Blue Hefner
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 11 Jul 2009
- Messages
- 14,627
It’s a crowded field, but that is possibly the most bizarre reply to one of my posts I’ve ever seen
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Royal Mail to Strike?
- Thread starter Damocles
- Start date
It’s a crowded field, but that is possibly the most bizarre reply to one of my posts I’ve ever seen
South East DO ManchesterOut of interest, who are the posties on here?
I'm in the Brighton DO.
Dave Ewing's Back 'eader
Well-Known Member
er - if the new CEO already worked for them in the European division why did he get a £6m golden hello to take the promotion???
'Cos he's 'management'! Eye-watering amounts never filter down beyond a certain level. Unfortunately, the company will lose out to all kinds of fly-by-night delivery companies who tell yer they missed yer and have left yer parcel in the back porch when yer haven't got a back porch, but have left it in the direct line of the downspout off the conservatory!
bada bing
Well-Known Member
WythenshaweOut of interest, who are the posties on here?
I'm in the Brighton DO.
xgorton
Well-Known Member
1st class.
Redruth DOOut of interest, who are the posties on here?
I'm in the Brighton DO.
without a dream
Well-Known Member
Great post and not a lot to add.
Reckon a yes vote is nailed on, as it was last time which helped to secure the agreement now under threat (ballot papers out on the 24th).
Rural delivery offices are also being closed and being moved to more central locations we've had 2 shoehorned into ours since the turn of the year an will be a nightmare in the run up to Christmas.
There a bigger prizes on offer though, long rumoured to be sold is a massive plot 2 mins walk from York railway station said to be the most valuable piece of land in Royal Mails portfolio (outside London). There will be many more up and down the land.
They've already closed the huge 135 yr old Post Office in the City centre, complete with war memorial, replaced with a counter at the back of WH Smiths.
Privatising it really was a disgraceful decision.
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There's a ballot going around soon to determine whether they'll strike and a couple of mates I've got inside the Royal Mail think it's pretty much a certainty.
For those out of the loop, last year the CEO of Royal Mail agreed a "Four Pillars" agreement with the workers that covered pensions, slight reduction of working hours dependent on productivity gains, legal protections against zero hour contracts and an end to the culture of bullying that has plagued the Royal Mail for a little while.
It was widely considered a sensible move from all concerned - the threat of automation (which I've been banging drums on for many years) and the extended use of zero hour contracts requires rationality from both management and workers to ensure their symbotic relationship continues nicely.
Unfortunately, the CEO at the time then left and the board of Royal Mail appointed an anti-Union guy from their European division as the new CEO. Since then he has ripped up the Four Pillars agreement. The Four Pillars setup a joint management-worker council that explored the changes the company could make to improve efficiency and productivity in the modern world. Back, the new CEO, ignored this new council and decided that he'd formulate strategy with KMG instead and cut the workers out of the conversation.
And wouldn't you know it, the Back-KPMG future strategy calls for mass job layoffs, heavily extending the walking route of each individual postie, and a new Amazon-like strategy for filling shift that removes any consistency of what times people will be required to work.
Back says that this is essential to the profitability of the company and that market forces demand these drastic anti-worker changes. Royal Mail shareholders have received over £1,000,000,000 in profits since 2014. Not bad for 5 years. Rico Back personally received a £6 million golden hello for taking the CEO position and is currently pulling somewhere in the region of £3m a year. My mate and his wife who both work for Royal Mail and desperately need to accept these changes earn about £9 an hour. He also is investing heavily in stock which is an odd move for a company he believes is on the brink of profitability. And of course, the Royal Mail is getting asset stripped since the privatisation by selling off a ton of land it owns to property developers, some for pretty egregious prices.
You see that was always the trick of Royal Mail privatisation. These people never gave a shit about the mail delivery side and instead saw a company that owned prime real estate in pretty much every single village, town and city in the country which they're now selling to developers. Because they had to close the Post Offices there. Because the company wasn't doing well, you see.
The state of the Royal Mail since privatisation is one of those things that actually has enraged me because of how obviously corrupt it is. The plan is simple.
