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CWU / Royal Mail dispute
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
i've been doing my research on this since they're hardly mentioning a thing on what it's about other than money and modernisation
Technically they're striking because Royal Mail hasn't kept their side of the bargain on the agreement they made in 2007 over modernisation, by bullying workers into doing more for the same
The royal mail is making a trading loss after paying out to pension fund, but in actual operation made £330m profit last year, mainly from junk mail, but all depts are making a profit
The Royal Mail took a 5 year pension holiday like 15 years ago, in which the money went to government coffers, since the government won't pay up without privitising, the firm is plugging the gap with it's own profits these days
The volume of mail has gone down according to RM, but this is due to an arbituary way 'boxes' are assigned a volume, it used to be like 204 letters a box now its 150, though random spot checks suggest it's about 230
The union is willing to accept job losses but thinks 40,000 in the past 4 years and then more in the future is a bit much but is willing to negoiate whereas RM refuses to go to arbitration
RM is the ONLY delivery firm who made money last year strangely despite losing money on deliveries for other companies, since they only get 13p a letter from TNT/ukmail etc (forced on them by the government regulator)
so much misinformation out there, i think they're shotting themselves in the feet, i think they should jsut do something like 1 day where they won't check for stamps, just to force a loss of money
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n18/maya01_.html
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23758029-it-is-not-londons-posties-who-are-failing-to-deliver.do
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/19/royal-mail-union-meeting - RM refusing to go to ACAS
Technically they're striking because Royal Mail hasn't kept their side of the bargain on the agreement they made in 2007 over modernisation, by bullying workers into doing more for the same
The royal mail is making a trading loss after paying out to pension fund, but in actual operation made £330m profit last year, mainly from junk mail, but all depts are making a profit
The Royal Mail took a 5 year pension holiday like 15 years ago, in which the money went to government coffers, since the government won't pay up without privitising, the firm is plugging the gap with it's own profits these days
The volume of mail has gone down according to RM, but this is due to an arbituary way 'boxes' are assigned a volume, it used to be like 204 letters a box now its 150, though random spot checks suggest it's about 230
The union is willing to accept job losses but thinks 40,000 in the past 4 years and then more in the future is a bit much but is willing to negoiate whereas RM refuses to go to arbitration
RM is the ONLY delivery firm who made money last year strangely despite losing money on deliveries for other companies, since they only get 13p a letter from TNT/ukmail etc (forced on them by the government regulator)
so much misinformation out there, i think they're shotting themselves in the feet, i think they should jsut do something like 1 day where they won't check for stamps, just to force a loss of money
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n18/maya01_.html
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23758029-it-is-not-londons-posties-who-are-failing-to-deliver.do
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/19/royal-mail-union-meeting - RM refusing to go to ACAS
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Comments
Back the posties.
if they put up and shut up it'd be worse though imo
all those tempsthey're going to hire, who you think nicks the stuff at xmas? not full timers
lol where did i say ALL
i just said it's more likely with all the temps at xmas, which they always hire
i think the strike isn't the wisest thing they could of been a bit more imaginative in screwing up the RM without doing in their customers but i definetly am seeing why they're sriking
ps i know there's never any convincing you
Stargalaxy, you'd be a great columnist in the Telegraph
they say that it is to clear the backlog as well as cope with increasing volumes in the run up to christmas; so they can "get away with it" by saying that work being done by the temps isn't the same as the work that was done by their permanent employees. there has been quite a lot of industrial action in the royal mail already this year with regional walkouts etc
As for why Royal Mail can "get away with it", it's partly because the Government is flatly refusing to intervene in this. If it sides with Royal Mail, it will be accused of upsetting the unions, which in turn will give less funding to the effectively bankrupt organisation that is the Labour Party. If it sides with the trade unions, it will be accused of wanting to see an entire company destroyed. And no matter whom it sides with, the customer loses out.
Still, I'm sure that Broon - when his focus group have finally decided what kind of biscuit he likes - will soon be told by Mandelson what to do about it. Or not.
tbh i hope mandelson doesn't have any more to do with it cos he is meddling prat who is no good to anyone.
From my personal point of view, I think they are shooting themselves in the foot.