Postal workers - big vote for strike..

[KeyboardJockey]

I remember about 10 years ago when they went on strike.My old school mate was a postie and he lived over the road.He'd go out every night with other strikers to brick the scabs windows and smash up their cars.They targetted the temps they brought in to cover for them.He hated it but he felt he had no choice otherwise he would be one of "them".

I was going to call this guy a wanker but its an insult to wankers. Such a positive way to get people on side . And people wonder why the press lay into strikers and people have abandoned unions.

 

[dennisr]

I was going to call this guy a wanker but its an insult to wankers. Such a positive way to get people on side . And people wonder why the press lay into strikers and people have abandoned unions.

You are right if this was true - but this is most probably a lie. I would like to see any concrete evidence before giving the anonymous poster any credance

 

[poster342002]

I don't see 'ra-ra' posts - i see posts saying its a good sign they are standing up and saying they should be supported. Your post is - as ever - a 'doom-gloom, it's all hopeless' post. Give me your stategy, tactic, even opinion beyond its all hopeless and i might see the point in you posting. (its called ACTUALLY facing reality...)

The ACTUAL sad truth is that employers will continue to brazen things out is the attitude of most folk is the same as yours

As I've said before, I honestly don't know what on earth can be done. I think just about everything's been tried and failed dismallly over the last 30 years. I don't see how not facing up to this is going to help in anyway, though. Yes, it's a good sign the posties aren't just falling over sideways - but i get the feeling it'll make no real difference to the outcome.

The time to have stopped the country falling into this shitty state of affairs was back in the early 1980s when there was enough mass industrial muscle to do it. Now, however, there isn't. It's all been stripped away bit by bit over the last 30 years to the point where the odd 24 hour strike by this or that isolated group of workers amounts to token resistance at best.

 

[skunkboy69]

I swear it's true.They kid was quite upset about.He had just had a baby and was really scared if he didn't go along with it.

 

[cockneyrebel]

So why do you bother posting on this? If you think it's all doom and gloom and others are trying to actually fight back, the best thing you can contribute is silence.

 

[poster342002]

So why do you bother posting on this? If you think it's all doom and gloom and others are trying to actually fight back, the best thing you can contribute is silence.

That's just silly. Refusing to acknoweldge the elephant in the living room is pointless. Let's see who turns out to be right about this, anyway. I truly hope it's you.

 

[skunkboy69]

I don't think it's all doom and gloom.Strikes happen and always will.I gave a tale about what happened last time the Postal service went on strike.

 

[dennisr]

As I've said before, I honestly don't know what on earth can be done.

Therefore - like I said before why bother posting?

I know one thing that does not assist any individual let alone collective action - starting on the premise that its all hopeless - on that basis we would still be living in caves etc.

To be very frank and very genuine - I think you are mightily depressed poster - i can understand the cause of such a world view, I think it is a perfectly understandable reaction to the things we all face as individuals. You seem to project your personnal depression and disollusion onto every body and every thing else though. And that even less productive than you personal feelings are for your own life - because other folk tend to think 'tedious no-hoper' and avoid folk like you seem to be. You are probably a decent person and that is probably an unfiar reaction that tends to compound your feelings. I hope it improves for you if this is so.

 

[dennisr]

I gave a tale about what happened last time the Postal service went on strike.

And thats what it was - a 'tale' - a story - a fantasy

 

[jæd]

So... Less and less people are using the postal service, the management are trying to do something about it, and the Unions want to go striking.

I remember last time the result was that more people used faxes and started relying more on the new fangled "email" thing to send documents.... Gosh, I wonder what will happen now...?

 

[dennisr]

The time to have stopped the country falling into this shitty state of affairs was back in the early 1980s when there was enough mass industrial muscle to do it.

