Royal Mail"s FINAL SOLUTION

[Martin Walsh]

In any dispute there are times when some people start to turn in inwards and fail to see what this dispute is really about.

Today London postal workers have taken its 11th Day of strike action , next wednesday will be a further strike in London making it twelve. The London membership support has been amazing and of course in any dispute there will be some drift but I can say hand on heart that todays strike did not see any major drift. This has been confirmed by Royal Mail senior management.

We understand that other offices around the UK are also fighting from Scotland , to the South West to the East over 600 offices have live ballots. Remember appoxmately 50 000 members have yes votes already and have taken strike action. The National ballot has been actioned and of course we all wanted it earlier but if we are honest a lot of branch"s needed to do a lot of work to get yes votes. I think some people on here think all the problems lay with those at Headquaters and whilst sometimes they do not act quickly enough or in a united way I do think some branch"s have hid in this dispute.

Every Branch was asked if you wanted a ballot of your members then just request it the truth is very few branch"s balloted their whole branch apart from London , Essex , Bristol , Plymouth , Manchester , Glasgow. whereas others balloted only certain delivery offices within their branch or indeed function within their branchs. For exampe Peterborugh distribution and delivery members have been amazing in their support for the strike but Peterborough mail centre have not been balloted. The same intialy existed in Edinburgh.

So what does that tell you ? well it tells me that Branch"s didt ballot some offices because they either didt do enough work amongst the members or they didt think they would get a yes vote.

The CWU do regualr phone polls amongst members anaylising of whether a yes vote is likely. It is only in the last couple of weeks where the signs are that we will get a big yes vote. The CWU have to also to take advice from branch"s and divisonal and regional secretaries and whilst a number of regions and divisons were good to go others said they needed more time and they needed pec vists. On top of all this we have to sort the membership out and that does mean a nightmare.

We all know that the National Ballot is important but the truth is no matter what we do it is more than likely that Royal Mail will take us to court over some issue whether that is the membership records or whether the result has been displayed in workplaces within 24 hours of the result . They will use anything they can to get an injuction as they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

But the tide is turning in this dispute.The backlog which is in the system means that Royal Mail are under pressure and are meeting the CWU again today and progress is being made.they resume in the morning When we started this dispute no talks were taking place now Royal Mail are now talking on strike days and they never did this in 2007 or 2003.

Up the road i can understand you concerns and your criticisms. But the strike is working for the first time Royal Mail have confirmed they are not introducing executive action next week as they had previously announced in SW15 and SW16.

I was at your Branch"s committee meeting today and most of your reps are very concerned about all the executive action which is taking place at the end of this month. Yes the dispute is hurting our members fianicially and unfortnatuely we may lose a few on the way but the strike is working. London had to ballot back in June when they took executive action in EC and had to take action as if we had not then we would have not stood together across London.

We have witnessed Royal Mail"s final solution where they intially impose geo route revisons cutting up to a 3rd of the workforce.

We then see cuts in full time jobs, our members forced to take out car derived vans and if they refuse taken off pay.

Royal Mail introducing a new unagreed 3 step perfomance procudure which leads to indivduals being taken off pay if they fail to complete delivereis.

We have seen members followed out on delivery and videoed and then discplined for slow working.

We have seen the removal of all local agreements and earnings.
Royal Mail have remove seniority and resigns

Royal Mail have thrown every thing they can at us and we are still hitting back and we now have them on the ropes.

Now is not the time to turn inward , work is everywhere , the pressure from all the bussness communities is growing as is the government and the media.

Our members support has been amazing. What typrifies it is what happened in Kilburn on saturday. the work was everywhere a quadrant worker tripped up. the local heath and safety rep stepped in and attempted to sort the mess out, mangement then called him into the office and said that in their opinon he was not working fast enough and was being awarded a second stage of this new unagreed performance procdure. The members went to the canteen in support management then took them off of pay.

On Monday when the staff turned up for work they were informed that unless they indivually signed an alteration to their contract of employment inclduing what Royal Mail call sanctions then they would not be allowed back to work, mangement would not budge their postion all day monday. On tuesday we met with the members and we called Royal Mail"s bluff and they walked back in , Royal Mail bottled it and put them back on pay. We gave the Kilburn members the opportunity to stand down todays strike as they had already been out two days this week and they voted to contiue to stirke today.

so the truth when ever we meet members and expalin the issues then our members will contiue to support us.

This is s**t or bust. There will not be a union in the workplace if we lose this.

Thats why when you have them on the ropes and we have, you have to keep on striking and thats why London will keeping taking the action and together with all the branch"s who have made a stand across the UK we will win.

[brothermagrew]

BRAVO

[Cut Off King]

Very nice post

BUT why is the RESISTANCE to RM being let from the members - while HQ sends out the message that were talking to RM and that we want to part sanction the IMPOSED revisions that RM has come up with

The CWU HQ should be saying REMOVE ALL IMPOSED CHANGES, and only then we will talk

NO ifs NO buts

If RM get their way they will roll back a little BUT we will have LOST ground on 60-70% of the changes

BALLOT NOW and see what the membership feel

PS. - Most members that I talk to think that we will be SOLD DOWN THE RIVER BY HQ like in 2007

I have lost pay in this dispute and its not easy, BUT its made all the harder when HQ SEEMS TO BE INDICATING THAT THEY WANT TO GET ANOTHER FUDGE DEAL BEFORE THE END OF SEPTEMBER BECAUSE ITS EASYER

Sometimes you have to stand up and BE A MAN !

VOTE Y E S and moke the next agreement last a good time longer than the last!

