Bye bye CWU

[Judgee]

Well I always believed that being a member of a bad union was at least better than being in no union at all. But enough is enough. As a delivery postmen I feel like I have been totally and utterly shafted by the CWU in this last agreement, one which I personally feel is pretty bad for all workers.... but exceptionally bad for me. Therefore today I have cancelled my subscription. Paying my subs over the last few weeks felt like I was just handing my money over to management and not to people who were there to look after my interests.

Should a new union emerge that shows it has ALL workers interests at heart and is not prepared to sacrifice one area of the workforce in order to ease the suffering of the rest then I will join it.

So farewell CWU you took over £1000 off of me over the last few years, thank you for the few diaries you gave me in return but it will be cheaper to buy myself one from WHSmiths each year! The money I will save will help ease the burden of this latest paycut you kindly arranged for me!

[Dogs of War]

Totally agree. The CWU said there was no plan b and royal mail where in serious trouble but who made 400 million last year. The agreement is a pay cut for all postmen and women, but the CWU thought this was a really good deal, what planet is dave and billy living on.

[dounome]

i agree wholeheartedly

[jack straw]

Totally agree. The CWU said there was no plan b and royal mail where in serious trouble but who made 400 million last year. The agreement is a pay cut for all postmen and women, but the CWU thought this was a really good deal, what planet is dave and billy living on.

They don't care about us. They haven't had a pay cut, they are now free to carry on with lifestyles that many of us can only dream of. This is where this union is a failure. How much are they earning? Subsidised by us fools. Well, not me anymore, that's for sure. Get rid of these two, and their extortionate wages. Get some new guys in that are earning something similar to our wage, and then sane people may rejoin.

[POSTMAN]

You would find that most stay in the union for 'local representation'.
In this day and age and the way the business is and is going,are you sure leaving is the right and 'safe' thing to do?
Double edged sword i know.

[Judgee]

I know what you mean Postman but every time I see a payment for subs deducted it's like a slap in the face. Any time a local rep has come with me to a stage warning meeting the result has always been the same - issued as normal.

The way I see it I may as well just have a regular worker come with me as a witness that will suffice.

Not a single non union member in my office has suffered for being outside the union.

My hope is that maybe one day CWU will get it's act together and then I will gladly rejoin. Failing that perhaps a new union will emerge, one with balls that will stand up to management, support the workers and get things improved. CWU 's policy seems to be oh well lets accept the least worse offer on the table instead of telling the management that all offers are unacceptable, go away and come back with something more sensible. They continually go on about how they are securing jobs yet totally ignore the fact that the job just wont be worth having if things carry on like this. They had the support of the workers, men and women who went out on strike and lost wages so they could get a better deal. What did they do with this support.... sold us down the river yet again!

They should have demanded a resignation of the executive board, demanded that executives bonuses be repaid and pushed for a removal of the pricing cap for DSA which would increase profits through the roof. Instead its continual cuts in wages and increases in workload.

No the union is a farce, I'll take my chances alone from now on

[jack straw]

I know what you mean Postman but every time I see a payment for subs deducted it's like a slap in the face. Any time a local rep has come with me to a stage warning meeting the result has always been the same - issued as normal.

The way I see it I may as well just have a regular worker come with me as a witness that will suffice.

Not a single non union member in my office has suffered for being outside the union.

My hope is that maybe one day CWU will get it's act together and then I will gladly rejoin. Failing that perhaps a new union will emerge, one with balls that will stand up to management, support the workers and get things improved. CWU 's policy seems to be oh well lets accept the least worse offer on the table instead of telling the management that all offers are unacceptable, go away and come back with something more sensible. They continually go on about how they are securing jobs yet totally ignore the fact that the job just wont be worth having if things carry on like this. They had the support of the workers, men and women who went out on strike and lost wages so they could get a better deal. What did they do with this support.... sold us down the river yet again!

