Why Shouldn't I work on strike days?

[bunkerland]

I striked in 2007 in a big DO. The first local strike at my new DO i came into work early, at 8:15, fully expecting to stand on the picket and support my fellow workers. When i arrived there were only 2 others on the picket line. By 9:00 the picket filled to about 10, By 9:30 everyone had went off home, i thought f**k this, i strolled into the office and sorted some walks and went home, with a full days pay.

Let me get this right You stood outside your office picketing with your fellow workers,then,when they went home you went into work! Then you boast of a full days pay for doing very little!

What a man of principle you are!

[bunkerland]

When you started with RM, you signed a contract, a contract that cannot be broken. Ive never been asked to do anything i shouldn't, or been forced to do anything im not expected to do.

I presume you liked the terms and conditions of that contract when you signed it? Who do you think fought for those terms and conditions? The cwu and it's members did,over many years.You seek to take a free ride on the back of it whilst giving nothing back!
If everyone took your approach we'd have been on minimum wage years ago and had the working conditions to match! Would you still have signed that"contract"? I doubt it! Enjoy your free ride but don't be surprised when the workers still fighting to maintain their working conditions are annoyed with you!

Yes, i did like the terms or the contract, the wage seemed reasonable and the holidays are quite good. Whats your point? If i wouldn't of liked the job, i wouldn't of applied for it. You fought for those terms because thats the terms you wanted, and no, i wouldn't do this job for minimum wage on a 22hr contract. Who would? If RM decided they wanted me on min wage, i would walk out the door, just like the entire work force. If RM wanted to radically change my working conditions for the worse, i would walk, just like the entire workforce, and every new employee would jump at the chance for my job, but would soon leave because of these terrible conditions you talk of.

I dont see your point, and what free ride are you going on about? I do my job properly, and its a hard job, it gets harder after strike days, i see no free ride.

You say if RM wanted you on min wage you would walk but if no-one fought for their pay,terms and conditions where would you walk to.

Another job with piss poor pay,terms and conditions.At some piont in your life you have to make a stand,not just for you but for those that come after you.

No, your point is irrelevant. Like i said, if posties were on min wage, there would be no posties. Posties need to be paid a good wage. Dont kid yourself on, your not losing weeks of pay just so some guy in 24 months can get a decent wage.

When Adam Crozier joined Royal Mail he told the Staff they were 40% underworked and 20% overpaid! Or was it the other way round Anyway,whichever it was,it set a pretty clear agenda for the future of our jobs!

I wonder why they only pay the temp workers minimum wage? Could it be because.......they can!

Don't kid YOURSELF on,employers like Royal Mail will always shaft the workers at the bottom of the ladder if they don't stand up for themselves!

[bunkerland]

When you started with RM, you signed a contract, a contract that cannot be broken. Ive never been asked to do anything i shouldn't, or been forced to do anything im not expected to do.

I presume you liked the terms and conditions of that contract when you signed it? Who do you think fought for those terms and conditions? The cwu and it's members did,over many years.You seek to take a free ride on the back of it whilst giving nothing back!
If everyone took your approach we'd have been on minimum wage years ago and had the working conditions to match! Would you still have signed that"contract"? I doubt it! Enjoy your free ride but don't be surprised when the workers still fighting to maintain their working conditions are annoyed with you!

Yes, i did like the terms or the contract, the wage seemed reasonable and the holidays are quite good. Whats your point?
I dont see your point, and what free ride are you going on about?

My point is....u took the job cause you think "the wage seemed reasonable and the holidays good"! Those are things that the union fought for and won over many years! We pay money to the union to enable it to do such,you pay nothing but still are happy to take every benefit the union wins for you!

I would call that a free ride,what would you call it?

[StevenC]

I striked in 2007 in a big DO. The first local strike at my new DO i came into work early, at 8:15, fully expecting to stand on the picket and support my fellow workers. When i arrived there were only 2 others on the picket line. By 9:00 the picket filled to about 10, By 9:30 everyone had went off home, i thought f**k this, i strolled into the office and sorted some walks and went home, with a full days pay.

Let me get this right You stood outside your office picketing with your fellow workers,then,when they went home you went into work! Then you boast of a full days pay for doing very little!

What a man of principle you are!

