Quote: Leevil @ November 1 2009, 11:48 AM BSTI haven't experienced any problems with the mail, in fact it feels as though it has improved. I received some post, which I know was sent on a Saturday and it arrived the following Monday, which never happens.
On the plus side, there's also been less junk mail. Except for the locally delivered stuff.
I have to say it has improve here too! People are amazed how fast parcels are arriving.
So, what's it all about then?
It's a mixture of many things, to list but a few...
Being forced to do more work for no extra pay.
To make things simple... Let's say you hang doors for a living, you work an 8 hour day and in that time the maximum amount of doors you can physically hang is 18. Now your boss tells that you must hang 23 doors a day. You explain 18 doors are the most you can do. You're then told if you go over your 8 hours to complete all 23 doors you will not be paid overtime for it and if you bring any doors back that you didn't have time to hang, your pay will be stopped, you may however carry on working each day but you will not be paid.
What would you do?
Postie's have seen their pay reduced through loss of overtime and many other factors by thousands. RM have announced come January will see even more cut from our pay.
We have a pension deficit of £10-15bn because ROYAL MAIL HAD A 13-YEAR HOLIDAY FROM CONTRIBUTIONS.
It would appear RM are out to wipe out the Union.
We can only apologise for all the inconvenience and loss of money the strikes cause for all businesses and every member of the public who rely on the service. We have no alternative, it's either strike or bend over and take it up the arse!
Please read on and if at the end of it you feel your average postie is still wrong for supporting industrial action in the form of national strikes then so be it.
The media and Royal Mail say the dispute is about is our "failure to modernise". In fact, our last national dispute in 2007 was resolved by an agreement called Pay and Modernisation, and on the back of that agreement we entered into local negotiations which involved the loss of a significant amount of jobs. On the basis of us increasing productivity and reducing costs. That went through an audit process guaranteeing that it was cost-effective, it achieved savings, etc. Royal Mail signed up to that in October 2007.
But since then RM has made a number of policy changes. Basically, RM completely went back on its own agreements. They've broken the terms of the existing national agreement, and they've broken large numbers of the local agreements. Since about June of this year they've introduced what they call 'Pegasus' revisions, which is basically a mass of job reductions. They've forced this by what they call executive action, which means without any agreement.
'Absorption', what that means is you've got to take on someone else's round at no extra pay – if someone can't do their round for whatever reason (sick, holiday or delivery jobs are made vacant as RM have 'removed' the postie from the work place and not filled their position and have no intention on ever filling them under Pegasus revisions) their work is just "absorbed" into yours. It's caused major problems because by the time you come back to do your own delivery you're left with insufficient time to do so. RM has come up with its own un agreed work standards. They're unachievable work standards that they're forcing in. RM and the media would let you believe that our people use "Spanish practices" and all this stuff – but we've seen thousands of jobs go, people are working harder and harder. In a typical delivery office a revision of work load will come in and our people are expected to do that work within the same time span, when in fact it's additional work. When they find out that they can't, as their work load is unmanageable, they are then bullied, intimidated, threatened and in a lot of cases taken off pay. That means they're not paid for the day and threatened with being disciplined under the conduct code. They must then agree to sign an agreement saying they will complete 'all' as instructed, otherwise they remain off pay. Posties are filmed by managers whilst out delivering in hope of catching those not complying with every rule in an attempt to discipline them under the conduct code inevitably leading to eventual dismissal. Yet when they do the job as instructed by RM management they're then disciplined claiming they have performance issues. With indoor work there's a whole range of issues taken up by management in order to try to crush the union and its members. The internal procedures are absolutely useless to deal with it – they're only used against us.
Each year now the RM budget is reduced by 10%, so each year each function, each office has to reduce its cost by 10%. But the 10% is disputed – Royal Mail claimed this by deciding that the average box of mail post workers sort before delivery now contains 150 items (it used to be counted, but now they conveniently work on an average) These traffic figures are RM's own figures, no outside auditors or union auditors are allowed to check the figures. However random checks were made by the CWU which found that the average was in fact 267 items. Therefore these figures cannot be confirmed. It's in RM's interest for traffic to fall slightly because it's used as a stick to cut back on staff.
