Video:Dave Ward on Sky

[POSTMAN]

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Royal Mail Posties' In Boycott Threat

Some deliveries face serious disruption if a union wins backing for a Royal Mail boycott of privately-handled mail.


Postal workers are being urged to refuse to deliver letters from anyone other than Royal Mail in the New Year, in a move which threatens to cause disruption.

Around half of the letters delivered by Royal Mail are collected and sorted by private companies like UK Mail and TNT, who then pay Royal Mail a fee for delivery.

But the Communication Workers Union (CWU) has claimed this arrangement costs Royal Mail money and has led to job losses, price rises and fewer services.

The CWU argues that competition on deliveries is "undermining" the same-price-goes-anywhere universal service, with companies other than Royal Mail not having to meet service and pay standards.

A ballot on a boycott will be held after Christmas.

If passed, this would mean that any mail sent via one of Royal Mail's competitors would not be delivered, the union warned.

Billy Hayes, general secretary of the CWU, said: "Today we're launching a major initiative to protect postal services in the face of mounting threats to jobs and services."

His deputy, Dave Ward, added: "We are not prepared to stand by and watch the jobs of our members be ruined by unfair competition which could be avoided."

Mr Ward also told Sky News the union was opposed to privatisation of Royal Mail. He said: "No private owner is going to sustain the universal service that doesn't make money."

In response to the boycott threat a Royal Mail spokesman said: "All of the mail that we handle is important to us and needs to be delivered, as we always do, six days a week.

"It is vital to all of us at Royal Mail, to Royal Mail as a business and most importantly to our customers, that the post is delivered."

He added: "As we have previously said, we are concerned about the impact of unfettered direct delivery competition on Royal Mail.

"We will be responding to Ofcom's consultation on direct delivery in due course. Royal Mail supports competition on a level playing field and believes Ofcom should consider competition in the light of its primary duty of securing the six-day-a-week, one-price-goes-anywhere universal service."

[alhothi]

Better late than never i suppose

[DB1100]

They will fill us up with more D2D rubbish,but like has been said already,better late than never.

[Godric]

about time ... about 8 years to late

[fishtank]

about time ... about 8 years to late

There is a difference between should have happened earlier and too late.

[knackeredneedadayoff]

too late they can feck oof i aint goin out.

[redneck]

Presumably it would be a work to rule type affair with refusal to handle DSA? Not all out strike action. Complete strike action wouldn't make sense to me on this issue.

[clashcityrocker]

Many moons ago we had the introduction of DSA into our pipeline at a low price.
We suffered cost-cutting and job losses and did .........nothing.

Now we have TNT actually performing end to end deliveries, cherry picking the work in the cities without a USO.
And we are going to...........possibly boycott DSA.

DSA is no longer the issue. Do we still make a loss on it?
And I doubt if most of the public even know what Downstream Access is.
And I'm not convinced some posties won't get their PPI and Horizon confused during an eventual boycott.

[fishtank]

DSA is no longer the issue. Do we still make a loss on it?.

I disagree.
DSA is very much the problem.
That is where the end to end delivery companies will dump the mail that is not profitable to deliver.
One for West London...we'll keep that to ourselves.
One for Auchtershuggle...we'll drop that off at Glasgow Mail Centre and let RM drive into the back of beyond and try to find ""The Barn".

[clashcityrocker]

DSA is no longer the issue. Do we still make a loss on it?.

I disagree.
DSA is very much the problem.
That is where the end to end delivery companies will dump the mail that is not profitable to deliver.
One for West London...we'll keep that to ourselves.
One for Auchtershuggle...we'll drop that off at Glasgow Mail Centre and let RM drive into the back of beyond and try to find ""The Barn".

But that is exactly what they do now isn't it?
Much as I wish we could turn the clocks back and get rid of DSA, the only real issue is price for entry to our pipeline.

Is the refusal to handle DSA going to be made at the point of entry? At the MC?

[fishtank]

But that is exactly what they do now isn't it?

No.
Trial apart...what they do now is give us everything so in theory if the access price is set fairly at least we can make money delivering their shite to the densely populated areas which in turn subsidises the Auchtershuggle run.
If end to end takes off we'll just be left with DSA to all of the far flung points of the compass.

[Haitch P]

So what are the CWU calling for? Complete abolishment of DSA and end to end competition?

[La Poste]

Why now?

Why is this issue being raised now?

Does anyone know why it has taken so long?

[noggin1969]

Can't see it working , manager says to someone take DSA mail , postie refuses , postie suspended for failure to follow reasonable request , office walks , more offices walk as RM moves DSA round the country. National dispute over DSA I think there are bigger issues than this within RM and i can't see the membership giving the go ahead for action on it.

[fishtank]

Why now?

Why is this issue being raised now?

Does anyone know why it has taken so long?

End to End competition.
It was always thought that although it cost us jobs in processing and distribution,direct stream access,as long as it was priced fairly could still be part of a sustainable universal service,after all if we're still delivering it and Royal Mail are making some kind of profit from it it's still work in delivery.
E2E has changed the game,TNT now wants to be able to deliver the mail that would have been DSA themselves in the profitable areas and get us to deliver it in the not so profitable areas.
It is in effect much worse than the original access agreements because we will have nothing to offset the cost of delivering to remote areas.