I would quite happily laugh in the face of anyone who lost a days pay, only to stand on the picket line for 20 minutes. Most of them voted yes, wanting a strike, but were not willing to picket? They are a joke, recently in these strikes i'd say around 60 percent did overtime on the monday, and most had no backlog except flats on the tuesday, they are defeating their own purpose. Like ive said elsewhere, i will never do O/T and i never have, your problem isn't with strikebreakers, its with these morons. I wont lose money for mugs like that.

My point is....u took the job cause you think "the wage seemed reasonable and the holidays good"! Those are things that the union fought for and won over many years! We pay money to the union to enable it to do such,you pay nothing but still are happy to take every benefit the union wins for you!

I would call that a free ride,what would you call it?

Your just saying the same thing, in a different way, its still wrong. If RM didn't pay a good wage, no-one would work for them for longer than a week. Yes, of course i would take any benefits of the union, but thats not my fault, its the systems. Alot of unions are mandatory to unsure stuff like this doesn't happen. At the same time, i would have to take anydraw backs i didn't like aswell that the union fought for. If i didn't like the wage, i wouldn't do the job, neither would anyone else.

[Ralph Wiggum]

QUOTE "I would quite happily laugh in the face of anyone who lost a days pay"

Which office do you work in? If you 'HAPPILY LAUGHED IN MY FACE' you really would be knocked out my son

[StevenC]

QUOTE "I would quite happily laugh in the face of anyone who lost a days pay"

Which office do you work in? If you 'HAPPILY LAUGHED IN MY FACE' you really would be knocked out my son

...i would laugh in the face of anyone would votes yes, then pickets for 20 mins, then does 2 hours of O/T to clear the backlog they are striking to cause in the first place, self defeating??

Anyone who strikes and strikes properly has my respect, anyone who does their job properly, has my respect, it just seems most of the clowns in my office are neither.

[postiAl]

here here i don't think he understand that we all could be out till mid afternoon!! and that includes sat next year with these new sorting machine less manpower but takes longer to sort mail into walks is this progress :mfo as we have been slowly edge this way in our office 6-2 towns and rurel 0630-1430 lucky to finish by 1400 we have fight it :cfo

Have you read the cwu blueprint for a new delivery model? you should,in it among other things it states keeping the 2 oclock last letter may not be an option in the future.

[Mercian]

People are intitled to an opinion. When you started with RM, you signed a contract, a contract that cannot be broken. Ive never been asked to do anything i shouldn't, or been forced to do anything im not expected to do. I have never been intimitated or harrassed by my DOM, only by fellow workmates.

Well aren't you the lucky one. One of the very few I dare say.
So, if I may, make an assumption that you work the shift times (or around the shift times) that you have chosen to do and that you are on a duty that you want?

Unfortunately some of us have had duties imposed on us by diktat. A complete revision of duties with no resign.
This means that people who were on day shift are now forced into working night shift - not by their choice.
People who were on night shift are now forced into working day shift - not by their choice.
People who worked weekends only are now on Monday to Friday - not by their choice.
People who were on Monday to Friday are now on Thursday to Monday shifts - not by their choice.

Myself, I have always been a late shift worker but now have been FORCED onto night shift. Not by choice, not by preference but by a LOTTERY system where the managers put all duties into one pot and all posties names into another and had a lottery draw. Name comes out then new duty comes out. 28 days notice letter and new duty started.

We are constantly asked and ordered to perform unsafe and unagreed tasks and duties - some are intimidated into performing these some are not. Unlike some areas of RM we are EXPECTED to do overtime whether we like it or not - it is build into the duty 318. Gray area of overtime being contractual that is currently being challenged by myself (because TERRY PULLINGER STILL HAS NOT COME BACK WITH AN ANSWER - piss poor response from the CWU team again)

How on Earth can practices like this be justified or be for the good of the company ?

Without this strike action this method of duty allocation will spread throughout the whole of RM and become the normal way of working. With the current attitude of most managers and some posties - I can see the favoritism card being played to get the brown noses the plush duties.......

Not good for RM and certainly not good for the employees. Next we will probably be forced into annualised hours so that our managers can send us home during times of less work and force us into working longer at peak times.

NOW is the time to act and I just hope the negotiating team haven't dropped the ball and let this one through.

edit: just a further point about having signed a contract with RM - yes we did - and RM have torn it up along with all the agreements National and Local