Executive action hits London

[pinstripe]

I wish my union subs were paid direct to my local rep. If it wasn't for him, our office would have been steamrollered. As it is, he achieved the best deal for us that he could, despite the branch. The national policy of no agreements was publicised a week too late for us. Maybe Branches and HQ should actually tell us what they want us to do, rather than have us guess. First they agree to local agreements, then they don't, then they say continue negotiating, but don't agree to anything, what the F is that? They're as bad as RM sometimes. And it's no use blaming the membership, 67% of those who voted in 2007 accepted the blood money willingly. You reap what you sow, and boy are we reaping it now. Don't get me wrong, I'm impressed with London and Scotland, but due to poor leadership and a total lack of vision from HQ the rest of us have been through all this already. There was no cry for a national ballot when we were being picked off one by one.

[rockytony67]

Good Luck to London ,hopefully some good will come out of it.
But rank and file members in general feel the National Union sold them down the river in 2007 and continues to do so.
As for blame,THe lines between senoir RM managers and Senior CWU are Blured.
In my expirence,RM never have any national problems,they are always local issues ,and and blame to be laid will be to a local Manager,obviously CWU follows the same leadership.

Some local reps do a great job under difficult circumstances,and its not the most popular JOB IS IT?
Top cwu Leaders ,should lead from the top and lead by example,not be about as good as a dead sheep,RM must love our CWU leaders.

People keep going on about 2007, but they got a vote and they made there choices, right or wrong the membership voted, what do people want a dictatorship were HQ says what goes, people would be up in arms, and let nobody say that it's HQ fault that people voted for the deal because HQ told them too, remember the Way forward vote that HQ lost, remember the SDD vote that HQ lost, the membership is wise(or stupid) enough to vote for what they want

[ldsposti]

our office thinks the area rep sides with the management all the time everytime he come's to our office we ask what we can do about cut's,changes, moving staff all unaggreed by us all he say's is "there is nothing you can do but work your hours" but when staff are bullied into working past thier time the union is nowhere to be seen our area rep is so good he switches his phone off at 1.30 from what i hear from staff the union will not get any backing from us why should we when they will not listen to us.

[robd]

Undoubtedly the pay and modernisation agreement has led to differing interpretation on both sides.
The real grey area being 'to work your paid hours' which sounds harmless enough,but it has changed
the goalposts completely in our D.O.
We are now having to permenantly lapse dutys on the quieter days,we have had geo-route revision
which has taken several dutys out,the office is now 60-40 full-time/part-time,there is an area
agreement on the CDV,which i understand has been trialled and is being phased in by august,and
so on,still not many people are aware of this site and how informative it is,and as far as i
know we have received no mention from the union regarding industrial action in London.
So when i mention it people want to know what London is being ballotted for,if it's to try and
get agreement on the above i'm afraid it's to late for us,and many others.
The last poster was obviously from our area because anything you contest is pointless as the
area rep is clearly the puppet on the DSM'S string.

[bogstandard]

The last poster was obviously from our area because anything you contest is pointless as the
area rep is clearly the puppet on the DSM'S string.

i feel as though we may be from the same area too. Our area rep used to go in for a "5 minute chat" before or after we were due to have meetings. came out of the one before last so depressed and disappointed it was unbelievable. So decided and told the area rep the 5 minute chats stop and you support us, or you don't come here again the choice is yours. The office is ready to lynch him.
I wish i was making it up but we would sit down with us trying to tow the HQ line (as best we could), then hin go and say we can't, but not only say we can't but do this in front of the DOM and with no explanation from the area rep as to why.
At our last meeting he spent his whole time on site with a CWU member or rep and was escorted on and off site, didnt say much in the meeting and the DOM came round to our way of thinking, RESULT.
Of course we can't monitor him when he's not here' but it's a start.

[andy2007]

very good belial but what are you talking about ?