They should have demanded a resignation of the executive board, demanded that executives bonuses be repaid and pushed for a removal of the pricing cap for DSA which would increase profits through the roof. Instead its continual cuts in wages and increases in workload.

No the union is a farce, I'll take my chances alone from now on

Perfectly said. How about you going for the job?

[meercat]

Cancelled subs last month. Your local rep will always help, or should, even if you are a non-member. HQ is the problem and you can't ignore this betrayal because you fear for your treatment at a local level. The union movement is all about being free of fear and having the strength to stand up for yourself. That's how unionism started, with individuals sick of intimidation and bad treatment deciding the status quo wasn't good enough. Well the CWU HQ leaders are NOT good enough so I reject them and their betrayal of the working man - esp Part Time working men.

[janitor]

er why should he exactly, i know ours wouldn't.

[DGP1]

er why should he exactly, i know ours wouldn't.

because they have to help ensure that rules are followed even if you're not in the union.

[pcb]

Demcoracy took place with a majority of members (thats you!) voting to take the deal. Now Delivery have 82.000 members and Prc/Del have 41,000 roughly.
The union leaders put the deal to you and gave the decision over to YOU!
If you decide to leave the union then that is your decision but to encourage others to do so is exactly what management would like you to do!. Without the union RM would not have given any money or discussed with you their plans about modernisation period! You would have just been informed and you would have been expected to do it.
The union leaders negotiated a deal which then was voted on by the members (its called democracy).
Now throwing your dummy out and bitching about it is really going to help.
Do you honestly think the job was not going to change?
Do you honestly think pay deals would be given over voluntarily by management?
Do you honestly think all of delivery would have gone out for weeks at an end?
Do you honestly think the public would have supported us in the present financial climate?

Begger belief the vitriol spouted about the union leaders when the members took the decision.

[POSTMAN]

You can take a horse to water...

'The CWU have shafted us' seems to be the favourite one.

Well NO they didn't!!

Your colleagues did,they voted for it!

[chunk]

The union recommended to members we accept the deal!
They didn't say it was it was full of problems and unknowns'
They didn't sit on the fence either but said that it was a good deal.

Theres democracy in having a vote but the 80 pages needed to be digested.
our local rep said to us at an office meeting that the higher levels of the union recommend a yes vote!
He personally said he was voting against!
what a mixed message we were getting, it caused a lot of people not to vote at all !
Im not saying leave the union.
but this was not democracy at its best
ask yourself if these forums are still chewing over the agreement details now!
how could we vote without enough information? the answer is we couldn't .
thats when you rely on the people you pay you subs to to steer you right.

[Judgee]

Demcoracy took place with a majority of members (thats you!) voting to take the deal. Now Delivery have 82.000 members and Prc/Del have 41,000 roughly.
The union leaders put the deal to you and gave the decision over to YOU!
If you decide to leave the union then that is your decision but to encourage others to do so is exactly what management would like you to do!. Without the union RM would not have given any money or discussed with you their plans about modernisation period! You would have just been informed and you would have been expected to do it.
The union leaders negotiated a deal which then was voted on by the members (its called democracy).
Now throwing your dummy out and bitching about it is really going to help.
Do you honestly think the job was not going to change?
Do you honestly think pay deals would be given over voluntarily by management?
Do you honestly think all of delivery would have gone out for weeks at an end?
Do you honestly think the public would have supported us in the present financial climate?

Begger belief the vitriol spouted about the union leaders when the members took the decision.

Hmm Democracy... where members fail to get their ballot papers sure ok Would also be interested to see where you got your figures from with regardes to workforce split?

The union didn't put the decision to members they basically said after 4 months of negotiations this is all we could come up with so you'd better accept it?

I haven't encouraged anyone to leave the union just put forward my own reasons for leaving, what people make of it is up to them I very much doubt I would sway anyone. True without a union everything would have just been brought in without any negotiations at all. In previous posts I have always put this point across. I don't want there to be "no" union I want a better union as the deal they got was lets face it pretty s**t and not much better than having no union negotiators at all.

