Strike cost £30 mil per day (Daily Mirror)

[rebel]

Only due to RM management mishandling of the situation. I'm in a London office and on a few occasions we have witnessed a situation where North-Eastern managers (Bolton, Manchester, Blackburn etc) have invaded our office. On the previous day we we remain in office for whole day prepping and then bundle up into yorkies for these guys to take out. Hundreds of 'em!!! These guys are paid travel allowance, hotels, etc etc. Then two of them are allocated a walk (pre-prepped) to take out - something that a postie is supposed to do alone. 739's - don't make me laugh! Not a clue - and these are managers. Then we are flooded with agency staff (casuals) who don't care or give a f**k or are just plain stupid. Mail left at bottom of flats (not bothered to walk upstairs), HCT's returned outside the office next day with shedloads of s**t still un-delivered.

The amount of money they are paying for these resources must be phenomenal! To truck down these managers (on their salary, with their expenses) cannot make sense. Also the casuals (with their agency fee) must be costing RM millions!!

So yeah, the dispute is costing RM ridiculous amounts of money. Docket would be a hell of a lot cheaper but in our office that's just not an option. My DOM is actually okay but must abide by senior management decisions.

So bring on the 30,000 casuals who are gonna help RM through this mess. I read in the newspaper that they are all vetted. Yeah, right!! We have a list of over 100 casuals who must never be used again (theft, attitude etc). Talk radio stations (plus Daily Mail) speak crap about if we don't want to work then there are millions of unemployed who will happily take our jobs. I give them a week. MAXIMUM!!!

[smokerjim]

There will be some casuals that will stick at it, but as soon as the weather turns crap, loads will think "sod that for minimum wage!" especially as they see us putting on our RM supplied stormproof coats & them with their water proof as a sponge hi-vis. Sadly though, others will just see it as an opportunity to earn xmas tips - as they dump a load of stolen cards and ripped envelopes into a bin ( and who will the Mail blame for the thieving, or for striking which allowed the thieves to work at RM )

[Post Off]

It just goes to show the contempt that Royal Mail (and some Blairites) has for its blue-collar workers, and how far they will go to get their way. It also shows, nay proves, the length of these negotiations. But while it is easy for most (not in the know) to say that the CWU -- and its workforce are not living in the real world it is all too equally easy for those same most to forget (or most likely be ignorant of) how this now artificially made world came about...

When the Royal Mail was a monopoly it was raking in millions, while the government of the day dug its grimy hands into an humongous amount of booty while at the same time completely ignoring any of its pensions obligations. In time this slowly created the black (or should that be red) hole that we have now.

Then the European Directive came into play, and partially dismantled part of the Royal Mail in order to create the first foot-in-the-door for privatisation, which we now see with down stream access, or the last mile. In fact, its sole purpose was to open up all postal markets. Whether these other European state-run monopolies were successful or not I am not sure?

So, even though we are a publicly-owned service we are also allowing parasitic-like businesses to nibble at our success. Meanwhile there is an overwhelming feeling that Royal Mail is pushing for a confrontation with the CWU, so that it can (presumably?) justify a need for part, if not full privatisation, to which plans are now being implemented that were long thought through (with government's aspirations) to finally rid itself of something it clearly has raped all the usefulness out of.

I'd like to think that there is someone out there who is abreast of the real facts and who is so well respected that none could question their background, like John Pilger, who, perhaps could dissuade the likes of Crozier's army of business and mischief makers to wise up and end their immature propaganda waving war against those they perceive to be the destroyer of their livelihoods.

[norbert]

It just goes to show the contempt that Royal Mail (and some Blairites) has for its blue-collar workers, and how far they will go to get their way. It also shows, nay proves, the length of these negotiations. But while it is easy for most (not in the know) to say that the CWU -- and its workforce are not living in the real world it is all too equally easy for those same most to forget (or most likely be ignorant of) how this now artificially made world came about...

When the Royal Mail was a monopoly it was raking in millions, while the government of the day dug its grimy hands into an humongous amount of booty while at the same time completely ignoring any of its pensions obligations. In time this slowly created the black (or should that be red) hole that we have now.

Then the European Directive came into play, and partially dismantled part of the Royal Mail in order to create the first foot-in-the-door for privatisation, which we now see with down stream access, or the last mile. In fact, its sole purpose was to open up all postal markets. Whether these other European state-run monopolies were successful or not I am not sure?

So, even though we are a publicly-owned service we are also allowing parasitic-like businesses to nibble at our success. Meanwhile there is an overwhelming feeling that Royal Mail is pushing for a confrontation with the CWU, so that it can (presumably?) justify a need for part, if not full privatisation, to which plans are now being implemented that were long thought through (with government's aspirations) to finally rid itself of something it clearly has raped all the usefulness out of.

I'd like to think that there is someone out there who is abreast of the real facts and who is so well respected that none could question their background, like John Pilger, who, perhaps could dissuade the likes of Crozier's army of business and mischief makers to wise up and end their immature propaganda waving war against those they perceive to be the destroyer of their livelihoods.

- immature & mischief makers are very apt words