National Atgreement

[ronpetetrevchris]

Dont agree entirely with the news coming out and the membership just rolling over and agreeing.

The late weekdays and saturdays for my office seems to have the opposite effect and many people who didnt strike last time (and that was about a fifth) are saying this is unworkable for them and they would have no alternative but to strike or find other employment. Similar with the d2d issue, not going down well these rumours, not to mention the rumoured 1.2%.

[disheartened]

Dont agree entirely with the news coming out and the membership just rolling over and agreeing.

The late weekdays and saturdays for my office seems to have the opposite effect and many people who didnt strike last time (and that was about a fifth) are saying this is unworkable for them and they would have no alternative but to strike or find other employment. Similar with the d2d issue, not going down well these rumours, not to mention the rumoured 1.2%.

And where are they going to find alternitve employment,even jobs like stacking selfs in Tesco's ect are like rocking horse s**t at the moment,its a tough old world out there at the moment many people are on skid row,RM would have no trouble employing coach loads of strike breakers to come in and do our jobs should we decline the agreement and walk out,the union know that and thats why they are trying to get the best deal for us and a yes vote to accept it.

I am not a manager,i have 30+ years service and have always been outside the gates when asked........i am just trying to be realistic.

[ronpetetrevchris]

In the last 12 months we have had three departures becausee of the current RM climate and each has found alternative employment 2 better conditions and 1 not, but solid work non the less. The point i was trying to make was that if what we are hearing in the rumours is true - this may well work against RM.

This may unite more members than last time, bring more public support for our casue (by outlining the change to the servive (which people never like)) and more importantly let the business customers know about their degrade in service that RM want - in particular the late delivery time. Remembe,r it was the small business that RM targeted to put the point across that thios strike was un just and hurting so many. How are these businesses going to react when they may not get their mail until 4pm when all work for the day is wrapping up. It may well put up to 20 hours onto their process and delivery time if they cannot deal with the sale until the next day.

As for bussing in workers - arent there laws against blacklegs?

[fishtank]

Dont agree entirely with the news coming out and the membership just rolling over and agreeing.

The late weekdays and saturdays for my office seems to have the opposite effect and many people who didnt strike last time (and that was about a fifth) are saying this is unworkable for them and they would have no alternative but to strike or find other employment. Similar with the d2d issue, not going down well these rumours, not to mention the rumoured 1.2%.

And where are they going to find alternitve employment,even jobs like stacking selfs in Tesco's ect are like rocking horse s**t at the moment,its a tough old world out there at the moment many people are on skid row,RM would have no trouble employing coach loads of strike breakers to come in and do our jobs should we decline the agreement and walk out,the union know that and thats why they are trying to get the best deal for us and a yes vote to accept it.

I am not a manager,i have 30+ years service and have always been outside the gates when asked........i am just trying to be realistic.

I understand your point disheartened but if you are going to be realistic that also has to be applied to the terms of the deal.
It has to be fair and it has to be workable.
It is no use agreeing a deal because it was the best avaliable if it makes peoples working lives miserable.
Remember with 30+years service you will probably be spared the worst excesses of Royal Mails plans for the future.
Make no mistake this will be a long term deal which will have implications 10,20 or 30 years down the line if RM survives.
It would be foolish to make decisions based on the short term if 2 or 3 years down the line you are forced to leave because the conditions are so poor.

[k979aaa]

Dont agree entirely with the news coming out and the membership just rolling over and agreeing.

The late weekdays and saturdays for my office seems to have the opposite effect and many people who didnt strike last time (and that was about a fifth) are saying this is unworkable for them and they would have no alternative but to strike or find other employment. Similar with the d2d issue, not going down well these rumours, not to mention the rumoured 1.2%.

And where are they going to find alternitve employment,even jobs like stacking selfs in Tesco's ect are like rocking horse s**t at the moment,its a tough old world out there at the moment many people are on skid row,RM would have no trouble employing coach loads of strike breakers to come in and do our jobs should we decline the agreement and walk out,the union know that and thats why they are trying to get the best deal for us and a yes vote to accept it.

I am not a manager,i have 30+ years service and have always been outside the gates when asked........i am just trying to be realistic.

Does that mean you will do anything your manager asks you or tells you to do?.

[disheartened]

Does that mean you will do anything your manager asks you or tells you to do?.

No....i'll adhere to a reasonable request/instruction.

[felixblues]

and how long now will we have to wait for a 35hr week?? at 40 mins a year if the union stick to their aim of a 35hr week will take 7 years

iIf you work it out we only work a 36hr 40 min week now due us having paid meal reliefs.Taking this into account losing another 40 min puts us down to 36 hours.Try working in an office or similar where you take an hours lunch break UNPAID !!!

[joe379]

We were told today by our rep that we will have a hell of a fight coming soon, he says the agreement so far is shocking. It shows what sort of waste of space union we have got when our biggest fight is going to be with ourselves. It will be Postal Workers V Union HQ. Would be nice if we could negotiate Hayes and Wards working conditions and pay! Hayes and co will not be doing the job so have no real interest. Would be interesting to see if they would take on the Labour Scum during a general election

[Silence]

Sounds like you have a terrible rep. The agreement hasn't been published yet, so any doom-mongering should wait until at least then.

[Fluke]

I hope this aint going to be the "Dickinson's Real Deal" where the members are sold out cheap as chips.

[Dee Plish]

12,000 VRs over next 3 years.

[monkey76]

No matter what Billy/Dave , the PEC & RM have agreed to THIS IS NOT AN AGREEMENT until it is ratified by the membership , if it is as poor as we are led to believe then it is up to the membership to say NO. Then it will be up to Billy and Dave as elected members of this union to pull their finger out and sort a fair agreement out.

yer your right we just have to vote NO if its crap but in the past when ive covinced myself of a NO vote it ends up getting voted in. Being in processing theres never enough of us to influence a vote so i hope all the footys stay strong like they usually always do and dont take a bite of the dodgy carrots they dangle,Of course this is all total hearsay anyway init coz we still havent heard out anyway have we lol.

[belle smith]

and how long now will we have to wait for a 35hr week?? at 40 mins a year if the union stick to their aim of a 35hr week will take 7 years

iIf you work it out we only work a 36hr 40 min week now due us having paid meal reliefs.Taking this into account losing another 40 min puts us down to 36 hours.Try working in an office or similar where you take an hours lunch break UNPAID !!!

I think you find that people who have an hours lunch break UNPAID!!! also get paid breaks during their working day as well.

I should add i'm not looking for a shorter working week happy to do 40hrs.