Poll : Are we all ready for a National Strike?

[SpacePhoenix]

the more I read of SOBS post, the more I believe, he has to be a manager!!!surely no postperson would believe what royal mail are after, is acceptable, if dialing down terms and conditions in the workplace, is the way forward and its all the unions fault for demanding far too much has to be delusional!!!!

RM are bound to have a major cull of managers at some point, either reducing their numbers or making all line managers at least into "Team Leaders". In a DO once everyone has headed out on their walks, is there really any need for more than one manager? Who'd be in the office still? The person in the locker, the person in the callers (might even be one job combined in some DOs) and maybe DOM support

[TrueBlueTerrier]

ready for a strike like the last few strikes when everyone strikes one day loses a days pay and makes it up the nexy day for two hours flat rate o/t.are you all stupid do you think for one moment i would support all the dicks starting early running around not scanning not using trolleys door stepping effing think again.

if we had an o/t ban and everyone started on time used the equipment ie trolleys did the job properly and worked to there finish time only it would cripple most offices.i do realise that managers would still go out on delivery but if every one backed this action there would be no way the managers could cover all deliveries,in short time to look at how you work and remember you work for royal mail and not oxfam as a charity worker for free

Does not compute..... Error.... request reboot.

So you are saying that an overtime ban would be the best option when this relies on everyone doing the job by the book. The problem with an overtime ban in our job is that individuals are isolated when working and are therefore easily subject to pressure and influence.

Not being funny, but if the early starters, runners and no breakers are doing it now, without the same level of pressure you get during Industrial Action, what makes you think after a few days, if not hours, they won't fall back into their previous habits.

[postslippete]

Industrial action would achieve absolutely nothing. Those who advocate such a course of action are delusional. The idea that Royal Mail will simply cave in to union demands is absurd.

The job is what it is today because of the actions of our colleagues over the years - coming in early, not working their full paid hours, not using trollies, not attempting delivery to neighbour, not taking their meal reliefs etc. The list goes on.

We all must face up to the enormity of the challenges facing our industry and we must not simply bury our heads in the sand and pretend that all we need to do is kick and scream and throw our toys out of the pram and along will come Royal Mail with a blank cheque for all the demands made by the union. It is not going to happen.

Our industry must change and change fast or we risk losing business, revenue and ultimately jobs. Industrial action would be extremely damaging to us in all of these respects.

Throughout history we have seen the damage done to industries by the actions of militant trade unions and their dinosaur leaders. Like Jeremy Corbyn, they are an enormous threat to the economy and to the prosperity and stability of the country.

Spot on the damage was done years ago with job and finish.
Created a selfish and lazy culture within royal mail.
In my office all of these things were a daily occuurance by many - Driving their own cars, starting up to 1 1/2 hours early, peeling recorded labels off, dumping parcels on door steps, not bothering with redirections, killing off any item they could get away with, harassing new starters to rush so they could get any missorts, running and cycling like mad men to finish as early as possible to impress others. Never ever took meal breaks. Constant harrassing of counter staff to get their Specials early.
New starters never got any help from long serving employees ( only interested in finishing as early as possible to sit on their arses for the rest of the day) and got all the s**t rounds.
Constant slagging off of others - created divide and rule - work time learning consisted of rurals slagging off town rounds, town rounds slagging off business and rural rounds etc.
Constant my rounds harder than you're round - he's slow, he's got an easy round - like being back at school.
Yet they still moaned about the job - it was a joke.
Despite constant mailings from the CWU to start on time, take a meal break, do the job properly, don't take your cars out this was totally ignored.
If you think strike action will achieve much then I think you are living in cloud cuckoo land.
A huge percentage of the population don't care what time they get their mail - they're out at work from 8am - 6pm and think of it as junk mail anyway.
People pay bills, receive bills online.
Letters are becoming a thing of the past as are magazines.
The only forward for royal mail is to become the premier parcels company and to do that things have to change.
When I hear people moaning about going on to monthly pay and having to start later it makes me despair.
If you strike at christmas you will have no public support and thousands of people will see it as the time to stop sending xmas cards and never send them again. Parcel companies will jump on it and cash in - turkeys voting for christmas springs to mind.
Many of you constantly moan on here about the job but I'd wager many of you were the ones cutting corners, rushing to finish early 10 or so years ago and its caught up with you !

