Cost to Rm of strike £260 M -Telegraph

[stephen500]

So even with the high cost they say they won't budge on core issues!
''A source close to Royal Mail said there would be no relenting on the basic terms being offered to the CWU members. However, he said there could be room to manoeuvre regarding the terms of the bonuses that they are eligible for on top of their basic pay.''
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.j ... ail107.xml
Postal strike to lose Mail £260m in total
By James Hall

The ongoing postal strike could cost Royal Mail up to £260m in lost business and administration costs – a far higher figure than thought, company executives fear.

By the time the second 48-hour strike ends on Wednesday, the cost to Royal Mail will be "£50m or £60m", according to a senior executive.

However, bosses fear the real financial damage could come from people shunning the postal service and embracing electronic forms of communication as a direct result of the industrial action. "The longer-term pain is bigger than the short-term pain. It could cost us as much as a couple of hundred million over time," said the executive.

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About 130,000 members of the Communication Workers Union are at loggerheads with Royal Mail bosses over pay. Talks are continuing between the two sides this weekend but the two-day strike that ended late last week left an estimated 100m letters and parcels undelivered. A second two-day strike is planned for tomorrow.

An estimated 35,000 workers out of 110,000 scheduled to work crossed picket lines yesterday, a Royal Mail spokesman said. Around 45 per cent of all the mail was shifted.

Royal Mail has already signed a pay deal with 12,000 post office managers who have agreed to a 2.5 per cent rise in basic pay, the same terms being offered to the delivery workers. Sub postmasters and Parcel Force, part of Royal Mail, have also agreed terms with the company.

A source close to Royal Mail said there would be no relenting on the basic terms being offered to the CWU members. However, he said there could be room to manoeuvre regarding the terms of the bonuses that they are eligible for on top of their basic pay.

Royal Mail bosses are pushing for modernisation. They say Britain's mail market is declining by 2.5 per cent a year and that the company has lost 40 per cent of its bulk business to rival operators.

[ROCKY]

not letting facts and details worry whatever wrote that article then

[TrueBlueTerrier]

A Royal Mail spokesman said. Around 45 per cent of all the mail was shifted.

Yes from the vans to the IPS frames and that's as far as most of it gets.

[cruisey]

Taking into account the people on rest day,annual leave and sick, about 10% of staff turned in. How the feck they moved 45% of mail is beyond me. RM should be on CBBC reading on Jackanory. Another great story

[PrestwickPostie]

near enough 7 months of negiotiations and god knows how many months before April and the CWU & RM cannot come to agreement ..... what i want to know is what the f**k is the strategy of the CWU .... the longer this strike goes on the more damage it is causing the business and it is helping our rivals then their is the communication blackouts ... then to cap it all off we are now left with a deal far worse than the one that was offered before the strike started, most of the people in my office thought the original deal acceptable as most of the add ons had been ditched and no flexability crap or the attack on the pensions ... heads must roll at the CWU after the strike is over starting with that labour arse licking cvnt Billy Hayes calling off a strike in a position of strength .... and when we go back to work (if we have a job to go back to that is) when the strikes are over most of the offices will be deeply divided

and don't get me started on they two twats at the top Leighton & Crozier

[mailjock]

Can't for the life of me think why you believe the pension scheme cut is anything to do with the strike being called off for the negotiations period.

The timing of the pension announcement has been set for ages and the broad proposals have been known about for ages.

Always remember, the current proposed cut to the pension scheme will be a fleabite compared to the cut that will be made if 40,000 posties who pay into the scheme are made redundant or leave the business because the job is so s**t. The amount of pensioners will stay the same but the pension scheme income will plummet.

Another thing that will happen to the pension scheme if we lose this strike is that RM will become a much more caualised industry with people coming and going and in that situation they won't be joining the pension scheme - so more lost income for the scheme.

If we think the current attack on the pension is bad just wait and see what is coming.

It's easy to attack union leaders during a strike situation - talk's cheap. But I am sure the guys at the top are working their butt off to try and negotiate the best deal they can for us.

Prestwick Postie should remember that this strike was forced on us through management's decision to smash the CWU and terrorise this workforce into doing anything they are told to do by management in the guise of modernisation.

Quite simply if this strike fails then the consequences for the union and ordinary members don't bear thinking about because the ratchet will just be tightened continuously and there will be no negotiations - it will all be by executive action.

Sure there are lots of people who are hurting badly financially through this dispute and ues, many strikes fail because workers are 'starved' into going back. But that doesn't end up with deep divisions in a workforce. Thise divisions come from the strike breakers who have crossed the picket line since Day 1 - if they don't wish to respect the union majority for strike action then they should leave the union and leave themself to the mercy of management - then they'll find that when their usefulness is passed they will be treated like the rest of us - like s**t - but they won't have any union to protect them.

We have to stay firm - the rolling campaign wreaked havoc the last time and it will this time and we have to remember that the Xmas pressure is so much more than the light summer mailings.

We can win something from this strike - won't be everything - but we must demonstarte to management that our will and unity is strong and that we will fight to maintain our wages and conditions if they are threatened by a management whose sole aim is to create a company that can be sold-off and totally privatised so that the top handful of managers will walk away with millions.