Ward, Walsh, Bouch, have to go

[Barnacle]

The decent thing would be to step down, but they won’t and they are nigh on impossible to oust.

Why do they have to go? Because members, those that pay their wages, have lost all trust in them. They are not safe hands.

They backed a Yes vote on DM26. They completely ignored the feedback from posties and unit reps telling them that managers were ignoring the agreement and applying DM26 as it suited them to the detriment of posties.

They expected unit reps to sign off on all aspects of a delivery model that will result in a quarter of the staff in an office losing their jobs. Those staff are union members. Did they not realise that that was who they were lining up for the chop?

What rep could do that? A bullied rep that’s who.

Ward, Walsh and Bouch should go.

[smok3y666]

Stop paying their wages. Simple.

[Sean06]

Not going to happen.

[Barnacle]

Stop paying their wages. Simple.

Workers need a union so withdrawing membership hurts the members not the leadership.

The rot is at the top.

[clashcityrocker]

And who is lining up to replace them?

[FirstPost]

Vote with your money and leave

[Clappedoutpostie]

Be careful what you wish for.

[funkflex55]

Yep we definitely need a union. Imagine how bad it would be without them. I know DM26 is s**t and that the job has declined. The hours a still decent in most offices, legacy pay is still above all similar jobs and the general terms are not bad. With no union at all we'd be f****d.

However, Barnacle, agreed. The union needs new leadership. Recent decisions have weakened the position and DM26 in particular is bad move. The 2 tier workforce was also a red line. I'm also "legacy".

[SpacePhoenix]

I think for a lot of staff that see RM and the CWU being one and the same.

[richietns]

The union is just an extension of this shity labour government.

[Mr Rush]

And who is lining up to replace them?

Hardly a ringing endorsement of the encumbants. Much like operational management, the service has undergone brain death as the job has been casualised (we're far along the axis of 'some semblance of career progression to Higher Grade' and 'gig'). There is noöne capable coming up the ranks of either except a great many shysters looking to get off delivery.

[norris9]

Not sure anyone lost their jobs with how many people leave this job each week.

For me DM26 is fine.... it works on singletons.... it's just Saturdays that are impossible to complete.

Yes, I understand pods are likely struggling.

We had 4 years of no day-off cover.... these days we have day-off cover, so things are generally better.

[Perseus]

Not sure anyone lost their jobs with how many people leave this job each week.

For me DM26 is fine.... it works on singletons.... it's just Saturdays that are impossible to complete.

Yes, I understand pods are likely struggling.

We had 4 years of no day-off cover.... these days we have day-off cover, so things are generally better.

DM26, the theory of it, works everywhere. Like all things Royal Mail the implementation is where it falls apart. We've now gone a whisker under 2 years since they talked about trialing a new delivery method that prevented people from 'wasting' time walking/driving up a road with a measly 2C letter every single day (theoretically).
RM have around a decade of real data to show how long each and every street has taken to deliver on average, PDA actuals. The CWU should have insisted on the use of this to build properly sized duties - make the data work for the staff for a change. Instead we have gone into DM26 with duties, and I'm not exaggerating when I say this, that are 50% difference in size. A data driven revision in each office (with allowances for things that just work better when a human decides) should have been a red line for the union when agreeing to ANY delivery model change. In ours, it would take about 2 weeks, maximum. The only reason that I've heard of no revisions being done in this way is because of the time constraints. Well, we are 2 years down the line, offices up and down the country are in a mess, the union are losing hundreds of members (£) each month, and it didn't have to be like this.
But what do we on the front line know, eh.....

[stage3]

The reason why members resign out of disgust is the because the channels for holding the leaders accountable are non-existent. These structures need to be built up from the rank and file.

Walsh does not organise a "summit" with the membership on DM26 as he would face demands for it to be scrapped. Instead, he is in closed door meetings on Tuesday to salvage the cost cutting exercise with management and EP Group.

The Postal Workers Rank and File Committee have called for a No confidence vote, here is a suggestion to get out to the shopfloor.

Motion of No Confidence in Dave Ward, Martin Walsh and Tony Bouch

This branch has no confidence in General Secretary Dave Ward, Deputy General Secretary Martin Walsh and Outdoor Assistant Secretary Tony Bouch. Their leadership has failed the membership, and they must go.

They mis-sold us DM26. Promoted as a worker-friendly alternative to the failed Optimised Delivery Model it has continued the same agenda: cutting delivery duties from four to three and transferring the extra workload onto delivery workers.

They failed to secure a valid mandate. Walsh and Bouch promoted a Yes vote, offering members a choice between two management-driven models. Turnout was just 32%, with barely one in five eligible members voting to accept the deal.

They have failed to confront the consequences. Since May, members have reported mounting backlogs, delivery spans exceeding five hours and daily walks of up to 15 miles. The figures cited by Martin Walsh from Royal Mail of an improved 98.2% delivery-point coverage has covered-up the crisis of undelivered mail as parcels have been prioritised.

They have presided over a two-tier workforce. New entrants face £13.06 an hour, unpaid meal breaks and no delivery supplement. Reports of around 400 workers leaving weekly raise serious concerns about retention, morale and the workforce's future.

They have failed to provide representation. Rather than challenge management's agenda, they backed a settlement leaving members with heavier workloads, worsening conditions and increasing pressure.

A union should be defending its members, not accommodate management's priorities. This branch therefore calls for a vote of no confidence in Dave Ward, Martin Walsh and Tony Bouch.

[scoobydo79]

I still can’t believe a union have approved getting rid of 1 in 4 jobs and letting the remaining 3 take the workload. OK I know I have over simplified it but that is the crux of it