Most UK postal services working as normal

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Royal Mail today confirmed that despite local strike action called by the Communication Workers Union almost all mail services outside London are continuing to operate with more than 90% of employees - around 150,000 - working normally supported by management volunteers. In London alone around 1,200 managers are working to maintain priority delivery and collection services. Only 20 Royal Mail offices outside London, out of around 1,600 nationally, are affected by the CWU strike, while the network of Post Office branches is not affected and will be open as usual.

The company has condemned the CWU for striking over much-needed modernisation and change which has already been successfully implemented by our people in the majority of offices around the UK and is working well. The changes are all covered by the 2007 Agreement on Pay and Modernisation, which the CWU leadership signed in the presence of the TUC but which they are now reneging on in a way that clearly hurts our customers and our people and damages Royal Mail. The union claims to support modernisation, yet acts to destroy it.

The CWU’s claim to have offered a three month "moratorium" is deliberately misleading and is nothing more than an attempt, backed by the threat of escalating strike action, to actually halt the modernisation of the mails business. Any moratorium on further change at Royal Mail - at a time when we urgently need to up the pace of change in the face of a 10% decline in UK mail volumes - can only worsen that decline.

The union has issued instructions to their branch representatives in London and in a number of other offices not to co-operate with Royal Mail over the introduction of new equipment and changes in working practices which their leadership signed up to in 2007. Some examples of the union’s resistance to modernisation include:

• Writing to branches saying their policy is not to cooperate with change despite their public statements to the contrary.
• Not working all the hours for which people are paid. A significant number of delivery postmen in some units in London complete their walks up to two hours before their scheduled duty finish each day yet are unwilling to help out with other tasks for the remainder of the working day. The 2007 agreement set out that people should work the hours for which they are paid.
• During the summer when mail volumes are low there is less work to do. By asking each delivery postman simply to deliver to one or two extra streets some of their colleagues’ summer holidays can be covered without overtime. Many London delivery units refuse to cover additional streets.
• Refusal to work to revised delivery routes generated by computer aided planning, which is used in postal organisations around the world and is aimed at making us more efficient.
• A refusal to accept the use of more part time workers in delivery to enable us to be more flexible and match the workload, even though we have guaranteed that no-one who works full-time will be forced to go part-time.
• In Mail Centres, there are demarcation lines which date back decades - so, for example, Distribution drivers refuse to work in the mail centre even when they have no driving to do but there is work in the mail centre which needs attention.

Lord Mandelson, the Secretary of State, has recently made clear his view that the union are "essentially boycotting the agreed processes for making change in the Royal Mail" and that the union must change its attitude to change and implement the 2007 agreement on Pay and Modernisation. Despite today’s local strikes, we are again urging the CWU to work with us to honour that agreement and help modernise Royal Mail and protect the Universal Service on which so many individuals and businesses depend.

Royal Mail apologises to those customers who are experiencing disruption to the service today as a result of the CWU’s strike action and assures them that we are continuing to do all we can to deliver the mail.

Notes to Editors

Detailed customer advice on Royal Mail’s contingency plans, including the use of management volunteers, to provide as many services as possible in areas affected by strike action can be found on the Royal Mail web site at http://www.royalmail.com/serviceupdates" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Post Office and Parcelforce Worldwide services are unaffected by the CWU’s strike action.

Ends

Issued by Royal Mail:
100 Victoria Embankment
LONDON
EC4Y 0HQ
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[TrueBlueTerrier]

• Not working all the hours for which people are paid. A significant number of delivery postmen in some units in London complete their walks up to two hours before their scheduled duty finish each day yet are unwilling to help out with other tasks for the remainder of the working day. The 2007 agreement set out that people should work the hours for which they are paid.

I wonder if the ones they are referring to come in early or use their cars.

[pickaname]

I say to Royal Mail:

WHERE IS PHASE 4 OF THE 2007 P&M AGREEMENT?

[IWW Fellow Worker]

• Not working all the hours for which people are paid. A significant number of delivery postmen in some units in London complete their walks up to two hours before their scheduled duty finish each day yet are unwilling to help out with other tasks for the remainder of the working day. The 2007 agreement set out that people should work the hours for which they are paid.

I wonder if the ones they are referring to come in early or use their cars.

A significant number of so-called managers cleared off home two hours before their official finishing time because that's what they do on Saturdays.

[IWW Fellow Worker]

supported by management volunteers.

There! Jack London was spot on!