A Few things to consider !

[miles_peters]

Voting NO means...

we won't be complicit in making the job unachievable and worse.

We can let RM ruin this once great company themself rather than be part of the reason of its destruction.

[Valentina@1]

Voting NO means...

we won't be complicit in making the job unachievable and worse.

We can let RM ruin this once great company themself rather than be part of the reason of its destruction.

…..let them bring in whatever they want

[claretandblue]

Interesting reading the comments. Nobody seems to be able to come up with any kind of alternative though?

I'm pretty sure one idea was to make the duties bigger with the expectation that you would only deliver half everything and half parcels+1c, rotating each half daily

(so similar to the rural plan but with a full days work)

Making the duties a third bigger would presumably remove 1 out of every 4 so the same savings I think.

Assuming this was actually do-able in practice would it be a possible alternative ?

At least it would be an equal expectation from everyone.

Obviously Saturday would be something different as only 1c mail is supposed to be delivered along with the parcels.

Also obviously this would have to be done properly with sensible revisions and not simply make up stupidly massive duties with bits bolted on from other parts of the town etc like it is now

This is my idea, bigger duties, but you only do one side and then rotate, no wasted inefficiency of singletons doing first class, and no having to travel to walk 3 and 4.

[claretandblue]

Voting NO means...

we won't be complicit in making the job unachievable and worse.

We can let RM ruin this once great company themself rather than be part of the reason of its destruction.

This, if DM26 is a disaster, RM will blame the union. Let them bring in ODM and watch it be a disaster.

[Lapzio]

Thats why i voted no , i know in my own mind im not complicit then to this train wreck, saturdays and monday are going to be a disaster , saturdays with 2 in 5 staff of , good luck at christmas and monday won't there be at least normal mail on half and double on the other half , with parcels and then do a third of another , when the union and management meet up would it be an ideal to have a very experienced postperson in the meeting to point out obvious failings .

[Acca Dacca]

I have one point;

You have said that the business have acknowledged that ODM is a failure and does not work

So if it was a NO vote, why would they bring that in by EA rather than just bring in DM26?

You say that there would be no uplifts from PT to FT despite the uplifts being a necessity of the business rather than doing PTers a turn.

PTers were still needng to be made up for ODM so thats a lot of shite for starters and is 100% scaremongering

This sort of stuff lets you down and just dilutes your points that do have substance

[Chitchat]

I'm voting no, because I'm fed up with these piss poor deals year on year giving more and more of our terms conditions (the things that make this job bearable), just to receive below inflation pay rises. The younger workers have decades of these deminished terms, conditions and new work practices. The cwu needs to be lead by a younger cohort, people who have a foot in the future of the business.

[darkgable]

Interesting reading the comments. Nobody seems to be able to come up with any kind of alternative though?

Mr Ward is on 150 Grand a year ! You would think that might be enough for him to come up with some ideas. or at least pretend to put up some sort of fight

[Duesouth]

A few things to consider is royal mail is not a gig economy and NO other company, delivers letters along with parcels.

I hate when someone compares oranges to apples and things are looking bad. Is it our fault the business is failing and profit is not being made year after year. I am sure if posties had some sort of input on how the business can be run then you would have staff stay instead of leaving. There is no incentives especially for new starts.

Every one has a right to vote but consider this if we vote Yes, great the USO reform gets implemented. If the ballot return is a No, then USO reform still gets implemented but it just means is the union have to ask WHY did the people vote No.

I have not cast my vote yet, but I wonder if its any point or not.

There is no confidence in either the union or the business because no one knows which direction we are heading. Failure to plan is planning to fail on all accounts.

[Hyrrokkin]

I'm voting no, because I'm fed up with these piss poor deals year on year giving more and more of our terms conditions (the things that make this job bearable), just to receive below inflation pay rises. The younger workers have decades of these deminished terms, conditions and new work practices. The cwu needs to be lead by a younger cohort, people who have a foot in the future of the business.

[qwerty2]

Interesting reading the comments. Nobody seems to be able to come up with any kind of alternative though?

Mr Ward is on 150 Grand a year ! You would think that might be enough for him to come up with some ideas. or at least pretend to put up some sort of fight

He said he wanted us to check on OAPs on our deliveries

[Mr Rush]

at this point they know there’s nothing they can do to stop this race to bottom and gig economy is coming regardless.

That's my reading too.

9. Voting no [...] is the road to oblivion and there is no way this union can allow Royal Mail to impose change or walk away totally from equalisation.

I find that paragraph very difficult to understand. Is it saying a no vote will put the CWU in a difficult position? It feels like it ends early and there should be a 'but...' at the end. The unsaid implication is that the CWU will huff and they will puff and they will poop their pants in defiance.

[A2B]

at this point they know there’s nothing they can do to stop this race to bottom and gig economy is coming regardless.

That's my reading too.

9. Voting no [...] is the road to oblivion and there is no way this union can allow Royal Mail to impose change or walk away totally from equalisation.

I find that paragraph very difficult to understand. Is it saying a no vote will put the CWU in a difficult position? It feels like it ends early and there should be a 'but...' at the end. The unsaid implication is that the CWU will huff and they will puff and they will poop their pants in defiance.

The CWU would have to get the authority from its members for any industrial action and I can't see there being that many backing industrial action over equalisation. The CWU have backed themselves into a corner on that issue and I can't see them getting out of it.

[LouBarlow]

There is a reason that Royal Mail haven’t offered a lump sum carrot this time round. The union has no power now. They messed up by agreeing to two tier employment with the last agreement and are now scrambling around as they realise these new employees aren’t interested in joining them. They have basically agreed to all of RM’s ideas in exchange for a bare minimum wage increase.

I’ve been on the gate during every wave of industrial action during my time, I’ve been pragmatic when voting for past agreements but there is no way I’m voting yes to this deal. It’s like voting for a slightly less painful death.

[blackrose23]

Interesting reading the comments. Nobody seems to be able to come up with any kind of alternative though?

The problem is that Royal Mail and the CWU are trying to save money in the wrong area. All posties are already overworked, you can’t make any more savings by giving them more work. What happens is normally hard working staff start downing tools and doing the bare minimum they can get away with.

Recruitment must be costing the company tens of millions a year. Keep 1 postie to a frame, uplift new entrants contracts and you start to make the job look like a career again.

At my DO we constantly have at least 10 agency staff in helping out. The cost per hour of agency staff is nearly double what Royal Mail would pay a postie. Fill office vacancies and do away with agency staff, obviously Christmas is different, but the rest of the year should have no agency staff at all, it is a waste of money.

We constantly have between 8 and 15 hire vans at my office. Every single day pairs are given spare vans so that they can get round a little quicker, so the need for the hire vans just isn’t there. Kretinsky the criminal who bought the company with debt, should think about investing some of his own capital to buy a new fleet, but he has no long term planning for a successful business, just short term profits.

The amount of Line Managers is an absolute joke. They simply aren’t needed. My office has 6 or 7 every day, when 2 would more than suffice.

Managers getting bonuses for posties delivering tracked? That is disgusting. We deliver the tracked, but the managers get a bonus? How is that fair under any circumstances? Strip the managers bonuses now.

So the alternative is reducing the ludicrous amount of line managers, stripping the managers of bonuses for posties delivering tracked items. Stop hiring agency staff and hiring vans. Pay new entrants fairly and the savings on recruitment will be astronomical.


Please stop listening to Martin Walsh as well, the guy is out to defend Kretinsky at every turn. I will be speaking to my local rep about action that can be taken to get Walsh and Ward removed from their positions as they clearly do not have their members best interests at heart. Ward and Walsh out now before more damage is done!