The truth behind the London Mail Centre plan

[belle smith]

Lounge Lizard dont believe the spin. Royal Mail undertake mail centre reviews in each of their regions. In the London Royal Mail region there are only 3 mail centrs and they are closing 2 and the one which is being kept open is reducing full time staffing by 55 %.

Royal Mail have chosen to announce to the media and other postal members that they are closing to close 2 of out seven to con people. The other mail centres Romford , Jubilee , Greenford and Croydon were never under any review as they were not in the London Region , they come under either the Eastern , South East and Thames Valley region.

If you don't want to reinforce the perception that RM want to portray with regard to just how many MC's there are in London you may want to reconsider doing what you suggested you's were considering in another thread.

In addition the union will look at Balloting Greenford , Romford , Jubbliee and Croydon.

[dvbuk55]

Agents provocateur - now you're talkin' tman............ be honest - is ladies underwear your secret vice? There's no shame in cross dressing..........in fact it could well be the answer to your frustrations.

Look out, Thing 2's arrived to save the day.........

C'mon tman, send us a piccie with your frillies on..........you tease......oh no wait a mo ...........t man is not tease man is it

[Martin Walsh]

Belle I disagree whats the point in balloting the London offices only ? If the majority of the work is going to those mail centres outside of London. It makes sense for them to be balloted to not do our work.

[dvbuk55]

If the amount of work can be accommodated by the other mail centres it would be an indication that there is a discrepancy in the manpower to workload, which is the crux of Royal Mails plan I would imagine. The question is what do you do with the excess workforce?

[belle smith]

maybe you can give me some areas where London posties are better treated then elsewere in the country in the last ten years(a couple would be nice)

Well since the agreement has been signed There have been NO WSM and delivery method revisions which have taken place in London.....I'm sure they will in due course.
The reason given is a lack of planners I don't believe that!

Now it is my perception that London is being left till last by RM because the union in London is strong.
The union in London don't want these revisions because they will be unpopular with their members, so they are happy for them to be delayed.

Tony i'm not in the habit of slagging of members in London, check my posts if you want.
But i do believe that London delivery posties are being protected from the worst asspects of this agreement for as long as possable, but ultimately they will come to you's as well.

Now if other areas, weaker areas agree to s**t revisions within the terms of the agreement, you's will not be able to secure somthing better for London, within the terms of the agreement. RM wont except it and will revert to type and push in delivery spans just as long as they want by EA if necesry.

That would be breaking the agreement but ordanary members througout the country wont give a flying f**k about technacratic arguments like that if whats being imposed on London delivery members is what has already been agreed for members outside London.

This is about local versus national agreement!

[belle smith]

Belle I disagree whats the point in balloting the London offices only ? If the majority of the work is going to those mail centres outside of London. It makes sense for them to be balloted to not do our work.

Okay fair point. Ultimately it's your call.
But if some CWU members already believe that there are 7MC's in London being reduced to 3. then what chance do you have of convincing the public that there are only 3 being reduced to 1?

[Glenno]

Now if other areas, weaker areas agree to s**t revisions within the terms of the agreement, you's will not be able to secure somthing better for London, within the terms of the agreement. RM wont except it and will revert to type and push in delivery spans just as long as they want by EA if necesry.

That would be breaking the agreement but ordanary members througout the country wont give a flying f**k about technacratic arguments like that if whats being imposed on London delivery members is what has already been agreed for members outside London.

This is about local versus national agreement!

[Martin Walsh]

Belle in terms of walk sequecing revisons we were close in deploying in West London (W2-14 ) and in Whetstone. We have walk sequecning machines in Stratford and Leytonstone and recently deployed in Whitechapel.

South West London will be getting machines over the next few weeks and South East over the next few months.

The rest of the deployment of machines are all dependent on the mail centre plan.

Now like I said we were close to deploying in W2-14 and Whetsone catchment area but the Mail Centre announcement means that all the work which was done to ensure the plan was correct will now have to be reviewed the reason being that W2-14 work is currently done from the Mount but in the next two months will be going to Greenford and the Whetstone offices will change from East London to the Mount.

I would not say we are being protected but Royal Mail see a bigger prize and return is the selling off of Rathbone , part of the Mount and South London.

[belle smith]

Belle in terms of walk sequecing revisons we were close in deploying in West London (W2-14 ) and in Whetstone. We have walk sequecning machines in Stratford and Leytonstone and recently deployed in Whitechapel.

South West London will be getting machines over the next few weeks and South East over the next few months.

The rest of the deployment of machines are all dependent on the mail centre plan.

Now like I said we were close to deploying in W2-14 and Whetsone catchment area but the Mail Centre announcement means that all the work which was done to ensure the plan was correct will now have to be reviewed the reason being that W2-14 work is currently done from the Mount but in the next two months will be going to Greenford and the Whetstone offices will change from East London to the Mount.

I would not say we are being protected but Royal Mail see a bigger prize and return is the selling off of Rathbone , part of the Mount and South London.

If you were close to deploying wsm plus delivery methods revisions Then i stand corrected.

I could see why in light of the MC developments you would not be proceeding with those revisions, or even be engaging with RM on the agreement while they are acting outside it.

Out of intrest dingo how big were the delivery spans going to be in those offices close to deploying???
and are we talking 5 day weeks? only asking about this, to see a true reflection of size of deliveries, i really don't care what work patterns your members have.

PS. i appreciate this is off topic and is not about the MC plans in London.