27% of folk are still involved in manufactering (which surprises even me and i can understand your conclusion even if I don't agree)

In some areas the reduction in numbers actually strengthens the potential power of that group of workers. Take the RMT as an example, or power workers. Yes, things have changed - it does not mean its all hopeless as you conclude

 

[dennisr]

That's just silly. Refusing to acknoweldge the elephant in the living room is pointless. Let's see who turns out to be right about this, anyway. I truly hope it's you.

creating an imaginary elephant in the living room of your mind does not help in fighting the herd of sheep that do exist

 

[skunkboy69]

And thats what it was - a 'tale' - a story - a fantasy

So you're saying that he just made it up to impress me? Or that I'm just trying to enflame the strike action? I'll tell you what,I'd know him since I was about 11 and he seemed pretty scared to me.

 

[cockneyrebel]

I don't think it's all doom and gloom.Strikes happen and always will.I gave a tale about what happened last time the Postal service went on strike.

That wasn't meant for you it was in response to poster342002.

And agree with dennisr, hopeless and unconstructive posts do nothing. You're better off not posting on it at all.

 

[skunkboy69]

Ok then

 

[chriswill]

The private companies (TNT, Ukmail etc) are only targeting the lucrative business mail.

They collect it from the customer but still use royal mails delivery structure ie the posties.

So we have the situation where the postman on the street works harder than ever (and believe me thats no exaggeration) but the management bleat about lost revenue.

Royal mail still have a legal duty to deliver to every address, every day (bar a few rurals) and the way the service is regulated is allowing the private companies to compete on a uneven playing field.

As for what posties want, I would have been happy with the offered 2.5% if it was unconditional (a cost of living increase) but mr Crozier always fails to mention the huge cuts and extra work that were conditions of the offer.

They want to be allowed to delivery 2 more items of unaddressed mail (leaflets) to every house. The current allowance is 3 of which posties are paid a rate per item that they deliver. While Royal Mail want to increase it to 5 they are not willing to pay for the extra 2 items, thus giving every postie an average of 1000 more items a week to deliver for nothing.

They also want to cut the early start allowance, Sunday collections and any night duties, which are essential in the busy periods.

Other conditions of the offer included increased duty's during the summer and on Saturdays and a later start time for the the whole year.

We hear a lot about efficiency and automation and its widely accepted throughout the business that things must change.

Its the panic cost cutting measures and blatant undermining of confidence that have resulted in a yes vote.

 

[nino_savatte]

Sadly, I think they may be signing their own redundancy notices, the PO may want this, its knows it simply can't compete with the private companies, etc and wants massive change, a defeated workforce would allow this. The unions never seem to learn, why haven't they prepared the ground for this with the genral public to gain some support, adverts, interviews in the media, etc. the PO's competitors will be waiting in the wings, got some bad feelings over this.

You're against the continuing protests against the war and you moan about the postal worker's strike. Presumably, this is just a bunch of uppity (Trotskyite) posties making things awkward for 'ordinary folk' like you. Is there any form of industrial action you do support?

 

[nino_savatte]

CWU ballot 77.5 % voted in favour of action. Crozier did f a at the FA and now is getting paid big bucks at Royal Mail. Crozier literature has been that posties are under worked and over paid. Crozier received a bonus of £370,000 last year taking his total package for the year to over 1 million pounds.

Time to give Crozier and management at Royal Mail a healthy dose of industiral action.

PCS, NUT and Unison back the posties in their fight.

Crozier and Leighton have been cruisin' for a bruisin' for a while now. Between the pair of them, they've managed to increase the numbers of casual staff (there is a euphemism for this somewhere) and lose the Royal Mail billions of pounds. But then, when one looks at Crozier's record at the FA, it's easy to see how he has made such an awful mess of the RM.

