How do I leave the CWU?

telithowitis · Post by **telithowitis** » 17 Nov 2016, 22:44

Free overtime? Are you having a laugh!!! Claim every minute you work or don't do it. You are working to earn a living for yourself not profit for a PLC and a bonus for your Manager.
I learnt quickly at RM you have to stand up for yourself. I only work overtime when I want to, the more I make it clear when asked I don't want to / won't do it the less I get asked.
I also refuse to take savings every day except Tuesdays if I think I have time, as I know I don't have time every other day.
If anyone tried to "force" me to do unpaid overtime I would submit a formal grievance, Managers get looked at if they get them

Surreypostie · Post by **Surreypostie** » 18 Nov 2016, 15:19

Don't leave the union, you may need them. Tell your manager you are putting in a grievance as he is allowing this person to go home hours early. It will go over his head, his boss probably won't like what is going on.

Tman · Post by **Tman** » 18 Nov 2016, 15:25

So you're being treated like a mug by the management, and yet you want to leave the only possible organisation which can/will put a stop to it?
Not really a sensible move, is it?

ruralpost · Post by **ruralpost** » 18 Nov 2016, 17:59

I've worked for Royal Mail for 21 years and the union have never helped me or any of my colleagues when we've needed them. There has been 4 investigations into bullying and harassment by the manager which have all been brushed under the carpet. 7 staff members have left because of it so I really don't have any faith in this company any more. Thanks for all your help and opinions.

postslippete · Post by **postslippete** » 18 Nov 2016, 18:36

There have been a lot of reps that used to be (and still are) in bed with management, so to speak. A rep on an easy duty sounds very familiar. I suspect that even if you did put in a grievance, it wouldn't go far because the union/management could say that they are on an easier duty just to fulfil his union obligations

RedBagMan · Post by **RedBagMan** » 18 Nov 2016, 19:34

CWU ... waste of space (and money) .. strange how so many reps are up the DOMs a*se ... or on a nice cushy indoor job. I recall joining the CWU when I started - filling in all the forms etc ... what happened ?? Absolutely nothing - which to me summed up this Union.
In my previous job I was the UNITE Shop Steward - I fought like sh*t for the 10% of the staff who were in the union - I had no end of "big meetings" with the management ... and was successful. When our company went for mass redundancies (including me) I fought locally, I tried for help nationally and got f*ck all because we were a small company with a small % of members - and at that time Diageo in Scotland were having problems and the union nationally was putting all everything into that problem (bigger, more publicity etc) - quite soon after that I gave it all the big heave-ho - finally realising that unions are not there for the members.
My "non-experiences" with our local CWU rep just confirms this ... my advice is to save your money and fight your own causes - it's easy to do (with a bit of Google and for that matter advice on here)
At the end of the day I will always blame Thatcher.

tomthum · Post by **tomthum** » 18 Nov 2016, 20:57

what a boo hoo thread don't people realise all that unions have gained for the worker over the years not just in royal mail but all over
In this day and age when you see workers grassing on each other stabbing each other in the back to gain overtime and taking pay rises and all the other benefits that the union movement have fought for whilst blaming all the bad in the world on unions and ignoring the role of management in everything. When you look at this thread and really examine it you can see why we as workers are treated the way we are and it is not the unions fault or the management but THE WORKER who instead of taking responsibility sit and moan about how unfair life is

RedBagMan · Post by **RedBagMan** » 18 Nov 2016, 22:41

tomthum wrote:what a boo hoo thread don't people realise all that unions have gained for the worker over the years not just in royal mail but all over
In this day and age when you see workers grassing on each other stabbing each other in the back to gain overtime and taking pay rises and all the other benefits that the union movement have fought for whilst blaming all the bad in the world on unions and ignoring the role of management in everything. When you look at this thread and really examine it you can see why we as workers are treated the way we are and it is not the unions fault or the management but THE WORKER who instead of taking responsibility sit and moan about how unfair life is

Cobblers - I refer to the final sentence of my previous post ... it all went pear-shaped after that ...

tomthum · Post by **tomthum** » 18 Nov 2016, 23:05

who do you think allowed thatcher and the rest to do what they did?
we as individuals get the life we deserve when we kneel to the pound note and abandon each other

datasaint · Post by **datasaint** » 19 Nov 2016, 13:02

tomthum wrote:who do you think allowed thatcher and the rest to do what they did?
we as individuals get the life we deserve when we kneel to the pound note and abandon each other

The coal strikes in the 80s would have had a very different outcome if there had been a unified strike response at the very beginning.

