Your Local Union Representation

[Patrick Clifton]

Trying to gauge where my local union representatives are in the grand scheme of things?

Lets talk about the last 5 years or so.

I would say that the workforce in my office has been spoken to, as a whole, by varying CWU representatives 4 times.

[dvbuk55]

Trying to gauge where my local union representatives are in the grand scheme of things?

Lets talk about the last 5 years or so.

I would say that the workforce in my office has been spoken to, as a whole, by varying CWU representatives 4 times.

Wow you must be important - 4 times in 5 years - we've not had that amount of attention in the last 20! Ours must be shy or afraid of the questions.

[tony1]

whats a union rep

[PhilthyPhil]

Our unit rep probably addresses the office once a week on average. We hardly ever see the area rep though, the only time I can remember him speaking to us is last year when we went to disagreement over the revison.

[ronpetetrevchris]

I find most of that hard to believe, but assuming it is for a second why is he still doing it? 1 why would they bother? 2. why has no one replaced him? 5 years and no one esle has stood. Im not sure who the idiot/s is/are supposed to be! THEY work for you, not the other way aroung, they should tell you everything.

For balance i address mine so often they get sick of me, i just turn down the radio and shout things across the floor, after all communication IS the name of the game.

[pinstripe]

Maybe the CWU should send my office rep around the country to bang some heads together.

I can't say how often he addresses the membership, except to say that it is whenever he needs to, and not when management want him to. Sometimes once or twice a week, or more, sometimes not for a couple of weeks or even months, but we all know where he is and I've never heard him say to anyone, "Ask me later, I'm too busy".

[Martin Walsh]

I can only comment from the area of my responsibility and I can say in the 120 delivery offices I know at least 50% have good reps who have meetings regularly with the members. There is also a percentage who are new reps learning the game , there is also a small percentage of reps who do it as there is no one else willing to do it and they believe they need a rep within the office. Finally there several offices without an official rep and the area rep is the official rep , some have committees some have not.

The area reps go to each office regularly and have meetings , in addition the Divisonal reps also meet all the local reps at Branch Committee meeting which are held monthly and attend meetings with members as requested by the local rep and Branch.

Of course some may say London is an easier geographical place to get around , but not all places are on the tube line . The fact is within any organisation you have to work hard and organise not just from the top down but from the bottom up. You can have the best area rep in the country but if he cannot either get the message to the members or hear that views t will fail. This is the same you can have the best local rep but no office is an island to change and he has to have the support from the members as well as the support from above to make it work.

The key to all the above is the expectations of the members , you see if the membership in an office still decide to come in early , don't take their break and don't use the equipment which has been agreed then sadly we all suffer as Royal Mail will still be blinkered to the fact that there are more hours to be taken from delivery offices then there really are. Eqaully you can hardly argue you want more pay if your not willing to work the full 39 hours including paid meal reliefs. Therefore absorption is also likely to continue. Moreover you should not moan that Royal Mail are trying to stop the Loss of revenue from DSA by increasing the number of d2d. This is even more important since TNT have set up 2 depots in West London and South West London where they deliver 6 days per week but to a an address only twice per week , they are using both DSA and the unaddressed market t make it profitable. their intention is to service 40% of urban areas within the next 2 years. Oh and their terms and conditions are firmly inferior ours.


In addition the workplan drives later starts and later finishes including on Saturdays. Network 12 will emphasise this, along with the mail centre closure programme and VOC and RDC closure programmes. Royal Mail intend to purchase packet sorting machines which will again decrease jobs in mail centres and RDCs. Whether we like it or not royal Mail will keep decreasing hours needed under the roof , what they cannot get right is revisons out on the street be that park and loop or HCTs. This is why spans are longer in order to protect full time jobs and part time delivery hours.

So whilst we all can be critical of reps , what have you done to support your rep? in the words of J F K don't ask what your union can do for you ask what you can do for the union !

[dvbuk55]

Or more to the point what has the full time reps done for the membership.............the paying membership that I might add. My office hasn't seen an Area or Div Rep more than once each in twenty years - they care more for their own position than the people they are supposed to represent - become involved? - there's more chance of winning the lottery.

