London calling

[POSTMAN]

PRODUCED BY LONDON DIVISIONAL COMMITTEE FOR LONDON POSTAL WORKERS & CWU MEMBERS IN ALL ROYAL MAIL GROUP BUSINESSES

TIME TO STAND TOGETHER!

The truth about Royal Mail's modernisation plans and why members must fight them!

The opposition to the Governments plans to partially privatise Royal Mail by selling up to a 49.9 % share of Royal Mail has quite rightly dominated the CWU`s campaign strategy thus far.

However, it is now essential that all members are aware of Royal Mail's strategy for the future under the guise of modernisation. The fact is that the word modernisation has some government ministers and other prominent people in a spin as they say you can’t oppose modernisation as its essential to Royal Mail's vibrant future.

What an absolute load of rubbish. These people do not know the slightest thing about Royal Mail and do not understand what Royal Mail`s plans are. The reality is that Royal Mail`s so called modernisation plans will lead to customers receiving their mail later including businesses. How the hell is that progress?

To the contrary, once again Royal Mail is attempting to con the Government, the union and its members and the Great British public. The way they have attempted to do this is by using the word modernise to push through their slash and burn policy to jobs, conditions and services.

So what is Royal Mail's vision of modernisation?

Recently they have reiterated their Strategy to adopt the Dutch Delivery Model. Whilst it is stated as a delivery model it affects processing, distribution and network drivers.

The fact is that in Holland the postal system is run by TNT who is the favorite to buy a share of Royal Mail. TNT has 84 % part timers who have a maximum contract of 16 hours. In the main, part timers do not have an office of work and have work delivered to pick up points. The majority of these part timers are housewives or students.

The remaining 16 % of staff who have a full time contract only have a guarantee of a full time job until 2014. Moreover, most full timers do not perform a delivery but simply perform prep work for the part timers to deliver.

Holland is roughly the same size as the South East and now has just 5 mail centre’s. There are only two duty patterns which are 1800 -0000 and 0000 -0600. In the main, there is only one collection per day and one network run per site.

How does Royal Mail intend to introduce their plan?

Royal Mail`s plan is to first introduce just one outdoor plan for mail centre’s (crash sorting). The idea behind this is to be able to reduce out ward hours and concentrate on the inward part of mail operation which in turn will allow for more automation.

One outward pass not only de skills the job but allows for further mail centre closures as well as dramatically reducing network runs.

For Delivery staff, Royal Mail has declared that they want to walk sequence all available mail. In this lies the problem, as whilst 60% of the work is available from midnight in a mail centre to walk sequence, this is mainly DSA, 2nd class and mail sort. The remaining 40% of mail which is first class and distant does not clear a mail centre until 04 40. By the time this work is walk sequenced it will not arrive in your delivery office until after 10 00 in the morning and as late as 11 depending on your offices geographical location to where the walk sequencer is located.

You will not be allowed out until the remaining 40% arrives but you will not necessarily need to come in at your current start times as the work has already been prepped by the machine. By the time the work arrives in a delivery office after 10 00, you will then need to merge your big packets and large flats, but with a last letter of 1400 you will not have a 3.5 hour delivery nor the opportunity for a four day week.

The model above only leads to a part time industry and the elimination of full time jobs.

What is the union position?

The CWU is totally opposed to Royal Mail`s plans as not only do they attack full time jobs , lead to further mail centre’s closures , the removal of 4 day weeks and reductions in earning levels, it also reduces the service to the public as well as firms.
The CWU have a national policy of giving no savings to management until such time as we have a national agreement which protects full time jobs and terms and conditions, including a shorter working week with no loss of pay.

Royal Mail wants to remove the equivalent of 16000 jobs in Royal Mail in this year alone. Every office will be affected by their plan.

In London we have carried a policy supported by all Branch`s that should Royal Mail attempt to introduce a revision in any office in London without agreement then we will ballot the London membership for strike action.

We have not taken this decision lightly but we know if we don’t stick together, then Royal Mail will defeat us one by one and impose their slash and burn approach to full time jobs and our conditions.

You’re left with a stark choice you either:

VOTE YES

to fight for a national agreement which protects full time jobs in the future, and maintains attendances and conditions for the future.

Or

Vote No – and you will condemn yourself and your colleagues to a job which will be mainly part time with worse terms and conditions. You will also signal to Royal Mail that you’re not willing to fight and they will then remove your terms and conditions layer by layer.


VOTE YES
FIGHT FOR YOUR JOB
&
YOUR FUTURE!

Time to Stand together.doc

[POSTMAN]

This is going out to London in the next couple of days.
Awaiting timetable for the ballot.

[k979aaa]

Well you london guys have it sussed but why cannot CWU H/Q they don't have a clue you don't have to be einstein to work out royalmails business plan ONE DELIVERY ONE COLLECTION AT THE SAME TIME PROBABLY 3.00PM!.

[patrickstar]

Bloody well done London!!!!
i totally agree with you ,lets get back to national agreements!!!

[Lowkeyizsik]

Our office in london has been told we can get a good agreement on savings now and majority of office voted in favour!
Union rep in office says our area rep says its best for our office to get an agreement now on savings as we can get a very good deal.
Personally dont think the offer is that great,but can anything be done to oppose it seeing as majority of office is in agreement??
I think it would be a very good idea to have union leaders regularly visits office and give updates and news to members as i doubt half our office members know that we are not to agree anything on savings!
How can we stay as 1 solid union, if we dont ALL sing from the same hymn sheet!?