[NWpostie]

use the Ballot box, strikes and the talks at the same time, all more power to the elbow in our dealings with RM.

[major_eyeswater]

use the Ballot box, strikes and the talks at the same time, all more power to the elbow in our dealings with RM.

Also dont let them tell us that we will sort this problem out and put the others on the back burner so we can talk about them later like they did with the pension.

We need these problems sorted now not later,we are sick to death with being made the trouble makers in our disputes because we have to eventually have to take strike action and to be made out as the bad apples.

We are paid to give a service to our paying customers and we try our best to do that.

We were the best postal service in the world and now we are driven to match the rest of the world and deliver a postal service that falls in line with theres.

[stokes11eg]

So-If I'm reading this right, if we do not agree to forced changes to our contracts-we are sacked. What about all the Employment legislation that is floating around? Where are the Union solicitors in all this. Maybe we should call their bluff, and if asked to sign this form ,walk out en-masse and claim constructive dismissal?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

What typifies it is what happened in Kilburn on Saturday. the work was everywhere a quadrant worker tripped up. the local heath and safety rep stepped in and attempted to sort the mess out, management then called him into the office and said that in their opinion he was not working fast enough and was being awarded a second stage of this new unagreed performance procedure. The members went to the canteen in support management then took them off of pay.


On Monday when the staff turned up for work they were informed that unless they individually signed an alteration to their contract of employment including what Royal Mail call sanctions then they would not be allowed back to work, management would not budge their position all day Monday. On Tuesday we met with the members and we called Royal Mail"s bluff and they walked back in , Royal Mail bottled it and put them back on pay. We gave the Kilburn members the opportunity to stand down today's strike as they had already been out two days this week and they voted to continue to strike today.

Talk about commitment to the cause - well done Kilburn - you are all SPARTACUS

[stokes11eg]

Well done Kilburn, i can promise you if "DE MANAGEMENT' try that on me I WILL walk,even on my own----I may not have as much to lose as some, being near to retirement---and knowing I could scrape by---but walk I will, and hopefully everyone else will too.

[borders]

well done kilburn and much appreciation to Dingo, London, Scotland, Bristol etc etc for taking the fight back to RM.

[upmyroad]

More then 2 week's money gone now and still no sign of an all out strike. how much more will we lose before everyone is out at the same time. OH and I now need at least an £19 a week rise just to brake even. CWU is out of touch with the floor. That's why your posting your bollox's on here.

[DGP1]

More then 2 week's money gone now and still no sign of an all out strike. how much more will we lose before everyone is out at the same time. OH and I now need at least an £19 a week rise just to brake even. CWU is out of touch with the floor. That's why your posting your bollox's on here.

FFS will you stop with the constant negative posts, lots of offices have been out and remember that London as an area decided to ballot whenever RM tried to force in changes by EA so what you're doing is taking local action for a local issue and the national strike will be along soon.

[Martin Walsh]

up the road i know what the shop floor is all about i have had over 300 meetings with the members and know what they are thinking. Like i say i am more than willing to come and speak at your office just pm me. But please stop your insults and rants as quite frankly its tiresome and boring and an insult to all our members who are fighting for their future and making scarfices and still staying strong. The truth is that we are winning and quite frankly your earlier posts complained when we were not causing a backlog and now that we have work everywhere you are still complaining.

[solcat]

Well said Dingo, now let's vote YES and get it sorted! :cfo

[upmyroad]

up the road i know what the shop floor is all about i have had over 300 meetings with the members and know what they are thinking. Like i say i am more than willing to come and speak at your office just pm me. But please stop your insults and rants as quite frankly its tiresome and boring and an insult to all our members who are fighting for their future and making scarfices and still staying strong. The truth is that we are winning and quite frankly your earlier posts complained when we were not causing a backlog and now that we have work everywhere you are still complaining.

Yea I bet you and the rest of the f**king union would just love it if we all acted like sheep and said nothing while we piss more money down the drain while you deside on whether or not to ballot the rest of the worker's. this is a complete balls up we went in today after another one day strike and guess what. the rest of the country had once again been working so we once again had 2 day's work to take out. If and when everyone is out together and this useless union get's it's house in order i'll quite bitching. No reply to the fact we now need a £19 pat rise just to cover the money we've lost then.

[Martin Walsh]

No reply on emailing me so i can come and meet you either. Look I dont control nationally , but in London we are doing exactly the right thing and of course you have two days work as you have been on strike thats the point of striking and putting pressure on Royal Mail. Moreover there are mountains of mail in your mail centre and the pressure is on Royal Mail. The fact is that this is a fight for our future and we are after improved pay and agreements which make sure that we have jobs with good terms and conditions in the future and free from bullying.

Now lets look at our record on strikes in 1988 we in London were out for 3 weeks continuesly and we got a settlement of £13. 87 for inner and £16.31 for outer which is still in your wages today. In 2003 we had two London weighting strikes and a number of days unofficial strike action we helped achieve the 5 day week , £26.28 pay rise which was the biggest ever rise and £12.25 London weighting rise a total of £38.53 which is still in your wage week in week out.

In 2007 we had 8 days strike action and some unofficial action which resulted in us achieving two pay rises and two £400 payments plus some took up inovative duty structures including 4 day weeks.

So you can see over the years we have been successful in strikes. Of course you dont win everything but one thing is certain you dont win anything in Royal Mail unless you fight for it. I know that one of the issues which is fundremental from this dispute is that we ensure that Royal Mail pay for change and thats where we will increase wages from this dispute.