[Update] The Royal Mail strike thread

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Chris

Our postie was out and about this morning, same as last week.

Same here - it'll be interesting to see what the situation is early next week.

Yes it is funny that despite the union saying the membership are fully behind these strikes that so many of them are not taking part in them. Makes you wonder what else the union is being less then truthful on.

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by wordfromdamuvva

Am I right in thinking they have a backup workforce? Why not just give them permanent jobs rather than let them all go when the 'real' workers get a deal they are happy with? I don't think this is a time to be demanding things! They have a job and are still unhappy... sack the strikers I say - give their jobs to people will be happy with what they get. Anyone agree with me??

no its a stupid idea

[Ignitionnet]

Well I received post today, 3:45pm but it was here.

Also from that Guardian Royal Mail link there's a ray of hope:

But the majority, it must be said, do not play games or try to dodge work, though they are working for the minimum wage in a job with no future.

[papa smurf]

Your letter is in the cab: Royal Mail bosses beat strike using taxis as Christmas chaos looms

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz0VLVyxEHv

[Hom3r]

More misery

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8333190.stm

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has announced two more strike days for Friday, 6 and Monday, 9 November.

Well i am even more glad that my inconvinience means they can have more long weekends and good on you RM for not letting striking workers sort out the backlog as they don't deserve to be paid to sort out a mess they made themselves.

[Flyboy]

Originally Posted by RizzyKing

Well i am supposed to be getting a hospital appointment through the post concerning a new treatment but i guess that will be delayed now as while my local posties are not striking the ones up the road are and thats where it's coming from. Maybe i am being selfish but this is affecting people very much and sorry but right now having a job is more important then having the perfect job.

You could always give them a call on the telephone. Or even send them an e-mail.

---------- Post added at 11:32 ---------- Previous post was at 11:26 ----------

Originally Posted by papa smurf

no its a stupid idea

Yes it is, it's a very stupid idea. Apart from being illegal, what will happen when we get the service as described by the article in the Guardian (see post #463).

Ooh, but wait a minute, you already know about it and still want a service like that. You're not hoping on buying any shares in the privatised company, are you?

[Osem]

Received my post about and hour ago - pretty much the usual time.

I would call them flyboy but my replacement mobile is in the process of being delivered GUESS WHO BY and as for emailing them the hospital are in the process of setting that up apparently and are working on it faster due to the current strike so right now i am screwed as i suspect many people are. Still i like the way i am meant to go out of my way to accomadate the strikers when they are clearly prepared to do the same for us arn't they.

Also if as they say this is all about this deal in 2007 how has it taken so long for it to become a hot potato worth striking about come xmas time 2009 and always in a way that gets nice long weekends how about some midweek strikes that mean they arn't finished for the week on a wednesday.

Face it this time they do not have public support in fact they are angering a large percentage of the public who are more and more getting to the point they wouldn't care if RM did sack the lot of them working really well for them isn't it .

[Stuart]

I still believe the strikers are shooting themselves in the foot.

OK, if they believe Mandelsson (or anyone else in the government) is engineering the strike, why give the government what they believe it wants? Assuming the government is doing this (officially or unofficially), they will have a reason they want to do this. That reason may well be that they want to fully privatise or sell the post office. Any new management is going to work hard to keep the unions out if they think they are going to cause trouble.

Also, the customers will eventually move on to other forms of distribution, which will lose the PO money, and will therefore lead to redundancies. It don't doubt that at least some of those threatened with redundancy will be union members. If those customers turn out to be large companies (like, say, Amazon, Dabs or BT) then those losses will be significant and cause a significant number of redundancies.

As for the complaints about increased levels of work. Well, I am not entirely sympathetic there. My department is currently dealing with a record number of queries (an order of magnitude greater than what is normal) and with less than half the staff we actually need, and they have cut ALL overtime, And, yes, I do work in the public sector and count myself lucky I have a job.

