What's the point?

[FilthyBloke]

Striking, and being on the picket line to support this dispute is all great.

But what's the point of all of this? Only for the next day to try and work your day off, coming in an hour or two early, going over your delivery just to clear the office. These short term gains are not going to do any good for any one. It's just going to be a vicious circle that royal mail are willing to play out till the end of xmas, then they will get even nastier with the threat of more job cuts, executive action and no redundancy terms.

If people need the overtime that's all fair and well, but to have a massive impact of these strikes we all need to stick together and make an impact by doing as little as possible on overtime.

We all need to make this work and if we don't its game over.

The point is these strikes are causing long-term disruption. It doesn't matter if its cleared in a day, which I don't believe it is. I'd point you to the thread about other couriers, and the impact it may be having, its worth browsing through. No company can afford to have the threat of long term disruption hanging over it. This applies pressure on it from customers, and ultimately they have to find a resolution. This obsession that Christmas is the only chance, is nonsense.

It’s not nonsense. Christmas is the busiest time by far. Nobody is allowed annual leave (very few anyway) and businesses like Etsy and eBay sell a lot more.
The backlogs and disruption over Christmas will be far more than in January when the mail drops off the cliff again.
My fear is that if we still have not got a deal by the new year come January and February ST will be able to show that we don’t need as many staff as it’s being cleared fairly easily on a skeleton workforce.

As I said it's not about clearing the work, it's about the disruption and uncertainty it causes. What you're suggesting is that the only time RM need staff is at Christmas, the rest of the year we do nothing. That is simply false. I have said, in previous posts that got drowned out with bickering over you, that I recognise Christmas is the busiest time. I don't deny that.

We need staff all year round but businesses and people in general will be not as bothered if something is delayed by a day or two in January or February.
Disruption will be at a minimal. Unless it’s a week long strike or similar.
Odd days here and there in January will be useless.

I think you're confused as to who Royal Mail's customers are, it's not people in general. The public is Royal Mail's customer's customer.

I said businesses AND people.
We will lose contracts maybe. But again doesn’t that fall into ST hands? Losing more money means more jobs lost and a weaker union?
The CWU need a better tactic than one/two day strikes.

Week long strike then following week work to rule.

There is also the possibility that the business and general public will get used to the odd day here and there striking. I think it’s boots that now says on the order page that disruption are likely with strikes. Customers will get used to it. If they need it quickly they can click and collect it.

[bigal383]

ANY ONE CLEARING walks there own before Wednesday are muggs and when your job is taken

And u wonder why

Now is the time pile it up add the pressure !

[Halfhappy]

Striking, and being on the picket line to support this dispute is all great.

But what's the point of all of this? Only for the next day to try and work your day off, coming in an hour or two early, going over your delivery just to clear the office. These short term gains are not going to do any good for any one. It's just going to be a vicious circle that royal mail are willing to play out till the end of xmas, then they will get even nastier with the threat of more job cuts, executive action and no redundancy terms.

If people need the overtime that's all fair and well, but to have a massive impact of these strikes we all need to stick together and make an impact by doing as little as possible on overtime.

We all need to make this work and if we don't its game over.

The point is these strikes are causing long-term disruption. It doesn't matter if its cleared in a day, which I don't believe it is. I'd point you to the thread about other couriers, and the impact it may be having, its worth browsing through. No company can afford to have the threat of long term disruption hanging over it. This applies pressure on it from customers, and ultimately they have to find a resolution. This obsession that Christmas is the only chance, is nonsense.

It’s not nonsense. Christmas is the busiest time by far. Nobody is allowed annual leave (very few anyway) and businesses like Etsy and eBay sell a lot more.
The backlogs and disruption over Christmas will be far more than in January when the mail drops off the cliff again.
My fear is that if we still have not got a deal by the new year come January and February ST will be able to show that we don’t need as many staff as it’s being cleared fairly easily on a skeleton workforce.

As I said it's not about clearing the work, it's about the disruption and uncertainty it causes. What you're suggesting is that the only time RM need staff is at Christmas, the rest of the year we do nothing. That is simply false. I have said, in previous posts that got drowned out with bickering over you, that I recognise Christmas is the busiest time. I don't deny that.

We need staff all year round but businesses and people in general will be not as bothered if something is delayed by a day or two in January or February.
Disruption will be at a minimal. Unless it’s a week long strike or similar.
Odd days here and there in January will be useless.

I think you're confused as to who Royal Mail's customers are, it's not people in general. The public is Royal Mail's customer's customer.

