Royal Mail Discussions - 3rd November 2009

[Pat Ostman]

Talks between the CWU and Royal Mail continued at TUC headquarters in central London today, chaired by TUC general secretary Brendan Barber. Both the union and Royal Mail have agreed not to speak publicly about the detail of the discussions so far. Negotiations will resume at the same venue tomorrow morning and further updates will follow.

The two national strikes on Friday 6th November and Monday 9th November - involving all 121,000 members in Royal Mail letters - are set to go ahead as planned.

[rhino49]

Quite frankly - if there is nothing to tell us I would rather not be teased by hopeful (or hopeless) soundbites. Far better that the negotiating teams thrash out something that will ease the situation for all of us without breaking off to deal with responses from above and below to misunderstood statements or conjecture with no basis in fact, i.e. Sun newspaper reports. The pressure is on Royal Mail to admit that they do not manage us well, and we need a commitment from them to address their failings in this respect. Good management will lead a good workforce - bad management will chase a bad one.

[treadhead]

Yeah I agree last weeks its on its off did nothing but sow confusion much better if they just tell us thier talking and then if they've struck a deal.

[britwrit]

I'd like to see a concrete plan with specifics and dates completely worked out. As a workforce, we deserve that... at the very least.

That being said, it's always good for a cynical laugh when days of frantic negotiations produce the usual half-baked agreement, full of vague generalities. I anxiously await the moment when Mark Higson and Dave Ward stride out of the TUC headquarters late on Thursday afternoon, both of them clutching the cocktail napkin upon which the latest deal has been hastily scribbled.

[Martin Walsh]

I am afaid in this country we do not have legally binding agreements. However it is the union`s intention to have an independent person chosen by Acas to oversee both the national and local issues within any framework.

[I-POSTIE]

At the end of the negotiations we will have an opportunity to read the offered agreement document before it is signed. We are under no obligation to accept any recommendation from Royal Mail or the Executive Council of the CWU. It is not treachery to disagree with Executive Councils recommendation if union members feel that the content of the agreement does not satisfy their expectations. It is my opinion that the Executive Council should not place any influence upon the membership and therefore allow them to come to a decision based upon reading the the agreement alone – let the agreement speak for itself. Clearly, too many members rushed into accepting the Executive Councils advice in 2007 without reading the agreement from cover to cover. For those of us whom did it was very surprising to find that so much that should have been there was missing and so much of what the Executive Council was campaigning against was in there, leaving the door open for the employer to do what they have done with the devastating results that we have incurred in the intervening time. Basically, we cannot trust the current board of directors and area management to adhere in principle to such schemes where final decisions on office operations and cuts that should be agreed between local CWU rep and DOM. We do not want to be back out on strike in another two years or less, losing more money working harder than today because we could not be bothered to read the agreement and took advice from someone else upon the way we should vote. We all know that the moment the negotiations end the employer will have their legal people and senior staff scanning the wording of the agreement document reinterpreting the wording to mean something other than what was properly agreed in the negotiating room. So we are not all lawyers but thousands of eyes reading this document can throw up a lot of red flags as to the pitfalls that may have been missed. Clearly, if something is left out of the agreement, if it allows the employer a back door to continue their past activities unabated, if it assumes you agree to something which you do not, do not vote for it. Do not feel like a lot of CWU members felt after the 2007 “agreement” was ratified, duped into believing that Royal Mails, “Pay and Modernisation” deal would be carried out fairly. At the end of the day we are not, “Our people,” as they would describe us and we would not be at this critical point if there were not so much so obviously wrong with the way this company is operated. If we were their people it would mean they would appreciate the work we do and look after our welfare. How many of us out on the picket line can say their actions come anywhere close to that? Their words are empty and cheap, their actions speak volumes about how they really see us.

[Captain Scarlet]

Management are running scared as they are not getting the right noises from staff complaining that the strikes should be called off, so the spend 10s of thousands on adverts in papers and posters in workplaces to try and create unrest, all bull as both parties have AGREED not to comment on anything and this is scaring RM management cos they cannot divulge any tit bits until a deal is done.
I still think RM organised this as long ago as last year and by this time had units up and down the country geared up to process mail (illegally?) and put more pressure on the union, so hold out and hopefully Big Dave can put this lot to bed