Yes the deal was voted on by members, at least some members. I think you'll find most didnt vote at all either through no ballot papers or a total lack of knowledge on what the vote was about. The vote should have been split, as the deal affected people in very different ways depending on thier position within RM. I have come across one delievery postman out of 170 in my office who actually voted yes to the agreement. The majority voted no or didnt vote for previously mentioned reasons.

Haven't used a dummy in many years so can't really spit one out perhaps I could borrow yours?

Obviously the job was gonna change over the years, it's the way in which it has been changed that annoys me. With a total lack of vision or any kind of business sense whatsoever. If you think cullin an experience workforce and selling off assets is a long term solution to a company struggling financially you really are living in cloud cuckoo land. Expansion, growth and the right to fight the competition on a fair playing field is the only way to go. By growth I don't mean loading up delivery staff with shitloads of d2ds and making them do them for free!

As far as paydeals well we got a cut in wages so yes so I'm pretty sure management would have volunteered for that.

Staff may not have gone out for weeks on end but whos to say that it would have taken that long?

Yes the public supported us and support was growing not dropping off. People want a reliable service not shitloads more junk mail

I have my suspicions on why this deal was voted in, and yes I am pissed off about it but don't mistake that for sour grapes. Had it been a vote drawn up on a fair basis then fine, it wasn't the deck was stacked. The reason people slag off the union bosses, pretty damn obvious, open your eyes. You base your opinion on one dubious vote and seem to think that because the deal was voted in the majority wanted it. More people failed to vote at all, than voted on a decision one way or the other on a deal that affected all thier futures. Does that not tell you anything at all? The CWU has also got a nasty habit of going back to the table and coming back with a worse deal than was offered before... perhaps this swayed a few people too

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Demcoracy took place with a majority of members (thats you!) voting to take the deal. Now Delivery have 82.000 members and Prc/Del have 41,000 roughly.

Thats the figures I always believed and I thinks is about right IMO.

The union leaders put the deal to you and gave the decision over to YOU!

Not quiet. Yes they gave us the vote but with various extraneous matters they affected the vote either intentionally or not , I think not. These extraneous matters include recommending the deal, not sending the full agreement out with the ballot papers, and saying publicly that they did not have a fall back position if a No vote was returned. I don't believe that there was anything underhand or nefarious or any malice intended but it would be naive to think that these matters had no effect,even if only a little on the outcome, or on the fact that a lot did not return their votes.

If you decide to leave the union then that is your decision but to encourage others to do so is exactly what management would like you to do!. Without the union RM would not have given any money or discussed with you their plans about modernisation period! You would have just been informed and you would have been expected to do it.

Fully agree

The union leaders negotiated a deal which then was voted on by the members (its called democracy).

Yes its is but some believe the vote was flawed and that is something worth discussing.

Now throwing your dummy out and bitching about it is really going to help.

Now now, if people did not figuratively "spit the dummy" or "bitch" about the outcome RMC would not be as popular as it is. No I don't suppose it will affect anything in the scheme of things but that's still no reason not to let people get things of their chest.

Do you honestly think the job was not going to change?

Is anyone really that naive. Not on RMC I hope.

Do you honestly think pay deals would be given over voluntarily by management?

No - that's one reason the Union is needed and why IMHO people need to stay members. After all the lower the ratio of Union members to non union members then the lower influence that the CWU can claim to have.

Do you honestly think all of delivery would have gone out for weeks at an end?

All of them No - But a majority - Yes.

Do you honestly think the public would have supported us in the present financial climate?

Yes - They still do unless the read the Daily Mail that is.

Begger belief the vitriol spouted about the union leaders when the members took the decision.

Vitriol No don't think so. Frustration, anger, disbelief and concern but I don't think its was vitriolic in it application. Although the dictionary definition would match your belief