Way forward agreement and implications....

[DirtyHarry]

I've said all that I'm going to say on this subject.
Some people are just never ever going to learn.
I won't ever cross a picket line, but I will never fully support the CWU top brass, especially as their last in an increasing line of betrayal of their members is still fresh in my mind.
I will however, try to keep the 'I told you so' posts to a minimum.

[Martin Walsh]

Those who said that striking does not work and the CWU have gained things from the disputes are clearly wrong.

However expectations of what the union can achieve are often wrong also. The union cannot veto change , we cannot veto automation , we cannot veto the fact that since DSA came in the competitors have now control of 60% of the upstream market and there have significantly reduced Royal Mail's revenue. Additionally the union cannot argue that they want OPGs to work all their paid hours or that they have a USO which has to be delivered 6 days a week including Saturdays which meant that many had to work later.

But a give you just a few examples of what striking achieved since I came into th job.

1 The Dras Dispute 1988 when Royal Mail wanted to introduce regional pay bargaining due to some areas having recruitment and rentention issues. We were all out for 2 weeks National and with some of us 3. We retained national pay bargaining which everyone benefits from today along with pay rises. In addition Royal Mail get a RRIS payment to those areas in the U.K. Where it was difficult to recruit. All those areas still receive that RRIS payment today even thou there are no recuritment or rentention issues. Plus in London we had £13.87 for inner and £16.31 which was consolidated into London Weighting in 2003 and goes up with pay rises.

In 1996 we defeated team working , no finishing times and individual appraisals , individual performance standards monthly pay etc which led to the Way Forward agreement.

In 2003 the National union got a no vote for strike action over the removal of the second delivery. Royal
Mail said the world had changed and wanted significant change in working practices. London got a yes vote for strike action over London Weighting and after two days of strikes it ended up in unofficial action which spread to Southend , Warrington , Coventry , and a number of other areas which was the biggest unofficial strike action since the miners we were out for two weeks. It got the union back in negotiation and achieved a two year pay deal plus a £26.28 payment into your basic pay which you still receive today and introduced the 5 day week.

In 2007 Royal Mail produce a pay offer with as the postcards and placards said back than had more strings than a violin orchestra. It included monthly pay , on block later starts , door to door into work load without payment , Delivery staff having no finishing staff plus Crozier said we were 40% less efficient and 40% overpaid. On top of this they wanted to end the final salary scheme.

We had 8 days of strike action and some of us were out unofficially when they introduced later starts based on the network change by executive.

The union. Stopped most of those changes and got a 3 year pay deal. Plus 2 £400 payments based on introducing local flexibility arrangements. Additionally whilst we did not protect the final salary scheme we did protect that all service you had worked would still be based on your final salary when you retire which added 1.6 billion to the pension pot ! That was not on the table when Royal Mail put their proposal.

In 2009 there were wide spread local disputes over Royal Mail taking executive action to introduce later starts and unacceptable job cuts. Royal Mail had stated that the company wanted more part timers and Saturdays as a normal days . The agreement the union got meant big change but agreed an inflation busting 3 year pay deal , £1000 lump sum for revision change and a delivery supplement which is paid when you are sick and on leave and goes up with pay rises it now stands at £23.98. The old style D2D arrangement would never have continued.

In 2012 we balloted and every Branch in the UK got a yes vote but we did not need it as we secured an agreement which is seen as groundbreaking and has stopped outsourcing, franchising , a two tier workforce or the break up of the company . This stopped What has happened in all other privitased industries look at BT call centres around the world , agency staff in their thousands , people joining on less conditions, the franchiseing of shops etc and the break up of the company open reach , BT global etc .

Even now Moyà now wants her own uber style workforce on less than the basic wage less than the SA and overtime rate.

So Dirty Harry you ask what we gained and I have laid it out for you. Yes work is harder but it was always going to be.

Remember if you fight you might lose but if your don't fight you will always lose !

[Tman]

"There's none so blind...." eh Dingo?

[DirtyHarry]

I asked when was the last time we went on strike and won improvements to our terms and conditions of work.
Your reply, Dingo, only confirmed what I thought, and that it was a bloody long time ago.
A few more pounds in people's pockets is the very least we should expect our union to fight for, but not in return for increased workloads every bloody time.
Saturdays. Today, I will not see my home again until well after 3.00pm. Won't be able to make a 3.00pm kick-off at any one of 3 football clubs playing on my manor. Might just as well be a shopworker.
Making Saturday a normal working day should have been a non-starter, especially as those most eager for it to happen, would themselves never bear the brunt of it.
More importantly, the ever increasing workload, this has undeniably had a detrimental effect on the health and wellbeing of thousands of postmen/women, including myself. It's not right, it shouldn't be happening on the scale it is, and crucially, should never have been allowed to happen in the first place.
Our terms and conditions need improving, no matter how you dress it up, Dingo.
By the way, sure glad that Tman is in your corner and not mine, otherwise I'd be wondering just where the hell I was going wrong.

[Tman]

Dirty, it's very flattering that you put so much store by what I think, but you must have realised by now that there's bigger issues to concern yourself with? Constant whining about the union helps no-one, so either get on and leave, or stand for the rep's job yourself if you know better ways to do things.
Not doing either? Thought not...

[osgoody1970]

hear hear, I had plenty of arguments when I was a rep, the union are shite, etc etc, "well you stand then and make it better" soon shut them up!!!!

[vmaxv4]

Brings back good memories of those days..
Anything you can remember between "the great strike of 1971" to 1988..