http://www.zero-books.net/books/scratching-surface
Since 2000, there has been an ideologically driven experiment carried out in the UK to change the postal service provided by Royal Mail, to one beholden to the mantra of competition, profit and privatisation.
This is the story of those in the frontline of change.
Scratching The Surface - A candid look inside the Royal Mail
Introduction
It can’t be all bad news, can it ?
For at least the last 13 years in one way or another Royal Mail has been a company receiving more attention than it would ideally wish for. Most of it has not been of a positive nature, but no matter the headlines kept rolling in with the same old lazy narrative of worker/management conflict, a public sector behemoth incapable of change and a general public left understandably wondering whether the best position to adopt was to assume a “plague on both your houses.”
Industrial conflict between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union who represent non managerial postal staff, has been ongoing both above and below the radar for some considerable time. Every couple of years or so for the last decade and a bit, national strikes break out and the TV cameras are out in force to visit local picket lines.
Thankfully, the natural inclination of the public – conflict or no conflict - is to assume that this much loved national treasure is full of good people (it is, by the way) going about their daily business in ensuring the mail is delivered in time and on time. How many times have we seen on our television screens footage of Posties out in all weathers , braving the elements to ensure the mail gets through ?
The many stories of postal staff going the extra mile to help people on their delivery rounds is something genuinely special and the rapport between customer and employee built up over many years is something that cannot and should not have a price put on it.
And yet, whilst it is possible to write page after page of the good that Royal Mail does thanks to its workforce, something is missing from the narrative that the public get. Something that is rarely spoken about but which causes untold anguish and upset year after year after year.
If it is a truism that a workforce is a company’s most precious asset, then one has to wonder just why conflict keeps breaking out as it has done over the last 13 years or so and, more importantly, why the workforce keep engaging in strike action by voting in large numbers to do so and why, on occasions there are unofficial strikes with postal staff simply walking out of their workplaces in response to an action or perceived injustice by Royal Mail. Are these people mad ? Are they just being led by a trade union that simply will not wake up to the reality that employers have a tough time running their establishments and can do without people arguing the toss all the time ? Are they simply just living in a bubble unaware of what is happening elsewhere ?
Well, from the vantage point of someone who was deeply involved with the Communication Workers Union as a Branch Secretary for 11 years it never ceased to amaze me just how conflict ridden Royal Mail was and is. If there was a way to get people’s backs up, Royal Mail are still arguably, the masters.