CWU newsletter

[osgoody1970]

got the newsletter through my door this morning, it makes pretty grim reading, it implies they are going to try and by-pass the union (AGAIN)!!!, MAKES SOME GOOD POINTS, MOYA'S BONUS, MANAGERS BONUSES, while we get rake all, just more and more workload, if anyone is still anti-union, they better wise up.... we are in the last chance saloon, and we need to get behind OUR UNION!!!!!! NOW.

[madmartin]

These are the same problems we had prior to thew last set of negotiations and nothings changed if anything it's gotten worse so how is having more talks going to do anything? we need new people at the top of the cwu people who are able to make a change.

[minimumstandard]

to make change the membership needs to wise up and support the cwu with out our support we are all knackered

[randompostman]

They have not changed tactics one bit, all mouth and no trousers. We have been getting the same type of communications for years that communicate nothing other than HQs impotence.
"Membership Consultation Exercise". WTF is that about? It is our Union and the Union bosses need to ask EVERY member what they expect not just a handful of members with loaded questions. Here are a few questions they should ask EVERY member!
1/ Do you think CWU HQ have represented the aspirations of your section (A) badly (B) ok (C) well.
2/ Do think elections for officials should be simplefied allowing any who wish to stand for any position to do so (A) yes (B) not sure (C) no.
3/ Do you think your GS should be recalled and an election called for that position (A) yes (B) not sure (C) no.
4/ Do you think your DGS should be recalled and an election called for that position (A) yes (B) not sure (C) no.
5/ Do you think that all contact and money paid to the Labour Party from HQ should be stopped (A) yes (B) not sure (C) no.
6/ Do you think the CWU should be working in solidarity with other Unions to bring about real change in the country (A) yes (B) not sure (C) no.

[Lincox]

Yes we need a strong support for the union, however there has to be a change to the reteric, and the consultation must have at it,s forefront an end to the immoral use of the sickness and absense rules as a means to dismiss long term employees to avoid redundancy payments, as well as the endless agenda of local managers to conduct code individuals who work to their contracted hours, for minor offences and trumped up claims of working slowly. Bullying and harrasment by management continues to be left out of any talks with management. What are the union afraid of? We must also insist that there has to be a national agreement for the way this business is operated and not a barrage of local interpretations. We cannot operate as a UNION when we are being segregated by the company in agreement with the CWU heirarchy, by operating local agreements which can be torn up so easily compared to a national plan.

[Judgee]

The union just needs new leadership, pinky and perky just aren't up to the task and never have been!

[Lounge Lizard]

If the CWU's got something to communicate then it's best done in a lot less than four pages, and I suspect few members will have read all of this latest blurb.
I started losing patience half way down the first page at "The debate has moved on - it's not about whether we need to change - it's about how we change", then overleaf there's the regular "Your views matter" and then Royal Mail "must recognise the workforce is their greatest asset" before what for me was the final straw "The Prime Minister struggles to articulate his vision for the big society - the CWU and its membership can show him what this really means" - yes, Dave, dream on. As for pages 3 and 4 I doubt if they're any better.

[fishtank]

I'll summarise...

Pages 1 and 2 was just blah,blah,blah from Dave down-dialling members expectations in case we get any grand ideas on what these talks will achieve.

Page 3 was just a summary of what has been achieved in the last 4 months...other than the London Agreement...nothing.

Page 4 was just a copy&paste from the CWU Response to...blah,blah,blah...from May.

The envelope was white and had my name,address and membership number on it which unless i'm mistaken is a breach of the data protection act since those details can be used to access and edit my membership details on the clunky old CWU website.
Wouldn't be hard to guess the passwords of 100,000 posties.

[Martin Walsh]

The union just needs new leadership, pinky and perky just aren't up to the task and never have been!

So tell me who you would have as a DGSP or GS. Remember both of those roles mean you have to deal with the media , mps , post comm, negotiate , command the PEC , have respect from the Branch's and conference as well as speak to members and resolve disputes and problems.

Only proven people in the union who have done things locally , at branch level , divisional level or national level stand a chance . Talk is cheap , people on here may have some support from people on here but most don't even know each others names let alone what they have done to assist the members .

As someone who knows the union inside out there is no one I would put before Dave in negotiations or thinking in the union especially when under pressure .