I said businesses AND people.
We will lose contracts maybe. But again doesn’t that fall into ST hands? Losing more money means more jobs lost and a weaker union?
The CWU need a better tactic than one/two day strikes.

Week long strike then following week work to rule.

There is also the possibility that the business and general public will get used to the odd day here and there striking. I think it’s boots that now says on the order page that disruption are likely with strikes. Customers will get used to it. If they need it quickly they can click and collect it.

And there it is, it's the CWUs fault. So, hold on, mail drops off no one is bothered, yet they are still bothered enough to cancel contracts? No ones bothered about delays and we lose the strike and then our jobs, but they are bothered and RM loses contracts and then our jobs. This is sounding like Schrodinger's customer. I personally don't know what is going to happen. I don't know what the CEO is doing in his game of 35D chess, all I'm saying is I believe that no company, that answers to shareholders, especially the way Royal Mail does (Just look what it's paid them since privatisation), can afford to be operating under the threat of constant disruption, and losing contracts hand over fist.

[FilthyBloke]

Striking, and being on the picket line to support this dispute is all great.

But what's the point of all of this? Only for the next day to try and work your day off, coming in an hour or two early, going over your delivery just to clear the office. These short term gains are not going to do any good for any one. It's just going to be a vicious circle that royal mail are willing to play out till the end of xmas, then they will get even nastier with the threat of more job cuts, executive action and no redundancy terms.

If people need the overtime that's all fair and well, but to have a massive impact of these strikes we all need to stick together and make an impact by doing as little as possible on overtime.

We all need to make this work and if we don't its game over.

The point is these strikes are causing long-term disruption. It doesn't matter if its cleared in a day, which I don't believe it is. I'd point you to the thread about other couriers, and the impact it may be having, its worth browsing through. No company can afford to have the threat of long term disruption hanging over it. This applies pressure on it from customers, and ultimately they have to find a resolution. This obsession that Christmas is the only chance, is nonsense.

It’s not nonsense. Christmas is the busiest time by far. Nobody is allowed annual leave (very few anyway) and businesses like Etsy and eBay sell a lot more.
The backlogs and disruption over Christmas will be far more than in January when the mail drops off the cliff again.
My fear is that if we still have not got a deal by the new year come January and February ST will be able to show that we don’t need as many staff as it’s being cleared fairly easily on a skeleton workforce.

As I said it's not about clearing the work, it's about the disruption and uncertainty it causes. What you're suggesting is that the only time RM need staff is at Christmas, the rest of the year we do nothing. That is simply false. I have said, in previous posts that got drowned out with bickering over you, that I recognise Christmas is the busiest time. I don't deny that.

We need staff all year round but businesses and people in general will be not as bothered if something is delayed by a day or two in January or February.
Disruption will be at a minimal. Unless it’s a week long strike or similar.
Odd days here and there in January will be useless.

I think you're confused as to who Royal Mail's customers are, it's not people in general. The public is Royal Mail's customer's customer.

I said businesses AND people.
We will lose contracts maybe. But again doesn’t that fall into ST hands? Losing more money means more jobs lost and a weaker union?
The CWU need a better tactic than one/two day strikes.

Week long strike then following week work to rule.

There is also the possibility that the business and general public will get used to the odd day here and there striking. I think it’s boots that now says on the order page that disruption are likely with strikes. Customers will get used to it. If they need it quickly they can click and collect it.

And there it is, it's the CWUs fault. So, hold on, mail drops off no one is bothered, yet they are still bothered enough to cancel contracts? No ones bothered about delays and we lose the strike and then our jobs, but they are bothered and RM loses contracts and then our jobs. This is sounding like Schrodinger's customer. I personally don't know what is going to happen. I don't know what the CEO is doing in his game of 35D chess, all I'm saying is I believe that no company, that answers to shareholders, especially the way Royal Mail does (Just look what it's paid them since privatisation), can afford to be operating under the threat of constant disruption, and losing contracts hand over fist.

I’m not blaming CWU. I’m saying they need a better game plan. They are facing ST who is not budging. He’s playing his poker face and the CWU need to respond.

[Postmanham]

If the threat of 23 and 24th December strikes doesn't bring RM to the table to hammer out a deal with the unions then it really is all over. Reputation as a company will be trashed. Xmas is what RM do and you can bet us posties will cop our fair share of the flak. As others have said in the New year they will really go to town on us if they get thru xmas without giving any leeway to the union. Are they willing to just write this xmas off just to get what they want . Time will tell but I dont think it looks good

[Halfhappy]

Striking, and being on the picket line to support this dispute is all great.