[Martin Walsh]

In North London Whetstone there was an arguement about what time the work would get to their offices on the second wave , the delivery span indicator was saying the maximum span was 3. 40 but of course this would then be reduced by replisnement time and welfare breaks. The North London reps did not accept that this was correct and they believed that the work could get in earlier on the second wave.

In terms of the W2-14 offices it varied but 6 of the offices are all in one building outside of their catchment in NW10 then the spans took that into account. In terms of the other offices it did vary as did the attendance patterns.

[rockytony67]

maybe you can give me some areas where London posties are better treated then elsewere in the country in the last ten years(a couple would be nice)

Well since the agreement has been signed There have been NO WSM and delivery method revisions which have taken place in London.....I'm sure they will in due course.
The reason given is a lack of planners I don't believe that!

Now it is my perception that London is being left till last by RM because the union in London is strong.
The union in London don't want these revisions because they will be unpopular with their members, so they are happy for them to be delayed.

Tony i'm not in the habit of slagging of members in London, check my posts if you want.
But i do believe that London delivery posties are being protected from the worst asspects of this agreement for as long as possable, but ultimately they will come to you's as well.

Now if other areas, weaker areas agree to s**t revisions within the terms of the agreement, you's will not be able to secure somthing better for London, within the terms of the agreement. RM wont except it and will revert to type and push in delivery spans just as long as they want by EA if necesry.

That would be breaking the agreement but ordanary members througout the country wont give a flying f**k about technacratic arguments like that if whats being imposed on London delivery members is what has already been agreed for members outside London.

This is about local versus national agreement!

You make a good post Belle, but I can't belive that offices have signed up for these s**t revisions, our office went into a revison last August, at the moment we are on phase 2, we had a meeting last week and refused to sign off phase 3, the reason is the plan will not work, the planner started crying and saying the busness is running out of money(we do have planners in London ) we picked him to pieces, these people do not have a clue, the one area were London has been lucky is that a lot of the revision's that have happened have been shambles, so they are fightened of implementing revision's that won't work, they did one in SE1 I think and the press slaughtered them, the feeling in my office is if you want to implement a revison by EA(that's a long way off) do it but as I say to my planner "if it's a disaster you can't say you weren't told and don't come to us to put it right"

[belle smith]

In North London Whetstone there was an arguement about what time the work would get to their offices on the second wave , the delivery span indicator was saying the maximum span was 3. 40 but of course this would then be reduced by replisnement time and welfare breaks. The North London reps did not accept that this was correct and they believed that the work could get in earlier on the second wave.

In terms of the W2-14 offices it varied but 6 of the offices are all in one building outside of their catchment in NW10 then the spans took that into account. In terms of the other offices it did vary as did the attendance patterns.

Thanks for the answer 3hr40mins is a lot less than most offices have got.
Have i read that wrong our were the reps arguing for bigger deliveries? or were they arguing for earlier attendance times?

We have 4hr15mins, we also have 4 f/t indoor only duties which haven't been touched, in addition to that they are making an additional 3 p/t indoor only duties to sort and prep......If delivery spans are being made bigger because theirs less indoor work, why should that not effect the indoor staff at DO's why would we need more indoor staff? We don't RM just want deliveries as big as possable.

I know we shouldn't have agreed to this but i didn't. when i ask the rep he doesn't have an answer, the area rep doesn't come near our office and most of the members would have voted for anthing just to get their lump sum before Christmas.

Reading this site our office is far from the worst, there is another thread someone has started were they have 4hr45min spans! that can't be done by most members for any length of time.

[drevil1969uk]

Belle I disagree whats the point in balloting the London offices only ? If the majority of the work is going to those mail centres outside of London. It makes sense for them to be balloted to not do our work.

Whats the point they will do the work anyway as its been clearlt shown on here no one gives a toss about there collegues in London losing there jobs

If the amount of work can be accommodated by the other mail centres it would be an indication that there is a discrepancy in the manpower to workload, which is the crux of Royal Mails plan I would imagine. The question is what do you do with the excess workforce?

As stated before the figures used by managers at our meeting were figures that were about 30% of the workload that actually got processed in some shifts on some nights, suppose dont matter we can get casuals in, long term royal mail great isnt it. By the way we already use loads of casuals.

[belle smith]

You make a good post Belle, but I can't belive that offices have signed up for these s**t revisions, our office went into a revison last August, at the moment we are on phase 2, we had a meeting last week and refused to sign off phase 3, the reason is the plan will not work, the planner started crying and saying the busness is running out of money(we do have planners in London ) we picked him to pieces, these people do not have a clue, the one area were London has been lucky is that a lot of the revision's that have happened have been shambles, so they are fightened of implementing revision's that won't work, they did one in SE1 I think and the press slaughtered them, the feeling in my office is if you want to implement a revison by EA(that's a long way off) do it but as I say to my planner "if it's a disaster you can't say you weren't told and don't come to us to put it right"

Our planner who f****d up or office is now the one charged with fixing it. even though it's been a total failure, he's adament that his plans are fine.
Why he hasn't been told to go out and try and do one of his delivieries in practice i don't know. But i can't make him.

[S6 Stroller]

You can fight all day long dingo, royal mail will win in the end, as they do all the time. Who would ever believe we are delivering door to doors for nothing.

Brilliant. Just bend over and take it. FFS!! There aren't many times I have anything good to say about the French but at least they stand up and fight.