re: [Update] The Royal Mail strike thread
 

Ain't that the truth.

re: [Update] The Royal Mail strike thread
 

I imagine theirs is mostly based on RM, which is why they're peed off beyond the chill pill.

re: [Update] The Royal Mail strike thread
 

Which is the very reason a "chill pill" is useless for me.

re: [Update] The Royal Mail strike thread
 

I think Zrbyte said earlier they have done that, to no effect, so the strike is the next (regrettable, presumably) move.

re: [Update] The Royal Mail strike thread
 

Way to go Royal Mail. Just the way to get the communication lines open; call your work force lazy. That'll go down well at the negotiation table, won't it.

re: [Update] The Royal Mail strike thread
 

Way to go Flyboy, completely dodge the rather important and shocking issues jamie has posted.

Honestly, how did this lot survive Thatcher? The CWU really is carrying on as if it's still the 1970s. How can anyone think it unacceptable to work the hours they're contracted and paid for?! And demarcation lines for pity's sake. This lot really aren't living in the real world. It's contemptible.

re: [Update] The Royal Mail strike thread
 

If I recall correctly the issue of certain post deliverymen/women (you'll notice that this is peculiar to some "units in London") finishing their runs early was flagged up / part of the deliberations in the 2007 dispute.

They are delivery postmen, not "sorters" or some other element of the RM, they do the job they were contracted to do. The fact that Royal Mail management, in defiance of the wishes of the majority of their workforce and indeed almost all of their UK customer base, decided that there should only be one mail delivery (carried out by delivery postmen) per day as opposed to the previous twice daily deliveries (carried out by delivery postmen) is an issue for Royal Mail management.

Delivery postmen deliver post (the clue is in the job title). If their employer prevents them from doing so then that is their employers fault, not theirs.

There you go on the anti union rant again. I don't know what you work at Chris but there are demarcation lines in every walk of business. For example does your company boss clean the toilets, or do the photocopying, or deal with the post?

Consider this. What if you elected to ignore the demarcation lines in your work which effectively protect your job, what if a colleague began doing your work along with their own and your boss picked up on this and thought, "Hey, I've just noticed that such and such seems to be quite capable of multitasking and doing his job and Chris's job, why are we employing Chris?

Given the current economic climate demarcation lines in the form of job descriptions are the very thin line between many people still being in a job and not having enough time to spend on the internet union bashing.

As such I wouldn't be so quick to knock them.

re: [Update] The Royal Mail strike thread
 

Great. So who can I strike against?

re: [Update] The Royal Mail strike thread
 

I'd need more info Russ.

Firstly, who do you work for?

Do you have a legitimate grievance against them?

Are you a member of legally constituted trade union whose representatives have been democratically elected to represent you?

Is your job under threat by an expectation of multi tasking or the introduction of a lower paid, lower skilled or part-time based workforce?

Has your employer sought to make major changes in the terms and conditions of your contract of employment which you or your union might perceive to be detrimental to you, your health, your work life balance or your standard of living?

That type of stuff would help.

re: [Update] The Royal Mail strike thread
 

I'm working for myself. It's mail order related, most of my incoming and outgoing mail is in envelope form. At the moment I'm getting by just using stamps but I'm looking at getting a RM business account and forking out for a 'franking' machine. To justify that cost I need to be sure of a business plan which I'm tentatively working out.

Although bad the economy isn't affecting my trade directly but the RM would really screw up my projected growth. It's hard enough selling the idea of small businesses to people when I have major league competition but all it would take is delivery delays to take longer (even asking people to be patient during the strikes doesn't work - most people want things NOW or they go elsewhere) and potential customers give up and take their business elsewhere.

I need a delivery service I can rely on. It should be the RM but I'm not fussy, I'll pay anyone to deliver my mail and have orders brought to me, this is why I'm more than happy for the RM to have competition if they won't do the job they're supposed to do.

re: [Update] The Royal Mail strike thread
 

As it happens, I am currently a statistic, but that's par for the course when you specialise in short-term contract work. But I have worked in plenty of offices and for more than one FTSE-100 outfit - one, in particular, where both the CEO and COO had a real bugbear about voicemail and phones ringing out, and used to lead by example by answering random desk phones if he happened to be passing while they were ringing and being ignored. I got a callback message on a post-it from one of them once.

I have been called upon and have been happy to take on all sorts of tasks that were not part of my core job description over the years, becauseI have always seen myself as an employee of company X rather than simply a person who does job Y.

I appreciate the general point you're making about demarcation lines, but I think - I hope - you and I both know that there's a difference between taking reasonable steps to safeguard your job, and taking extreme measures to avoid having to lift a finger and do something productive.

re: [Update] The Royal Mail strike thread
 

Way to go CWU - see mail volumes plummet because the service your members provide isn't what it should be but carry on regardless, living in the past and biting the hand that feeds you. That'll go down well in the middle of a recession won't it... :rolleyes:

re: [Update] The Royal Mail strike thread
 

Given the competitive growth in the mail / parcel delivery service sector and the fact that you're not fussy about who performs this element of your business then perhaps you should do as you suggest and consider one of the alternatives to RM.

In essence, if your business plan projections don't hold much faith in the service levels offered by RM then perhaps exploring the possibility of a service level agreement with an alternate provider is the answer.

That said, if your business is operated through a service provider / middleman such as ebay you might want to consider an alternative to that as they are moving towards a "no postage fee" model in many categories.

Given the current economic climate vendors who are active in these categories and unable to absorb / offset these losses effectively - without passing the costs on to their customers - will undoubtedly falter or fail.

Without wishing to sound like a merchant of doom - and good / reliable postage services aside - the days of smaller mail order startup business thriving in an online environment such as ebay are numbered.

That's exactly how they'd like it.

re: [Update] The Royal Mail strike thread
 

At the moment I don't have an alternative to RM. For the forseeable future (12 months) I'm going to be relying on customers sending me items via 1st or second class mail and me using the same service back. Nobody else does simple door-to-door delivery of mail at that level. You're right that I don't care who takes care of the mail. This is why my attitude is if the RM workers won't do the job I'll happily pay someone else in their place.

It's also why they'll never get one iota of sympathy from me. The worst thing is if my business goes under as a result of orders being lost or delayed, there's not a single thing I can do about it.

re: [Update] The Royal Mail strike thread
 

Since your location is cockney geezer land I take it that means London, London have been striking on and off for several months on a completely unrelated issue. Because of this I could understand why you would be sick of this and why it seems never ending for you. My office and most others haven't been on strike since that 4 or 5 day fiasco about 18 months ago. And even now the vote was treated very seriously in my office though I think ours was a bit below the average with only half in favour (though still the majority).
And you do realise after the modernisation RM are going to try again on the privatisation of the mail system. When that happens domestic deliveries become optional. With RM being the only company really interested in doing it anywhere but big cities you may find you wont have a delivery any more (at least not daily).

---------- Post added at 11:59 ---------- Previous post was at 11:47 ----------

And how does ranting on a forum or screaming at the postman in the street any more effective?