 

[treelover]

Nino, I'm not against it at all, i am just being realistic, and as if anything we say on here will make a difference, plus, I don't need any lessons on solidarity from you, I have a very good track record in these issues, also there was little solidarity form the left for the millions of disabled people who are going to lose shed loads of money when the Welfare Reform Act comes in.

btw, Dennis, i know you are being sincere and i think you do some good stuff(not patronising you either), but i really really don't like this habit of identifying pessimism and disillusionment with the left, political activity, etc, as some form of mental illness. It's a classic trot approach and also tbh, something Stalins lot were keen on. Imo, in many ways, with neo-liberalism triumphant, except for maybe S.America, it may be the best default position for ones sanity.
Oh, and feeling that way, still doesn't preclude people from being active,etc.

 

[nino_savatte]

Nino, I'm not against it at all, i am just being realistic, and as if anything we say on here will make a difference, plus, I don't need any lessons on solidarity from you, I have a very good track record in these issues, also there was little solidarity form the left for the millions of disabled people who are going to lose shed loads of money when the Welfare Reform Act comes in.
.

No, you're being defeatist. You may as well lie down and let the State walk all over you, fwiw. Management likes folk like you: they can count on your support and no doubt, you'll give it.

 

[ViolentPanda]

And thats what it was - a 'tale' - a story - a fantasy

Not to take sides, but you know this how?

Wouldn't it be more honest of you to say that in your opinion it's a fantasy, rather than coming over all swappie and declaring what is or isn't fact?

 

[durruti02]

i am not sure that this is the right strategy .. the strike needs to be a political strike aimed at govt attacks on the RM/PO .. and maybe not bring pay into it at this stage

that crozier is an overpaid prick is indisputeable .. but this does not detract form the fact that the RM has lost, i think, 40% of its work in a year .. and will loss more .. it is the whole deregulation OFCOM and all that thatcherite bollox that HAS to be challenged ..

the dispute/ strike does deal with this but the pay issue i think complicates it

21 June 2007
Message from Dave Ward, CWU Deputy General Secretary announcing Strike Action in Royal Mail

First of all, I want to now put the record straight about the way that Royal Mail have been deliberately misleading the public on what this dispute is about. The Union has never asked for a 27% pay rise and we are not opposed in any shape or form to modernisation.

What Royal Mail are doing is not modernisation. The truth is they are intent on cutting services, cutting jobs and cutting pay.

http://www.cwu.org/news.asp?step=3&NID=1733

07 June 2007
Postal Workers Back Strike Action
Results announced at our annual conference in Bournemouth:

Royal Mail Pay:
Yes: 66,064 (77.5%)
No: 19,199

Post Office Ltd (Counters):
Yes: 2740 (73%)
No: 993

Cash In Transit:
Yes: 545 (66%)
No: 283



http://www.cwu.org/news.asp?step=3&NID=1724

04 May 2007
CWU Press Release on Pay
http://www.cwu.org/news.asp?step=3&NID=1705

 

[nino_savatte]

i am not sure that this is the right strategy .. the strike needs to be a political strike aimed at govt attacks on the RM/PO .. and maybe not bring pay into it at this stage

that crozier is an overpaid prick is indisputeable .. but this does not detract form the fact that the RM has lost, i think, 40% of its work in a year .. and will loss more .. it is the whole deregulation OFCOM and all that thatcherite bollox that HAS to be challenged ..

the dispute/ strike does deal with this but the pay issue i think complicates it a strike as regards

http://www.cwu.org/news.asp?step=3&NID=1724

http://www.cwu.org/news.asp?step=3&NID=1733


04 May 2007
CWU Press Release on Pay
http://www.cwu.org/news.asp?step=3&NID=1705

Poor management and the massive push towards the blanket casualisation of staff have created this situation and it was a situation created largely by the hands of Crozier and Leighton.

Without industrial action, how do you propose to challenge the overwheening marketisation of the public sector?

 

[durruti02]

Without industrial action, how do you propose to challenge the overwheening marketisation of the public sector?

do you ever read anything any one says???

durruti02 22-06-2007 05:36 PM
"the strike needs to be a political strike aimed at govt attacks on the RM/PO"

 

[nino_savatte]

do you ever read anything any one says???

durruti02 22-06-2007 05:36 PM
"the strike needs to be a political strike aimed at govt attacks on the RM/PO"

It's quite clear that you don't read anything that I post. Pot-kettle-black, durutti.