BELIAL im confused as well please explain in what context are you using that top word "numpty"
PS heres a good explanation to all our comrades south o the border on the word numpty
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/apr/0 ... features11" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks for the link. I often wondered where the word numpty had suddenly sprung from. Although personally, I didn't have any problem working out what it meant.

[andy2007]

Dvbuk you wont find me moaning i believe that if you talk the talk you have to walk the walk thats why we up for the row and thats why we have not really been effected by pay and mod becuase we believe in sticking together.

So I dont know what branch your from but the last LTB asked for branch`s to give the wildest possible circulation of that letter obviously your branch didt or is that another thing you can blame CWU HQs for.

When those of us who are fighting on your behalf achieve a national agreement I hope you dont moan too much about it as you wont have done a thing to assist in getting it.

Before I start, I'd just like to say that this is my personal opinion. But I do feel VERY strongly about this:
1) In 2007, many people became disheartened by CWU HQ falling for the same ruse a few times. Specifically: Stopping all IA, to get RM back to the table. Which allowed them to recover the backlog, while using delaying tacics, but not actually bringing anything new to the table.

To fall for it once, is understandable. To continue to fall for it, shows a level of naievety that shouldn't be seen in high ranking Union Negotiators.

2) I believe that, that is why the Pay and Modernisation Agreement was voted in. People were loosing hope.

3) Some of you, have learned from that experience. And are talking directly to the Membership. And more importantly: Paying attention to what we're saying. I have a great deal of respect, for those of you who are doing so. Thankyou.

4) Because of the lack of faith, resulting from 2007's fiasco. It's now hard to get some people on board. But it's not insurmountable. At the very least, it should be attempted.

5) If and when it we get a National Ballot. It would be wise to ask ALL sections of RM. As those of us who don't work in Deliveries, are still Members. And we would like the opportunity to stand together with our Collegues.

6) Strenuous efforts should be being made by HQ, to involve the "Rank and File", in this process generally. By communicating better. Either on their own Website (by allowing feedback, as well as information). Or by coming on here, as you, and a few of your peers do. And discussing it with us properly.

[borders]

Numpty is the last word i would use to describe Dingo ,so hopefully it was meant as an affectionate term !! some very good and valid points made by a lot of people . at our place the savings etc have been going on for several years now and it usually only effects some people. this, rather than being a wholesale attack on everyone, makes it easier for RM to impliment and usually means no opposition from the members. this general chipping away is a great tactic and in the present climate works well. the unions are the only place the working class has to turn to ,all the political parties are wedded to the same policies but IMO the unions are pretty toothless in this country due to the Anti- Trade Union Laws amongst other things. in the boom times the Capitalist Class will concede concessions , in the bust times they want to take them back and some more. the Unions really only act in a reformist manner and until we have a Party that really challenges how our society is run , then we are all in for more of the same. however, the Union is the best we have got and i applaud Dingo , his collegues and the Scottish Posties etc for making a stand against this unprecedented attack on us all.

[savo]

I agree.. if only we had a Dingo in every office in the UK...

I assume they know about this site, so why dont Hayes & Ward come on here and answer some of the questions asked by the ordinary members who pay their salaries ?

[DGP1]

I agree.. if only we had a Dingo in every office in the UK...

I assume they know about this site, so why dont Hayes & Ward come on here and answer some of the questions asked by the ordinary members who pay their salaries ?

I believe they are members of the site but considering how we would react to them it's probably best that they do not identify themselves.

[Martin Walsh]

Personally I think the issue with headquaters is that you have to many different agendas in one biulding for some total victory over the Government bill is their sole objective and they dont want disputes happening which may cause problems with both publicty and the Government.

Personally I believe that if we were to defeat the Government over privatisation but be left with Royal Mail`s modernasiation then we would have lost big time.

A lot of people talk about a joined up politcal and industrial fight but when it comes down to it they choose one or the other.

I dont think we have that choice and therefore that is why London and others are fighting it is now or never.

With regard to pay and mod I always believe that if you contiue to moan about something especially if your a rep or an activist then you do too things you make the members feel that there scarfices were in vain which is not true if you look at what Royal Mail orginally wanted and secondly you make it hard to organise a national dispute in the future.

