Let's be adult about this!

[stephen500]

I have been in Royal Mail since 1977, when I joined there was a closed shop.
I had 3 weeks leave, no night allowance was paid when sick.
Now I get 6 weeks leave and night allowance is paid when I am sick.
Over the years the union has increased my pay and managed to get my working week down from 43 hours to 39.
I know there is resentment over some elements of "The way forward" and how we came out of the last dispute and yes we have to learn lessons from that.
However our union is a democratic union, we are the union.
Our elected leaders have sought to obtain an agreement on our terms and conditions and on various other issues such as workloads and pensions.
I am realistic to understand that it is highly unlikely that they will be able to obtain 10 years protection, but I want more then three.
I will be happy with five.
Pensions.
Both the final salary scheme and the defined benefit scheme. What I would like to see is protection against the scheme closing in a few years time.
What I think the union will seek is an enhanced pension or protection for the defined contribution scheme, that is the pension for recent entrants.
Workload
To me this is the most important, not for me as a mail centre worker, but for the poor postman who appears to be struggling to complete deliveries and according to reports is often pressured to go over his/her time to complete.
These postman/woman must be protected.
finally. A possible no strike agreement.
I do not want to see a no strike agreement.
However I do think we could go some way to firm up "disagreement" procedures and allow all these to be exhausted before a ballot is held.
Another thing that does worry me is no mention of extending Mtsf further past the modernisation period.
The years of protection may be extended, but it's cost may be contained by redundancies and compulsory ones.
So I would like to see Mtsf included in the negotiations, to protect against this possible danger.
There has been a lot of hot air about the calling off of the strike.
It is pointless to strike, when talks may achieve our objectives.
That puts our jobs in danger and reduces our members income for no good reason.
The union has set a time frame.
The possible agreement needs to be concluded by the 13th Nov, allowing for strikes to take place after the 20th November if needed.
We need to give our leader some space.
The reps are meeting with the leadership on Monday the 4th.
If you have concerns talk to them before then, so they can put them across.
If an agreement is concluded, and all outstanding issues have to be satisfactory agreed, then that will be put to the membership.
It is then up to us as democratic union members to accept or reject the agreement.
What must happen is an agreement must be put to us soon after the 13th November, or action must start soon after.
We must not allow Royal Mail to drag things out through Christmas.
Because if Royal Mail get to the other side of Christmas, stalling, our trump card will have been called and we will be stuffed.
So in closing....let the union reps know your feelings for the meeting on Monday, however cut the leadership some slack.
They are trying to act in your best interests.
Let's hope we can vote for a good agreement, if not then we must be prepared to fight on.
At the end of the day, we will choose and not the leadership alone.

[whisperstar24]

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Moved into the Union room as its the best fit.

Cracking post though

[Shaman Mao]

Excellent post Stephen. Like many others I'm waiting to see the details before I make my mind up. There's no point in going off on one before we know what's on the table.

[cliffeyhez]

All makes perfect sense to me. Well said mate

[Yan Panik]

Very good post BRAVO

[eric the viking]

Hear hear

[cloherty1976]

Great post Stephen and my main worry would be the loss of mtsf agreement.

[NWpostie]

We must get legally binding agreement BEFORE Christmas, we must also be prepared to walk out to keep the ballot mandate active, there is a Plan B even if they say there isn't, Plan B is to go back and tell them to do better. the BT 2010 was a crap deal and COULD have been renegotiated, it was too vague and was ignored by the managers on the ground from day one. this time it needs to have some teeth, the managers needs to be reined in and put back in their box. they are the real enemy, we must also have some clear protection for at least 7 years this works well for both sides as we will be looking at long term stability so we can plan the business for the next 7 years based on fixed costs, the wage bill is the biggest part of that, Pensions need to be protected and improved. terms and condition protected so that we can plan on future financial commitments, ours and theirs.