UK: Royal Mail strikes

[MarcMorris]

Living in London these ongoing strikes are causing a lot of grief. I think they need to accept change.

Does anybody agree with this? (It's from the dreaded Daily Mail).

Royal Mail is a dinosaur doomed to extinction if striking unions don't support change (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1205519/Royal-Mail-dinosaur-doomed-extinction-striking-unions-dont-support-change.html)

Postal strike affects deliveries (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8192733.stm)


Further disruption to postal services has been caused as workers continue with industrial action over the modernisation of Royal Mail.

[Companero]

They have a right to strike but to do it at short notice and have three days of industrial action in the space of a week is just taking the piss as far as I'm concerned.

[jacksmith1983]

The Royal Mail does need to accept change. I'm only 25 and even I can still remember getting the first morning post before breakfast and a second post delivery later on in the morning. Nowadays in these parts there is only one delivery and our postie seldom reaches us before almost noon.

I have no idea how much of this is the fault of management and how much is due to a decline is the standard of the work of the postie's themselves on the ground, however given how sharply the level of service has declined in recent years something has certainly gone wrong somewhere.

Irrespective of their greivance with their employers I think that postal workers are going about airing their upset in the wrong way by inconveniencing the general public. I seem to remember not long back Royal Mail management introduced computer technology to gauge how long each specific delivery round ought to take on foot in order to set realistic targets for deliveries. The workers in question duly responded by going on strike over "unfair working conditions". I think thats says a lot really.

[ForestFilmsUK]

Is this going to affect incoming stuff through Mount Pleasant customs? I'm waiting on a couple of things.

[trioxin245]

I just got a serious bundle of packages/mail today that was a couple of weeks overdue.
London Mount Pleasant are included in the strikes, for today at least.
IBTimes (http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/20090816/royal-mail-postal-strikes-starting-august.htm)

[ForestFilmsUK]

Bugger. I'm still waiting on a boxset that's going to cost me on import tax. having this delay isn't exactly helping.

[MarcMorris]

Oh joy... and we thought things were already bad!

BBC News: Royal Mail workers vote to strike (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8296660.stm)

Sky News: Postal Strike Threat Would Hit Xmas Mail (http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Postal-Strike-Threat-Could-Hit-Christmas-Mail-Warns-Communication-Workers-Union/Article/200910215401768?lpos=UK_News_Top_Stories_Header_3&lid=ARTICLE_15401768_Postal_Strike_Threat_Could_Hit_Christma s_Mail%2C_Warns_Communication_Workers_Union)

[Dave Jay]

Round my way Royal Mail have been on strike at least one or two days a week for ages now... I'm currently waiting on 5 DVD's through the post that don't seem forthcoming and am now starting to think I'll give postal orders a complete miss until this is sorted out...

The surprising thing is there hasn't been THAT much of an uproar from the general public thus far...

[Pinback]

Round my way Royal Mail have been on strike at least one or two days a week for ages now... I'm currently waiting on 5 DVD's through the post that don't seem forthcoming and am now starting to think I'll give postal orders a complete miss until this is sorted out...

The surprising thing is there hasn't been THAT much of an uproar from the general public thus far...

I ordered dvds from Amazon a month ago that never arrived, no doubt caught up in the mail mountain at Dartford. I emailed Amazon, and they sent me replacement DVDs which arrived within 3 days. Obviously I'll send back the first parcel when/ if it ever arrives but until this strike is resolved and the backlog of post cleared I shan't be ordering any more from Amazon. Amazon deliveries have always been one hundred per cent satisfactory, and their customer service very good, very prompt. It's the PO that are buggering things up for them, sadly.

[MarcMorris]

Internet giants Amazon and eBay have announced contingency measures after postal workers voted in favour of a national strike over jobs, pay and services in the coming weeks.

Press Association: Postal strike hits online retailers (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5gxEcD5rlcIguLhA1iHEDgx3Ia7BA)

[Timmy Lea]

I still don't know if I've received my wages yet...