The BTA has got lots of stick on here but tell me how would you have stopped walk sequencing changing the work plan meaning the potential of later starts and later Saturday's ? How would you have stopped royal mail saying we cannot grow the door to door product with a cap of 3 and a unit payment which results in a hit and miss quality product ? In fact we want to put it into workload so that we pay you an hourly rate to do this.

The union knew long ago under walk sequencing not many will start at 0500 or in fact 05:30 especially the MPU and decided that it would be better to have a permanent addition to basic pay !

Now part of the leadership role is to then put the agreement to a vote of the membership and as part of this consultation every unit rep was invited to a meeting so they could hear the presentation and ask questions. In the end the membership endorsed the agreement . Their was no widespread campaign to oppose the agreement like their was for the way forward and only 7 Branch's had a majority of members who voted no !

It is ilrevlant that members choose not to vote at all ! The anti trade union laws knew this would the case when they put postal ballots in place . However the coalition government is still governing the country even thou the turnout was just over 50 percent.

[fishtank]

I think the membership have had enough of being told how bad it is dingo.
Although there is a constant need for a reality check with some members the overall impression is that we have had nothing but bad news and low expectations for 10 years from our employer,our various Governments/shareholders and most importantly our union.
Sometimes it's important to talk up the future,morale is low and fear of what's around the corner is high.
Maybe if the union set it's sights a little higher than mitigating the worst of Royal Mail's destructive plans that faint spark of fight that's left in the membership could catch fire again.

[randompostman]

The union just needs new leadership, pinky and perky just aren't up to the task and never have been!

Needs a bit more than new leadership from those two, but it would be a start. The whole setup needs to change from the ground up, a complete rebuild if you like. Getting rid of ALL PAID OFFICIALS over a "period" of time and replacing with individuals who work in our industries as a day job is a must as well.

[osgoody1970]

I'm a big fan of Dave Ward, he is THE MAN as far as I'm concerned, the problem the union has is that senior management see our industry as a minimum wage industry and it won't be long before they attack our terms and conditions, the public will see us as lucky in having a job in this recession, d2ds was a great addition into our pay and secured full-time jobs, but the membership saw d2d as a sell out, but royal mail were ready to pull the plug on d2d but can you convince the workforce on this issue, no you can't, the solution as I see it is, everyone work till their time and do the job properly, simples, but our workforce race the clock always have done.... how about clocking off and on!!!!!

[heathrow86]

I to received mine yesterday, i wonder how many people would be prepared for industrial action, if the talks were to break down. We have known about the colleague share issue for some time now. If i remember right did the union give the managment till the end of April to rectify the situation, now here we are in late July and they are just about to start talking! A bit late don't you think? Also with regard to the new business plan & mail centre closures, that are coming in other areas of the country. What assurances are going to be given about no compulsory redundancies.

[fishtank]

i wonder how many people would be prepared for industrial action, if the talks were to break down.

That's the problem when apathy is allowed to breed in a union.
The negotiators will be wondering exactly the same thing so really they can't afford for the talks to break down at all and Royal Mail know it .....so if that's the case just how hard can you press the employer for concessions and just how much crap do you have to accept in return....and the depressing cycle continues.

Colleagueshares in the grand scheme of things are not that important but when it was announced that we would be getting nothing there was a great deal of anger within the membership towards Royal Mail.In my opinion that anger should have been harnessed to provide a stronger bargaining position before negotiations began.
Most of that anger has now dissipated.

[Judgee]

"As someone who knows the union inside out there is no one I would put before Dave in negotiations or thinking in the union especially when under pressure"

Dingo I am sure you know him far better than me, all I can go by is the results I see, or lack of them. No I don't know who should replace him, or Hayes but I'm pretty sure there must be better leaders out there?

It seems to me that every time the Union have some leverage over RM they throw it away, eg when strike action was suspended prior to xmas to allow negotiations to proceed. Four months later and we all get shafted by management yet again!

D2Ds payments restructured to secure full time jobs, Rm bosses now looking to remove 40,000 that's not what I call secure? All this from a ballot that should have been decided in a seperate vote for delivery workers who would bear the brunt of the changes. Not in a national vote where half the workforce had everything to gain and nothing to lose!

Instead of pushing to change pricing regulations on DSA or encouraging RM to expand into other areas, Union leadership have fought RM on the back foot, accepting what they considered to be the least harmful management decisions instead of making it clear what exactly the membership would or would not be prepared to accept!


Sorry Dingo, but if this is the best that Ward and Hayes can achieve then it's just not good enough!