What will ultimately break this dispute?

[Ppat98]

My bad I thought you was aguing over Amazon lol You still think there's hope for union's to come together though. The best deal Dave ward is fighting for a 2 year agreement & they don't want to even give that. Seem's pretty bleak. Union's coming together can't change the law either.

You said you did 30 years with RM. That's a long run. I'm out next year regardless of any deal made. There's alot more money to be made in easier professions these days. A laptop & learning a computer program is the way to go.

[Wullie10]

The union will have to give up something unless they think a Labour Government are going to give us a 100% pay rise and we all live happily ever after. Every strike I've been involved in we end up no better off. We lost d2d payments and final salary pension. Realistically some people are not going to be happy with any part of a deal. They never are.

[Wullie10]

I wonder what the average age of the work force is? In our office it's late 50s.. Once you're in that territory you can take a job elsewhere for less money maybe and FAR less stress and hours topped up with a ( small) pension . Quite a few have mentioned this. The Royal Mail will loose experience which they wouldn't care less. The union will loose a few members. I don't see any interest in young people in the job at all. The longer thos drags on the company will win. Older expensive staff gone replaced by a few kids running around who know no better for pennies.

Its the older staff who want to keep the t&cs pension contributions etc they the majority on the picket lines,I personally dont think the youth see a good future in rm.

I concur. I'm also seeing this. The older staff, around my age (50) are ill with the fear of redundancy. Most of us have worked in RM since our 20s, some were even cadets. Having said that, there's not a soul in my office that isn't in a state of terminal panic, even the younger staff. This is where I feel ST is showing ineptitude. His attempts to scare and bully us have only galvanised the workforce, and done nothing other than put us in a situation where we feel we've everything to lose if this dispute is lost.

You must live in a part of the country where jobs are scarce ? There are vacancies at our place that can't be filled. No one here around 50 is scared of redundancy. We are praying for it.

[stevejm]

What will stop this strike, or any strike, is when somebody or something snaps. Basically, a revolution/shocking action. Most people only change reluctantly, if at all. They finally change when the pain of inertia is greater than the pain of radical change - for example, when an alcoholic finally commits to the A.A program.
Stop Oil protests are a manifestation of this truism. Their perception is that the world is doomed to extinction so they must take radical action. We as RM workers are nowhere near that yet, unless a visionary, inspirational radical lurks amongst us?

[stevejm]

Corbyn is a relic from the 1970s, much like some of the rhetoric from some trade unionist.
Royal Mail is a private company now. The Idea that Royal Mail belongs with the ideals of Gordon Murray with the Bobby on the beat community service is a far cry from the dog eat dog corporate world of a privatised industry. The obligations belong to the share holder, not the employees.

You can't reward shareholders without performance and performance depends on employee productivity which in turn depends on a motivated workforce

[TopperGas]

What will stop this strike, or any strike, is when somebody or something snaps. Basically, a revolution/shocking action. Most people only change reluctantly, if at all. They finally change when the pain of inertia is greater than the pain of radical change - for example, when an alcoholic finally commits to the A.A program.
Stop Oil protests are a manifestation of this truism. Their perception is that the world is doomed to extinction so they must take radical action. We as RM workers are nowhere near that yet, unless a visionary, inspirational radical lurks amongst us?

What will stop it is one side caving in, if RM can survive Christmas then I can't see it'll be them as they'll have clearly decided taking a financial, & PR, hit is worth it, but workers could well start returning to work in ever increasing numbers once the credit card bills start arriving in January.

It'll be interesting to see if RM make any further attempts to avoid this week's strikes or just stick to their "final offer".

[FilthyBloke]

What will stop this strike, or any strike, is when somebody or something snaps. Basically, a revolution/shocking action. Most people only change reluctantly, if at all. They finally change when the pain of inertia is greater than the pain of radical change - for example, when an alcoholic finally commits to the A.A program.
Stop Oil protests are a manifestation of this truism. Their perception is that the world is doomed to extinction so they must take radical action. We as RM workers are nowhere near that yet, unless a visionary, inspirational radical lurks amongst us?

What will stop it is one side caving in, if RM can survive Christmas then I can't see it'll be them as they'll have clearly decided taking a financial, & PR, hit is worth it, but workers could well start returning to work in ever increasing numbers once the credit card bills start arriving in January.

It'll be interesting to see if RM make any further attempts to avoid this week's strikes or just stick to their "final offer".

But even if the union say next week “ok, we will accept this deal…..” do the members then get to vote?
Point being, I think Christmas has already been sacrificed.
If I was ST I wouldnt sacrifice Black Friday and Christmas and bucket load of bad PR to give in in January.

I’m not sure if any outcome of this dispute can be positive now.

[sindba]

What will end it?

Royal Mail stop attacking their employees and instead offer a sustainable, modernising plan for the company.

Easy.