Reduction in volume – there is a reduction, but not to the degree they're saying. Are people using the Internet more? Using texts? Yes, of course they are. Are people sending emails? Yes, of course they are. But what's equally generated out of all that is – there's a jargon name for it now – Fulfilment. They call it Fulfilment where basically you go on Amazon, and we get a package. So we get the benefit. The profile of the mail is changing – it goes to packages and different types of advertisements and things.
Another major issue is the pension. The new chairman who's been brought in, Donald Bryden, has already said that if the deficit is higher than previously posted, which it will be, anywhere between £10 and £15 billion, they will close the current scheme, so we are going to be in an even worse situation. That isn't even the final salary scheme, that's the replacement scheme – so that's the end of it, finished; there will be no pension scheme.
The deficit of £10-15bn is because ROYAL MAIL HAD A 13-YEAR HOLIDAY FROM CONTRIBUTIONS.
Competition. The government has creamed off the mail to private companies and then put it back into our system for us to deliver at 13 pence a go, which means that you've got volume up and revenue down. These companies are allowed to use the RM postal system to get their mail to customers. None of these private companies would ever want to take over the running of the mail. What they've got is called Downstream Access where RM will actually post the mail, for 13p. It's called the "Final Mile". The likes of DHL haven't the infrastructure to deliver to every address in the UK, also these companies aren't tied to the Universal Service, whereas Royal Mail is. This means RM is obliged to deliver to any address for the same price ie. a letter delivered to the Shetlands is delivered for the same price as a letter delivered to the London. Other companies usually charge different rates depending on geographical location ie. an item delivered to the Shetlands will cost more than an item delivered in London (depending on your posting position). If you look at your letters that comes through your front door now, not many times will you see RM in the corner. I'm talking about average mail that's generated from councils or gas and utilities – these other companies now do our mail. So what we've got is unfair regulation where we're subsidising the competition – it's not a level playing field. These companies don't want to deliver to council estates – they want the network, they want the mail centres, they want all the lucrative bits.
Now unless the government deal with that issue and make RM able to perform on a level playing field then we are just going to degenerate into this process where the end state is that the public see a later and later service. Less and less jobs, worse and worse conditions. Businesses are now already being targeted and pressured by RM into paying £262.50 a month or £3,150 a year, payable in advance to guarantee their post will be delivered at the start of the working day.
RM top management buys into all this. What they'd like to do is to copy what's called the Dutch model used by TNT, who run the Dutch post office – basically it's a predominantly part-time workforce, mail is delivered at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, 87% of the people employed in Holland in the Post Office there are on 16-hour or less contracts. And that's no way to run an industry. This is what the British public is set to suffer under "modernisation". They want to deliver mail later, because the later they deliver the mail the more stuff they can put through the machines.
Adam Crozier, the highest-paid public servant in the UK, has surrounded himself with hawks. You've got a situation where anyone who's a bit pragmatic on the Board is seen as being "weak". So we haven't even got hawks and doves, we've got all hawks. And these people aren't in it for the duration, they're in it for five years, six years, eight years, and they move on. They don't build anything, they don't create anything, they just destroy what's in front of them – the British Post Office, which for 350 years was the envy of the world. The bottom line dictates – there's no looking at the service.
I'm not saying that the people we were dealing with 10, 15, 20 years ago were benevolent, but they came from a RM background. Some of them, their fathers had been postmen, they had been postmen, and they actually cared about the industry. I don't believe these people care. They only care whether their targets have been achieved. If their targets are so far diluted that they can achieve them, then there's millions of pounds to be earned for them. And that's the way industry's been created – in the health service, everywhere – everything's based on targets. Budgets and targets are the mantra.
We haven't got sympathy for RM, but we understand the problem – without government intervention there is no solution to the problems we've got. What we've got is unfair competition, introduced and sustained by the government since 2003, when regulation was brought in, then since 2006 when this government liberalised the UK postal market.
