To those that don't believe our terms are under threat

[banner18]

We should strike when our terms and conditions actually come under threat. Seen as they aren't, yet, what is the point of a strike?

Whenever I hear this sort of argument it reminds me of this:

"Then they came for the Trade Unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist,
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me"!
Martin Nieomoller

Tell me who they have come for in the workforce then? The quote is great if it applies to our case but it hasn't been demonstrated.

They will bring a second tier work force (third tier if you consider part timers) on worse conditions.

Then they will argue you cost too much and are not needed 39 hours a week so your part time.

Then they will tell us sick pay is being abused and only genuine sickness is after 4 days so the first 3 days are being stopped.

Then we will hear that running the fleet of Royal Mail vans is expensive so we will have to rent them but don't worry we can then take the home and pay petrol like our competitors.

All this can happen with a short notice period, even changing your pay!

As for who in the workplace have they come for:

25 hours doing 39+ hours a week with no chance of being made up.
Mail centres closing with 1000's losing jobs.
Workloads becoming impossible.
Bullying in deliveries, processing, distribution and even customer services. (I am sure I am missing some sections as well)

The quote doesn't work exactly but that doesn't detract from the fact that unless we stand side by side we will not stop it.

So when do we fight now or when we are broken, beaten and on a race to the bottom? We have taken so much crap to turn this company around and we have lost so many of our friends and colleagues in the process. If we unite now and strike before the changes we will have the best chance of saving the job and the service.

This is OUR union and OUR Royal Mail! We have a strong position now lets stand strong and win what we all deserve!

Rant Over

So the reason for strike is 'they will, they might'?? They could have done these things at any point up to now so we should have been on strike for years. How can we fight against something that may or may not happen. They may sack 50% of the workforce tomorrow so we better strike until they guarantee that doesn't happen. This is poor reasoning. Is it related to privatisation? You believe it will be easier for them to do these things? Please give me some substance, not rants.

[deltaforce]

The business model they will be looking at will be the self employed, pay per item kind. You will invited to join or discarded on minimum redundancy terms.

[cloherty1976]

Strong position it's like holding a pair of deuces at the poker table and you go all in. The flop comes In and you see pictures so start praying you see a deuce on the turn or river card..

[banner18]

The business model they will be looking at will be the self employed, pay per item kind. You will invited to join or discarded on minimum redundancy terms.

We need to be on guard for this in the near future. That isnt happening now though.

[dmfco]

The business model they will be looking at will be the self employed, pay per item kind. You will invited to join or discarded on minimum redundancy terms.

We need to be on guard for this in the near future. That isnt happening now though.

Royal Mail same day in London is based on this.

[NWpostie]

Banner18 you must blind or daft not to read the signs and the writing on the wall, if everybody in RM is like you, the management is going to see it as one big Turkey shoot.

The fight starts now, in the Army we are taught to take the fight to the enemy, dominate the high ground and lay more rounds on them than they can put on you, always put them on the back foot and defeat them. so it is with Royal Mail Management we must take the fight to them, win the PR war, out manoeuvre and pre empt any attacks on our T&Cs, don't stand still waiting for them to take a pot shot at you.

[dmfco]

Under public ownership we had one shareholder. The taxpayer. Now we have many that all want a slice.

This is what the private sector delivery market is like:

http://www.lep.co.uk/news/business/zero ... -1-6147301" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... ur-workers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Why would they continue to pay us at our current rate when the competitor pays minimum wage?

The USO costs money to operate. Rural areas are subsidised by large cities which TNT are now cherry picking.

So the shareholders now want a return but two things are stopping that, the large wage bill with generous benefits for the staff and the USO. One is protected by law but both will be attacked. Just us first.

As a service we was just that A SERVICE. All our profit would be reinvest in RM or be paid back into the treasury.

[pokos27]

the trend will get worse, eg posties getting shafted losing esallowance and getting a fixed allowance for door to doors.

