Does the current ODM-lite ways of working strengthen the CWU's bargaining position?

[Perseus]

Seems the London branches are being prepped for striking. CWU London facebook pages full of placard waving staff and a recent LTB stating that they can ballot for either local or national strikes. How can you have a local strike for a National issue?

[Mcclinton]

No chance of ether matching Evri on price, with their business model, owner drivers,no pensions,no sick pay etc.

[Mr Rush]

No chance of ether matching Evri on price, with their business model, owner drivers,no pensions,no sick pay etc.

Indeed, no free lunches. Not that IDS/RMG is untainted by such behaviour, for they own GLS which does the exact same thing on the continent. All the big state-owned postal services did it at the turn of the century on other countries' turf to buoy their domestic operations, but now cross-subsidisation is the new financial taboo.

[SpacePhoenix]

Seems the London branches are being prepped for striking. CWU London facebook pages full of placard waving staff and a recent LTB stating that they can ballot for either local or national strikes. How can you have a local strike for a National issue?

If the MCs in the London area went on strike, the outward mail would get diverted to MCs outside of London. It could get interesting when the MCs that it gets diverted to process the mail.

[postslippete]

More parcels doesn't always mean more profit of you're margins are being squeezed by competition.

Lets say 'Petes Products' uses Royal mail for their parcel (1 million units per year) and RM charge Pete £5 per parcel.
Royal mail have a gross income of £5 million

Lets say Evri offer Pete the same service for £3 per parcel. Pete goes back to Royal mail who agree they'll go down to £3.50.

For the same work Royal mail are £1.5 million down.

If Royal Mail refuse they end up £5 million down

You're only telling half a story. RM has been telling us for years that parcels, rather than letters, are where the money is and that the job needs to be reorganised around them. Now we are told that parcels don't really make that much money but they still expect more from its staff - more flex, more pressure, more workload - with no improvements in pay or conditions.

If the business genuinely believes that parcels aren't profitable enough to support decent pay and conditions, then why bother reorganising the entire job around them in the first place??

[postslippete]

Absolutely which is where some realism comes into play. In the current climate cost is king.

The business will year by year erode into a gig economy job - the letters are just not sustainable and parcels can be delivered by competitors for alot less

If cost was the only thing that mattered, then every courier would try and operate like Evri - but they don't. DPD and UPS don't run a gig-economy model and have chosen to offer their drivers better pay and training and for that they experience what I call a much lower "churn" and much higher reliability.

The idea that RM must become part of the gig-economy to survive would be their choice to make but right now the USO that RM has is fundamentally incompatible with a true gig-economy model as they are not able to cherry-pick. However with more flexible contracts, variable start/finish times, the use of agency and more pressure towards productivity via "myperformance" - they are trying to behave like one. But truthfully I don't think RM can't actually out-Evri, Evri, without actually becoming Evri.... And once they go down that road they will end up losing the very thing that made RM the trusted brand it once was with quality postal workers giving a quality service.

[norris9]

There's probably a lot more to it. It's not necessarily about matching Evri's pricing, but reducing the cost enough to make businesses tempted to pay a bit extra to send through Royal Mail, assuming we actually clearly provide a better, more reliable service....

but we all know Royal Mail aren't as reliable as they once were and it's only going to get worse if the USO changes come in.

[Clappedoutpostie]

No chance of ether matching Evri on price, with their business model, owner drivers,no pensions,no sick pay etc.

There is in the postable packet market which they are targeting

[Thommo44]

There's probably a lot more to it. It's not necessarily about matching Evri's pricing, but reducing the cost enough to make businesses tempted to pay a bit extra to send through Royal Mail, assuming we actually clearly provide a better, more reliable service....

but we all know Royal Mail aren't as reliable as they once were and it's only going to get worse if the USO changes come in.

Royal Mails name is now as bad as Evri, this mess has ruined customer confidence

[Mr Rush]

Royal Mails name is now as bad as Evri, this mess has ruined customer confidence

Evri can afford to trash and change names like the disposable brand that it is. Can we?

[qwerty2]

Royal Mails name is now as bad as Evri, this mess has ruined customer confidence

Evri can afford to trash and change names like the disposable brand that it is. Can we?

Like Consignia

[Thommo44]

Royal Mails name is now as bad as Evri, this mess has ruined customer confidence

Evri can afford to trash and change names like the disposable brand that it is. Can we?

Change the name and lose hundreds of years excellent reputation to start level with Evri.
The government should have made the deal, they could buy the business but the property would remain state owned. They could rent and maintain but the state kept the deeds