Report From National briefing held on Friday 13th November

[BELIAL]

However in the Gatwick and the Bristol trial all machine mail is walk sequenced that includes the work which clears a mail centre at 4 .40 and normally arrives in delivery offices for IPS sorting. Hence why Royal Mail are calculating 20% loss of work to a delivery office.

Don't know if it's possible but I think you would find it very illuminating if you could manage to observe first hand the passage of mech mail through a trial area pipeline. 20% work reduction is simply yet another RM fantasy figure.
Firstly not all machine mail is walk sequenced a large percentage still arrives as walksorted ( true this could be addressed with later start times).
Secondly the volume of mail requiring IPS has shot up by around 20% since the advent of the sequencing trials. You are faced with the bizarre situation of walksorted mail being fed into sequencing machines only for a large percentage of that previously walk sorted mail to be rejected and then shipped out as mixed trays requiring IPS. I'm sure a helpful compact sequence operator could let you know just what % of walksorted mail is rejected . RM madness ,you bolt on an extra mech process ,3-4 runs and end up with less sorted mail than before ,all for minimal 5-10 mins prep time saving.
Where this 20% think of a number thing comes from, search me. If I had to guess I would say that whoever signed up for these new machines failed to think it through and got taken to the cleaners. Looks to me like they want the workforce to sweat blood to cover up their monumental cock up.

[Martin Walsh]

Dvbuk we are trying what do you think the dispute was about , it was attempting to make headway on those issues. Our arguement is that 40% of the mail should not be walk sequenced therefore allowing protection of full time jobs and early starts. But of course it would reduce Royal Mail"s savings hence the fact we still cant reach agreement.

[dvbuk55]

Dvbuk we are trying what do you think the dispute was about , it was attempting to make headway on those issues. Our arguement is that 40% of the mail should not be walk sequenced therefore allowing protection of full time jobs and early starts. But of course it would reduce Royal Mail"s savings hence the fact we still cant reach agreement.

And there you have it - there is no forward movement, there was never any real "interim agreement", merely a joint statement of intent. Both parties intent entirely separate and for that we called off the strikes. There has been three weeks since the interregnum and 12 days supposedly of negotiation so are you saying there is no agreement whatsoever - and if there isn't then what is the delay in the PEC taking control and reinstating the strikes? Royal Mails position has not changed one iota - the only difference is instead of ignoring the CWU in absentia they now ignore them round the table.

If all the CWU leadership are waiting for is the final Royal Mail Plan so they can agree to it and be like Pilate and wash their hands in exactly the same way they did in 2007, then sign a blank document and let Royal Mail do as they will. Lets not pretend there is any serious negotiation going on here or any intent whatsoever of reaching agreement to the benefit of the membership. There should be no doubt whatsoever that if this "deal" is anything like the last one the membership will not be so amenable to persuasion as in 2007 - so they'd better be willing to sit round the table forever.

[machineman]

sorry i work in a mail centre we got a new flat sorting machine last year and were told we didnt need manual sorters cos the flat machine will do it We now have more manual than before !! we had updates to the imps and lost duties we now have more rejects !! we are got sequencing machines next year so guess what !! why do RM believe " it does what it says on the tin ""

[oggie]

sorry i work in a mail centre we got a new flat sorting machine last year and were told we didnt need manual sorters cos the flat machine will do it We now have more manual than before !! we had updates to the imps and lost duties we now have more rejects !! we are got sequencing machines next year so guess what !! why do RM believe " it does what it says on the tin ""

sorry machineman but don't understand, you say you have more manual sorting after you got the f/s/m, how come?

[Tman]

Our arguement is that 40% of the mail should not be walk sequenced therefore allowing protection of full time jobs and early starts.

Is this the CWU's position? Are you meaning this as it comes across, or do you really mean something different? It seems like you're saying 40% of the mail shouldn't be processed by CSSs so allowing more F/T jobs + early starts to be retained, which is ludicrous. Which company is ever going to not make full use of expensive automation just to keep people in work? That's why they bought the automation in the first place............

But of course it would reduce Royal Mail"s savings hence the fact we still cant reach agreement.

Face reality, that's an agreement which is never going to happen, no matter whether the CWU want it or not.

[axeman]

No need to negotiate a deal like that the machines wont be anywhere near as good as the dim dum's say anyway . You only have to look at the amount of 'checked boxes' on them to realise they ain't what there cracked up to be never belive the spoutings from royal fail ....now what did chirman lateone call it ???............. ah yes bullshit

[oggie]

No need to negotiate a deal like that the machines wont be anywhere near as good as the dim dum's say anyway . You only have to look at the amount of 'checked boxes' on them to realise they ain't what there cracked up to be never belive the spoutings from royal fail ....now what did chirman lateone call it ???............. ah yes bullshit

i wish that was the case, i used to be 1 of the 62 maa keyers in a mail centre,(x 62 by the amount of mail centre's)sadly the work went to the 3 mdec centre's where a total of only 400 keyer's are employed.

[Tman]

i wish that was the case, i used to be 1 of the 62 maa keyers in a mail centre,(x 62 by the amount of mail centre's)sadly the work went to the 3 mdec centre's where a total of only 400 keyer's are employed.

He can't hear you because he's got his head stuck in the sand.
"If I deny it, then it won't happen" reasoning.
Doubtless (well, possibly ) he'll wake up when it's too late, and realise the canteen ex-spurts had it wrong all along....

[Ernie Shoe]

Our arguement is that 40% of the mail should not be walk sequenced therefore allowing protection of full time jobs and early starts.

Is this the CWU's position? Are you meaning this as it comes across, or do you really mean something different? It seems like you're saying 40% of the mail shouldn't be processed by CSSs so allowing more F/T jobs + early starts to be retained, which is ludicrous. Which company is ever going to not make full use of expensive automation just to keep people in work? That's why they bought the automation in the first place............

Agreed - they should be negotiating good pay offs for the prople that want to leave.
May annoy some people - But negotiating to keep jobs for jobs sake - won't work - lets have some realism here.
If the terms are right plenty of people will happily walk - but it's not in the CWUs interest - lost subs!!!!

[fishtank]

Dvbuk we are trying what do you think the dispute was about , it was attempting to make headway on those issues. Our arguement is that 40% of the mail should not be walk sequenced therefore allowing protection of full time jobs and early starts. But of course it would reduce Royal Mail"s savings hence the fact we still cant reach agreement.

This is definately a very strange post,
I'm not sure i wan't anything to do with it.
I'm all for protecting full time jobs but this is some kind of 1970s timewarp.
Since 2007 every full-timer who has left my office (and there have been many) has been replaced by a part-timer.
Not a word from the CWU.
Suddenly it is the ONLY issue in this dispute and they are willing to trade our working conditions to do it.
According to HQ we entered this period of negotiation from a position of strength.
Now we seem to be begging for scraps from the table.