[datasaint]

We would have won this dispute already if we had taken continuous strike action.

Look at the Barristers, they wrapped up there dispute and walked away with hefty pay rises within about 4 weeks.

Simon Thompson and the board like to emphasise what a credible business Royal Mail is, except with no workforce there is no business.

If we'd walked out and stayed out the public/media/shareholders/government would have pressured the board into settling.

The only way to win now is to keep striking, ultimately the losses to the business will reach a point the board can no longer justify it to the investors, and a pay rise will be more cost effective.

[FilthyBloke]

We would have won this dispute already if we had taken continuous strike action.

Look at the Barristers, they wrapped up there dispute and walked away with hefty pay rises within about 4 weeks.

Simon Thompson and the board like to emphasise what a credible business Royal Mail is, except with no workforce there is no business.

If we'd walked out and stayed out the public/media/shareholders/government would have pressured the board into settling.

The only way to win now is to keep striking, ultimately the losses to the business will reach a point the board can no longer justify it to the investors, and a pay rise will be more cost effective.

I agree that a continuous strike could have won if it had been implemented earlier.
But now, I’m not so sure. The busiest periods have already been sacrificed and striking in the new year will offer little deterrent to ST and his plans.

[TopperGas]

We would have won this dispute already if we had taken continuous strike action.

Look at the Barristers, they wrapped up there dispute and walked away with hefty pay rises within about 4 weeks.

Simon Thompson and the board like to emphasise what a credible business Royal Mail is, except with no workforce there is no business.

If we'd walked out and stayed out the public/media/shareholders/government would have pressured the board into settling.

The only way to win now is to keep striking, ultimately the losses to the business will reach a point the board can no longer justify it to the investors, and a pay rise will be more cost effective.

You're working on the basis people can afford to strike indefinitely and that the board will run out money, which I assume must also be the CWU's only hope now.

[Elvisted]

Simon and the board don't want an agreement.They have a mission to break the union at any cost.
My own thoughts are the strikes will begin to fail in January February.
Then the jackals will really hit.New contracts ,no sick pay et al.
The share price will rise and Simon will be the toast of the city and offered any directorship he wants.
I think the only way to force the issue is an indefinite strike now and get this over with?

[Jack1960]

We would have won this dispute already if we had taken continuous strike action.

Look at the Barristers, they wrapped up there dispute and walked away with hefty pay rises within about 4 weeks.

Simon Thompson and the board like to emphasise what a credible business Royal Mail is, except with no workforce there is no business.

If we'd walked out and stayed out the public/media/shareholders/government would have pressured the board into settling.

The only way to win now is to keep striking, ultimately the losses to the business will reach a point the board can no longer justify it to the investors, and a pay rise will be more cost effective.

Comparing us to barristers?
Keep losing RM more money so they can pay us more ?This was a polítical strike from day one .
Nearly all my office would vote for the deal , the claims and comments coming out of this site are now beyond parody.
Anyway off to the picket line now , we have a strike on a day we dont work

[Halfhappy]

We would have won this dispute already if we had taken continuous strike action.

Look at the Barristers, they wrapped up there dispute and walked away with hefty pay rises within about 4 weeks.

Simon Thompson and the board like to emphasise what a credible business Royal Mail is, except with no workforce there is no business.

If we'd walked out and stayed out the public/media/shareholders/government would have pressured the board into settling.

The only way to win now is to keep striking, ultimately the losses to the business will reach a point the board can no longer justify it to the investors, and a pay rise will be more cost effective.

Comparing us to barristers?
Keep losing RM more money so they can pay us more ?This was a polítical strike from day one .
Nearly all my office would vote for the deal , the claims and comments coming out of this site are now beyond parody.
Anyway off to the picket line now , we have a strike on a day we dont work

Of course you're the only person employed by RM, how could anyone else be possibly scheduled to work on a Sunday? I mean it's not like there's mailcentres, or anything. As if there'd be distribution or weekend processing happening. It's crazy!

Could you explain in what sense this has been a political strike from day one? I'm seeing this echoed a lot.

[Wullie10]

It is a political strike.the aim is ultimately a Labour government. History will repeat itself. Like james Challaghan in 1978 who found himself with massive inflation the unions will strike until the public have had enough as large wage increases will further fuel inflation and deafet the object. That brought in the era of Thatcher who deregulated the financial markets . This created prosperity for working people for a short while as it increased asset prices and created cheap money and massive public and private debt. But ultimately it only favoured the rich as increased asset prices only favour the rich. Interesting that the present government are brining in new anti union laws and more relaxed financial rules. As I say History just repeats himself.. The CWU mistake was not trying to reach an agreement for its members ages ago which may have not suited every worker but they chose a political war instead. It would make more sense if people tried to understand what created inflation in the first place The Russian Ukraine conflict , QE ( money printing ) first introduced by Alister Darling to save the banks and the ridiculous lockdowns which all parties supported.