Where's the union when you need them?

[TheCobra]

Where's the union when you need them? Something I keep reading on here and hearing in the office.

What surprises me in my office and probably offices around the country is, the union's original idea was just a group of people standing together to fight for a cause.

The whole concept of the union has become skewed, WE ARE THE f***ing UNION!!!

I also find it strange, that we have all these work time learning meetings etc etc, manager's briefings, but we never have a meeting, just us posties and the union reps. Why can't this happen? Why can't we meet together as union members to discuss our job without management there? Can't the union reps organise this?

I duno, this post has become a bit of a ramble, but I think we live in a time where a lot of people won't take any personal responsibility. The manager's bully us, we blame our union. Why not stand up and fight for yourself, or as a group of posties.

If we feel the union is letting us down a bit, then we need to start again person by person in our offices, there's too many postmen who just like a good f***ing whinge but are ultimately spineless. The amount of people I hear in my office saying "Are we lapsing today?" even on a really busy day they ask this. I say "Like f**k we are!", it's not for us to ask the question "Are we lapsing?" it's for us to tell the management "we aren't lapsing."

Basically, some people need to man the f**k up.

Anyways, rant/ramble over.

[britwrit]

Yeah. A general meeting every few months - even offsite, like at a cafe or a pub - would do wonders for the reputation and influence of the CWU at the mail centre where I work.

[billyboy123]

i would not hold them in a pub waste of time u always get 1 or 2 psd and going on about this that and tother but make no sense at all

[BingBong]

Sounds like alot of people are getting a raw deal when it comes to the union. Our rep is pretty sweet though. Though we have yet to have a revision. That's coming in June. God help us.

[WHITEANT]

Years ago we would have held our union meetings in po building no problem . But the PO wont allow it as they say divide and conquer,yes you can hire a room out but union will subsidise only so much so your maybe asking the boys to throw in a couple of quid.Now the crying starts they wont throw in a couple of quid but are prepared to run round like rabbits saving the PO about £50 per wk

[mpl1111]

a good idea to have a wtll union style rep & posties only evey now and again. some offices it maybe difficult to get union rep to hold a meeting with his troops, due to him being in the doms office having a cosy tea party hanging out the back of the dom

[watt tyler]

a good idea to have a wtll union style rep & posties only evey now and again. some offices it maybe difficult to get union rep to hold a meeting with his troops, due to him being in the doms office having a cosy tea party hanging out the back of the dom

i always highjack wtll, which then turns into a union meeting, non union members get waspy, but tough. i recently saw an ltb that said all members should be allowed at branch committee meetings, so theres always an oppurtunity to put your feelings forward.

[ihatedogs]

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[DirtyHarry]

If people don't realise now, after all that's happened to us these past 10/13 years, that the CWU is in the pocket of Royal Mail bosses, then they never will.

That lousy outfit couldn't even manage to secure our half-day Saturday, ffs.

We lost a battle with bosses that we were in the process of winning, until the CWU betrayed it's members and caved into bosses demands.

Members pay subs only to ensure that Billy & Dave continue to enjoy a standard of living much higher than their members.

If people are honest with themselves, and weigh up what they have lost in terms and conditions , with what they have supposedly gained, and how much that cost in terms of wages lost through striking, then they will see that postal workers are some of the biggest losers in British Industrial history.

[Darren Bent]

That is good idea to have a union only meeting, I had been disappointed with the union so far. But it is nice to have someone to help when you need some serious help/advice. I am disappointed about Saturdays and lack of flexibility on booking on annual leave.

[dvbuk55]

It's actually a misnomer when people say "we are the union" - the machinations of union business is held behind closed doors and the members are presented with a fait accompli and if the deal looks iffy then there's a campaign to sell it. Some years ago we held union meetings in various places which the branch should pay for, however if ex-gratia payments are being made to branch officials there may not be enough Wonga to go round. The union is a like a dysfunctional family insofar as they have a titular link but totally separate agendas. Why would a branch not be in touch with reps to ask when they last met with their members to discuss problems - would that come out at a liaison meeting...............apparently not - in fact I think it's more of a jolly to be off work than anything constructive in carrying out union affairs. How long does a meeting last? - an hour? two? three? yet it apparently engenders a full day off work - now an ordinary member who has an appointment would be asked to attend work appropriate to an appointment time. So are "WE" the union "WE" are certainly the cash cow of the union.

[Lincox]

Local union meetings would probably be fine if there were a small amount of people involved. I was a union rep in a past life and we held monthly meetings. Each month you would have a nucleus of a few people who attended every month and genuinely had an interest in what was happening in the company and to improve the conditions of work for everyone. You would then have the ones that only turned up when they needed something sorted out for themselves and expected everyone to support, but gave no support to anyone else. There would be a vote by raising of hands on the topics we discussed and if necessary we took these back to local management to discuss and agree or disagree. You cannot have a meeting with many people who have different needs as the meetings would be too long and probably disruptive. Local reps would have to be trained to organise and chair a meeting and have a well managed and specific agenda to make sure any meeting is kept on track. I cannot see this union being able to organise itself sufficiently to promote and train reps to that standard. The other problem is meeting would have to be held outside of work hours, and with the differing hours people work these days, unless they were held in the evening there would be a problem giving everyone a chance to attend.

[bessie]

The cold hard facts are these. The Unions were finished over 25 years ago when the Thatcher government , Police, right wing press and the secret services starved the miners back to what was left of their industry. Unions in 2013 have little or no power and that is a fact. People accept all these disgraceful changes AND THE "UNION" do nothing. I feel the "union" work in collusion with senior management and the ordinary workers suffers as a result of this. Most if not all public sector service workers are being screwed to the limit and we all just sit back and accept anything they throw at us. I am seriously considering leaving the union. I,m sorry but they are so spineless and work far, far too close to management. in actual fact I have seen so many examples of this. It really should be us and them to a degree. Now its the managers and unions and little us. HOW VERY SAD!!! The unity amongst the workers has been divided massively and the biggest thing thriving in UK work places are the "I'm all right Jack brigade" How managers love this.

[spoodoo]

Great points Bessie ! We've a lot of guys moan and cry there eyes out downstairs but see the w t l sessions ,quiet as hell . They few guys me included who say anything are victimised .

[borders]

some excellent posts on this thread and i think everypost has a grain of truth in them. times are different, we had our General Meeting recently and our area covers a large amount of the UK. about 29 people turned up of which at least 20 of these were union reps. is it a sad indictment of our times , considering what we may face or do the Union need to get with the times ? do we need meetings anymore ? twitter and facebook is all the rage these days and maybe the union need to have a blog or forum like this on their site ? in the early days it was gate meetings or meetings in the rest room but i believe these are banned now.
undoutable the make up of the workforce has changed , more casuals all year round etc and lets face it with jobs scarce , people are more frightened to upset the applecart.
we are brainwashed[ for want of a better word ]from an early age, witness the recent headlines in many papers etc of the need to portray the " we are all in it together" slogan.
meanwhile, as Osbourne was reading the Budget , Barclays were announcing that their 9 top men had just received 38 million in shares as a bonus. obviously they dont feel the need to share out their windfall for the good of the nation ?
people need to become more class conscious, at last today we had a Labour politician say that the Tories were running the economy for the main benefit of their class. now lets see Labour announce that they are going to run the economy for our class, then we have a distinct choice.


Bring it on Labour....