PEC:August 2007 Executive Council Report

[POSTMAN]

[center]Is a Deal Possible?[/center]

Pay & Conditions

The tactic of the rolling strikes across the different functions proved to be both effective in the impact it had on the operation and on the support it enjoyed among the members. As the backlog of mail piled up around the country, with managers chasing their tails in a vain attempt to counter the action, the support levels in units was increasing as the dispute progressed. The tactic was not without it’s own problems, though, and, as mentioned in the last report, there were a number of instances of unofficial action. These arose out of a refusal of drivers who were working to cross the picket lines of those on strike and the reaction of management to that. Our members have a proud record of not crossing picket lines but in this case, although their instincts were to be admired, the action they took could have put at risk our whole tactic and led to splits in the membership with different areas taking different action. In the end we were able to convince them of the need to follow the national strategy but the management-imposed sanctions following the unofficial action have continued to cause us problems. This is reported on below.

The pressure put on management by the industrial action and by many Labour MP’s and the TUC resulted in the Joint Statement of 9 August. This committed both sides to further discussions with the aim of reaching an agreement by 4 September. Royal Mail agreed not to take any executive action during that period and we agreed to suspend industrial action. Both sides also agreed to be bound by a confidentiality clause to prevent any information concerning the negotiations from coming out unless jointly agreed.

There is no doubt that the joint statement represented a real climb-down by management. They had previously said that no amount of strike action would change their position of refusing to re-negotiate on what they claimed was their final offer. Nevertheless, agreeing to call off the action was a difficult decision for the Postal Executive. We recognised that suspending the strike action would take the pressure off management and that their position could harden again. On the other hand, we had told our members that one of the aims of our action was to get management to re-start the negotiations. If we had carried on with the strikes whilst the negotiations continued many members would have started asking what they were striking for and this could have led to a falling off in support. The confidentiality clause has also caused us a problem in that the information we can send out to members has been severely limited. There were bound to be dangers in whatever course we took but in the end we accepted that we had to go along with the terms of the joint statement and give the talks a chance.

It would not be giving too much away to say that the talks have been extremely difficult and that at the moment both sides are still far apart. Some progress has been made in certain areas but as long as the business keep saying that they have no money to meet our demands it would seem extremely unlikely that anything will emerge by the 4th. By a coincidence, the Postal Executive are due to meet on that day and we will have to decide where we go next. Hopefully, we will also be in a position to put out some more information to the members.

Later Starts

The issue that could kick the whole thing off again is the management threat to move all delivery staff onto 06.00-06.30 starts on 17 September. This is an entirely self-imposed deadline of theirs as there is neither the operational or legal requirement for them to do it on that date. We have argued that as at least 60% of the mail for most DO’s is in the mail centres at midnight, Reps locally should be allowed to negotiate duty times locally that reflect actual arrival patterns and that would give a range of start times. Management have sought to weaken our opposition by offering staff who currently get shift allowance “grandfather’sâ€

[deadbox]

Well after reading that, Im going shopping tomorrow to buy one of those fold-up canvas chairs....That way, when the action starts all over again, my legs wont get so tired standing on the PICKET LINE

[nelson]

That is a very pessimistic report. Not looking good

[johnston65]

I have said it before and I will do so again, we put our faith in the leaders of this union to come up with a deal..reading this it does not look like they will get one by the 4th...Now we have to start rallying the troops again who were up for a fight 4 weeks ago and are now starting to question the tactics of the union.

If Hayes and Ward make a pigs ear of this they better send out as much propaganda,leaflets,newspapers,meetings as possible to motivate the membership once again...

We had them on the ropes 4 weeks ago and we let them off...THIS BETTER BE GOOD !!!

[wakkono]

those foldy up chairs are currently on offer at asda not sure if its a national offer but at £4 quid a go there a bargain def worth a trip to your local asda to take a look


upon reading the above post from one of our executive it looks like we weill all be needing them again !!

[nelson]

wakkono


those foldy up chairs are currently on offer at asda not sure if its a national offer but at £4 quid a go there a bargain def worth a trip to your local asda to take a look

Funny there on special at asda, wonder if Allan gave them the tip off

[wakkono]

lol might of did he leave there on good terms then i thought they wanted him out

[lovejoy]

I know the report is grim and is not what we hoped for but it is good to see PEC members putting out reports!

They should all have to do it. I know Pete sends his to our branch every month

I'm sure that whatever way we go, from Wednesday (day after 4th and PEC) comms will step back up and branches/reps also need to step up to the plate!

This is a fight for our futures. Lets save the attacks until the dispute is over.

[dvbuk55]

We are going to have to go through the whole gamut again.

It's a pity the Union didn't say No to the talks until RM came up with proposals that could be discussed. It looks like they have spent the last three weeks mulling over the same crap.

Obviously the guy with the original post is not actually saying it but we'd better get ready for the winter of discontent in RM.

He talks about walk sorting machines like it's some holy grail for RM but they won't sort flats.

PIP was supposed to encourage customers to use machinable postings but much of the mail comes through TNT etc - are they going to be bothered if the mail they handle isn't machinable. Someone suggested we charge them for it BUT we aren't in control of the pricing.

[Carnoustie]

We are going to have to go through the whole gamut again.

