Stevenage union rep explains why posties are striking

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.thecomet.net/news/stevenage ... ke-9328398

Postal workers in Stevenage were on strike yesterday as part of their ongoing dispute with Royal Mail.

Around 115,000 members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) took part in the sixth day of strike action out of a planned 25.

We spoke to Andy Black, 41, a Stevenage postman who is the CWU’s branch representative, about why he and his colleagues are striking. Andy has worked for Royal Mail for 17 years and his usual round is in Pin Green.

When asked why he’s striking, he said: “The pay rise we were offered wasn't suitable with the rising cost of living and inflation. But that’s bottom of the list for lots of people – the bigger picture is our working conditions. Some of the changes they want to make will change people’s lives.”

Proposed changes to hours would make it harder for workers to drop off and collect their children from school, and Royal Mail also wants to end the monthly increment paid to its Stevenage workers – Andy said: “That isn’t much, about £25 a week, but if you take that away from us, it’s a pay cut.”

He drew attention to the impact that Royal Mail’s proposals would have on the public. Royal Mail have already reduced collections from post boxes, which Andy gave as an example of the company, saying “the changes make it more efficient; I’d say it’s cheaper for Royal Mail but it’s not good for the customer – they're downgrading the service.”

He warned that proposed changes would see post delivered later: “There’ll be later starts so forget the days when you used to get it at breakfast – you’d be looking at teatime for some of it. These changes would make the service worse.”

There is strong support for the strike within the Stevenage branch, and Andy said: “None of our workers have crossed the picket line.”

He was pleased with the response from members of the public too, with “constant beeps as they go past and numerous people giving us cake and biscuits".

How does Andy want the dispute to be resolved?

“Our ideal would be to go to mediation with Acas with all of our terms and conditions on the table. We want to know what’s been said, and we want this to end before Christmas. None of us want to be out here. We’re willing to accept changes but we don’t want the service to be diminished or our working conditions to get worse.”

Andy’s also conscious of the financial impact that going on strike can have.

He said: “None of us want to lose money, I’ve got a young family, a lot of my colleagues do too. But I know the CWU doesn’t take us out for the sake of it. We’re losing money for a cause, I’m fully behind it. We’re here because if we let Royal Mail change what they want to change, we’ll all be poorer for it.”

Responding to the interview, a Royal Mail spokesperson said: “After more than three months of talks, the CWU failed to engage in any meaningful discussion on the changes we need.

“We increased CWU grade colleagues pay by two per cent with no conditions. We told the CWU that up to a further 3.5 per cent was available, subject to us agreeing on changes needed to pay for further pay increases.”

“Our retail customers have told us that we need to do seven day a week next-day delivery, so we need to start thinking about how we might do things differently to compete and meet customer demand.

“We continue to believe the best way to ensure that the universal service remains relevant is to rebalance more towards parcels. We want to extend later into the day to meet consumer demand for next-day delivery, seven days a week.

“Three weeks ago, Royal Mail invited the CWU to enter talks through Acas to find a resolution to our dispute. We have not reached an agreement with the CWU on this request.

“We call on CWU leaders to cancel their planned strike action and accept our invitation to enter talks through Acas without further delay.”

Royal Mail has since announced that it plans to make up to 6,000 workers redundant by next August.

Chief executive Simon Thompson said: “The CWU’s decision to choose damaging strike action over resolution regrettably increases the risk of further headcount reductions.”

[Acca Dacca]

What’s the £25 weekly increment he says Stevenage get?

And why is he saying it isn’t much?

[Haitch P]

What’s the £25 weekly increment he says Stevenage get?

And why is he saying it isn’t much?

It's the RRIS allowance.

[tractorboy2]

What’s the £25 weekly increment he says Stevenage get?

And why is he saying it isn’t much?

Could it be the RRIS payment ? This is different in every area.

[ROSSCO]

What is this payment for?

[k979aaa]

What is this payment for?

Cost of living payment for down south as they could not get any workers.