Precisely. The business could do with shedding all those gobby, bone idle, moaning, "I've got a grievance", constantly on the sick colleagues of ours who hide behind the union and get away with it. No other business would tolerate the mindset of these people so why on earth should Royal Mail be expected to act like care in the community?

If you are a sheep you would jump off a cliff if the union told you to. If you are smart enough and brave enough to see the bigger picture you'll understand that industrial action destroys jobs and destroys industries. Don't let the union bully boys intimidate you into voting to cut off your noses to spite your faces. History is not on your side.

What friggin planet are you on Sierra??

I don't agree to everything that the Union suggests in much the same way that I don't agree to all of Royal Mail's new stratagem.

You know like most posties, I don't really want a strike because like everyone else I got bills to pay and mouths to feed, and the fact that it will damage our industry could lead to job losses. BUT the flip side to accepting everything that RM suggests as the gospel and that we should all do what they are planning to do, means that we will all be worst off. And do you think that RM as a commercial business will stop there or just carry on whittling our terms and conditions down until there is nothing left to work for? Do you really want to be working on a zero hours contract, at RM beck and call whenever they feel like it? Do you really want to be pulled up and bullied for 'performance' issues because you didn't come in early and get as much work done as postman A? Do you really want a culture where one or two simple mistakes, could potentially have you lose your job and have them send you your p45 with no say in the matter? At least with a Union, we can at least try to slow down these changes, even if they are perhaps inevitable.

You are not going to stop posties coming in early, rushing round or cutting corners, it is deeply embedded into the RM culture, and RM as a business will try and exploit that. It is the main reason why, of course, an overtime ban will just NOT WORK. We already have new, young managers doing deliveries so they can quite easily pause the lapsing and focus on getting the deliveries done. This is RM vision of having 'workplace coaches'. Now they want to concentrate on us and some of the things that RM are asking of should not even be up for discussion.

[Chelseablue]

Put a £20 a week aside , for the strike ahead , we are going to be royally s hafted if we dont do anything . Cant understand why some fts are not in the union , they can negotitate there own pay rise t and cs etc !

[rubberbond]

Put a £20 a week aside , for the strike ahead , we are going to be royally s hafted if we dont do anything . Cant understand why some fts are not in the union , they can negotitate there own pay rise t and cs etc !

It is called collective bargaining I believe. Still,if we go on strike,or more hopefully ,threaten to,with a large majority,and succeed in watering down these gruesome proposals,they will benefit as well.

[datasaint]

How long from the union calling a ballot, to the members voting, to them counting the votes, would we realistically be at the gates?

[aiden01]

How long from the union calling a ballot, to the members voting, to them counting the votes, would we realistically be at the gates?

Guessing around end of Oct start of Nov.

[Edward Hunter]

This is the biggie.The gloves are off. As someone said above, put some money away to help when we are out and support the union. Personally i would be in favour of a potential 2 week all out just before christmas. I know the union have always shied away from using christmas as a "weapon" but with the way the company are treating its staff i couldnt give a monkeys about the public (because we all know they dont support us)
RM would never cope and the potential loss of profits and business would surely make them see some sense? The trouble is they dont value the staff and think we are imbiciles. Amazingly they think we are work shy, slogging every day on unmanagable rounds with more than ever to do including stuff that is not built into our duties. Im a reasonable man,but trying to compare us with parcel delivery companies (and the worst ones for t+cs as well) is a joke ,and shows the route they are taking . We are the ONLY company that delivers letters, no other f****r does it so dont try and compare apples with oranges.
Its got to be worth making a stand (again)