[banner18]

I'm still having difficulty gleaning an argument but I think it is this. Royal mail has been privatised (technically gov still owns over 60% so maybe not?). Because we have been privatised we should expect attacks on our t&c's in the future. Agreed. So the answer is go on strike until they renationalise it or until they guarantee t&c's for a million years. You see my problem, we need something to get our teeth into or we are just away with the fairies. If the strike is about stopping privatisation, we are about 6 months too late.

[dmfco]

I'm still having difficulty gleaning an argument but I think it is this. Royal mail has been privatised (technically gov still owns over 60% so maybe not?). Because we have been privatised we should expect attacks on our t&c's in the future. Agreed. So the answer is go on strike until they renationalise it or until they guarantee t&c's for a million years. You see my problem, we need something to get our teeth into or we are just away with the faires. If the strike is about privatisation, we are about 6 months too late.

If we get 10 years now there is nothing stopping us getting it again in 10 years.

10 Years is a long time. Most people would be in it to asset strip and jump ship cause they won't be able to change our contracts or the USO.

The strike is about protecting what we have. Delivery supplement/RRIS/Sick Pay/2 Weeks Full paternity all cost money and take away from profit!

On top of striking we should just do our job properly! Think how many millions people are saving RM going in early! Ridiculous!

[dmfco]

the trend will get worse, eg posties getting shafted losing esallowance and getting a fixed allowance for door to doors.

Do you honestly think we would have been paid to do D2D's on top of our wages forever? We made a killing but try and explain why your full time and getting paid extra for work your doing within that time to anyone and they will laugh!

Early shift was for working before 6. We still get some of it and we don't work that early.

The alternative was lose both payments or protect what we can.

[Dorset Plodder]

I don't think you should have taken the quote quite so literally Banner. It reminds me that it is no good waiting ......until it's too late! If a drunk's coming at you swinging a baseball bat you don't wait until he hits you to do something!

Prepare for the worst and maybe you'll be pleasantly surprised if all the bad things don't happen.

[Surreypostie]

I think trying to get protection on t&c' for a year, 5 years, 10 years or even 20 years is fantastic. If the company goes down the toilet you are out of a job. All the protections in the world are gone except statuatory redundancy pay. Some form of Royal Mail would survive and some would be re-employed with worse t&c.

I'm not going to worry about what might or might not happen. I want a pay rise, I want them to leave my pension alone, can't believe we let them close the final salary scheme without a whimper and I want these managers to stop picking on people that only want to work their contracted hours. Finally I'd like to see all the part timers made up to full time, the latter isn't going to happen because too many fools, worrying about their terms and conditions, come in early and don't take breaks.

[BernardBresslaw]

We should strike when our terms and conditions actually come under threat. Seen as they aren't, yet, what is the point of a strike?

When was the last time a full-timer was hired at your workplace? Zero-hour contracts are a reality, not something that *might* happen somewhere down the line.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

We should strike when our terms and conditions actually come under threat. Seen as they aren't, yet, what is the point of a strike?

Do you think RM will send out a Courier Newsflash when they decide to erode your terms and conditions?
It will be done slowly affecting small groups at a time over the next 5 years,you won't do f**k all about it because it only affects them over there or those guys in that function and by the time you realise you've been screwed RM will be lying back having a post coital cigarette.

I'm not sure I agree, apart from new starters being put on different contracts. They cannot alter sick pay, holiday entitlements or the pay of small groups.

They have - its called Angard and is part of Royal Mail.

They have different sick pay rules , different holiday entitlements, and are a smaller group on less pay, and they are not new starters

If so though, what will stop them from doing it anyhow? A hundred year guarantee on t&c's? We only got a year before t&c's were negotiated when under public ownership.

Nothing will ultimately stop them, but one things is certain, if we don't fight now as an organised group they will come for us a lot quicker than they would have and they'll come for us when we are divided and weaker.