saye v's union subs

[world class male]

personally on a local issue i now feel paying the union sub a complete waste of time, our area rep is in the managers pocket and refuses to address office issues,
he's not even based in our office anymore and just says he'll look into problems but never does anything, yet gets certain perks.
the saye paperwork hit my letterbox yesterday, my subs over the 3 years would cost me £500
toying with the idea of cancelling & putting it in this scheme and possibly make a couple of pounds or come out with my £500 in three years
i know the old guard will defend our union, i do try to, but over the past 2/3 years i see no use for them, no matter what, it seems our office is let down, no camaraderie anymore and every man for themselves and pull up the ladder
i feel our union is dead on its knees

[comeracing]

personally on a local issue i now feel paying the union sub a complete waste of time, our area rep is in the managers pocket and refuses to address office issues,
he's not even based in our office anymore and just says he'll look into problems but never does anything, yet gets certain perks.
the saye paperwork hit my letterbox yesterday, my subs over the 3 years would cost me £500
toying with the idea of cancelling & putting it in this scheme and possibly make a couple of pounds or come out with my £500 in three years
i know the old guard will defend our union, i do try to, but over the past 2/3 years i see no use for them, no matter what, it seems our office is let down, no camaraderie anymore and every man for themselves and pull up the ladder
i feel our union is dead on its knees

I feel our union is dead on its knees could not agree more,i had a dog bite 2 months ago,text union rep yesterday to chase my claim up,no response,i pay my subs for what ?

[PostieSP1]

The Union is weak but we'd still be worse off without them believe it or not!

[hans solo]

the union itself is not weak
those at the top are corrupt

[enskied]

It is us who are weak, we are the union.

it is not your rep or area rep at fault, it is us and the way we work with our own selfish interest and F**k the rest.
I always go Area rep it's the only way to highlight probs in an office..but even he is taken in by an compliant in retrospect Fem dom with ever so blue eyes.

[world class male]

the "union" IS its members, we are being alienated, in-fighting and we need support from the ever increasing b&h which is totally denied by our rep, he does zero to help.
i contacted head office a while since over a issue, no response of them either.

[dazzlin72]

The SAYE scheme seems a rip off to me, better to just increase your pension contributions by £10 week, that's what i'm looking to do.

[Martin Walsh]

The CWU is neither weak or corrupt !

My real concern is that some members maybe from poor communication or simply not wanting to believe that this industry is in a crisis that comes along to an industry perhaps every 100 years. The dock industry , the print industry , the mining industry and the car industry have seen similar periods which have changed those industries for ever.

Look at Royal Mail when I first started 30 years ago we had no competitors and there was no emails , no internet and no mobile phones.

Now 50% of Royal Mails upstream market which was the profitable part is now done by competitors including TNT. So less then 10 years 50% of the revenue has gone.

Stamp Mail is down and let's be clear the general public does not see posting letters as a significant part of their life's anymore. Advertising Mail has increased but most members don't see any benefit in the growth of d2d.

The growth in parcels market has great competition and Royal Mails technology is lagging behind all the others by years. Where the likes of Amazon and Asos want tracked and delivery to neighbour service we are lagging behind. Amazon want and are demanding going straight to delivery offices or inward Mail centres.

We have TNT who are taking 20% of the end to end market of offices where they are deployed and leaving Royal Mail have to serve areas which are more costly and remote whilst losing Mail in the high density area.

We have a regulator who is comparing us on cost when clearly we pay high wages and benefits.

Royal Mail are just cutting costs without any vision for the future hence the new strategy of going to one pass.

So I do think that maybe some of the membership do not realise the dire straights we are in and some are in offices which may have seen growth in some Mail streams.

Over an above this thou is things like MTSF review in January 2015 with Royal Mail want to reduce costs. Royal Mail have not grown as they predicted in the mails market and in fact they have lost significant Amazon traffic.

So it's very easy to criticise the CWU but we are dealing with both The regulator and Royal Mail who are under huge pressure to reduce cost.

There is no magic wand which cures the problems we face.in any other industry facing what we are facing we would have seen complusory redundancies , outsourcing of work , reductions in pay and allowances , more casuals and a two tier workforce.

Anyone who thinks they are better off outside of the CWU at the moment must be mad as we are on a roller coaster of various changes and demands.

[Danelectro]

The CWU is neither weak or corrupt !

My real concern is that some members maybe from poor communication or simply not wanting to believe that this industry is in a crisis that comes along to an industry perhaps every 100 years. The dock industry , the print industry , the mining industry and the car industry have seen similar periods which have changed those industries for ever.

Look at Royal Mail when I first started 30 years ago we had no competitors and there was no emails , no internet and no mobile phones.

Now 50% of Royal Mails upstream market which was the profitable part is now done by competitors including TNT. So less then 10 years 50% of the revenue has gone.