All strikes are political.

 

[Groucho]

i am not sure that this is the right strategy .. the strike needs to be a political strike aimed at govt attacks on the RM/PO .. and maybe not bring pay into it at this stage
....
the dispute/ strike does deal with this but the pay issue i think complicates it
.[/url]

which would mean breaking the anti-union laws.

In anycase, criminal laws aside, the smashing of public services - cuts and sell offs and the attacks on pay and conditions of public servants are part of the same bleedin political strategy, so of course should be fought together!

 

[durruti02]

DEFENDING POSTAL SERVICES
A MESSAGE TO THE PUBLIC

Britain’s postal workers – members of the Communication Workers Union – are asking you to support our campaign to stop Royal Mail’s cost-cutting business plan which will mean cuts in your postal service (with hikes in stamp prices, fewer collections and deliveries and more post office closures) and cuts to our members’ pay and pensions.

CWU members want to do our job serving the public. We have tried every measure possible to seek a fair resolution to this dispute. Over 70% of our members voted for strike action to force Royal Mail to think again but they are simply refusing our offer of meaningful talks.

Starved of investment for decades Royal Mail now faces unfair competition from private operators who, for a discounted price, collect and sort profitable bulk business mail before passing it on to Royal Mail to deliver over the ‘final mile’. The result is Royal Mail has lost millions in revenue while the profits of private competitors has soared.

In 2006 Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union agreed that we would work together to tackle the impact of competition in the mail market, use government investment to introduce automation, improve efficiency, introduce innovative products that we know customers want and raise the value and status of postal workers’ jobs.
Instead, Royal Mail has ditched the agreement, refused to negotiate a pay settlement and insisted on unilateral imposition of its cost-cutting business plan with mass job losses and cuts to members’ pay and pensions. Royal Mail has been deliberately misleading the public by saying the CWU wants a 27% pay rise. The CWU has never asked for a 27% pay rise.

That’s why the CWU are asking for your support in our campaign to stop Royal Mail’s cuts, end unfair competition and preserve a vital public service.

DEFENDING POSTAL SERVICES
A combination of Royal Mail s slash and burn strategy and rigged competition rules now threaten the future of Britain s universal postal service. As competitors queue up to cream off the most lucrative work, Royal Mail is facing a financial black hole and proposing a swingeing round of cuts both to postal services and to our members terms and conditions. That’s why the CWU is asking you to support our calls for:
• Royal Mail to enter meaningful talks with the CWU on resolving pay and major change and to honour the 2006 agreement which committed both parties to agree a joint approach on pay and modernisation.
• A Government review of the damaging impact of competition on Royal Mail to date, in line with Labour’s manifesto commitment.
• An immediate change to Postcomm’s competition rules and a fairer pricing and access regime that gives Royal Mail the revenues it needs to support the universal postal service and post office network.

NO TO POST OFFICE CLOSURES

END UNFAIR COMPETITION

A DECENT LIVING WAGE FOR POSTAL WORKERS

DEFEND POSTAL SERVICES


150 The Broadway
Wimbledon
London
SW19 1RX

www.cwu.org
0208 971 7200
Billy Hayes

General Secretary
www.billyhayes.co.uk


01778 Published by the Communication Workers Union 2007.

 

[butchersapron]

Tape your letter boxes up and write No scab mail here! on it - force those managers having to cover for the strikers carry around a full bag all day

 

[Matt S]

Does anyone know if there is a list of where pickets are going to be....or do we just assume that there will be one at every RM facility?

Matt

 

[KeyboardJockey]

Tape your letter boxes up and write No scab mail here! on it - force those managers having to cover for the strikers carry around a full bag all day

Would really work provided that more than 1 in a million did this. Most people are not motivated enough for that.