[aiden01]

This is the biggie.The gloves are off. As someone said above, put some money away to help when we are out and support the union. Personally i would be in favour of a potential 2 week all out just before christmas. I know the union have always shied away from using christmas as a "weapon" but with the way the company are treating its staff i couldnt give a monkeys about the public (because we all know they dont support us)
RM would never cope and the potential loss of profits and business would surely make them see some sense? The trouble is they dont value the staff and think we are imbiciles. Amazingly they think we are work shy, slogging every day on unmanagable rounds with more than ever to do including stuff that is not built into our duties. Im a reasonable man,but trying to compare us with parcel delivery companies (and the worst ones for t+cs as well) is a joke ,and shows the route they are taking . We are the ONLY company that delivers letters, no other f****r does it so dont try and compare apples with oranges.
Its got to be worth making a stand (again)

Can't see a 2 week all out being very well supported..

[SierraOscarBravo]

How long from the union calling a ballot, to the members voting, to them counting the votes, would we realistically be at the gates?

Guessing around end of Oct start of Nov.

Industrial action is the surest way of destroying jobs and destroying our industry. Such a course of action would be like turkeys voting for Christmas.

[aiden01]

How long from the union calling a ballot, to the members voting, to them counting the votes, would we realistically be at the gates?

Guessing around end of Oct start of Nov.

Industrial action is the surest way of destroying jobs and destroying our industry. Such a course of action would be like turkeys voting for Christmas.

So what do you recommend we just lie down and let RM walk all over us.?? Good luck if you can afford not to take action against RM in whatever form it happens as I would hate personally to be branded a scab but sure everyone has there own beliefs.

[fishtank]

Industrial action is the surest way of destroying jobs and destroying our industry. Such a course of action would be like turkeys voting for Christmas.

We were told exactly that in 2007 and 2009 and yet we're still here and with better terms and conditions than we would have had if we had listened to guys like you back then.

[aiden01]

Industrial action is the surest way of destroying jobs and destroying our industry. Such a course of action would be like turkeys voting for Christmas.

We were told exactly that in 2007 and 2009 and yet we're still here and with better terms and conditions than we would have had if we had listened to guys like you back then.

Tats sobs quote not mine

[aiden01]

Industrial action is the surest way of destroying jobs and destroying our industry. Such a course of action would be like turkeys voting for Christmas.

We were told exactly that in 2007 and 2009 and yet we're still here and with better terms and conditions than we would have had if we had listened to guys like you back then.

Tats sobs quote not mine

Thanks

[The Postman]

I had always heard of Royal Mail as being a fantastic company that took care of its workers with great pay and a fantastic pension plan with a 30+ year career prospect. I think those times have truly been and gone, now I'm here all I can see is a company that's overworking its employees with a view of bringing them down to minimum wage or thereabouts in the future.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I got in when I did. I think it's bad enough having to wait a year to earn a wage in line with my colleagues but having to wait 3 years would be taking the p**s. If the terms and conditions that Royal Mail are trying to impose on new starters were in effect before I joined I wouldn't even have looked at them as a viable career prospect.

I think that reports of Mail failing up and down the country could be a part of Royal Mails strategic long term plan. Deliberately failing the USO with a view of having letter delivery tendered out to other companies. After all, there's not enough profit in it for them when they're trying to satisfy the needs of their money hungry shareholders. In the long term this would allow them to have a bigger slice of the parcel industry, thus the comparison to companies like Yodel and Hermes. Not because that's where we are now, but because that's where they want us to be in the future.

The worst thing to happen to Royal Mail was privatisation, but I think you all knew that already. All they seem to care about is cost cutting and shareholder profit. Not the job I thought I was signing up for, however at the moment for the money it's probably better than most jobs out there, but for how long???

That is the reason I will be supporting my colleagues when voting YES! to industrial action.

We can either lose money in the short term through an all out strike, or lose a lot more money in the long term through the terms and conditions that are going to be opposed on us.