But what's the point of all of this? Only for the next day to try and work your day off, coming in an hour or two early, going over your delivery just to clear the office. These short term gains are not going to do any good for any one. It's just going to be a vicious circle that royal mail are willing to play out till the end of xmas, then they will get even nastier with the threat of more job cuts, executive action and no redundancy terms.

If people need the overtime that's all fair and well, but to have a massive impact of these strikes we all need to stick together and make an impact by doing as little as possible on overtime.

We all need to make this work and if we don't its game over.

The point is these strikes are causing long-term disruption. It doesn't matter if its cleared in a day, which I don't believe it is. I'd point you to the thread about other couriers, and the impact it may be having, its worth browsing through. No company can afford to have the threat of long term disruption hanging over it. This applies pressure on it from customers, and ultimately they have to find a resolution. This obsession that Christmas is the only chance, is nonsense.

It’s not nonsense. Christmas is the busiest time by far. Nobody is allowed annual leave (very few anyway) and businesses like Etsy and eBay sell a lot more.
The backlogs and disruption over Christmas will be far more than in January when the mail drops off the cliff again.
My fear is that if we still have not got a deal by the new year come January and February ST will be able to show that we don’t need as many staff as it’s being cleared fairly easily on a skeleton workforce.

As I said it's not about clearing the work, it's about the disruption and uncertainty it causes. What you're suggesting is that the only time RM need staff is at Christmas, the rest of the year we do nothing. That is simply false. I have said, in previous posts that got drowned out with bickering over you, that I recognise Christmas is the busiest time. I don't deny that.

We need staff all year round but businesses and people in general will be not as bothered if something is delayed by a day or two in January or February.
Disruption will be at a minimal. Unless it’s a week long strike or similar.
Odd days here and there in January will be useless.

I think you're confused as to who Royal Mail's customers are, it's not people in general. The public is Royal Mail's customer's customer.

I said businesses AND people.
We will lose contracts maybe. But again doesn’t that fall into ST hands? Losing more money means more jobs lost and a weaker union?
The CWU need a better tactic than one/two day strikes.

Week long strike then following week work to rule.

There is also the possibility that the business and general public will get used to the odd day here and there striking. I think it’s boots that now says on the order page that disruption are likely with strikes. Customers will get used to it. If they need it quickly they can click and collect it.

And there it is, it's the CWUs fault. So, hold on, mail drops off no one is bothered, yet they are still bothered enough to cancel contracts? No ones bothered about delays and we lose the strike and then our jobs, but they are bothered and RM loses contracts and then our jobs. This is sounding like Schrodinger's customer. I personally don't know what is going to happen. I don't know what the CEO is doing in his game of 35D chess, all I'm saying is I believe that no company, that answers to shareholders, especially the way Royal Mail does (Just look what it's paid them since privatisation), can afford to be operating under the threat of constant disruption, and losing contracts hand over fist.

I’m not blaming CWU. I’m saying they need a better game plan. They are facing ST who is not budging. He’s playing his poker face and the CWU need to respond.

So, let's get this in order. Its gone from striking beyond Christmas being pointless and ineffective, to striking after Christmas is effective and will cost us our jobs. The CWU are doing what they think is best, they have the law stacked against them. They have to tread a fine line between what members can sacrifice and the point at which industrial action becomes untenable for them. On the other hand you have a CEO who has the law stacked in his favour, he is playing on easy mode, and is simply using the tactics I'd expect any bully who has never dealt with a union before to do.

[CRIBMAD]

Striking, and being on the picket line to support this dispute is all great.

But what's the point of all of this? Only for the next day to try and work your day off, coming in an hour or two early, going over your delivery just to clear the office. These short term gains are not going to do any good for any one. It's just going to be a vicious circle that royal mail are willing to play out till the end of xmas, then they will get even nastier with the threat of more job cuts, executive action and no redundancy terms.

If people need the overtime that's all fair and well, but to have a massive impact of these strikes we all need to stick together and make an impact by doing as little as possible on overtime.

We all need to make this work and if we don't its game over.

[CRIBMAD]

The Union rep in our office organises the morning overtime

and i our office the sunday parcel delivery - unreal and i told him so !!

[postslippete]

It does feel like standing on the picket lines is not having much of an effect when pretty much everything gets mopped up after a strike day.

