Martin Walsh - Another question for you.

[norris9]

Hi Martin,

What are the main forces that are ahead for Simon Thompson in terms of him getting his 'P&O on steroids' plans through?

Dave Ward keeps saying 'We can win this if we stand strong and keep striking'....

Is it simply a case of standing our ground until Thompson realises his plans are impossible or he gets removed from his job, or can Thompson force these plans through if he so wishes?

Is it true that Thompson no longer wants to deliver letters and instead wants to be 100% in parcels? - if so, surely this is a major hurdle for him. No government would allow the postal service to disappear or even be significantly reduced. So how is Simon going to sell that to the government/nation?. Surely the government would have to take the letters service off Royal Mail and surely they'd take most, if not all of us on as employees of a national postal service?

Thoughts?

Cheers.

[k979aaa]

Well the solidarity of the stikes will be key and the rolling action will take effect when it starts as to the letters business I think regulation change ie the contracts of the DSA providers could make good some of the damage this is not an if but a necessary action.
The whole business is in disarray just like the government of it's time we need better government with better regulation and certainty but this endemic among these people who espouse themselves as great thinkers of our time!

[Murdoch]

Hi Martin,

What are the main forces that are ahead for Simon Thompson in terms of him getting his 'P&O on steroids' plans through?

Dave Ward keeps saying 'We can win this if we stand strong and keep striking'....

Is it simply a case of standing our ground until Thompson realises his plans are impossible or he gets removed from his job, or can Thompson force these plans through if he so wishes?

Is it true that Thompson no longer wants to deliver letters and instead wants to be 100% in parcels? - if so, surely this is a major hurdle for him. No government would allow the postal service to disappear or even be significantly reduced. So how is Simon going to sell that to the government/nation?. Surely the government would have to take the letters service off Royal Mail and surely they'd take most, if not all of us on as employees of a national postal service?

Thoughts?

Cheers.

I think the union's position while leaning towards hyperbole at times. Is that, Royal Mail want to follow the other couriers, and siphon off the profitable parts of the business into more "self-employed" contractor territory, and leave the core network to "wither on the vine" i.e. become economically unviable.

OFCOM as mandated in the postal services act, have a duty to ensure the sustainability of the USO. Royal Mail can position themselves to make the USO look unsustainable, at that point OFCOM could suggest that the minimum terms of the USO should be altered to reflect the unviability of the service, this might be dropping to delivering letters 5 days a week, that's not a choice Royal Mail themselves can make, and it also has to be signed off by I believe the cabinet member responsible in Government.

When they talk about P&O on steroids, I'd like to know what they mean tbh. As P&O fired a bunch of their staff and replaced them with foreign workers, none of which are based in the UK. They can do that, as they run a bunch of boats, not a UK based postal service... So eh? Are they suggesting that Royal Mail want to do that? or do they suspect that "fire and rehire" is a possibility. God knows?

[norris9]

I would assume the 10,000 job losses would have woken some of the government up....

How do you deliver a reliable service with 10,000 less posties.... you can't. We are understaffed as it is and some days mail doesn't go out, not because of the strikes, but because of a lack of staff.

By making 10,000 posties redundant Royal Mail are basically saying loud and clear 'we are against the USO and we are going down to a 5 day a week postal service'.

For me - I get it - a 5 day mail service makes sense..... but we all know it isn't going to stop there. They don't want to be delivering mail at all from what the CWU are saying.....

GOVERNMENT - WAKE UP- ROYAL MAIL DO NOT WANT TO DELIVER LETTERS ANYMORE - PLEASE NATIONALISE MAIL AND SAVE OUR JOBS.

[pieoftheday]

Unfortunately I dont think the government can see anything beyond themselves ,they seem to have forgotten that they are supposed to be looking after a country and its people

[Clappedoutpostie]

Unfortunately I dont think the government can see anything beyond themselves ,they seem to have forgotten that they are supposed to be looking after a country and its people

We haven’t got a government.

