CWU membership shrank by 14,766 - down 8%

[Smoothbackground]

At this rate, new entrants will make up 60% of the workforce within the next three years,

It's going to hit a point eventually where there'll be a small enough % of staff on "legacy" contracts that when RM factor in employment tribunal costs, it'll be cheap enough to force any staff who remain on "legacy" contracts over to the new contracts

I think you’re bang on the money there, SP. It wouldn’t surprise me if before that though there were some small-scale enhancements to the existing new-entrant contract so that anybody “forced” over can be told (and employment tribunals can be told) it isn’t all doom and gloom for them on the new Ts and Cs, but ultimately, as you predict, RM will just take any financial outlay on the chin.

[Smoothbackground]

Anyway, CWU membership is following a universal trend of reduced interest in trade unions …

If you had bothered to read the link before doing battle you would have seen that the headline was “More than half of TUC-affiliated unions see membership growth”.

More than half of the TUC’s 48 member unions arrive at this month’s TUC Congress in Brighton having grown their memberships significantly since last year.

Hardly the “universal trend of reduced interest” that you would contend for, is it?

Stop clinging to The Titanic!

I apologise for confusing you by flipping from ‘universal’ meaning the entire world, where union membership is down, to referring to the national situation of the CWU, within the same paragraph.

You didn’t confuse me at all. You related dwindling CWU membership numbers to a universal - meaning the entire world - trend of reduced interest in unions. I pointed out that the reverse is true: that there is a universal trend of increased interest in unions, indeed some from workers who have hitherto not been involved at all with unions — from Uber drivers, shop workers. Amazon workers, gig economy players — resulting in the NEU, for example, recruiting over 39,000 new members in the last year alone, Usdaw almost 4,000, etc, etc. The union movement is enjoying something of a renaissance elsewhere in industry, it would seem. But for the CWU the outlook is much bleaker…

[Jb1969]

At this rate, new entrants will make up 60% of the workforce within the next three years,

It's going to hit a point eventually where there'll be a small enough % of staff on "legacy" contracts that when RM factor in employment tribunal costs, it'll be cheap enough to force any staff who remain on "legacy" contracts over to the new contracts

I think you’re bang on the money there, SP. It wouldn’t surprise me if before that though there were some small-scale enhancements to the existing new-entrant contract so that anybody “forced” over can be told (and employment tribunals can be told) it isn’t all doom and gloom for them on the new Ts and Cs, but ultimately, as you predict, RM will just take any financial outlay on the chin.

You seriously think they can lower the terms of existing employees in the 1000s.
That’s quite funny & rather naive, talk about scaremongering.

[Smoothbackground]

At this rate, new entrants will make up 60% of the workforce within the next three years,

It's going to hit a point eventually where there'll be a small enough % of staff on "legacy" contracts that when RM factor in employment tribunal costs, it'll be cheap enough to force any staff who remain on "legacy" contracts over to the new contracts

I think you’re bang on the money there, SP. It wouldn’t surprise me if before that though there were some small-scale enhancements to the existing new-entrant contract so that anybody “forced” over can be told (and employment tribunals can be told) it isn’t all doom and gloom for them on the new Ts and Cs, but ultimately, as you predict, RM will just take any financial outlay on the chin.

You seriously think they can lower the terms of existing employees in the 1000s.
That’s quite funny & rather naive, talk about scaremongering.

No, they won’t do that while there are still thousands of existing employees on legacy contracts; it will be a slower process than that. It will be as SpacePhoenix predicts above — once there is a small enough percentage.

[TopperGas]

At this rate, new entrants will make up 60% of the workforce within the next three years,

It's going to hit a point eventually where there'll be a small enough % of staff on "legacy" contracts that when RM factor in employment tribunal costs, it'll be cheap enough to force any staff who remain on "legacy" contracts over to the new contracts

Surely they can only do that by "fire & re-hire" something Labour have suggested they intend outlawing? Although only many years are we talking about before the % even gets below 25%, probably 5 to 10 years by then RM itself may not even exist and letters gone the same way as CD''s & DVD's.

[Barnacle]

At this rate, new entrants will make up 60% of the workforce within the next three years,

It's going to hit a point eventually where there'll be a small enough % of staff on "legacy" contracts that when RM factor in employment tribunal costs, it'll be cheap enough to force any staff who remain on "legacy" contracts over to the new contracts

Surely they can only do that by "fire & re-hire" something Labour have suggested they intend outlawing? Although only many years are we talking about before the % even gets below 25%, probably 5 to 10 years by then RM itself may not even exist and letters gone the same way as CD''s & DVD's.

They seem to be shy of going for fire & rehire and are doing it the extremely slow way. The negative backlash when P&O did it must have put them off. But didn’t Asda also do it? I can’t remember a massive fuss about that?

[postslippete]

They seem to be shy of going for fire & rehire and are doing it the extremely slow way. The negative backlash when P&O did it must have put them off. But didn’t Asda also do it? I can’t remember a massive fuss about that?

