Post workers: We have no choice
Friday 23rd October 2009, 11:30AM BST.
Postmen and women picketing delivery centres across the West Midlands today declared: “We have no choice.”
Staff from centres in towns across the region walked out, demanding changes to working conditions within Royal Mail.
Eighty people normally work at Wolverhampton’s North West Delivery Office in Dunstall Hill Industrial Estate. Most were on strike, although 25 crossed picket lines to go into work.
Gavin Woodward, of Perton, has been a postman for 22 years. The 43-year-old said today: “It is not about pay, it never has been, it is about working conditions.
“We want to offer a first class service to the public, we don’t want to let them down, but we don’t agree with the changes Royal Mail want to bring in.”
Sixty postmen work at the Oldbury delivery office in Bridge Street, where workers have been on the picket line since 5.30am.
David Callear, Communication Workers Union rep, said: “We don’t want to be striking but we’ve got absolutely no choice. We’re doing this for our future and the future of Royal Mail.
“We’ve got a lot of support. We were out yesterday working and most people said they could understand why we were doing it. There’s only one worker gone in today.” In Stafford, more than a dozen workers manned a picket outside the delivery office in Newport Road and 200 staff walked out. Only four went into work.
Staff were handing out leaflets to passers-by explaining the reasons for the strike and the picket received support from passing motorists.
“We are fighting for the future of the service. This is not about pay. If we don’t do something now Royal Mail will fail naturally on its own because of the changes they have brought in.
“In Stafford you used to get post delivered before 9.30am now we have a less reliable service and later deliveries, which are set to get even later next year. There has been a reduction in weekday postbox collections and no collections on Sundays and Bank Holidays.”
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From what I understand there was an agreement signed in 2007 (after the last strike!) that agreed to the introduction of mechanised practices by the end of 2008.
Those machines do two things. They sort the mail out for each individual postal worker. They then sort that posties’ round into the most efficient ‘walk round’ sequence.
Those two processes are currently done manually which is really inefficient.
The introduction of those machines would mean massive efficiency savings. The RM currently employs 190,000 people. Those machines might mean 10-20% less people were required.
The RM made around £57m profit on £6.7bn turnover in 2008, for a profit margin of less than one percent! In what other industry would that be acceptable? Certainly not in the manufacturing company I work at.
If those machines were introduced the result would be an efficient, profitable, sustainable Royal Mail, with profits reducing that ridiculous pension deficit.
Yes, jobs would be lost, but the RM would finally be profitable, efficient and sustainable going forward.
But oh no….we can’t do that. The solution is to strike. Must oppose change. Must oppose efficiency.
With attitudes like that, no wonder we’re in the mess we’re in.
Anyway….back to that agreement in 2007…..
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I don’t agree witht the postal workers. They don’t have it hard at all. When my husband was of working age he used to go into work for 7:00 a.m. and have to work until 7:00 p.m. – Do the postal workers work 12 hours shifts – I think not. They should think again about losing jobs – they are going the right away about it.
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First Class Service? Are they having a laugh? I remember when letters were delivered in the morning. Your monopoly is over, you may have just blown it, the likes of TNT et al are waiting in the wings. Sort yourselves out or pay the price of no jobs at all.
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Ok, they say they have no choice.
Thats fine.
Us people who used to post things, arrange deliveries and deal with companies also have no choice.
No choice but to use other methods than royal mail for getting payments made, contacting companies, delivering goods and sending invoices.
My main supplier sends 30,000 – 40,000 parcels a day through royal mail. Likely not for much longer.
The strike affects many other companies than royal mail. How many other workers in other companies have to lose their jobs due to the postal workers striking?
I for one expect a good chunk of the strikers are simply doing themselves out of a job as companies and individuals look at alternate methods of payment and delivery.
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What strike?had mail today earlier than normal ie before 4pm.But dont agree with temps delivering my mail with no criminal check
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Hmmm i can hear the knees jerking from here!
As the CWU have stated it is about conditions, particularly the bullying culture which is rife in RM management, i’ve been on the receiving end of it myself! Now if people cannot see that not only are they standing up for themselves but every other working class person in this country then they deserve to be forced into working 50 hour weeks, no unsocial hours premium, being abused by their managers, having THEIR pension stolen from them.
David you need to get your facts right mate, the IMPS RM bought are hopeless! they are 2nd hand rubbish from Mannesman who originally provided them to deutsche post who couldn’t get the things to work properly! hardly good business practice or forward thinking now is it?
Angela… get yourself one of the temp jobs going and THEN post your comment! Those practices are victorian, would you send kids up chimneys and down t’pit again? Why is it wrong to want to be treated fairly and with respect? The days of serfdom and cap doffing should be well and truly in the past!
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I have to say that I disagree with strikes. From what I understand the Post workers are complaining because they are being asked to leave the office at 7 instead of 6 and being asked to go back to the office when they have finished to collect any undelivered mail instead of the old days when they could go home after doing there round.
Time have moved on and Post men and women need to work for there money. When I was a younger person (only 10 years or so ago) I remember my parents got the post before I went to school. Now im lucky if the post is at home when I go home for lunch.
Stop Striking and start working.
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I think that the postal workers have had it ‘cushy’ for far too long and now things are changing and they have to work for a living they don’t like it, about time the Royal Mail got into the real world which they are trying to do lots of other industries have gone through the same process over recent years but have not got the media coverage the postal workers have. Welcome to the real world.
