Can't afford to strike?

[Spartacus]

I posted this on a different thread, but as the board is moving so quickly at the moment it will probably be overlooked by some.


Had my pension illustration through a couple of days ago.

If I was to retire at 60 I would get a pension of £7200 pounds a year (I'm not counting the lump sum/reduced pension for this)

If I am made to wait 'till I'm 65 to get my pension Royal Mail will effectively have stolen THIRTY SIX THOUSAND POUNDS from me.

So those who say they can't afford to strike should be made aware of how much we actually stand to lose.

[madelin4]

Every reason yet again to strike! I cudnt survive the job to that age

[dvbuk55]

Every reason yet again to strike! I cudnt survive the job to that age

And you are not by yourself!

Has anyone ever taken a survey on what the constant walking carrying a weight does to your body.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Every reason yet again to strike! I cudnt survive the job to that age

And you are not by yourself!

Has anyone ever taken a survey on what the constant walking carrying a weight does to your body.

It shrunk my belly to start with. Now its forcing my shoulder blades down they are going to meet my belly in about 10 years.
My legs were thin, now they are made of steel. However, my knees point in different directions .

[vigilante]

Every reason yet again to strike! I cudnt survive the job to that age

And you are not by yourself!

Has anyone ever taken a survey on what the constant walking carrying a weight does to your body.

OR GETTING IN AND OUT OF BLOODY VANS FOR YEARS?
KNEES AND HIPS SUFFER LIKE HELL ON RURALS

[dvbuk55]

Every reason yet again to strike! I cudnt survive the job to that age

And you are not by yourself!

Has anyone ever taken a survey on what the constant walking carrying a weight does to your body.

OR GETTING IN AND OUT OF BLOODY VANS FOR YEARS?
KNEES AND HIPS SUFFER LIKE HELL ON RURALS

These are all valid points - has anyone ever seriously questioned a health risk assessment on these things?

[ROCKY]

vigilante dont even get me going on that one,my injury list thanks to rm vans is endless from deformed ears to burns from static and everything else you can think off

[Stormproof]

vigilante dont even get me going on that one,my injury list thanks to rm vans is endless from deformed ears to burns from static and everything else you can think off

Deformed Ears?

[BELIAL]

I,m speechless £36,000 out of your pocket overnight. You've got to hand it to RM they,ve got some brass neck

[madelin4]

in relation to the post about the long term damage, i.e carrying the bag on 1 shoulder and that, do u not carry your bag across the middle? i.e put the strap over your head and that, at our training that was how we where told to carry the bag, i cudnt carry it on 1 shoulder , i wud be all over the place ... even with carrying the correct way we get aches .

[dvbuk55]

Has anyone ever taken a survey on what the constant walking carrying a weight does to your body.

Not done anything concrete on it but,

I spent a month using a pedometer set up to my own stride pattern and my walks (I`m cover & including time in office) measured from 7 miles 9.5 miles per day.

Now worked out along with that I was bruning on an average day about 1000 cals at work alone which in 1/3rd of the RDA amount of daily calories I as a male need.

After doing a month on this I averaged out that over a period of 48 weeks (+ 4 weeks hols) an average delivery person will be carrying roughy 8-10,000 kilos & walking roughly 2000+ miles each year.

Now this is using rough averages and not including the total weight(s) I push in trollies on the 2 town duties I do.

For me to get a true figure I would need to do it for the full year, which maybe at some point I may do.

The effects it has on the body are pretty harsh..

By carrying the pouch on 1 shoulder all the time (I swap mine each bundle) you are placing tremendous strain on the muscles of the oposite side to try and stabilise the body and get it back into its natural posture, this inturn leads to a lot of stress/strain related problems in and around the shoulder, neck, shoulder blades and mid back regions.

The body moves in 4 planes of motion (front/back, up/down, side to side & rotational) now by adding the weight of the pouch to the body in an uneven way (people pay a fortune to train in an unstable enviroment for sports) we massively increase our chances on muscular pulls by being caught off balance and the body having to over compensate to keep itself stable. this is even more so in people that have no physical training backgrounds.

With the added accumalitve weight we add to the body each day we place huge amounts of pressure to the spinal column and flatten our discs out, even more so if we are dehydrated through working in the summer/hot months. By carrying the bag on a single shoulder we produce large amounts of wear and tear in our hips, knees and ankles of that side. There is still increased wear and tear if both shoulders are used but we feel it slightly less compared to the single shoulder uses.