Originally Posted by wordfromdamuvva

Am I right in thinking they have a backup workforce? Why not just give them permanent jobs rather than let them all go when the 'real' workers get a deal they are happy with? I don't think this is a time to be demanding things! They have a job and are still unhappy... sack the strikers I say - give their jobs to people will be happy with what they get. Anyone agree with me??

While I respect your opinion I do not agree.
Why do we not all work 80+ hour weeks for £2.50 per hour because after all, these are hard times, and hey, atleast we have a job!
The royal mail are obviously not short of money, looking at their recent actions, taxi's for scabs etc.
The guys pay their union subs they're entitled to their rights.
Rizzi, can the hospital not find other ways of delivering your appointment card? plenty of private couriers out there.
If the Royal Mail want the Backlog cleared they should pay them the going rate regardless of the action.
Or the Posties could just work their normal hours which will mean longer to clear the backlog.
If I work overtime I like to be paid for it.

I am with RM on this though why pay the same people that caused the backlog more money then they would have got if they kept working to clear up a problem they chose to create. I would rather it took longer to clear the backlog and no overtime was given to one of the striking posties then have my phone quicker by paying a striker. I am unemployed well disabled and unable to work so my view on people striking in jobs is perhaps biased as i would dearly love to work again.

But everyone i know that works has heard what the posties are striking for and generally the same answer keeps coming from them which is "welcome to the real world". This strike action is not going to get what the union wants simple as because not even all the membership of the union is striking therefore clearly it doesn't enjoy complete support from all postal workers so it's doomed from the start. All they are doing is turning the public against them and creating anger which is also the opposite of what you want with strike action.

If i were RM being honest the next time there are redundancies to be made it would be strikers names right up there on the top of the list to go i really don't see how this strike is gaining anything positive for anyone.

[Flyboy]

Originally Posted by RizzyKing

I would call them flyboy but my replacement mobile is in the process of being delivered GUESS WHO BY and as for emailing them the hospital are in the process of setting that up apparently and are working on it faster due to the current strike so right now i am screwed as i suspect many people are. Still i like the way i am meant to go out of my way to accomadate the strikers when they are clearly prepared to do the same for us arn't they.

Also if as they say this is all about this deal in 2007 how has it taken so long for it to become a hot potato worth striking about come xmas time 2009 and always in a way that gets nice long weekends how about some midweek strikes that mean they arn't finished for the week on a wednesday.

Face it this time they do not have public support in fact they are angering a large percentage of the public who are more and more getting to the point they wouldn't care if RM did sack the lot of them working really well for them isn't it .

Why not use your land-line? I would have thought that would have made me sense. Hospital have e-mail, everyone in the NHS (those that carry out administrative roles and higher) has an e-mail address. If things are that desperate, I'm pretty sure you can e-mail the doctor's secretary.

[webcrawler2050]

Originally Posted by arcamalpha2004

While I respect your opinion I do not agree.
Why do we not all work 80+ hour weeks for £2.50 per hour because after all, these are hard times, and hey, atleast we have a job!
The royal mail are obviously not short of money, looking at their recent actions, taxi's for scabs etc.
The guys pay their union subs they're entitled to their rights.
Rizzi, can the hospital not find other ways of delivering your appointment card? plenty of private couriers out there.
If the Royal Mail want the Backlog cleared they should pay them the going rate regardless of the action.
Or the Posties could just work their normal hours which will mean longer to clear the backlog.
If I work overtime I like to be paid for it.

Damm straight you are lucky to have a job. I know people in the job centre, who would kill to have a job and they wouldnt care. The fact they are in work would be an achievment to them.

Atleast you have a job. I think your being a tad over the top there, if your working for that, then your just not all there, it's against the law. So report it. #

Re: the hospital apointment, why should the NHS of all people, WASTE vital cash on a "private" delivery firm, which could be used to treat somebody?

Jesus.. I am with RM of this one aswell. Why should you be paid anymore to clear the backlog you created? I mean, what the HELL?!?!?!

Talks arnt gonna happen properly as it seems RM are sticking to their guns. I think, all the VM employees should be dismissed and temps taking on through an agency..