But this dispute is costing Royal Mail an absolute fortune. They have given bonuses to managers, they are having to use thousands of agency workers every single day and on top of this they are still paying out overtime for staff to come in early and work days off. Its simply not sustainable over the long term.

Something has got to give. Will it be 10,000 postal workers or Simon Thompson?? And all this about time running out if we don't get an agreement before Xmas. Well I look at it as the company really can't afford not to have an agreement because the workforce really aren't going anywhere.

Even if Royal Mail make all these redundancies. We still have a 6 day USO which was quite a setback for Royal Mail, so letters will still be expected to be delivered everyday. So once they've gotten rid of staff, and those overpaid agency workers, you've now got fewer staff left to deliver everything.

That's why the company are introducing siso firstly in offices where staff have been finishing early in the hope that they can improve productivity. They have gone back to trialling frameless offices to try and save indoor hours and they still believe that these super hubs are the magic answer.






Royal Mail is all about the shareholders. And Royal Mail is certainly very high risk/high reward as investments go.

Its high risk because of continuous IA. No investor wants to own a company where is workers are in a dispute. ST imho is trying to force through unpopular changes by stealth and is very likely to come unstuck.

[adamanti]

Lot's of people bringing loops back Saturday in our office as there was not enough people in just doing the oversized so we had to take them out.And there was a lot of oversized, 90% being tracked. Add to this the need to go through the bag's you are bringing back to attempt to deliver all tracked, which we did not ad we ran out of time, you get the picture. Also we empty a small mail box on our route which was almost full with no collection's Thursday and Friday. Add to this half our D to D's not done last week and already fresh boxes of D to D's put out Saturday for this week, yep agree CARNAGE!
Wednesday and Thursday off to come so let's see.

[Chitchat]

The other day royal mail had a line graph detailing how strikes were recovered quickly and had little impact. Wonder what that line graphs gonna look like I the coming weeks?

[POSTPERSON50]

Lot's of people bringing loops back Saturday in our office as there was not enough people in just doing the oversized so we had to take them out.And there was a lot of oversized, 90% being tracked. Add to this the need to go through the bag's you are bringing back to attempt to deliver all tracked, which we did not ad we ran out of time, you get the picture. Also we empty a small mail box on our route which was almost full with no collection's Thursday and Friday. Add to this half our D to D's not done last week and already fresh boxes of D to D's put out Saturday for this week, yep agree CARNAGE!
Wednesday and Thursday off to come so let's see.

Less gets done following strike days. There's a natural drop off in efficiency, it's physically more difficult to move around the aisles, staff get out later and take less. This compounds their problem. As you're in a shite state come a second 48 hour strike during the busiest few of weeks of the year Friday will be close to unmanageable.

I've said this before, we barely cope during a normal year.

[scotchy1962]

Somehow on this forum we seem to have picked up more than our normal share of whingeing Normans, if we dont get a result by xmas this is all over, simple slyman is winning and we are losing money. Feckin Boo Hoo go dry your eyes, its hard to win a fight quickly with one arm tied behind your back and a bunch of moaning Minnies in the back ground, if you think this is having no effect you are deluded of course it is, if you think the slyman is winning feckin wake up hes not. This is a fight to the death not literally but metaphorically, we lose and we are fecked, slyman loses and he is sacked. Its become obvious he was brought in to firstly kill the USO and then the Union along with all our T&Cs, i find it hard to read what some grown adults have written on this forum i am no left wing hard core labour supporter but i still have stronger views than some of these people. If you aren't one of Simons plants and you believe what you are writing please go somewhere else. We are different us proper posties we care about our job, our customers and we care about what we deliver and how we deliver it, we have pride in our work and under normal circumstances we try to deliver everything everyday. But since the Slyman has appeared things have changed we have become embroiled in his world of Workplace his alter ego with its very own agenda of divide and conquer (god it feels like i have become Tolkien and am in Lord of the rings) you all know what i mean. He is just a man doing what he is paid to do, if he doesn't succeed soon they will send him packing, have some pride and faith in the union and let it do what we pay it to do and deliver us a result which we can all live with.

[portadown]

Even if the strikes were cancelled now I think we will struggle to clear the back log before Christmas

[Haditup]

ANY ONE CLEARING walks there own before Wednesday are muggs and when your job is taken

And u wonder why

Now is the time pile it up add the pressure !

And why would anyone lose 2 days pay striking only to go in early and clear their walk for two hours overtime?
Yes, it’s money but if the backlog is manageable the pressure is off to get a deal done.