Inflation profile: Mal Curry, 50 - Royal Mail sorting office

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... ail-worker" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In some ways, Mal Curry is one of the lucky ones in these straitened times. A 50-year-old "lifer" working at a Royal Mail sorting office in Manchester for 31 years, he has been granted pay rises through most of the recession and now earns around £9 an hour.

But the small annual increases have failed to keep up with galloping inflation which he says has doubled his utility bills over the last five years. "I've got a meter and every week I used to put £5 on the electric and £5 on the gas. Now both are a tenner," he said outside the Oldham Road depot on Tuesday.

Curry, who lives alone in Worsley in Salford, has made small changes to stay afloat. His nightly bath has been replaced with a shower, and whereas he used to go to the pub every Friday, now he buys four cans from the off licence instead. "Four for £5.50," he said, "and that's a pound more than it was not so long ago."

Now, he said, "you go to work for a social life. I only go out once a month now, and I'm home after four pints."

He brings his own teabags to work these days, balking at the price increases in the Royal Mail canteen – a cup of tea now costs 58p, up from 25p a go, he claimed. He's more likely to be seen in Aldi than Tesco and he puts cheaper things in his trolley, shunning expensive brands. "I keep away from the Warburtons bread," he said, by way of example.

Curry used to treat himself to an annual holiday in America – Cuba, Mexico, Costa Rica – but for the first time in years, has not gone away at all this summer. "This year I couldn't afford it," he said.

This year, Royal Mail workers have yet to receive a pay rise after their union rejected an 8.6% pay rise as a "misleading and unacceptable" sweetener from a company desperate to win over staff ahead of plans to privatise the 497-year-old postal service.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents more than 100,000 Royal Mail staff, said the 8.6% increase in basic pay over three years was "only there as a sweetener to swallow some very bitter pills" including "damaging" changes to their pensions and working conditions.

Curry said he objected to below-inflation rises when Royal Mail executives were getting big increases and bumper bonuses. Earlier this month, the group's annual report showed that chief executive Moya Greene received a 33% pay rise last year taking her income to almost £1.5m.

The CWU said Greene's pay was "imitating private sector excess" at a time when workers faced painful cuts in pensions and hours. The union was particularly incensed by a £400,000 bonus paid to Greene alongside a £250,000 payment for her relocating from Canada.

[Red Robbo]

It would be "Utopia" if all managers were on similar pay as the staff who work for them but it ain't going to happen, so why do the Union rant on about it all the time.
Moya Greene and all the Directors getting these wonderful bonuses is not going to persuade me to vote for industrial action, not having a pay rise and a threat to my terms & conditions may do so.

[DB1100]

And he's full time,even worse for a part timer,also they forgot to mention the strings attached to the pay rise.

[Bahia Feliz]

He must have been saving £30 or £40 a week to afford the holidays!

[UnhappyGremlin]

There are a lot of us, and not just posties, in this type of situation, having suffered real terms pay cuts for years.

Yet again, the papers focus on pay, and not the rest of the problems that we're prepared to fight to resolve.