900 Plymouth postal workers set to strike

[Geezer]

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Monday, August 31, 2009, 07:00

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POSTAL deliveries in Plymouth are set to be hugely disrupted later this week when up to 900 workers strike for 36 hours.

The mass walk-out is due to begin at 9am on Friday and will see strikes at the main Plymouth Mail Centre in Plymstock as well as delivery offices across the city. Union bosses have said workers feel they have to strike to show their dissatisfaction over job cuts, changes to shifts and pay.

A ballot among workers has returned a huge result in favour of strike action.

Chris Webb, divisional representative for the Communication Workers' Union (CWU), said the results in Plymouth showed they were four-to-one in favour of strike action.

He said this was one of the largest majorities in the country.

"We have so many issues with Royal Mail that the time has now come to show them how unhappy we are. People's family lives are being severely disrupted.

"At the end of the day we feel the Royal Mail is not communicating with the union and instead bringing in these changes without negotiation.

"We just cannot give a service to the customers as it stands. Individuals and businesses cannot rely on the service and that's not good enough.

"We simply can't tell people when their post is likely to arrive from day to day. There's no arrival plan."

This week's strike action is expected to start at 9am on Friday and run until around 6pm on Saturday.

In July around 110 staff from the Plymouth Mail Centre walked out as part of a national day of action.

They joined colleagues from more than 200 centres around the country in the strike, which combined industrial action and demonstrations.

The action resulted in minimal collections across Plymouth, which meant post piled up. It took several days for the backlog to clear before the service returned to normal.

The Communication Workers' Union has previously accused Royal Mail of reducing the pay of employees and implementing other cuts which it said affected services.

Strike action involving postal workers has been taking place in Plymouth regularly in recent times.

In 2007 the Communication Workers' Union said more than 3,000 people had signed postcards asking all Plymouth's MPs to support the strike action at the time.

The Royal Mail was unavailable for comment last night.

[borders]

this is one of the replies, pretty well sums it up for me ..........................................."I am a postman, and union member, campaigning to reinstate a PUBLIC postal SERVICE for the benefit of the people of this country, not simply a few large businesses' shareholders.

I write for Hellmail.co.uk.

http://www.hellmail.co.uk/default.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

which is a postal industry news and opinion website.

I note Tony Staunton's point, and agree unreservedly. Tax-pounds are already being siphoned from the public purse and handed to large mail companies under the guise of "competition"- it is corruption by another name, and it is plain for anyone to see. This amount would only grow larger if RM were to be privatised, and the "service" to the public would be of a much poorer quality than it remains at present.

The Post Office was an integrated monopoly for a reason- to ensure effective economic transmission of physical items from anywhere to anywhere in the "kingdom", and to guaranteed standards.

Since the privateers have got a foothold there has been a worsening condition of the service and of the industry's employees. We are now in a race to the bottom. Only when we arrive there will we realise what we've lost.

Currently, we are faced with a stalling tactic- the government has determined conditions are unsuitable for (part-)
privatisation, and nothing is being done to resolve Royal Mail's future.

With the government cutting and pasting an earlier response into the webpage of the now-closed petition to save Royal Mail as a public service, comes the acceptance of TOTAL defeat.

The government has not the courage to challenge EU directives which contradict a national majority-opinion and desire, nor the nous to run an institution, of some 374 years standing, along successful lines (if one believes what we are told), nor the ability to recognise that since no-one wants to buy into Royal Mail, no-one wants to buy into Royal Mail.

We're going to wait until conditions change, says Mr. Brown.

So, Mr. Brown. How long? How long, Lord Mandelson?

I fear that the Tories, if they wrestle power away from Labour in the coming election, will do what this , er, lot, shower, mob, er, I'm a bit stuck for the appropriate word, has not. If however, there is no buyer, who are they going to sell it to? And how long will they wait to find one? How long, Mr. Cameron? How long?

Meanwhile, RM continues to hobble along, hamstrung, with one hand tied behind its back and the other in a mitten.

And pressure is mounting on it to keep its head above water with the tide still coming in. It is not free to conduct its business- it is still subsidising the "competition" (that "noun" would be hilarious in other circumstances), and one of the few methods available for it to generate money is to save costs. It has no room to maneouvre, to introduce new products, new services, change its price-structure, or improve standards.

So we continue to witness a fall in standards, more erratic and less predictable delivery times, fewer collections, fewer delivery attempts, lesser customer-service. We continue to see unresonable expectations and burden put upon the employees, already made much the poorer with the removal of much earnings-potential, the removal of the final-salary pension scheme, more bullying, harrassment, intimidation, and fear.

We continue to see job-losses, job-cuts, under-staffing, mismanagement, and the resulting threats to health and safety.

We continue to hear from SMEs, our largest wealth-generator, they are upset and feel threatened because our service to them can not be assured from day to the next. They wonder what time the post will arrive, indeed whether it will, and if the cheques they are expecting will arrive in time to be cashed in time.

This whole farce, this unfunny farce, is continuing to undermine and destabilise the whole country, never mind the whole industry.

We have to face facts.

There is NO BUYER for Royal Mail. We simply MUST do what is right by the country. The time has arrived, and passed, where we have to acknowledge the experiment in mail-market deregulation has been an absolute calamity, and return RM to its historic place in our culture, and once more provide business and the wider public with the service we would all wish to see.

How long, Mr. Brown? How long?"

© Hellmail.co.uk (26 August 2009)

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