[cloud]

So how are we all getting on with our post? Personally I've not had one bit of mail since last Monday, I suppose I'm just gonna have to be patient with this.

[MarcMorris]

No too bad here - I even had post on Thursday, a strike day. When I do get post it's usually a mountain of discs!

[claire]

Aren't Royal Mail employing temps to deliver post while their permanent staff are striking? Something like that?

If so, it (a) makes the strikes seem a bit pointless, and (b) makes me worry about the people who're delivering my post ...!

[cloud]

Think yourself lucky you're not a married man! I've had that happen a few times recently and every single time it's happened when we've both been in. I'm still the boss though ;).

It's strange because I was reading of others having problems with their post prior to last week but here it wasn't that bad really. I just hope things pick up next week I read (on the BBC I think!?) that the Royal Mail are recruiting lots more staff to deal with this strike. However I realise it won't mean normal service again overnight.

Ah re new recruitment, snap! Claire. And as for new staff members, I'm not too concerned yet, the recruitment process is quite rigorous for the Royal Mail so it should be OK and could help the economy... I think.

[Mojo]

As usual, the Daily Mail article is misleading.

Royal Mail are already heading towards 85% machine sorted items. Modernisation ( including new multi million pound sorting machines ) have been installed in many sorting offices. The union has already accepted something in the region of 60,000 job losses aver the last five years ( a bit more than the 'some' required by the Mail ).

The company made a profit of nearly £400 million last year.Their quality of service is the highest ever since records began. All parts of the business are now in profit for the first time in 20 years. This, in the face of 'fair competition rules' being geared in favour of competing firms ( TNT et al ) and in a recession year, is nothing short of astonishing.

The management are still sitting on a heap of the investment money given to them by the government ( their employer ) and isn't releasing it to pay for the modernisation they keep asking for.

Having said that, the union was far too quick to call for a strike. There are faults on both sides, but I'm hoping that the mud - slinging will end and they will come to an agreement on the way forward. Let's face it, as well as the public and business getting caught up in this, the other set of people who are affected are Royal Mail employees, who are sick and tired of the disagreements between management and unions and just want to get on with doing their job.

[christats]

No too bad here - I even had post on Thursday, a strike day. When I do get post it's usually a mountain of discs!

I had post last Thursday.As I gathered from what I heard,already sorted mail was still being delivered.
Last Thursday sorting and office staff were on strike.
It wasn't till Friday that the delivery staff made it a complete strike.
I was lucky in that a couple of items that I was waiting for came before Friday.
This strike isn't going to do anything in the long term hopefully.Just a short term panic till the petiness gets sorted out.

[claire]

The woman I sit opposite at work said her postie delivered two parcels from HMV to her house on Sunday morning!

[Companero]

I was told by someone in my local post office that just because there's industrial action, doesn't mean you won't still get a delivery. Last week is a great example. They were striking on Thursday and Friday. What happened, and I'm paraphrasing what I was told by the woman in the post office, is that if there's a strike over two days, one of those days it's just the posties on strike, the other day will be those that sort the mail, so they don't strike at the same time. She also mentioned the guys that drive the big lorries that transport the mail around the country also strike too.

[Mojo]

That's it in a nutshell, comp. Different parts of the business were on strike on different days. The staff in the sorting offices last Thursday and the delivery offices on Friday, which is why there were still deliveries on the Thursday. Let's hope for a resolution quickly though.

[christats]

I'm sure I've just heard on the BBC news update that Friday the 6th Nov and Mon 9th are all out strikes.
(I gather that some of the rules and regulations set by the Royal Mail to their staff are possibly unreasonable but if everyone who wasn't happy with their job came out on strike then who would be left working.?)

If posties are striking because of possible staff axing,(I am not exactly sure what its all about.) then it will probably happen whether they strike or not.

If its over the maintaining a 4 mile an hour walking speed and the rest,then get back to work,I want my parcels.

