Form of Words = Tough Talking

[Ahebban]

If any deal that is put to a ballot resembles the shambles of 2007 I can't see members voting for it. Why would they if they felt no further forward than at present. No-one is going to back to work on the basis of a 'form of words'. Too a large extent that is what the 2007-2009 Pay and Modernisation Agreement amounted too and we can now see the result .. just a form of words masquerading as an Agreement that RM have used and abused to suit their own 'modernisation' agenda.

I was listening to 'Any Questions' on radio this morning (Hayes was a panelist ) and I think it was a female Tory MP who was spouting on about the failed privatisation and mention was made of the first 3 phases of the Agreement .. What happened to mention of Phase 4! Are RM and its cohorts blind? Do they not understand, or perhaps refuse to recognise, that there is a Phase 4 to the P&M Agmnt? Phase 4 certainly appeared in the copy I received to ballot on back in 2007. Phase 4 should have been completed by April 2008. As I understand, it was not until a letter surfaced in September 2009 that Higson acknowledged Phase 4 and it requiring attention!



How and why should we negotiate with an employer (RM) who cannot be trusted to recognise their own commitment to the 2007-2009 Agreement. When Crozier, Higson et al come to the negotiating table with an honest, modern and common-sense approach to settling this dispute then, and only then, should the CWU take up that offer of talking beyond a mere 'form of words'. Until then, the industrial action planned for next week and forthcoming weeks should remain in place as a reminder to RM of the urgency and importance to resolving the outstanding issues once and for all, on a fair and equitable basis. That is all we are asking for at the end of the day .. honesty and respect.

[kingtubby]

Very well put - agree 100%

[DirtyHarry]

There can be no going back to Royal Mail's version of "normal." This next agreement must be absolutely clear that postal workers already working all their contracted hours, will not, NOT, be bulled or harrassed into absorbing more work which will make their duties impossible to complete, on this , the next agreement must not, NOT, be open to "interpretation."

[terrace]

On the reply programme-Any Answers there was solid support from the public for the postal workers and non-privatisation.There was only one member of the public who was for privatisation.

[Lincox]

The reason Phase 4 was left in the cold is because Mandelson never envisaged a phase 4. As far as he is concerned this would have gone out with the privatisation process. If I am right the Hooper Report was swayed by government interventions. When the privatisation was cancelled or put back to a future date, Mandelson then took it badly and low and behold suddenly the flexibility rules, has as been said before, loosely strung together for management interpretation, were used as a management tool to ignite the flames, and phase 4 modernisation was brought back in as an excuse to gloss over their attacks on the cwu and its members. If this was not the case, why did Royal Mail not start the modernisation process and discussions till the end of this year. Because they never intended to use the money which the government set aside for modernisation. They were relying on the private buyer to provide the finances for modernisation.