MON-FRI

[fishtank]

official silence? so everytime a member hears a clearly stupid rumour the cwu has to release an official statement? If they were doing that they wouldn't have time to do anything else, if you feel you are being poorly represented by area reps, sorry they are the people who have been democratically elected by your colleagues in your area to represent them

The main reason there are so many daft rumours is that the union has been briefed by royal mail, has subsequently disseminated some but not all of that information to it's divisional reps who have in turn briefed the area reps who have briefed the local reps who have (sometimes) informed the members, of the bits they got, remember or feel relevant, this giant game of Chinese whispers is definitely the responsibility of the union and you better believe it's time it was sorted.

[hans solo]

the official silence from cwu is deafening
and coincidently the last time dingo was on message boards was to endorse cwu decisions on our last great agreement
must be a lot of s**t coming our way again

official silence? so everytime a member hears a clearly stupid rumour the cwu has to release an official statement? If they were doing that they wouldn't have time to do anything else, if you feel you are being poorly represented by area reps, sorry they are the people who have been democratically elected by your colleagues in your area to represent them

FACT we have not had one cwu meeting locally since the last shitty agreement despite asking for one
and yes they should be releasing official statements to subdue or approve rumours THATS WHAT WE PAY THEM FOR
they only keep all their meeting and talks with rm secret because they will be answerable to membership before agreements are reached otherwise
and be able to close out deals without our views or inputs
i could go on ?????????????

[franco1]

Having been a union rep for a union i will not mention i would have to say that i got the distinct impression that the reality is that a union and the employer at the higher levels are basically co-operating, ultimately for the financial benefit of the employer.
Agreements are made behind closed doors.

The union and the employer then work out a way to inform the members about the agreement.
Fictional "compromises" and "wins" for the union are devised by the employer and the union and then presented to the members as reality.
This is done in order to convince the members that there is no collusion between the union and employer and that the union is actually "hard at work" to "fight for your rights".

The reality is - the employer provides members to the union via its recruitment process. - without an employer there is no union.

So why bite the hand that feeds you?

[k979aaa]

Having been a union rep for a union i will not mention i would have to say that i got the distinct impression that the reality is that a union and the employer at the higher levels are basically co-operating, ultimately for the financial benefit of the employer.
Agreements are made behind closed doors.

The union and the employer then work out a way to inform the members about the agreement.
Fictional "compromises" and "wins" for the union are devised by the employer and the union and then presented to the members as reality.
This is done in order to convince the members that there is no collusion between the union and employer and that the union is actually "hard at work" to "fight for your rights".

The reality is - the employer provides members to the union via its recruitment process. - without an employer there is no union.

So why bite the hand that feeds you?

You must have been in the RMT the CWU is a paper tiger compared with the RMT but a union is only as good as it's members they vote for the leadership it is democratic so you could blame apathy but apathy don't vote!

[Martin Walsh]

The RMT does not have national ballots big difference. It is very strong in London and very effective as clearly there is no competition on the Tube.

In Royal Mail over the last 30 years we have had National Ballots in 1987 , 1988 , 1996 , 2003 , 2005 , 2007 , 2009 and 2013 ! No other union has had that many National Ballots. I have seen the breakdown for a lot of those ballots and there are let's say stronger areas and less strong areas.

Under the last Agenda For Growth Ballot every Branch got a yes vote.

London CWU has had a ballot in 2003 which led to the biggest unofficial strike since the miners and London had a ballot in 2009 which resulted in 18 days of strike action.

So whilst the RMT are a strong union they don't have to campaign nationally amongst the membership to get a yes vote !

Now in terms of negotiations , these are not just compromises , it is about identifying the issues which you will not accept and those that you believe you can with changes.

Royal Mail will be the same , both have an agenda , in these talks you have pay , job security , pensions , the impact from the plan on the members in all functions. What no CWU reps goes in and negotiates about as the key agenda is protecting union funds !

Remember any deal you have has to be supported by the PEC , Divisional Reps , Area Reps to have any chance of it being accepted by the membership and you just have to look at when a deal is bad how much opposition it has both ALAN Johnson and John Keggie lost their jobs in the union on the back of the Employee Agenda and Way Forward.

The other point to make is you can have the best words in any agreement but if at local office the manager , DSM or Director does something else you do need the local rep , Branch to actually raise it via the framework.

The CWU is not just 150 the Broadway it is in every workplace but only if you have a solid base ! Too many like to play the blame game at every level ! Personally I think it is failure if I have to raise anything to HQ as I want to resolve it locally as it will more likely stick !

[fishtank]

I think even you will agree dingo the present situation of rumour and misinformation is not helping to create a feeling ofs solidarity among the membership.

[POSTMAN]

The other point to make is you can have the best words in any agreement

We have the worst words possible in most agreements.
Plain English would be nice,simple yes/no scenarios.
That's why there is so much s**t from this management scum.