Throw into the mix the compound pressures the body feels each day through the shock absorbing it has to do through walking on concrete pavements, up and down steps, curbs our feet along get some serious longterm damage. These shocks also affect the spine and any other load baring joint.

Without waffling on much more after 20+ years at the current rate that we are I would estimate that 50+% of the delivery postmen currently working will be either on longterm sick or have been pensioned off due to spinal, joint related issues through the job.

There are ways to help eleviate some of these things but RM either don`t have a clue or don`t give a dam...

You have obviously spent some considerable time and thought on this - have you thought of putting pen to paper and forwarding a copy to HQ.

[dvbuk55]

vigilante dont even get me going on that one,my injury list thanks to rm vans is endless from deformed ears to burns from static and everything else you can think off

Deformed Ears?

Don't ask! I can't imagine but it won't be the vans!

[BELIAL]

Has anyone ever taken a survey on what the constant walking carrying a weight does to your body.

Not done anything concrete on it but,

I spent a month using a pedometer set up to my own stride pattern and my walks (I`m cover & including time in office) measured from 7 miles 9.5 miles per day.

Now worked out along with that I was bruning on an average day about 1000 cals at work alone which in 1/3rd of the RDA amount of daily calories I as a male need.

After doing a month on this I averaged out that over a period of 48 weeks (+ 4 weeks hols) an average delivery person will be carrying roughy 8-10,000 kilos & walking roughly 2000+ miles each year.

Now this is using rough averages and not including the total weight(s) I push in trollies on the 2 town duties I do.

For me to get a true figure I would need to do it for the full year, which maybe at some point I may do.

The effects it has on the body are pretty harsh..

By carrying the pouch on 1 shoulder all the time (I swap mine each bundle) you are placing tremendous strain on the muscles of the oposite side to try and stabilise the body and get it back into its natural posture, this inturn leads to a lot of stress/strain related problems in and around the shoulder, neck, shoulder blades and mid back regions.

The body moves in 4 planes of motion (front/back, up/down, side to side & rotational) now by adding the weight of the pouch to the body in an uneven way (people pay a fortune to train in an unstable enviroment for sports) we massively increase our chances on muscular pulls by being caught off balance and the body having to over compensate to keep itself stable. this is even more so in people that have no physical training backgrounds.

With the added accumalitve weight we add to the body each day we place huge amounts of pressure to the spinal column and flatten our discs out, even more so if we are dehydrated through working in the summer/hot months. By carrying the bag on a single shoulder we produce large amounts of wear and tear in our hips, knees and ankles of that side. There is still increased wear and tear if both shoulders are used but we feel it slightly less compared to the single shoulder uses.

Throw into the mix the compound pressures the body feels each day through the shock absorbing it has to do through walking on concrete pavements, up and down steps, curbs our feet along get some serious longterm damage. These shocks also affect the spine and any other load baring joint.

Without waffling on much more after 20+ years at the current rate that we are I would estimate that 50+% of the delivery postmen currently working will be either on longterm sick or have been pensioned off due to spinal, joint related issues through the job.

There are ways to help eleviate some of these things but RM either don`t have a clue or don`t give a dam...

So in an average week , disregarding wind resistence factors and ambient temperature we can with a clear conscience consume 42 strawberry and vanilla swiss rolls(family size)

Oh bugger you failed to factor in gate opening, pen dropping and turd avoidance manouvres . Back to the log tables

[chayoliver]

I posted this on a different thread, but as the board is moving so quickly at the moment it will probably be overlooked by some.


Had my pension illustration through a couple of days ago.

If I was to retire at 60 I would get a pension of £7200 pounds a year (I'm not counting the lump sum/reduced pension for this)

If I am made to wait 'till I'm 65 to get my pension Royal Mail will effectively have stolen THIRTY SIX THOUSAND POUNDS from me.

So those who say they can't afford to strike should be made aware of how much we actually stand to lose.

Nice one The CWU should put posters up and spell out what we will actually lose then we should have 100% support :cfo :lfo

[jalor_uk]

I have been doing the job for 15 years and have just paid the price. I suffered a slipped disc in april and lost all use of my legs for a couple of months. i needed a discectomy operation. All the management offered me was a strage 2.