dingo wrote:At the National Briefing the National Outdoor Officer instructed all Branch`s not to agree savings and not to agree any further peagsus revisions. Therefore all offices should be withdrawing from any revsion activity. Its the only way we can make sure Royal Mail are forced into talking to the union on the longer term Delivery model.
Unless of course RM ignore the disagreement and force the changes through on their terms. This happened at my DO 18 months ago. They are also starting to do it with savings plans but we are getting no guidance at all from branch, area, division or apparently HQ. The local rep is doing his best but as so many members feel let down by the Union the changes are creeping in piecemeal. Its OK to say withdraw from any revision activity, stop taking part in savings plans but frankly its not much help on the ground. Good leaders have plans and adapt them for the situation. A plan which appears to ignore events on the ground, such as whats happening now, is bound to fail as support for it will diminish amongst members.
What we need is a proactive Union one that is dynamic at all levels, what we appear to have is a reactive one. Royal Mail does something CWU reacts by saying withdraw from on ongoing discussions. OK - what then - where is the proactive part, where are the events, briefings, News items, daily or weekly digests and alerts, Area discussions, Meetings, local newspaper items and such stuff - this IMHO is where I as an ordinary member feel isolated and sometimes think "Will it be better to what they want, to get it all over and done with so I can get on with my job and life" and yet the Union does nothing in public. It might be doing loads in private but that does not helps us mushrooms. More support is lost through lack of information and advice than because RM plans are seen as good for us.
Some may see this as a bad time to criticise the Union and it probably is, but if the ordinary members aren't kept up to date, are left to feel isolated and alone then any plans they have to address the Hooper/Mandelson changes are doomed to failure without the support of the average working postie.
Sorry if this offends any Union officials on here but this is my honest opinion and is not an official RMC position. I am very pro-union but sometimes I feel as the Union is not very pro-me.