[andy2007]

If there's been a vote in favour, then I seriously doubt that there's anything you can do about it. Unions are a Democracy, and although we're all entitled to have our say. Once the vote's been completed, we should abide by the wishes of the majority.

However: If the Union gains a National Agreement. I would expect it to superseed any previous Local Agreements.

[Martin Walsh]

Lowkeyizsik I am intrigued what office do you come from in London. I have just met with all of London area reps of the London Division and they have all given reports that no offices within their branch have agreed any savings and a document will be going out to all London members asking them to stand united and vote for strike action..

It may be that your office falls outside of the London Division as Romford , Dartford , Bromley , Croydon , Kingston Sutton , Harrow , wembley , Enfield are not part of the London Division.

However what i can not understand is how your office believes the deal is good for your unit and for your future. Royal Mail want to introduce a 70 /30 split on full time and part time duties and downgrade the job and terms and conditions. Its is very likely that we will ballot all London Members within the next week in defence of full time jobs and ensuring we have national agreements which protect all members going forward.

The unions policy is no savings until we achieve that agreement. I would be more then willing to come to your office to speak to the members to change their mind feel free to PM me and I will attend a meeting and hopefully change your members minds and explain the bigger picture.

[dvbuk55]

Why is it being produced by the London Division and not CWU HQ? Have there been no changes in London already - because I would imagine every poster on here has experienced literally dozens of changes since 2007 in their respective offices. If it is union policy then why haven't they come out and said it is policy to each and every branch and if they have then why aren't the branches adhering to it - I can say categorically that changes have been proposed in our office and accepted by the union rep and I can also say that the membership in general haven't the faintest idea what the union policy is and they aren't prepared to take the risk of being sacked and abandoned.

Wait a mo - it isn't because HQ don't want to be accused of being obstructive and not actually accepting "modernisation" is it?

If only we could all see the "bigger picture" - in fact we might be able to if someone cared to explain what the bigger picture is - but then my experience of the "bigger picture" tends to be a huge landscape where ordinary members aren't usually in it.

[guvenor]

why just london
what about rest of us come in glasgow liverpool edinburgh manchester wtf you all waiting on
numbers matter pt /ft it doesnt matter
hrs will be scaled down wages conditions etc etc etc.
whats wrong with national ballot if our jobs fu**** anyway what we got io lose

[johnsouthwales]

gordan bennit...the netherlands is a country about the same size as northern ireland. holland is a small flat country. oh and germany looks like if it is profitable only because it has a higher postage rate even if deutsche post is efficient..(see my other post).. id like to find out how it is expected to be possible to supply the whole of the uk mail based on hollands module @ 16 hours a week .. tut

uk is cheapest in europe and now 'profitable' ...

[TrueBlueTerrier]

gordan bennit...the netherlands is a country about the same size as northern ireland. holland is a small flat country. oh and germany looks like if it is profitable only because it has a higher postage rate even if deutsche post is efficient..(see my other post).. id like to find out how it is expected to be possible to supply the whole of the uk mail based on hollands module @ 16 hours a week .. tut

uk is cheapest in europe and now 'profitable' ...

Also having lived in Germany for 6 years I can state that the majority of accommodation in that country is flats/apartments (they have whole streets of them) usually no higher than 6 stories. They have one entrance point where all the letter boxes are situated (sometimes up to 50). Historically Germany has had 60 - 70% living in this type of accommodation. Not quite the same as we face every working day.

[trythat]

Bloody well done London!!!!
i totally agree with you ,lets get back to national agreements!!!

Well said, I've been bleating about national agreements for a while now, I'm not sure why HQ don't do national agreements and do us all a favour. We've just had the last part (third) of the current Geo going in, they had to shove it in this week, as we're now at the start of the financial year, we're still trying to get the first part sorted, we've trouble with willful delay claims, having problems getting Area rep involved, we're trying our best, but not getting very far, fast. TBH I'm rather pissed off at the CWU!!

[POSTMAN]

The only thing i can suggest,is print of the doc in the thread,and show it to as many people as poss,including your branch.
You need to get hold of your branches.Email it to them.

[k979aaa]

Bloody well done London!!!!
i totally agree with you ,lets get back to national agreements!!!

Well said, I've been bleating about national agreements for a while now, I'm not sure why HQ don't do national agreements and do us all a favour. We've just had the last part (third) of the current Geo going in, they had to shove it in this week, as we're now at the start of the financial year, we're still trying to get the first part sorted, we've trouble with willful delay claims, having problems getting Area rep involved, we're trying our best, but not getting very far, fast. TBH I'm rather pissed off at the CWU!!

And you are not the only one thousand of rep's and tens of thousands of members of our union but the buck stops at the top they have not even had the decency too show us royalmails proposals of their business plan!. INSTEAD IT UNFOLDS ITS SELF BEFORE OUR EYES if this was a war the enemy would have slaughtered all the lion's and be knocking on the donkeys door CWU H/Q NEEDS TO WAKE UP NOW!.

[johnsouthwales]

that's also true terrier.. flats, apartments. also, the houses have their post box situated at the gate, as it is customary not to enter onto someone's property as it's always been regarded as private. they even have door bells at the gate, bit like a buzzer really.