It's dressed up as "banter" mind, so it's all ok!

One other thing though, I don't know where the opinion has come from that they have offered us a pay rise, because they haven't. We've actually had letters categorically telling us "You will not have a pay rise for the forseeable future".

[Jebus]

By the way, the issue with pay this time around is the fact they've said "NO PAY RISE" which reneges on a deal they made from the last strikes. Last time they agreed a rise with another rise after two years. They sent out the letters saying they wouldn't be honouring that second rise (in not so many words) which is how this animosity actually started.

However, every posty I've spoken to...it just isn't about money this time, it's about the things I mentioned earlier.

[Malc]

I'm in between going to college and starting a university course next year and need some spare money, so I was actually thinking of applying to the Royal Mail sorting office near where I live. The position is for a temporary christmas casual and would see me make a bit of money for presents for the family.

What's all this racism, homophobia stuff happening that you talk about Jebus?

[Jebus]

As long as you are white, normal height, weight, heterosexual and don't have anything "different" whatsoever mate, you'll be fine.