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FIRST CLASS SERVICE? WHY DO I GET MY MAIL AT AROUND 1 PM NOW? I USED TO HAVE IT AROUND 7.30 AM AND COULD DO ANY RELEVANT CORRESPONDANCE AT WORK IF NEEDED…CANT NOW CAN I YOU BONE IDLE SELFISH PEOPLE. IM LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE KEPT MY JOB, BUT MILLIONS DIDNT AND WOULD GLADLY TAKE YOUR JOBS
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Why can’t the public get behind their Posties and stop having a go at them over this strike. Over the past 40 years Royal Mail have made numerous agreements with the work force and broken them time after time and always at the cost of the service.No one ever wants to withdraw their labour but when you have a management like Royal Mail and a governement hell bent on selling the proffitable side of Royal Mail off to the highest bidder what else can Posties do? The result of a sell off will be a higher cost to post a letter (almost double )and THREE deliveries A WEEK. If thats what the public want then have a go at the strikers and support the RM management.
Remeember Crozier almost ruined the FA when he was in charge now he is doing the same to Royal Mail. Why is it that Mandleson told the CWU Leaders he had no faith in the Post Office Board? He and this Government want to sell part of it to recoup some money to help pay off some of the debt they have got the country into.
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well said Von-Funkenstein!!
the general public dont know the half of it
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people sitting in armchairs always think they have the right to judge. They are not in the position us postal workers in. There employers do not lie to them. There were certain promises made to us during the last strike which we voted to sign the agreement on. Royal mail have since taken back those promises.
Let us stand up for our rights. This strike will not last forever. royal mail will back down if not by choice then by government force.
Please be patient with this disruption and try to support us.
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I’m a postie,based in Cannock.People seem to think that TNT and other agencies are waiting in the wings to take over the mail,this is simply untrue,They want to deliver town centre post and businesses only.The general day to day mail is not cost effective to these companies,and they don’t actually WANT to deliver to Mr Smith,who lives at the bottom of the dirt track,and through two gates!!.The Royal Mail made £231 MILLION profit last year,and this is supposedly on the back of our antiquated outdated and inefficient working practices.
To those of you who think that we have it easy,perhaps they should try delivering upto six bags of mail and parcels weighing between 15 and 16 kilos(32lbs)each,with a time frame of four hours from start of shft to complete.
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you get your post at 1pm and later because the royal mail dont let the postmen/postwomen out until 9:30am of a morning. Then it can take upto 30 minutes to travel to where you have to post, and most rounds take 4 hours plus to complete!!
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Wee Willy. Ask yourself this. Why do you get your post at 1pm? Is this down to the union? NO, it’s down to the cuts in service the Royal Mail have implemented. This is also the reason that you will find so many pillar boxes full and overflowing. I’m a postie and feel passionately about my job. That job is to provide a service to my customers. A service that sadly is being eroded by Royal Mail’s ‘slash and burn’ policy. Yes, i’m on strike and apologise for any inconvenience caused but if it helps to restore Royal Mail to like it was when it was the pride of the mail industry, then surely it must be worth it. As mentioned in the article, to the average postie, this is not about pay but about cuts, cuts that are destroying a once great company.
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These new machines have not been used where i work , but still there has been a big revision in our office ,we have had five jobs taken out up to now. We have to do a lot more sorting first thing in the morning and , prior to the office revision ,they took out 18 night staff and we have to cover there jobs.Some walks have had at least 100 plus houses added to there job and with less time to do it in we have no chance of succeding.If we cant do on time we are bullied into working overtime and if we refuse overtime we are being threatened with “the conduct code” which can lead to the sack.There is now a lot of absenteism in our office due stress and injury through rushing around trying to complete our delivery on time , we should not have to work under these conditions .As for late mail its not the postmans fault how can you even think about blaming the postman.? We want to get out as early as possible but the managers wont let us. In our office we are held back to at least 9.45 10.00 am to wait for “missorts” from other offices, and even then some walks dont even get any. so please remember its NOT the posties fault its the MANAGMENT.Also where is ADAM CROZIER????????????????????????
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what will happen when TNT strike ? Nothing , nobody will notice. Royal mail deliver all the mail , just look in the top right hand corner where the stamp should be , its all uk mail , tnt or other postal services , but its only us the humble posties who trudge through all weather conditions to bring it to you doorstep. And what thanks do we get ? Those who moan the most please submit your address so we can discuss your comments in person….i think not…!!!!!
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To all the people complaining, do you all work in a perfect company where they look after your needs. I work in a media company where all the management are concerned about is costs and profits. They do not care about the customer or the employees.All they care is about is profits.
There used to a saying ‘a happy worker is a productive worker’. All that has disappeared.
All management are concerned about is profits.
They dont care about workers or customers.
Unfortunately, it not just the Royal Mail, its happening every where
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I’m an ex postie and CWU rep, i’m 100% behind you guys! the problems is society today is totally selfish, it’s all me me me me me! as we have seen from a lot of the posts over the past few days, what these idiots fail to realise is that you guys are pretty much the last bastion of brotherhood in the country when it comes to sticking up for the working classes. If the majority of whining idiots on here were to get involved in trade unionism the country would be a MUCH improved place!
No longer would we have a workforce terrified of being bullied at work, having any type of long-term career, the longest working week in europe combine with one of the worst standards of living, decent employee health facilities etc etc. modern companies just rape their workforce left right and centre, if it weren’t for this instant culture we have today there would have been no banking crisis. People complain about politics but NEVER actually do ANYTHING!!! these people do not deserve the vote, they are quick to moan but you try and get the lazy selfish good for nothings to contribute anything to society on an altruistic level and you get told to F off or are met with a blank look.
Keep the braziers stoked lads! :)
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I can sympathise with the PO workers, if they accept the management directions some will lose their jobs, if they take industrial action their customers will go elsewhere and again some will lose their jobs. A total lose/lose situation. The times they are a’changing and in the final analysis the jobs will go either way.
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As I have already stated and you can see by the responses above, the postal workers are now having to work for a living, just like the majority of people in this country. And finally you do have a choice, if your not happy then get out, simply!!!!!
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