Stamp Mail is down and let's be clear the general public does not see posting letters as a significant part of their life's anymore. Advertising Mail has increased but most members don't see any benefit in the growth of d2d.

The growth in parcels market has great competition and Royal Mails technology is lagging behind all the others by years. Where the likes of Amazon and Asos want tracked and delivery to neighbour service we are lagging behind. Amazon want and are demanding going straight to delivery offices or inward Mail centres.

We have TNT who are taking 20% of the end to end market of offices where they are deployed and leaving Royal Mail have to serve areas which are more costly and remote whilst losing Mail in the high density area.

We have a regulator who is comparing us on cost when clearly we pay high wages and benefits.

Royal Mail are just cutting costs without any vision for the future hence the new strategy of going to one pass.

So I do think that maybe some of the membership do not realise the dire straights we are in and some are in offices which may have seen growth in some Mail streams.

Over an above this thou is things like MTSF review in January 2015 with Royal Mail want to reduce costs. Royal Mail have not grown as they predicted in the mails market and in fact they have lost significant Amazon traffic.

So it's very easy to criticise the CWU but we are dealing with both The regulator and Royal Mail who are under huge pressure to reduce cost.

There is no magic wand which cures the problems we face.in any other industry facing what we are facing we would have seen complusory redundancies , outsourcing of work , reductions in pay and allowances , more casuals and a two tier workforce.

Anyone who thinks they are better off outside of the CWU at the moment must be mad as we are on a roller coaster of various changes and demands.

Its a manufactured crisis which the party the CWU supports created.So ultimately the solution is a political one but backing a party that is ashamed to get money from working people isn't the best place to start.

Meanwhile the guy who began this thread didn't see the point of the union and I'm not sure the horror story you have painted has cleared things up for him or anybody else reading it. So how many jobs have to go then Dingo?

[world class male]

The CWU is neither weak or corrupt !

My real concern is that some members maybe from poor communication or simply not wanting to believe that this industry is in a crisis that comes along to an industry perhaps every 100 years. The dock industry , the print industry , the mining industry and the car industry have seen similar periods which have changed those industries for ever.

Look at Royal Mail when I first started 30 years ago we had no competitors and there was no emails , no internet and no mobile phones.

Now 50% of Royal Mails upstream market which was the profitable part is now done by competitors including TNT. So less then 10 years 50% of the revenue has gone.

Stamp Mail is down and let's be clear the general public does not see posting letters as a significant part of their life's anymore. Advertising Mail has increased but most members don't see any benefit in the growth of d2d.

The growth in parcels market has great competition and Royal Mails technology is lagging behind all the others by years. Where the likes of Amazon and Asos want tracked and delivery to neighbour service we are lagging behind. Amazon want and are demanding going straight to delivery offices or inward Mail centres.

We have TNT who are taking 20% of the end to end market of offices where they are deployed and leaving Royal Mail have to serve areas which are more costly and remote whilst losing Mail in the high density area.

We have a regulator who is comparing us on cost when clearly we pay high wages and benefits.

Royal Mail are just cutting costs without any vision for the future hence the new strategy of going to one pass.

So I do think that maybe some of the membership do not realise the dire straights we are in and some are in offices which may have seen growth in some Mail streams.

Over an above this thou is things like MTSF review in January 2015 with Royal Mail want to reduce costs. Royal Mail have not grown as they predicted in the mails market and in fact they have lost significant Amazon traffic.

So it's very easy to criticise the CWU but we are dealing with both The regulator and Royal Mail who are under huge pressure to reduce cost.

There is no magic wand which cures the problems we face.in any other industry facing what we are facing we would have seen complusory redundancies , outsourcing of work , reductions in pay and allowances , more casuals and a two tier workforce.

Anyone who thinks they are better off outside of the CWU at the moment must be mad as we are on a roller coaster of various changes and demands.

Its a manufactured crisis which the party the CWU supports created.So ultimately the solution is a political one but backing a party that is ashamed to get money from working people isn't the best place to start.

Meanwhile the guy who began this thread didn't see the point of the union and I'm not sure the horror story you have painted has cleared things up for him or anybody else reading it. So how many jobs have to go then Dingo?

I'm fed up of b&h which is reported to our area rep, but carries on,
we have management cutting hours & overtime to lapse more duties but then they are sorting frames and then delivering mail,
then when our staff inform them they cannot work over due to whatever reason, mainly the school run, they get aggressive,
i don't feel the need to explain my out of hours activities like some do to justify not having overtime forced on them,
i know their reasons in doing this, its for the office to be seen doing well to protect their own jobs, i can't stand it when they are on a higher wage and with bonuses stood next to me doing exactly the same job half the week,

I've informed our rep over issues several times and even went above him,nothing happened.
as far as i can see the cwu reps accept the management are doing nothing wrong in doing our jobs and i've got to live with it,
hence my post, £500 in saye or £500 in cwu

[tansorboy]

The SAYE scheme seems a rip off to me, better to just increase your pension contributions by £10 week, that's what i'm looking to do.

