We want to make a point without disrupting

[MAILMAN84]

I mean what is the union thinking?

We want people to know were not happy but don't wanna disrupt the mail too much. RM don't care, don't give a cr*p so lets just walk until they do. We aren't cattle and we all need the money but I don't see why we should strike on a Monday and work 4 hours overtime on Tuesday (or rather the managers cut deals with some of the backshift guys on the sly). We're on strike on Monday, isnt that a bank holiday. WTF?

I could do without all the angry rants I get when I return from customers who think we're being greedy. After all, every paper report I've read makes us think we're the baddies. The posties wont agree to modernisation after we received a bonus for it. They dont mention our office brought in 10 managers to stand at our frames and count our prep rate

[MAILMAN84]

War this doesnt exist as there are always the 4 or 5 peeps who either a) don't follow the rules or b) are too soft to say no

[bogstandard]

War this doesnt exist as there are always the 4 or 5 peeps who either a) don't follow the rules or b) are too soft to say no

you can't odds the scum who don't follow the rules mailman84 and i fully appreciate the frustration you experiance, although those who you feel are too soft could possibly do with yours and your colleagues support who are not so soft.
If i take a leap of faith here and assume that those soft touches just want to do their bit and go home, offer some support, they dont want confrontation.
set up a network where the office is covered with "caring eyes" if you like, and no one is on their own. Make it known to all that those who want support will have it, shoud the require it.

[andy2007]

But he does have an excellent point, about preventing it happening in the first place. If we simply went out, and stayed out. There wouldn't be anyone in to do the overtime, to remove the backlog.

It will also mean that the Strtikes wouldn't go on for as long if we created a backlog more quickly, and maintained it. Just look at what happened in 2007. We had months of staggered Strikes, which created a backlog. But it took so long to build up, that by the time it did. It'd caused considerable problems for the Public, for a long time. Surely it's better to hit hard and fast. Try to get it over with quickly, isn't it?

[krussel]

There are both good and bad points to both sides. Your going to lose money anyway but with an all out strike it will put much more pressure on getting peolple round a table to work out a solution.

After a heated talk with an old friend whom has always worked in an office i doubt we will get much public support anyway. Lisening to him talk was almost like we are back in the Thatcher years of "one for all and weakest to the wall" culture. One of the problems with public understanding is the lack of loyalty with any Employer in the private sector with people changing their jobs as soon as a better deal turns up. Thus they cannot understand why we wont except extreme changes now whilst in a recession when they would take almost any deal offered spend the money then leave as soon as the job market picks up. For some strange reason we seem to stick with it and so end up carrying the can ie: way forward agreement

Maybe there is simply more choice (money) and options of employment in white collar industries but they really don’t get striking at all as they see it as outdated.

As for our business customers go I don’t want to see firms suffer or loose clients etc . However we have had the word COMPETITION stuffed down our necks for the last few years so it might be interesting how they cope without us for a week

[jockstrapp]

Please tell me why we are worrying about what the public think. Half of them don't give a feck about us so if they don't get their mail for a few days then tough.

[lekker]

MAILMAN84 mentions the managers monitoring the prep rate. We have had the same thing and although there is actually no agreed prep rate it appears RM think you can prep a constant 25 items per minute on a prep 2000 frame. If you fall below this rate you are working too slowly and are threatened with the conduct code. You might kick off at 25 doing the walk sorted letters but as the frame fills up and you start inserting the flats, you don't have a hope in hell of achieving this figure. Also they seem to think the work miraculously appears at your frame all neat and tidy.

i don't reckon that on an average day you can achieve more than 10-15 items per minute and 15 is pushing it. I would like to see some of these smart-ar**d managers prep at the rate they now expect from us. These people live in cloud cuckoo land or maybe I'm wrong ? Tell me !

[DirtyHarry]

Jockstrap, ditto your post.

It really doesn't matter what the public thinks. What's happening to us, NOW, now that's what really matters.

[krussel]

Jockstrap, ditto your post.

It really doesn't matter what the public thinks. What's happening to us, NOW, now that's what really matters.

Yes thats true enough but at the end of the day they are our customers.
Also what they feel about things effects thier voting which make goverments listen and apply pressure to sort things out.

[DirtyHarry]

Jockstrap, ditto your post.

It really doesn't matter what the public thinks. What's happening to us, NOW, now that's what really matters.

Yes thats true enough but at the end of the day they are our customers.
Also what they feel about things effects thier voting which make goverments listen and apply pressure to sort things out.

I don't believe that British political parties actually listen to anyone outside of Westminster anymore. I do believe they pay a lot of lip service, but that's about all.
The British public is now a very selfish, greedy, beast. I would sooner do without it's support, at the very least, I wouldn't go out of my way to court it. Might have been a different matter 30 years ago, but not now.