PEC REPORT NOVEMBER

[lovejoy]

Talks Still Carrying On

November Executive Council Report

Royal Mail Dispute

The Postal Executive called off the strikes due on 6th & 9th November because we considered that the previous two days of action had achieved our immediate objectives. Those were to get a form of words which dealt with the local disputes, to tie Royal Mail into accepting a set of principles which made the successful negotiation of a new National Agreement more likely and to get a third party involved to act as a referee.

There were some in the Union who disagreed with our decision. A few because they thought we should have carried on striking no matter what. For the Pec, strikes are merely a means to an end, and never an end in itself and we are not a spectator sport for members of left-wing groups to cheer from the touchline. Others wondered how we could ever trust Royal Mail. The answer is we can’t and that’s why we insisted that our strike ballots remain live; why we put weekly reviews into the process and why we insisted on a third party being involved.

Needless to say, everything has not run smoothly. It became apparent early on that although in most areas significant movement had taken place, including dealing with a number of strike-related disciplinary cases informally, management in the London Division were simply refusing to comply with the terms of the Interim Agreement. Either this was being done with the full knowledge of RM’s negotiators or they were running out of control. Either way, it was not something our negotiators could ignore and precious time was spent trying to resolve it. Perhaps that was the intention of management all along. Time was also taken up in agreeing who the independent person was to oversee the negotiations. In the end we accepted one of management’s suggestions, Roger Poole, who, curiously, used to be a senior official in NUPE.

With his assistance and that of ACAS, who are also involved, a set of words was found to move the London issue on that was acceptable to the London Branches. This week will see if those words achieve the desired effect. The intention is also this week to move the negotiations on the national issues significantly forward and deal with the potential problems of World Class Mail and 2010 budget proposals. The Postal Executive will be meeting again next Monday to consider if the terms of the Agreement promising significant progress by early December have been met and we will make our decisions on where we go next based on the information we receive.

In the meantime, our campaign to force the Government to carry out its obligation to deal with the deficit in our Pension Scheme continues. A number of meetings have been arranged with both Government Ministers, other politicians and Labour affiliated trade unions to keep the pressure on. The Labour Party Conference voted unanimously that the Government had to pick up the tab and we can’t let just a few people, some of them unelected, get away with just washing their hands of it.

ILSM’s

For the past few weeks I have been overseeing the trials of the ILSM’s taking place at Jubilee, Peterborough and Edinburgh. At the moment a whole mass of data is being gathered involving the performance of the machines and also data concerning the operators. With their permission, they are being filmed and are also being asked to fill in forms detailing any fatigue, stress that they may be experiencing. All this will be analysed at the end and will go towards deciding what the staffing levels will be. Testing was also due to take place at Peterborough on the walk sequencing function of the machine but this has yet to happen because of problems with the software. What has been proved is that the machine is fast, averaging around 38,000 items an hour at best.

A number of problems have arisen. Management seem to want to run the trials with the least number of operators possible and already seem to have a fixed idea of how many they will need in the end. We have suggested running it with more staff and then show us when they are standing around doing nothing. We also have an issue with the data we are being given on the operators. We get it already filtered by the ergonomists and we have asked for the raw data. Management say they can’t do this because of the Data Protection Act.


Xmas Arrangements

About the only document put to the Postal Executive not concerning the dispute over the past few months concerned this year’s Xmas arrangements. It was basically the same as last year but did deal additionally with the issue of Saturday 26th December. It has been agreed that this will be a no-service day and that no-one will be made to pay back the hours not worked on that day. This may seem like nothing but those with memories stretching back to the 1980’s will remember that we once went on strike on the 26th over the same issue. Ah, the good old days!



Pete Keenlyside
Postal Executive
3 December 2009

[smudger83]

thanks to all the pec and for the 26th. oh yes i remember the 1980s well

[Lincox]

I am more than thankful to get a report from the pEC on this website forum. However, why the hell isn,t this report on the CWU website so that all members have access to it, and why hasn,t this report come out as a circular to all offices as again there must be members that do not have access to a computer at home.

[ass asin]

recieved this, this morning

[donut]

These are the bones !!!.......where`s the meat ????
(and don`t say in billy`s gut).

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Excellent cheers Lovejoy - more information than that recent LTB that listed 4 reports they had read .

Thanks very much extremely well appreciated by me, and others I suspect.

[Big Daz]

I am more than thankful to get a report from the pEC on this website forum. However, why the hell isn,t this report on the CWU website so that all members have access to it, and why hasn,t this report come out as a circular to all offices as again there must be members that do not have access to a computer at home.

Because it's not a offical PEC report, its simply the one member of the PEC giving his take on the meeting.


Of course a offical/formal report each month, perhaps written by the chair or the DGS(p) place on the CWU website would be of use.

[POSTMAN]

Walk sequencing,i don't get this software issue,do the f***ers work or not!
Addresses over here and over in Canada or Belgium are near enough the same aint they.1,1a,1b 3,5, ect....

[Big Daz]

oh yes i remember the 1980s well

So do I, I was still at primary and secondary school, then that fatefull day in 1991 came along when I saw the advertisment in a jobs magazine at school for postal cadets.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Walk sequencing,i don't get this software issue,do the f***ers work or not!
Addresses over here and over in Canada or Belgium are near enough the same aint they.1,1a,1b 3,5, ect....

I think he means the internal software that routes the letters through the machine. Just a basis if you have 600 addresses on a walk unless you have 600 separate sections for them to be sent to you have to pass each letter through the machine multiple times. I am guessing from posts on here that they have about 6 sections so it means the software that routes them has to be very accurate and dynamic to cope with it, or you get loads of miss-sorts. Which in fact does seem to happen according to reports on here. It sounds as though, just like the machines (according to posts on here) the software is an off the shelf version and they have to tinker with it, rather than a bespoke version written by professionals.

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I know thats not accurate and its a very simplistic explanation, but anyone who has worked on a WSM in action could perhaps clarify it or explain it better.

[Puppetmaster]

Its Good to hear something AT LAST?

[postietaz]

what set of words ;lol take this taker dat :cfo :cfo :cfo

[smudger83]

vote yes

[Big Daz]

Top third at the moment

The good news is all those above me are 40's, 50's and 60's so If I stay long enough there is a very good chance I will be the most senior person in the D.O before I retire.

[k979aaa]

W/S has been introduced into our area in the past six months it does work but does not save anything like the time management envisaged however it will impact upon mech mail and it's distribution (timescale) and job's in mail centers in those areas effected! It will also make walk throw outs quicker for NEW STAFF only and not walk holders for it just takes the same time as an experienced postie but that is ROYALMAILS aim less experience less cost less care and less staff!.