Royal Mail senior management think they lost the last dispute thats why they got rid of all the old guard . They believe that we took the two pay rises , two £400 payments and delivered change on the margins of what they wanted with outdoor asorbiton still not taking place in London and large parts of the south east.

This is why management want to introuce change without agreement and this is why mick stockdale head of deliveries has told the cwu that they only want consultation and not negotaition on the future. Plus their response to the delivery blue print is total rejection and they are proposing regualr revisons based on 100BSI plus thay state they want the number of walks to vary on a week to week basis during the year.

This is about destroying the CWU as they dont want any future national agreements. Thats what we are fighting for a national agreement.

With regards to comms from Headquaters if you knew how many departments a comm to the members has to go through you would understand why by the time it is released it is behind the times. Thats why Headquaters needs to be reformed you cannot have control freaks and egos get in the way of good communiactions to the members.

Personally I believe the future is Regional or Divisonal Comms and now Chris Webb has been elected to the South West then the comms in that part of the world will improve. The North East produce some good comms and we do in London but I am not sure wether other divisons produce comms on either an effective or consistant matter. In addition all Branch`s recieve a rebate and should ensure they communicate well with their members on polices from National Dvisional or Branch wide.

For those who still cant see beyond pay and mod please believe me that pay and mod is the purely the start of a process and what they really want is far worse. By not seeing further then 2007 Pay and Mod you are allowing Royal Mail to destroy our jobs and conditions.

In London we hated the way forward and along with the anglia , south east and south central divisons managed to lead a campaign which got a no vote in the first ballot and whilst it got in on the second vote we managed to not introduce the PBS/ Fit to deliver revisons in London and we came within one branch vote of winning a no confidence vote against John Keggie who within 2 years had lost the DGSP job to Dave Ward and we changed the PEC as those who supported the way forward were voted out in the PEC elections.

Despite our hatred of the way forward when the 2003 dispute came around and nationally there was a no vote. London achieved a yes vote for a london weiighting strike and was the only divison to get a yes vote in the National no vote. The London weighting strike which in the end led to the biggest unofficial dispute since the miners and rescued the CWU and achieved the £26.28 pay rise , 5 day week and MTSF 2.

The moral is that in London we moved on we didt give up because we didt like a national agreement we campaigned for change and we fought and won something better.

You have the same choice keep moaning about 2007 or fight to stop and change Royal Mails plans for every office and fight for something better.

over to you !!

[jockstrapp]

What exactly is happening in Scotland as I and the rest of my office don't know what is being talked about????

[dvbuk55]

Remind me again what we pay union subs for.

When I go to the supermarket I pay for the whole deal not pay for the whole deal for half a shopping trolley.

[lekker]

RM have nowadays taken the approach to divide and conquer. Chip away here and there and gradually grind us down. It is harder to do in the big areas but they seem determined on a showdown. Bear in mind that they have been trying to destroy the union since Leighton and Crozier took over, hence the sowing the seeds of dissension amongst the members, the propaganda at WTL sessions and the "one to ones" they are holding. All designed to weaken YOUR union and your voice in the workplace.

In London the stance is that an attack on one office is an attack on them all. i don't think anyone is looking forward to this but we realise that with no union we don't have a hope in hell. They want the confrontation, they won't negotiate and no doubt many of our reps will end up on trumped up charges again. I go along with the maxim "that it is better to die on your feet than live on your knees".

[k979aaa]

London have the best organized union in this land and they should but every office in this land CAN and MUST do for themselves remember workers rights were not given unto too us all but were fought for by our forefathers and the brave!. People died in this land for the right too strike and some in our union will not lose a days pay too defend those rights fought with blood sweat and fear!. IT IS YOUR DUTY TOO YOUR FELLOW MAN/WOMAN TOO DEFEND YOUR RIGHTS FOUGHT BY BLOOD SWEAT AND FEAR BY OUR FOREFATHERS!.