Save Whitstable and Herne Bay Delivery Offices

[chooch]

Here follows an e-mail I sent out to supporters on my distribution list earlier, after hearing that ROYAL MAIL HAVE STATED THE DELIVERY OFFICE WILL MOVE ON 11TH FEBRUARY:-
Julie Wassmer

Hi everyone,

I understand that last Saturday's strike action, supported so strongly by local people in Whitstable, has Royal Mail so rattled that they are now trying to force through the delivery office move on February 11th. This will have very negative repercussions for Royal Mail.

I have just written to CEO Moya Greene. A copy is below.

Stand by for more urgent strike action and public events to support it!

Thanks for all!

Julie Wassmer

From: wassmerkas
To: moya.greene@royalmail.com; jacky.akass@royalmail.com; terri.wilders@royalmail.com; ray.tompsett@royalmail.com
Subject: WHITSTABLE POSTAL WORKERS STRIKE ACTION AND PUBIC SUPPORT - with photos.
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:18:19 +0000

Dear Moya,

After writing to you on 27th November, requesting an urgent meeting for Chris Stone, Cllr James Flanagan and myself to discuss the the deteriorating situation in Whitstable regarding our proposed delivery office move to Canterbury, I am still waiting for an appropriate reply.

Our Parliamentary Spokesman, Cllr James Flanagan, met with Royal Mail personnel in London last week and will be back in touch with Royal Mail this week. However, I understand from your spokespeople, Jacky Akass and Terri Wilders, that Royal Mail has no obligation to meet in any way with the public on this matter, or with Chris Stone who, as you are no doubt aware, is now not only the postal workers' leader but their CWU union representative.

It is wholly regrettable that Royal Mail should have taken this stance for, as I have tried to impress upon you, to continue 'stonewalling' on this issue would only serve to inflame the situation. And so it has proved.

I am sure Royal Mail personnel are monitoring this site: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Whit ... 355?ref=hl" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; But if your personnel are not doing so, they really should since the reach has been stratospheric since last Saturday's strike action by our postal staff - action that was supported so strongly by our local community and local politicians - as I told you it would be.

Here in Whitstable, we are unaware who, at Royal Mail, might have come up with this absurd plan to send our posties back and forth daily in 35 vans to deliver mail, while customers, in turn, are sent on a 16 mile round trip to pick up undelivered mail. Ultimately, it is you as Chief Executive designate of the United Kingdom's Royal Mail who must take overall responsibility so it might be beneficial for you to begin properly responding to this issue. I understand that your basic salary is in the region of £500,000? Good for you. But if this is a meritocracy, I would like to know how you might justify what a postie receives for an hourly rate of doing an excellent job of delivering mail, set against your hourly rate of presiding over the ludicrous proposals of the migration of Whitstable and Herne Bay's delivery offices to Canterbury.

As Royal Mail is still a public company, charged with providing a public service, I would also like to know exactly what Ray Tompsett received over the last two weeks while Royal Mail pursued its standard (some would say, shameful) policy of refusing to engage with the postal workers and the people of this area, but instead quoted endless spin to the media about its '£70m investment' and 'modernisation'. £70m of whose money? I suggest it would be wise also for Royal Mail to change the script on that line as it wore very thin even on the journalists who yawned every time Ray Tompsett come out with those lines.

If 'modernisation' produces a worse service for the customer, how are you going to justify this to prospective buyers of Royal Mail for privatisation? You will need to get a better spokesman than Mr Tompsett for that phase of 'modernisation' since he hid himself away in our delivery office last Saturday while our community held its ground on the picket line, preventing mail lorries from crossing, while they called to 'Ray' to engage with the issue at hand. All of this, of course, took place before the media. Perhaps, if you are all too scared to meet properly with us, you might care to 'Like' the Facebook page and we can engage with you that way?

On Saturday, I read many messages sent to us from other areas, up and down the country - including one from the councillors of Bulwell in Nottinghamshire. I also read out a message of support sent to me, for the postal workers, by a well known actor from the television series, "Eastenders" - a series I wrote for - for some considerable time. Whitstable has been busy joining up the dots on the map of those places up your delivery office migration policy is affecting. It forms a national picture and is now getting national attention as well as from various celebrities.

I know that there have been ongoing negotiations between the CWU and Royal Mail on the current situation and I'm sure any reasonable organisation or company would be registering, by now, how negatively your stance might affect you. But Royal Mail is clearly not a reasonable organisation for I learn today that you are now planning to steamroller through the move to Canterbury on February 11th. Who came up with that decision? There will not even be time for the required 'revision' of work procedures, so are you expecting our posties to cycle back and forth to Canterbury on their bikes?

The result of this decision is for more strike action to take place, soon, and yet again supported by local people. Last time we came out in our hundreds to support our postal workers but I noticed only today that our Facebook page has drawn 3,491 visits since Saturday's action. Expect plenty of support for our posties' next strike action and lots of media attractive events to accompany this action. I suspect that not giving sufficient time for the revision of work procedures will also now attract supportive strike action from other areas all over Kent which, in turn, will simply give more media attention to your proposals. If you really feel you can justify them on national television - bring it on, Moya. But get a better spokesman next time than Ray.

Julie Wassmer

Save Whitstable and Herne Bay Delivery Offices

[Wessex]

A superb letter.I picture Moya spluttering on her moose juice as she reads it .Priceless .

[fishtank]

Sorry.
I couldn't hear anything for the deafening noise of support from CWU HQ.

That's right you can't defend bricks and mortar blah,blah,blah.
Unless of course those bricks and mortar are CWU HQ,then you can lob huge chunks of member's money at saving bricks and f***ing mortar.

[juliew]

Many thanks Wessex! I'm Julie Wassmer, author of the letter and joint coordinator of the public protest against Royal Mail's proposals to move the Whitstable Delivery office to Canterbury. After a huge protest last Saturday which drew over 300 people out for the march through town, Moya (as she likes to be known) seems to be for moving the office asap. Stand by for more strike action - and more public protest. Not only from Whitstable but from people in Herne Bay and also in Canterbury! JW

[Wessex]

I hope it goes well for you Julie and that RM see sense and make the necessary volte-face .
Regards and good luck Wessex.

[chooch]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3unZ6f2PwG4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[juliew]

Here's a bit of fun from our strike day 12th January 2013 - a message to Moya Greene and Ray Tompsett - that's the Ray Tompsett who overdid the spin on the £70 modernisation programme that would see our Whitstable delivery office moved to Canterbury and residents and business people sent on a 16 mile round trip to pick up undelivered mail? Come on, Ray and Moya, that's a worse service by anyone's standards. And as for leaving packages with 'a neighbour'? Excuse me, but most people work so the most likely 'neighbour' for such a task would be our elderly. Why should they take on the service you're meant to provide? Why should their homes become a make shift 'caller's office?' So we sent a message to Moya and Ray about what we thought of this prelude to privatisation. Here it is:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix1n4Ro6Iuk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Julie Wassmer (Writer and local Whitstable campaigner)

[TrueBlueTerrier]

The Mexican wave didn't wor - but the first run through was good.