Area Rep letter to Moya Greene

[Geezer]

Please see the email below.

If there are still people out there defending WCM they should read this..............

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From: ++++++++++++++++++++++
To: justsayit@royalmail.com
Sent: Thursday, 24 November 2011, 17:01

Subject: A plea for sanity to return.............


Dear Moya,

Please bear with me and read the whole email as it is fairly lengthy. I am writing to you concerning the self feeding monster that is known as World Class Mail (WCM) to you or “much ado about nothing” to me.

We have a situation whereby deliveries are delayed, the callers office is left with a queue down the street because it cannot be staffed as staff members are withdrawn to do WCM, there’s no one left.

Packets which are our growth product delayed because of no staff, they are all on overtime or released to WCM, but we throw hours at staff painting pictures of boots and tabards for the notice boards, walls covered from top to bottom with picture boards that wouldn't be out of place in an early learning centre. In fact there are so many cardboard picture boards we have real problem, there is no room on any wall in an office of nearly 200 staff to put up the Christmas duties, you couldnt make it up!! But then again Christmas is a secondry issue to WCM.

We have someone sorting broken elastic bands from usable ones that are swept up each day from the isles, then counting them and then putting them on a chart at the end of each isle, paid time to do this!! Sifting through rubbish bins to sort out paper, three types of rubbish bins now. It took 3 managers/staff from outside of the area plus a member of staff from the office the whole day yesterday to cut the number of bins being used by half and stick pictures on the remaining ones.

Two members of staff being paid 16 hours each to clean one van. A 45 gallon drum of shampoo for washing vans at a cost of £345 has been bought for them to use, yet a revision that gives the staff that use vans just 3 hours a week in total to clean over 60 vans.

WCM has been in +++++++ for over two years now. There was a band 8 manager plus a JV4 on full time release for this time, must be close to £90,000 just in pay per year for the two years. Add to this full and part time release plus hundreds of hours of overtime for other staff. In this time thousands of pounds have been spent on cardboard and other materials, they must have bought all the laminated plastic in the south west. In fact for Christmas I intend to give them all a year’s subscription to laminator world publication if there is such a thing.

A large proportion of this time has been spent on dog bites. Talking about the same thing over and over again, month after month, year after year, constantly chewing it over, sorry about the pun there. However important this is and as a postman who is known as a progressive thinker, not a dinosaur, I believe this issue along with all the other H&S issues could easily be dealt with at very little cost when new members of staff have their initial training, the fact that new entrants only get one days training is not deemed important enough by Royal Mail thinkers, we cant find the money to train staff.

I was told the savings have amounted to £38,000 over this time in +++++++ due to WCM. Much, if not all of this is not because of WCM initiatives but normal day to day ideas from staff and managers locally and agreements that are in place with the CWU, but in the self feeding culture of the WCM monster any idea that is good is seized upon and instantly credited to WCM out of desperation to keep it alive as any parasite would do.

Now I know there has been talk of WCM saving £4 million on indoor projects this year, the problem as I see it is that if an outside auditor looked as these supposed savings you would be lucky to credit 10% if that to WCM.

For instance in +++++++ we agreed last year to take out the secondry sorting for an indoor revision this had been planned for some time, BT 2010 said we had to do it and the staff agreed. Within two weeks the WCM monster herd about it and this had become a WCM initiative and made savings of £24,000. The problem is the DSM and regional director are stating we are using more work hours this year than last year, so no it didnt make any savings at all..........I think they call it WCM creative accounting.

I ask you the question, would you spend £200,000 plus with thousands in ongoing costs in the future to save a very dubious £38,000. What kind of return on your money is that? This seems the same kind of mentality as those who like to invest other people’s pensions in derivatives.

Derivatives,mmmmmm no one can quite understand them, bit like WCM....

Tens of managers descending from outside the area each week, who’s doing their work? Their jobs must not be needed. The cost of WCM makes the so called gravy train of Brussels and the Eurocrats pale into insignificance.

The vast majority of mangers don’t believe in it but it gets them out of working at the rock face as they say and we work in a culture where you have to be involved or its your career as a manager down the drain, the same can be said of the staff, why walk in the rain for hours when you can cut out bits of paper or laminate in the warm.

