I hoped for considered responses from experienced posties, because I am still making up my mind. Before the word 'strike' started drifting through my office at the beginning of this month, I had no notion of such a level of general discontent. Sure there were changes underway in the office, and the management and union guys were holding regular meetings to get everyone thinking along the same lines, but striking?
So the question of strike, or don't strike, has been thrust upon my unsuspecting mind, and I'm in the middle of a process of trying to find out just what type of postman I really am, what I stand for, do I stand with the company or the union, am I really that serious about my job. As yet I'm not ready to make an honest decision, and if I did I would be listening to others and not to myself. I think I need time, but also I need the considered views of posties who know the job and the history of the fight between company and union. If I really didn't care, then I wouldn't bother coming to this website to search for answers.
My aim is to paint a broad picture of both my background and the rationale behind my thoughts on the strike. I want to give as much material (or ammunition, if you like) as I can to anyone reading my posts, so that ideally they will have to give my posts some thought before replying with their own considered views.
By asking me to side with the union, then you are asking me to break faith with the company, a company I have no real personal gripe with. To me that is a serious decision, and not one that I will take lightly, because it will lead me down a path of long-term industrial action. Many of you who have shared your thoughts with me are already way down that road and are well ahead of me in forming your views about the company, plus you have a much stronger bond with the company, which is kind of ironic. Ironic, because perhaps that is a criticism that is being laid at my door, but really I am taking neither side. I'm sorry I have made a few of you defend your support for the company itself and what you believe it (ought to) stand for, I am starting to see that it's possible that some or many may be striking from a position of wanting to save the company. That then would make your strike even more difficult, because actually (as both sides concur) you are harming the company through doing so (which is one reason that is holding me back). If indeed the majority (or better, all) of those on strike are doing so for the sake of the company, and the company management is failing to see this, then shame on the company for treating its employees in this way and not heeding their concerns. But this is probably not the case, and as the union members mistrust the company management, I'm sure it would only be fair if the company management felt it their right to be sceptical about the union's motives. I think that a lot of the public are also sceptical of the true beliefs and values of those going on strike, but that says more about the breakdown of society than it does about the public's views on the strike. Yet as the backlog piles up, the public will be tested, we all will, and the truth may be revealed as to the real motives driving the arguments for and against. Some people say that in a war there are no true winners, only those that have lost the least.
Don't say that because of my beliefs and actions I don't care. I am deeply troubled, and that shows something of the pride and respect I already have for the job. 'If I really cared for the job, I would be striking' - some have said. I'm not so sure. This strike period is more of a learning curve for me. If I could get off the bus, I would, but I'm afraid that as long as I remain an employee of Royal Mail then I'm in for a very bumpy ride in seasons to come. Perhaps there is a third way (am I dreaming, it is after 11pm?), a way that suits neither the company or the union. Perhaps if I just try my best, that being all I can do and feel entitled to do, then neither side can touch me. So, at the end of the day, I've done my job, they've done theirs, and we move on from there to tomorrow, and if that's not good enough then something changes, e.g. them, me, or the job, until momentum is regained. Then the 'bigger picture' takes in the view that in order to move on and retain momentum all the cogs in the machine have to turn freely, the big and the small, all cogs being vital to the success of the mission, which is to serve those who use the machine (yawn). I hope that the machine in operation today is not consigned to a museum of the future, which is what not a few members on this site are forecasting will happen if the union does not win this fight. I hope that the machine (the one presently stalled and sitting by the wayside) develops on into the future and continues providing work for its members and a service for its users, that indeed history is being made, and that in the museum will be not a thing of the past but merely a stage in the development of the place we call Work.
Hope. That's what I'm doing. I don't want Saturday to come. By going to work I will not be making a statement, I will just be... going to work. The story accompanying the exhibit at the museum, of when the posties went on strike and (who knows what?) will not feature me, because I'm not playing a part in it. I will go unnoticed, hopefully, on Saturday
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how interesting