Martin Walsh · Post by **Martin Walsh** » 20 Nov 2016, 08:58

Whilst your local Rep was wrong to say that ! The reality is that Royal Mail would want to use Trimble , the new PDA''s and
Have clocking in and clocking out with individual performance standards which the only thing stopping them from doing this is the CWU who are refusing to agree to it.

Royal Mail are obsessed with individuals working harder and all the hours they pay are worked.

Royal Mail want all the following

The DB pension scheme closed and this will be announced in January
Royal Mail to deliver parcels up to midnight the next day which means moving the delivery window 3 hours later.
Staggered starts times so individuals use the same frames which support further office closures or merger.
By moving start times later they will maximise what is on the first wave of work.
They want to introduce real time recording to resource to actual times on IPS , Prep and delivery.
The new machine at Exerter which Walksort and sequence all Manuel letter is there to remove a significant part of the indoor Workload meaning either more part timers or longer spans or a combination of both.
Additionally Royal Mail want to reduce what Is delived on Monday's and Tuesday's where call rates are less which means the cost per item is more which means Royal Mail are less competitive. Hence the D2D proposal of W-S.

If there was no CWU all of the above would either already be in or it would only be a matter of time.

The reality is the CWU are not perfect but they are the barrier to what Royal Mail want too do.

Currently based on the November membership figures there are 130664 Royal Mail CWU graded members and the CWU have 110143 members meaning 20521 are not CWU members.

The CWU membership density varies across the U.K. And some would argue that lower membership would indicate higher numbers of part time and areas where there seems to be more problems as some rouge managers will know the level of CWU members and what they can get away with.

Anglia has 14.31% non members
London has 10%
Midlands has 14.73
North East has 18.41 %
North West has 14.37
Northern Ireland has 25.4
Scotland has 23%
South East has 14.66%
South West 19.32
Thames Valley 14.36
Wales has 14.92

Who really gains from being a non member ? The real gainers are Royal Mail as they would love not to deal with the CWU or to have a very weak CWU.

The common theme on here is the CWU are out of touch !

I would argue that some on here are out of touch with what a union has control off and what a company views as a non negotiable:

The company believes that if they want to move more work via machines than they do not believe this is negotiable other than the issue of later delivery start times.

If the company wants to start delivering parcels which are ordered on the internet during the evening the next day than they see this as their right as a company.

Thirdly they seemed it as their right to ensure that all the hours they pay are worked including overtime etc hence why they want to use Trimble , PDA's tracking and data capture scanning in and out information.

Once again it is on the CWU on your behalf stopping this. The 20 thousand non members are getting a free ride which is not right either.

Surreypostie · Post by **Surreypostie** » 21 Nov 2016, 15:02

What is Trimble??

yellowbelly · Post by **yellowbelly** » 21 Nov 2016, 15:03

Surreypostie wrote:What is Trimble??

The annoying black boxes they fit in vans to allegedly monitor erratic driving.......

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 21 Nov 2016, 15:07

Surreypostie wrote:What is Trimble??

He is a politician in Northern Ireland but thats not important now

postslippete · Post by **postslippete** » 21 Nov 2016, 16:58

I agree with everything you said Dingo, especially the bit about the CWU being a barrier to what Royal Mail want to do.

But you can understand the OP's frustration? He pays his Union fees and then finds his local Union rep agree-ing with management that his duty, and his duty alone, should have extra calls. So that means that he now has to use the over-running procedure every single day just so that he doesn't do those extra calls. Now regardless of what the CWU have or don't have control of - He must seriously question why he is paying his Union subs every week when there are others in his office who haven't had their duties increased, and they are maybe one of the 20,000 non-members getting a free ride