We're in a major recession. But if you look at the history of RM, you will see that it survives those dips, and as soon as the economy picks up people start advertising again. Whether or not it'll ever go back to what it was previously I don't know, but the problem is everything's about short-termism. Nothing's built to look at the future. It's all aimed at downsizing and selling off the silverware, selling off the premises and relocating in some industrial estate in the middle of nowhere.
There's been a lot of public opposition to this dispute, helped along by the media. The notion is that postal workers are acting deliberately just to be disruptive. How false that is, many are struggling to pay mortgages and bills throughout the weeks of industrial action yet are still prepared to strike as they know that if they do nothing they will struggle to pay their mortgage and bills every week come next year and beyond. We don't want to destroy this industry; we want to see a growing RM.
But you still should be grateful to have a job during this financial climate? - Grateful we are and we want to be still grateful next year and the year after that… not screwed down to a minimum wage with full time positions reduced to part time.
You may ask why now, why strike at Christmas? Another weapon in RM artillery. Planned far in advance by RM to help gather maximum support from the public in destroying its own service.
Royal Mail's slogan is "It's a Great Place to Work" 
Quote: Griff @ November 1 2009, 5:44 PM BSTBest post I've read on BSG in a long time Random. I wish someone like you was representing the posties on telly instead of that arsehole union leader of yours who does you no favours at all.
Cheers Griff but I must stress the above is not all my own work. It's a collective of mine and two others.
Interesting and informative post, random, thanks. You think that (various) governments would have learnt from the "modernisation", privatisation and competition issues that arose from deregulation of the railways, for example, that short-termist approaches tend to lead to massive problems later down the line.
(EDIT: Shit! Honestly, no pun intended there.)
Quote: Tim Walker @ November 1 2009, 5:52 PM BSTInteresting and informative post, random, thanks. You think that (various) governments would have learnt from the "modernisation", privatisation and competition issues that arose from deregulation of the railways, for example, that short-termist approaches tend to lead to massive problems later down the line.
Cheers.
It would be nice to think so Tim but do they really care? I think not! 
Bloody good post there Jules.
Quote: Timbo @ November 1 2009, 6:00 PM BSTBloody good post there Jules.
Thank you Timbo, I just hope it may provide an insight to those that do take the time to read it and maybe, just maybe they'll have a better understanding as to why!
RM is the just most obvious example of a sinister Lba/Con mission to roll back the public sector. Check out no pay freeze on banker's bonuses, but 10% roll back on public sector paying. Not to mention pay freezes, pension holds and utterly bogus comparisons with the private sector.
My union went on strike for a day last year. Didn't make any diference.
Oh and phenomenal post, lets see more like that.
Couldn't you just cycle faster, Random?
Quote: sootyj @ November 1 2009, 6:12 PM BSTRM is the just most obvious example of a sinister Lba/Con mission to roll back the public sector. Check out no pay freeze on banker's bonuses, but 10% roll back on public sector paying. Not to mention pay freezes, pension holds and utterly bogus comparisons with the private sector.
My union went on strike for a day last year. Didn't make any diference.
Oh and phenomenal post, lets see more like that.
Thx sootyj, where will it end?
Quote: sootyj @ November 1 2009, 6:12 PM BSTMy union went on strike for a day last year. Didn't make any diference.
Isn't it impossible to say for sure whether it made a difference or not? Showing you're willing to take last resort action once might influence what employers try to get away with later.
Quote: The Giggle-o @ November 1 2009, 6:16 PM BSTCouldn't you just cycle faster, Random?
Shit, why didn't I think of that 
I'll give Dave and Billy a ring and tell them to call it all off! The Giggle-o has the answer!
Quote: Badge @ November 1 2009, 6:21 PM BSTIsn't it impossible to say for sure whether it made a difference or not? Showing you're willing to take last resort action once might influence what employers try to get away with later.
Nah pay freezes for the lowest paid and most parties have more vicious cuts on the way.
Has no-one said "First Class Post" to Random yet? Okay then, I will.
Quote: random @ November 1 2009, 6:19 PM BSTThx sootyj, where will it end?
Badly.