No one can deny that working in a clean environment that is safe should be paramount, but to spend thousands buying in ideas from Japan, a stagnant economy in the last decade and lets forget about Toyota in the US, and Italy, second lowest growth rate after Zimbabwe in the world, the latter relates to the visit by Fiat managers to Bristol MC and the farce surrounding it. This is Royal Mail management conceding that they have run out of ideas.

The normal day to day business that needs to be done is put off over WCM, it takes precedence over everything and it spreads like a cancer, which ultimately will kill off the victim, us Royal Mail, you won’t lose your job over it, but I know who will have to pay the price for the cost of WCM.

We have just had a methods revision planned at 100BSI, we all know it will fail but that’s buy the buy as they say, fully optimised, it will save around 390 hours not including the shorter working week, indoors and out, remember fully optimised with your tools. If you cost that into money its 10 FT staff at £20,000 a year equal to around £200,000 savings, WCM says that there is £894,000 worth of waste a year indoors and out in the office, square that circle if we are fully optimised? There will be no one left to deliver the mail............. It seems a lot of the people who believe in this sort of accounting believe everything that is said on the shopping channels must be true!!

And before you dismiss this letter because I`m a CWU official I just want to say I have spent nearly 29 years in Royal Mail, it has funded my whole adult life, helped feed and kept a roof over my family. I`m passionately loyal to Royal Mail as an organisation, I don’t want to see it fail, WCM is an 1970`s dated expensive luxury for people with nothing better to do than indulge themselves, at a time of austerity, a fad that will pass until the next fad comes along. The problem is it is funded from our colleague shares that we were cheated out of along with the theft from our pensions.

There is a lot of resentment on the floor as they see money flowing like water to fund WCM, yet challenged when they book five minutes overtime.

Now I know you will put up some kind of defence of WCM because as with all illusiions and scams there is a small amount of truth in them, thats how you hook people into this but........

We have turned what was always a world class business into a WCM business that as a side issue has the inconvenience of delivering mail to the public.

There, I just said it!

Regards

**** ******
Area Rep

[alhothi]

Well put Geezer, but it is sure to fall on deaf ears.

[Geezer]

Sadly, Not my letter, It was sent to me by my Branch Sec.

[POSTMAN]

Quality,let us know what happens Geeze.

[The Quiet Man]

A fantastic letter and a great insight into WCM......I've wondered what the feck the childish posters and drawings were that I see walking through our Mail Centre...now I know!

A total and utter waste of time and money! (and will be binned quietly in the near future just like 'Consignia')

[Cut Off King]

Perhaps Billy could read it out at the next "TOP 900" club meeting ( now that he's a member )

[vigilante]

I'll give a copy to my DIM, he is adamant he wants to bring it in
I'm sure the idiot dose'nt know what it is fully about,he's getting on a bit and sees it as his last chance saloon to keep on the right side of DSM,
sums up all managers and us, bullied from above.

[britwrit]

If we get sold off, WCM will be the first to go. No if, and or buts about it.

[cyclemech1]

It's just like the Emperors New Clothes.

Moya will defend this WCM nonsense till the cows come home, it all looks soooo good on paper!

[teesdale]

This letter says it all and is excellent. Moya Greene must have her doubts about WCM. Surely tipping money onto a bonfire must disturb her in some way. I hope she reads it or did she just come to this country to do the tourist bit.

[shanks73]

moya will read it, she has just sorted out my grievence with my dom.

[24601]

One of our CSS operators is a WCM pillar lead. He keeps getting released to put posters up leaving us one short. This impacts on deliveries an results in the remaining operators doing 4 hours at a stretch.

[gb93]

moya will read it, she has just sorted out my grievence with my dom.

In a good way for you ?
After 4 years it must be good.

[POSTMAN]

One of our CSS operators is a WCM pillar lead. He keeps getting released to put posters up leaving us one short. This impacts on deliveries an results in the remaining operators doing 4 hours at a stretch.

You need to flag that big time.

[24601]

One of our CSS operators is a WCM pillar lead. He keeps getting released to put posters up leaving us one short. This impacts on deliveries an results in the remaining operators doing 4 hours at a stretch.

You need to flag that big time.

Who do we need to flag it to POSTMAN ?