RM Management want privatisation

[F0zziebear]

Most of you on here would not call me a left-wing, unionist, commy but it quite plain to me based on the press reports that it is RM management who are suggesting the privatisation of RoyalMail. I do not mean the average ops manager who is nothing more than a glorified supervisor. No I am talking about the faceless board to whom the outside world and most of the employees are unaware of.

The key figure in RoyalMail for 5 years now is the Strategy and (more recently commercial director). He is the person who has successfully stifled competitors setting up rival E2E, but is also the person who is driving through privatisation. Alex Smith joined Royal Mail from McKinsey & Co. after providing some consultancy support. He has a privatisation agenda and is essentially the number two at Royal Mail behind Adam Crozier. Some might argue that Crozier is the frontman for Smith. They are aided and abeted by a plethora of non-execs who come from the private sector and an anti-union chairman called Allan Leighton.

If you (and I mean the frontline employee) want to stop this privatisation then you need to attack/influence this person that an alternative approach is possible. To me it is clear that the free market does not always know best. Do we have highly competitive utilities companies, airlines, banks etc. My answer is no. Will we get a highly competitive postal market the answer is no as there is less than a handful of companies able to compete or who have the knowledge to buy something like RoyalMail and transform it successfully. Just because there is a postal company in another country it does not mean they will understand the UK market, culture etc. and could seriously screw it up.

The UK system whilst not perfect is reasonably adequate to my mind. As someone who has worked in Ops, HQ and in the private sector I feel reasonably qualified to at least comment on this.

Unfortunately it seems that those in power to make decisions will make the same mistakes of previous privatisations. Who remembers RailTrack?

[BELIAL]

I agree with most of what you say Fozz but I would question the bit about "mistakes". Surely such a judgement depends on your point of view. From a service perspective=disaster:employee perspective = disaster:
customer perspective = ultimately disaster after short term carrots.
But from the point of view of a cabal of share option owning ,own bonus awarding ,self pay level setting elite a quick smash and grab leaving the public purse to sort out the mess would seem like a very effective and logical strategy.

[dvbuk55]

I don't believe RM will be privatised in entirety as an E2E organistion in the short term. There are elements though that could quite easily be sold off and perform as well as and maybe better than at present, collections and transport between hubs and DOs springs to mind.