[AndyBlade]

I work for a govenrment owned industry sector, and its actually illegal for us to strike. Seeing as thats the case, why not introduce legislation making it similarly illegal for the Royal Mail to strike, so that in two years time when they decide they're unhappy again, they dont have the option of taking this kind of action.

In the meantime, if they're so unhappy, they should find another job. If they dont want to do that, then go back to work. In the long run striking is just going to cost them all the more. I have no sympathy for them at all.

[Pinback]

I work for a govenrment owned industry sector, and its actually illegal for us to strike. Seeing as thats the case, why not introduce legislation making it similarly illegal for the Royal Mail to strike, so that in two years time when they decide they're unhappy again, they dont have the option of taking this kind of action.

In the meantime, if they're so unhappy, they should find another job. If they dont want to do that, then go back to work. In the long run striking is just going to cost them all the more. I have no sympathy for them at all.

Well, I was a postman 20 odd years ago, and I don't think much has changed since then. It's a draconian system, and an exploitative one. The pay is bad, for a start. the postal rounds are done on seniority, which means as a newcomer you get the heaviest deliveries. I was reasonably lucky in that I could start at midnight, on overtime, and during my break could start prepping my delivery, otherwise I'd never get out on my walk in time, which was meant to be 7-8 am.

Re shifts, until you gained some sort of seniority you were rotated every week, which completely messed up your body clock. The worst shift was the 10-6am, where you just sat on a stool, in front of a letter frame, and sorted the letters into the appropriate slot. Until you've done that, on nights, it's hard to comprehend just how mind blowingly boring that is.

with the deliveries you were expected to deliver everything on your round, of course- even if that meant working beyond your scheduled hours. And you weren't paid overtime if you worked over. You were working for the PO for nothing if that happened. And with the heavy deliveries, you often did just that. So, I do have every sympathy for the striking posties. As you can imagine, given those conditions, the staff turnover at my depot was quite phenonemal.

[Oscar Deutsch]

An interesting letter in the London Review of Books from an insider perspective:

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n21/letters

When we're talking about people's livelihoods and working conditions, a delay in receiving our DVDs seem pretty trivial. Having been embroiled in an industrial dispute up to the point of balloting for strike action myself quite recently (and I'm certainly no leftie militant!) I can sympathise with the fight against the attitude some employers have where the bottom line is all, and short-term shareholder value (although obviously not applicable to Royal Mail) is chased to the detriment of loyal, committed and knowledgeable staff and the longer-term well-being of the business.

Besides, it also means my bills are delayed too, long may that continue...!

[coffindaz]

Currently my Alice Cooper tickets, the new Slayer album and "42nd Street Forever Vol 5" dvd are all missing in action!:mad:

[jacksmith1983]

Up until last week I had noticed no discernable change in our postal service locally. However, as of this week DVD's I have ordered of Deathstalker, Pets and The Hanging Woman are still AWOL after three weeks or approaching three weeks. :mad:

Some may sympathise with the postal workers, but my personal view is that causing pernicious and calculated inconvenience and difficulty for the general public is not the way to go about settling an industrial dispute. The fact some workers are denouncing the desperate 30,000 Royal Mail have took on as temps to deal wth the strike related backlogs as "scabs" and "strike breaks" shows the kind of attitudes which are at play here. If workers in the private sector behaved in the same manner they would be curtly told to collect their P45 and seek employment elsewhere.

I think blow ups such as this paint a clear picture of why firms are so keen to employ migrant workers. You can bet those strapping Polish lads would sort the letters and get them posted without all this daft moaning about not being able to maintain a certain walking speed or not being able to knock off early and claim a full days pay once they've finished their round.

This may sound hard but at a time when a lot of people are finding themselves out of work and desperate for employment, how much public sympathy can those in a relatively unskilled job really expect for complaining about working conditions.

[AndyBlade]

From Reuters:


Postal workers said on Thursday they would suspend strike action until at least after Christmas under an interim agreement reached between unions and state-owned Royal Mail.

DETAILS (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20091105/tuk-uk-britain-post-suspension-fa6b408.html)

Now deliver my DVDs.