The Last Postal Strike
There are articles in today's press (The Times and The Mirror) suggesting a Royal Mail strike is looming. In a letter to its membership, the leadership of the Communications Workers Union (CWU) say that:
"Unless there is a dramatic change in Royal Mail's attitude there is no prospect of us reaching agreement and a major dispute is inevitable."
The CWU quote Royal Mail as saying the workforce is:
"over paid and under worked."
Postal performance has reached record high levels because the industry has enjoyed a period of calm industrial relations. If a strike does happen it will drive businesses towards other means of communicating with each other and customers.
In the short term a strike will hurt customers, businesses and the whole economy. Companies that ditch post are unlikly to return. So a strike will hurt the long, as well as the short, term interests of the Royal Mail and, of course, its workforce.
Postwatch has no wish to become involved in the rights and wrongs of the arguments of either side. Our focus is entirely on representing customers. Strike action can only harm customer interests and must be avoided.
It is essential that the CWU and Royal Mail discuss the options and agree a way forward that avoids postal services grinding to a halt. We hope we have already had the last postal strike.
"Unless there is a dramatic change in Royal Mail's attitude there is no prospect of us reaching agreement and a major dispute is inevitable."
The CWU quote Royal Mail as saying the workforce is:
"over paid and under worked."
Postal performance has reached record high levels because the industry has enjoyed a period of calm industrial relations. If a strike does happen it will drive businesses towards other means of communicating with each other and customers.
In the short term a strike will hurt customers, businesses and the whole economy. Companies that ditch post are unlikly to return. So a strike will hurt the long, as well as the short, term interests of the Royal Mail and, of course, its workforce.
Postwatch has no wish to become involved in the rights and wrongs of the arguments of either side. Our focus is entirely on representing customers. Strike action can only harm customer interests and must be avoided.
It is essential that the CWU and Royal Mail discuss the options and agree a way forward that avoids postal services grinding to a halt. We hope we have already had the last postal strike.
Labels: CWU, Royal Mail, Strike
posted by Postwatch at 12:00 pm
3 Comments:
This Government could do with listening to the majority who don't want a liberalised postal market. We want a good, reliable and cheap service. We want to keep a one price goes anywhere. We want Post Offices open and within reasonable distance. We want early deliveries and later collections, not later deliveries and early collections. When is someone going to listen!!! How many times do they need to be told?
We had all this before 2003/2006 and now we don't? Its all gone wrong and I'm behind the Postal Workers 110% as they seem to be the only people who care about this great public service.
Only one point from Anonymous 1 - the 2003 national strike began with a broken toilet in East London and then escalated into pay and conditions. If it happens again, there is the danger the public will go totally paperless with their statements and use the phone and the internet to pay their bills caught in the system and generally avoid Royal Mail which will impact upon the business- and then those job cuts will still happen. I personally like the post but have to be realistic, it isn't Postcomm's or Postwatch's fault that you can't return a credit card application or confirmation by post anymore because they'll mysteriously disappear and leave you open to ID theft with no redress - now it's happened twice I know it's the Royal Mail, not me. This great public service has to be secure and you have to have concrete redress when something goes wrong.
As a postman, I would like to give my two cents. Personally, I don't want a strike. My preferred action would be to work to rule. However, when I receive my ballot paper I will be voting for industrial action in whatever form that will take. Only last year management and the CWU signed an agreement to raise the worth of a postman.
Now, a lump sum of x amount is not what that agreement entailed, in my opinion. That's taxable, so what will us posties end up with? Whilst management are using competition as an excuse to cut costs, it has come about mainly as RM cannot compete equally. Postcomm have rigged the market so the Flash Harrys can gain easy access and make the bucks whilst RM suffers.
RM should have its price controls relaxed so it can compete with the Flash Harrys on an equal footing. Postcomm don't want this because they know that no other "mail" company can compete with RMs network!
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