The truth! wrote:
Cheap shots dont win arguments.
I have had a look at some of the posts on here and talk about hysteria. Look the agreement should be seen along side the fact that this business along with many other industries is not in a great financial positon. It has competition and falling streams of mail. We may argue over the levels of the decline but it has reduced. In addition Royal Mail`s revenue is falling and rises in prices simply mean more companies down trade.
This industry would be insolvent if it was not an public service which is needed. However the Government has walked away thus far from its responsibility on pensions.
So lets get this straight despite this the CWU have secured the following.
1. 6.9 % over 3 years with a new permanent addition to basic pay worth 20.60 for full timers. ( most companies this year are still recieving zero per cent rises. )
2. A reduction in the working week of an hour which is worth an additional 2.5 % and means that part timers will have a further increase in pay as their hourly rate goes up.
3. Unlike the German Post Office and The Dutch Post office this union has secured an agreement that despite automation Royal Mail will predominantly remain a full time industry. The Dutch is 85 /15 part time and the Germans are 80 /20.
4. The CWU will be at the forefront of any change. There is more union involvement at local and area level than any previous agreement.
5. The CWU have improved MTSF for further mail centre closures which will happen with or without an agreement.
6. The CWU have mangaged to protect full times jobs by including Door to door into workload. The reason being is that work will now be counted in your overall traffic and will influence your call rate and your indoor rates for the office.
7. The £20.60 is not going to make everyone happy it never was and the union had to balance the fact that it could reduce the 2% to increase the supplement but then it would not have flowed through to allowances and would not have been pensionable.
8. The Union has secured in deliveries the ability of staff to have one in four Saturdays off for all who want it. I remember when I was a local rep and used to have arguments with members who wanted to stay on 6 days weeks and were opposed to the 5 day week.
9. We do not have legally binding agreements in this country but we will have both Roger Poole and ACAS oversee all the changes and they were in the room and know what was agreed and just as important why it was agreed.
10. Of course everyone wants more things in there including more money. But there was no more to be had. The colleague share money cant be changed on years 2 and 3 as there are legal implications so could not be used to fund anymore rises in the supplement. The colleague share money which the union was able to use was £1000 as it had not been announced and that money will be paid to everyone regardless of if you joined the industry after colleague share was announced.
11. Most comprehensive delivery agreement ever, including an agreed revision process, standards both indoor and outdoor, new attendance patterns and which puts the union in the room with management to ensure all members are represented in the workplace.
12. An agreement in processing which puts in place consultation process which has to be fully undertaken if management wishes to close further mail centres. In addition it provides improved MTSF terms for excess fares and any relocation as a result of closures to mail centres.
Look Lovejoy and Dingo get a lot of flack off some posters but they did more than most to get the union into the room when Royal Mail were just intent on imposing change.
Mister cucumber makes a point about about existing agreements and executive action. Well he comes from cash handling part of the industry where executive action is not used often. However in Royal Mail it is 400 plus revisions introduced last year by executive action. Network 09 changes by executive action in all network sites and the force closures of Reading , Oxford , Stoke , Liverpool , Crewe , Covertry , Milton Keynes and Paddington mail centres .
Look I understand and do recognise that individuals who stand to lose money from the supplement will be angry but believe me if door to door is not in workload then you can forget about 75 % full timers as the work will not be there to sustained the amount of full time jobs. Walk sequencing changes the arrival pattern in your delivery office.
I will be having discussions with my members and listening and answering questions. This is the most important decision of your working lives, before you make it you should be able to question and debate the agreement. In addtion you must come up with an alternative.
I have read, and re-read, all of the above, and I'm afraid I don't want to be a member of a union that's in partnership with the employer.
As an official of the CWU, your main concern should be your members terms & conditions of work, not how best to aid RM management in it's ceasless quest to slash and burn it's way through those very terms & conditions you should be protecting.
Postal Workers, especially in deliveries, whether they be full-time/part-time, have actually gained nothing, but lost a few more things that make this job we do just that little bit more bearable.
We've lost, or will lose, our early Saturday finishes, every Saturday, in exchange for three Saturdays of sheer hell out of four.
You've agreed to increase that bane of about 99.9% of all walking postmen/women, D2Ds. To how many, who knows, it could be anything without a cap on the bloody trash.
I've posted for weeks before the talks concluded, that I dreaded the outcome, my faith in the CWU to negotiate a good deal for all postal workers, one that actually improved the terms & conditions of all postal workers, was wafer thin, and how right I was to dread this appalling attack on the workers.