I have doubles my pensions contributions, which makes more economic sense, bit I am still paying my union subs.

[General Mannerheim]

The CWU is neither weak or corrupt !

My real concern is that some members maybe from poor communication or simply not wanting to believe that this industry is in a crisis that comes along to an industry perhaps every 100 years. The dock industry , the print industry , the mining industry and the car industry have seen similar periods which have changed those industries for ever.

Look at Royal Mail when I first started 30 years ago we had no competitors and there was no emails , no internet and no mobile phones.

Now 50% of Royal Mails upstream market which was the profitable part is now done by competitors including TNT. So less then 10 years 50% of the revenue has gone.

Stamp Mail is down and let's be clear the general public does not see posting letters as a significant part of their life's anymore. Advertising Mail has increased but most members don't see any benefit in the growth of d2d.

The growth in parcels market has great competition and Royal Mails technology is lagging behind all the others by years. Where the likes of Amazon and Asos want tracked and delivery to neighbour service we are lagging behind. Amazon want and are demanding going straight to delivery offices or inward Mail centres.

We have TNT who are taking 20% of the end to end market of offices where they are deployed and leaving Royal Mail have to serve areas which are more costly and remote whilst losing Mail in the high density area.

We have a regulator who is comparing us on cost when clearly we pay high wages and benefits.

Royal Mail are just cutting costs without any vision for the future hence the new strategy of going to one pass.

So I do think that maybe some of the membership do not realise the dire straights we are in and some are in offices which may have seen growth in some Mail streams.

Over an above this thou is things like MTSF review in January 2015 with Royal Mail want to reduce costs. Royal Mail have not grown as they predicted in the mails market and in fact they have lost significant Amazon traffic.

So it's very easy to criticise the CWU but we are dealing with both The regulator and Royal Mail who are under huge pressure to reduce cost.

There is no magic wand which cures the problems we face.in any other industry facing what we are facing we would have seen complusory redundancies , outsourcing of work , reductions in pay and allowances , more casuals and a two tier workforce.

Anyone who thinks they are better off outside of the CWU at the moment must be mad as we are on a roller coaster of various changes and demands.

It's very easy to criticise because the members see nothing being done,sure the hierarchy talk a good talk(like yourself) but when ordinary shop floor reps pass something upstairs like bullying issues,being badgered to attend for `chats` when your sick against the attendance procedure or pay issues, 9 times out of 10 feck all gets done as all the Area Reps ,Divisional Reps all are too pally with their Royal Mail counter parts,the same faces flourish in the same full time release jobs year after year,even the `new` so called agreement is set around not pushing things too far or rocking the boat.
So what the world is moving on,I don't give a s**t......all I want to do is come in,do my job and fecking go home and not be harassed and spoken to like a piece of s**t off part time postmen masquerading as managers with the knowledge that if they do f**k up they have no comeback as the union is a dead duck and won't challenge them on feck all.
Not corrupt? Ask Billy if he has taken his holidays this year?

[ratchet]

The SAYE scheme seems a rip off to me, better to just increase your pension contributions by £10 week, that's what i'm looking to do.

I have doubles my pensions contributions, which makes more economic sense, bit I am still paying my union subs.

Then more fool you for wasting your money paying the 6 figure salaries of the CWU fat cats. It's rotten at the top, and can be equally as rotten at the bottom.............Much like the op, my so called union rep is the DOM's poodle.

Undoubtedly there are many great union reps that go beyond the call, equally there are probably many fine people in the echelons of the CWU.

Old but gold http://www.londonlovesbusiness.com/busi ... 69.article" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... es#p519937" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[newtimes]

There is only 24 hours in a day, i believe in workers rights and for a fairer and equal society. Should I invest time in our union or on local issues where I can achieve positive results. Are people just using the union as an insurance policy. Would it be better to actually take out an insurance policy, is there such a policy, do they work. What guts me is I feel used by an organisation which has given me so much and I owe so much to the people who fought and suffered for my benefit. How would those people deal with the present situation. How can we bring change about, can we or just accept that change will happen only if circumstances change which we have no control over.

[dvbuk55]

Well you paint a very detailed picture of the state of the nation from Royal Mails point of view but you should be painting a picture of the members point of view, after all we are the ones paying the wages of the CWU not Royal Mail. You cannot keep pointing out how difficult the commercial market is and then say how well off we are. What we need to see is a strategy for US not RM. Joint bollocks is still bollocks.