[Patrick Clifton]

Bearing in mind that during the previous 5 years we have had all the new delivery methods being implemented, a re-sign and industrial action, I think that being addressed by the delivery rep twice, area rep once and the branch Chair once is far below my expectations of a union for the workforce.

[Martin Walsh]

Dvbuk you are make so many generalisations which you cannot really back up. I know many full time officials who work damm hard to represent the members including winning some their jobs back , assisting a member who has an accident helping them win comphensation , helping someone who wants a transfer , or has ill health or problems or simply help the local rep when they requrie it or assist in negotations and reviews.

Every union has indivduals on full time release , how else could they assist indivduals outside what the law states. Full time release is not the problem , the problem is when the idivdual rep abuses that facility time and does not do the job in the way the union and members expect. Now if you have not had a area rep or a divisional rep visit your office in 20 years thats unacceptable . Has your rep spoke to the area rep and asked him to come or the divisional rep.

[fishtank]

Dvbuk you are make so many generalisations which you cannot really back up. I know many full time officials who work damm hard to represent the members including winning some their jobs back , assisting a member who has an accident helping them win comphensation , helping someone who wants a transfer , or has ill health or problems or simply help the local rep when they requrie it or assist in negotations and reviews.

That's long been the problem with this debate though,on this forum and within the union.
Both sides make generalisations based on their own experiences which is understandable but it polarises the debate and turns the whole thing into a slanging match,there are great reps,good reps,poor reps and terrible reps at every level of the union.
I think it's time the members faced up to the fact that they need to do more to improve the quality of representation at local level,i think it's also time HQ faced up to the fact that they need to do more to monitor and improve the quality of representation at branch level and above.
If an Area Rep hasn't been near an office in years they should have some serious questions to answer as should the branch...and trotting out the "No-one asked me" excuse doesn't cut it.

[dvbuk55]

Well dingo you have to speak as you find and unfortunately in our area the representation is beyond poor - it doesn't help the fact that none of these people are delivery based but are all MC based. There does need to be a closer inspection by HQ on exactly what these people get up to. If you pass anything to HQ it is passed directly back to the very people there is a problem with. You know what they say about the state of Denmark ..............

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Well dingo you have to speak as you find and unfortunately in our area the representation is beyond poor - it doesn't help the fact that none of these people are delivery based but are all MC based. There does need to be a closer inspection by HQ on exactly what these people get up to. If you pass anything to HQ it is passed directly back to the very people there is a problem with. You know what they say about the state of Denmark ..............

That brings up a very intresting question for me.

In this age of instant communication do we really need all full time release reps at branch level to actually be at the same office most of the time. At Bradford AMAL for instance they all seem to be based at the Bradford MC (though what happens when it closes I have o idea), why can't they all be based at different locations and report back face to face once a week. In my opinion they have it volt face from what it should be.

I think it would be more engaging and would have a positive effect on membership levels and commitment

[fishtank]

That brings up a very intresting question for me.

In this age of instant communication do we really need all full time release reps at branch level to actually be at the same office most of the time. At Bradford AMAL for instance they all seem to be based at the Bradford MC (though what happens when it closes I have o idea), why can't they all be based at different locations and report back face to face once a week. In my opinion they have it volt face from what it should be.

I think it would be more engaging and would have a positive effect on membership levels and commitment

I think the cynical(realistic) side of me thinks that it's a case of protecting your position.
If you are based in an MC you have a stronger voting base,your face is seen by the maximum number of faces and when it comes to re-election it's easier to motivate those members to vote for you,especially with the dismal number of votes cast at an Area Rep or Branch Official election.
Branch AGM's are usually held there too,again with a mostly local turnout.
It would be interesting to see a breakdown of how many outside an area rep's parent office actually vote for them.
If you were relying mainly on the vote of your parent office you wouldn't want that to be a 20 member SPDO out in the sticks would you?

[dvbuk55]

They don't seem to be responsible at all to the people they are supposed to represent - I've said before, because we chose to vote No to BT2010, they refused to come to our office to discuss our concerns. They were far more concerned how the vote would reflect their image in the union rat race.