It's a pity the Union didn't say No to the talks until RM came up with proposals that could be discussed. It looks like they have spent the last three weeks mulling over the same crap.

Obviously the guy with the original post is not actually saying it but we'd better get ready for the winter of discontent in RM.

I agree, it's looking like we're going to have to strike again.

Let's re-start the rolling strikes, and when a huge backlog forces RM to talk to us again, this time we tell them that the strikes will keep going week in, week out whilst any talks continue. No let-up whatsoever until a new offer has been agreed, recommended, voted on, and accepted.

[disheartened]

I have said it before and I will do so again, we put our faith in the leaders of this union to come up with a deal..reading this it does not look like they will get one by the 4th...Now we have to start rallying the troops again who were up for a fight 4 weeks ago and are now starting to question the tactics of the union.

If Hayes and Ward make a pigs ear of this they better send out as much propaganda,leaflets,newspapers,meetings as possible to motivate the membership once again...

We had them on the ropes 4 weeks ago and we let them off...THIS BETTER BE GOOD !!!

I agree......if it aint a good deal,ther'll be hell to play,starting on Wednesday 5th,the delivery staff at my office are on the verge of a walkout now........i can see it getting real ugly.

My personal gut feeling is i dont think Billy Hayes and Dave Ward will come out of these talks with a deal,there is some heavy political sh1te going on and we are caught out in it,AL & AC,along with the goverment want RM privatised and are prepared to run it in to the ground to do this.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

This time I think they ought to do the rolling strikes but with no gap - ie everyone goes on strike every fourth day. This gives them no time to recover. However it will be more expensive for us.

Another good one I heard was we strike for 1/2 days for example

Monday go in from 5.am and strike at 10am (PTs 7.00 - 10am)
Next day strike till 10am then go in and do the normal work till end of shift. This was mentioned as a possible tactic by our area rep at the meeting yesterday.

What would be the drawbacks of either approach.

Another thing I got from the meeting is that the Union do not appear to like wtr as an official action as they don't think it will work.

[dvbuk55]

This time I think they ought to do the rolling strikes but with no gap - ie everyone goes on strike every fourth day. This gives them no time to recover. However it will be more expensive for us.

Another good one I heard was we strike for 1/2 days for example

Monday go in from 5.am and strike at 10am (PTs 7.00 - 10am)
Next day strike till 10am then go in and do the normal work till end of shift. This was mentioned as a possible tactic by our area rep at the meeting yesterday.

What would be the drawbacks of either approach.

Another thing I got from the meeting is that the Union do not appear to like wtr as an official action as they don't think it will work.

I have thought for a while that we should do half day strikes whereas we inform them we will be taking action on say Wed/Thu we don't say what time - but I'm not sure we would be legally obliged to say at what time.

I don't think a work to rule would work either - if they are going in to work it would be difficult to say what time each person is supposed to start. I think it would be better to have a total car ban for certain days of the week. It is best to keep them hopping so they can't organise from one day to the next.

[lovejoy]

This time I think they ought to do the rolling strikes but with no gap - ie everyone goes on strike every fourth day. This gives them no time to recover. However it will be more expensive for us.

Another good one I heard was we strike for 1/2 days for example

Monday go in from 5.am and strike at 10am (PTs 7.00 - 10am)
Next day strike till 10am then go in and do the normal work till end of shift. This was mentioned as a possible tactic by our area rep at the meeting yesterday.

What would be the drawbacks of either approach.

Another thing I got from the meeting is that the Union do not appear to like wtr as an official action as they don't think it will work.

I have thought for a while that we should do half day strikes whereas we inform them we will be taking action on say Wed/Thu we don't say what time - but I'm not sure we would be legally obliged to say at what time.

I don't think a work to rule would work either - if they are going in to work it would be difficult to say what time each person is supposed to start. I think it would be better to have a total car ban for certain days of the week. It is best to keep them hopping so they can't organise from one day to the next.

Half days would be ok in Deliveries and maybe processing but would mean some our drivers striking half way through their runs. DO they get out of lorry hundreds of miles from home? or worse do they come back and this means they are working whilst their colleagues are on speak.

It seems to be common knowledge that if we need to strike again it will be on the same basis as before. Rolling, each person losing one days pay per week!

[ianpostie]

I have said it before and I will do so again, we put our faith in the leaders of this union to come up with a deal..reading this it does not look like they will get one by the 4th...Now we have to start rallying the troops again who were up for a fight 4 weeks ago and are now starting to question the tactics of the union.

If Hayes and Ward make a pigs ear of this they better send out as much propaganda,leaflets,newspapers,meetings as possible to motivate the membership once again...

We had them on the ropes 4 weeks ago and we let them off...THIS BETTER BE GOOD !!!

I agree......if it aint a good deal,ther'll be hell to play,starting on Wednesday 5th,the delivery staff at my office are on the verge of a walkout now........i can see it getting real ugly.

My personal gut feeling is i dont think Billy Hayes and Dave Ward will come out of these talks with a deal,there is some heavy political sh1te going on and we are caught out in it,AL & AC,along with the goverment want RM privatised and are prepared to run it in to the ground to do this.

i read the letter that was put on your frames on friday disheartened,rm accusing the workers at watford of unoffical ia and of going slow--when they talk about taking pay off you then it starts to turn ugly.was watford on the verge of walking out friday?