Asda were called into two Committee's last year over its fire and rehire tactics. At Asda this affected over 7,000 workers, particularly those who live in the London area who are historically paid more to offset the higher cost of living.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYSEmtbm2A4


Not sure what the outcome of all this was (maybe those affected got some sort of compensation) but its morally wrong for companies to make big profits that award big shareholders yet still look at ways at cutting costs that directly impacts those who on the lowest wage.

The main reason why the CWU have lost members compared to other Unions is because they are too out of touch with its members that it is supposed to represent. We desperately need a change of leadership, a completely different structure and a Union that best represents the staff on the shop floor instead of the management. Some of our reps might as well be part of Unite - the managers Union.

[Tman]

We’ve just had 14 years of a gov that has no time for trade unions.

So workers don't join unions because the "gov has no time for unions"? If workers' rights have been eroded by Gov policies and interventions wouldn't more employees join the unions?

[Barnacle]

We’ve just had 14 years of a gov that has no time for trade unions.

So workers don't join unions because the "gov has no time for unions"? If workers' rights have been eroded by Gov policies and interventions wouldn't more employees join the unions?

Union membership declined in the 80s which is probably one of the most active periods for disputes between union and gov. So membership levels don’t necessarily follow a predictable path.

[Linden14]

Have a walk in delivery offices and what's asked of us and there's your answer we are left to rot

[TheTrolleyMan]

We have had 3 quit this week and I'm thinking of quiting .
We've had no office rep for a while but 1 lad has put his name forward. He's been there for 15 plus years, always been with us on the picket line and is a decent chap.
However a girl has also put herself forward, she crossed every single picket line and clearly has no loyalty to the union or its members. The lad asked her to be his number 2 in the office but she said No, she wants to be number 1 Top Dog....the aera rep is backing her.
Not sure I can pay my subs for a office rep that obviously is doing it for her own self interests and not for the benefit of the staff...
3 down this week and think I'll br the 4th to go

Pull your money mate . Dave Wards betrayal of his members are the reason for the members cancelling their subs

[Playmail]

Minimum wage is set to rise to £12.10 soon we will all on minimum wage

[PenfoldMouse]

They seem to be shy of going for fire & rehire and are doing it the extremely slow way. The negative backlash when P&O did it must have put them off. But didn’t Asda also do it? I can’t remember a massive fuss about that?

Asda were called into two Committee's last year over its fire and rehire tactics. At Asda this affected over 7,000 workers, particularly those who live in the London area who are historically paid more to offset the higher cost of living.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYSEmtbm2A4


Not sure what the outcome of all this was (maybe those affected got some sort of compensation) but its morally wrong for companies to make big profits that award big shareholders yet still look at ways at cutting costs that directly impacts those who on the lowest wage.

The main reason why the CWU have lost members compared to other Unions is because they are too out of touch with its members that it is supposed to represent. We desperately need a change of leadership, a completely different structure and a Union that best represents the staff on the shop floor instead of the management. Some of our reps might as well be part of Unite - the managers Union.

Someone doesnt seem focused on the right things to me. They dont have much hope of getting people on these new contracts to sign up. Does anyone honestly think Dave's going to step down next year and who would want to take over anyway?

[Barnacle]

They seem to be shy of going for fire & rehire and are doing it the extremely slow way. The negative backlash when P&O did it must have put them off. But didn’t Asda also do it? I can’t remember a massive fuss about that?

Asda were called into two Committee's last year over its fire and rehire tactics. At Asda this affected over 7,000 workers, particularly those who live in the London area who are historically paid more to offset the higher cost of living.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYSEmtbm2A4


Not sure what the outcome of all this was (maybe those affected got some sort of compensation) but its morally wrong for companies to make big profits that award big shareholders yet still look at ways at cutting costs that directly impacts those who on the lowest wage.

The main reason why the CWU have lost members compared to other Unions is because they are too out of touch with its members that it is supposed to represent. We desperately need a change of leadership, a completely different structure and a Union that best represents the staff on the shop floor instead of the management. Some of our reps might as well be part of Unite - the managers Union.

Someone doesnt seem focused on the right things to me. They dont have much hope of getting people on these new contracts to sign up. Does anyone honestly think Dave's going to step down next year and who would want to take over anyway?

If you are sitting with a legacy contract, then you will look at the new contracts and think they’re awful. But it’s not a choice a new entrant has to choose between. The new contract is what it is and it’s probably better working for RM than Evri or any of the other smaller parcel companies.

[yellowbelly]

I used to get LTBs e-mailed to me which was the most useful thing they could send me since we had a DOM that liked to make s**t up. They stopped sending those in 2015 and instead mostly send fluff about discount entry to heritage sites, and they wonder why I come here so often.

I still get them emailed to me directly from CWU, at some point they updated 'the system' and I had to re-register with their on-line portal.
It might be worth checking if you need to re-register: https://www.cwu.org/cwu-member-portal/ or update to receive the LTB's.

You're right - it's worth getting them as you find out loads of stuff that either your local branch/reps and/or management 'forget' to tell you.