personally there is a balance between what Belial and Fish are saying. in my opinion every Branch in the UK know that the option of. 1 in 4 is included in the agreement and I think the vast majiority of local reps and members know.
In fact the staff survey is mandatory and forms part of the revisons process. of course management are opposed to improved attendances as It is easy to manage. But there are plenty of our members if we are honest scared to move to improved attendances as on paper their finishing times will be later on most days of the week and that many still believe they can get a flier.
Some of our members need to understand that they will work later on Saturdays but the key is now working less Saturdays.
Now I always ask myself why do some offices accept anything management throw at them or the union tells them and others stand up and say no we are not introducing or supporting Royal Mail's revison until we get what we want.
Remember a revison rarely works unless it has the support of the workforce and a delivery methods revisons rarely works whether it has support of not.
The key is this why would an office allow an outside rep to come in and do the work that someone from your office should have done ? yes you can get a rep to help from outside but it's is far better that someone steps up in the office who knows what people want and what the walks and issues are.
I don't buy the argument that the fault is local agreements as I joined in 1984 and it has always been down to local revisons and local input as CWU HQS cannot do revisons by remote control and if it did local offices would not support it.
Too many people play the blame game instead of taking responsibility for what is happening in their own office , their own Banch and their own division. We have a national agreement which states staff are entitled to 1 in 4 or less , we have an agree menu of options , offices have the right to vote on an agreement and reps have the right to disagree , sometimes if you are not getting what you want and are being ignored then you have to get together and say no and. Stand up and then you should get the support from your Branch , Division and nationally.
Too many accept what management says and then come and complain on here. personally the offices who normally get the best deals normally say no and then fight to get what they want. remember there are plenty of offices who were down as weak who became strong by doing this.
The Union and most unions are only as strong or weak by the strength of the union within the workplace or Branch.
I personally believe that the UNION must also root out reps and Branch's who do anything for an easy time and don't assist and support local reps and members getting what they want.