[postieblueshirt]

I would assume the 10,000 job losses would have woken some of the government up....

How do you deliver a reliable service with 10,000 less posties.... you can't. We are understaffed as it is and some days mail doesn't go out, not because of the strikes, but because of a lack of staff.

By making 10,000 posties redundant Royal Mail are basically saying loud and clear 'we are against the USO and we are going down to a 5 day a week postal service'.

For me - I get it - a 5 day mail service makes sense..... but we all know it isn't going to stop there. They don't want to be delivering mail at all from what the CWU are saying.....

GOVERNMENT - WAKE UP- ROYAL MAIL DO NOT WANT TO DELIVER LETTERS ANYMORE - PLEASE NATIONALISE MAIL AND SAVE OUR JOBS.

there probably working with near enough that amount short staffed so it sounds massive but in reality no.And the 5 to 6 thousand figure is probably what we are understaffed by.

[priority102]

If ANYONE on here even thinks that the government are as much as 0.1% interested in Royal Mail then you are living in cloud cuckoo land.

Likewise, the chances of it being re-nationalised.

For pity's sake, GET REAL.

[daveyeff]

We deliver about 8-10 BILLION letters a year.....how much money is made of those alone? Its got to be an enormous amount of money. Why do they want rid of large amounts of income?

[Rommagic]

£3billion letters earn royal mail I think maybe more money then that?.

[Murdoch]

If ANYONE on here even thinks that the government are as much as 0.1% interested in Royal Mail then you are living in cloud cuckoo land.

Likewise, the chances of it being re-nationalised.

For pity's sake, GET REAL.

Are you saying anybody that thinks the postal service could be re-nationalised is living in cloud cuckoo land? or that anybody that thinks THIS government would re-nationalise RM is living in cloud cuckoo-land?

Because I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that a future Labour government could re-nationalise the postal service, if the private sector fails to sustain the service. It is after all regulated like a public service and a necessary part of national infrastructure. It's also low hanging fruit, and would be a small cost to the taxpayer especially given the current share price. Nor do I think the public would be aghast of such a policy.

[norris9]

If ANYONE on here even thinks that the government are as much as 0.1% interested in Royal Mail then you are living in cloud cuckoo land.

Likewise, the chances of it being re-nationalised.

For pity's sake, GET REAL.

ok genius... well where's mail/letters going to go then? As Thompson wants rid of letters. You must be in cloud cuckoo land if you think the UK will end up being ok with having no mail service.

Whose gunna take it on, Amazon?, you're living in cloud flying penguin land.....Royal Mail don't want it so why are Amazon going to want it?

[TopperGas]

If ANYONE on here even thinks that the government are as much as 0.1% interested in Royal Mail then you are living in cloud cuckoo land.

Likewise, the chances of it being re-nationalised.

For pity's sake, GET REAL.

Are you saying anybody that thinks the postal service could be re-nationalised is living in cloud cuckoo land? or that anybody that thinks THIS government would re-nationalise RM is living in cloud cuckoo-land?

Because I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that a future Labour government could re-nationalise the postal service, if the private sector fails to sustain the service. It is after all regulated like a public service and a necessary part of national infrastructure. It's also low hanging fruit, and would be a small cost to the taxpayer especially given the current share price. Nor do I think the public would be aghast of such a policy.

We most likely 2 years away from potential having a labour government, it's pointless thinking that far ahead as the present dispute will have to be settled one way or the other in the new few months.

[Murdoch]

We most likely 2 years away from potential having a labour government, it's pointless thinking that far ahead as the present dispute will have to be settled one way or the other in the new few months.

Well, that's why I was asking the question as to what was meant... as the current Government won't help us in this dispute, obviously.

[pinstripe]

£3billion letters earn royal mail I think maybe more money then that?.

RM say that we are losing £10 million a day on letters and £25 million a day on packets due to the strikes.
Seems they are more than happy to lose 40% of their revenue because it’s declining. What kind of company throws away £3.5 billion a year? One that treats its staff like #£&@