Have land
Implement centralisation strategies
Claim nobody is using the village Post Office any more
Close it
Sell land to developers
Pay large dividend to shareholders
Repeat
Hopefully the CWU do vote to strike because they're taking the piss. Shareholder dividends have ONLY been rising by a measly and alarming 2% a year you see since the IPO. We can't have that. Not only must we make money but we need to quicken the pace of the increases in money that we're making otherwise our future is at stake.
Know we have a few Royal Mail workers on here. Good luck lads.
I am with you comrade I have a mate too who works for them and he isn't to happy.
BimboBob
Well-Known Member
Changes are afoot.
The extending a posties walk is broken down like this.
Parcels are the big profit maker. When Parcelforce became the Royal Mail parcel arm it wasn't always the case. The new CEO has figured that to make the mail profitable loading up on parcels is the way forward. Mail is down roughly 3% year on year. What can be done?
Posties should go out as a pair in a van doing roughly 6 loops (Loop = leave van with bag and return) each. This varies per round/ area but it's a good medium to work with. The proposal is to add an extra loop to each walk. This will free up 2 postmen in every 12 walks to delivery that areas parcels. Anything over a shoebox size will be taken from the postie and given to them. In theory freeing up space and time to do the extra walk.
The trouble is attended calls (where you have to knock and get a signature for a letter/ parcel) are also on the rise as people want more accountability for their precious meaning walks take longer already. Adding an extra loop will extend this.
We also have to factor in Christmas. It's started already with those oh so lovely catalogues that no-one seems to want but can't be arsed unticking the "send me loads of shit in the post starting right after I've completed this transaction" button. This adds to the workload. Immensely. Including the parcel drivers.
They also want the van drivers to work a more "Amazon" style. Staying out later and later into the afternoon. This has already been trialed in a few DO's across the country with next day deliveries.
So you can see the anger. Mix in the wiping out of the four pillars means there are a lot of disgruntled posties about. Strike is one option. Though this has a habit of not really achieving anything. Look at the Four Pillars agreement.
That said, there is room for cost savings in the Royal Mail. At the moment you can, theoretically, run round like a loon, finish early, take another loop as overtime and still finish before your allotted hours are up. So days wage plus overtime and finishing an hour early. Plainly this is madness. A lot of delivery offices have signing in books which are not checked. So you could write in a start/ finish time that is totally false. All that matters is the walks are covered.
It does need to change. But not in the way that the CEO is trying to do. Ripping up signed agreements, zero hour contracts etc etc will mean a lot of posties will leave. Say what you like about posties but 99% of them are honest and hard working. Replacing them with the kind of delivery system that Amazon employs will mean the service will disintegrate.
The extending a posties walk is broken down like this.
Parcels are the big profit maker. When Parcelforce became the Royal Mail parcel arm it wasn't always the case. The new CEO has figured that to make the mail profitable loading up on parcels is the way forward. Mail is down roughly 3% year on year. What can be done?
Posties should go out as a pair in a van doing roughly 6 loops (Loop = leave van with bag and return) each. This varies per round/ area but it's a good medium to work with. The proposal is to add an extra loop to each walk. This will free up 2 postmen in every 12 walks to delivery that areas parcels. Anything over a shoebox size will be taken from the postie and given to them. In theory freeing up space and time to do the extra walk.
The trouble is attended calls (where you have to knock and get a signature for a letter/ parcel) are also on the rise as people want more accountability for their precious meaning walks take longer already. Adding an extra loop will extend this.
We also have to factor in Christmas. It's started already with those oh so lovely catalogues that no-one seems to want but can't be arsed unticking the "send me loads of shit in the post starting right after I've completed this transaction" button. This adds to the workload. Immensely. Including the parcel drivers.
They also want the van drivers to work a more "Amazon" style. Staying out later and later into the afternoon. This has already been trialed in a few DO's across the country with next day deliveries.
So you can see the anger. Mix in the wiping out of the four pillars means there are a lot of disgruntled posties about. Strike is one option. Though this has a habit of not really achieving anything. Look at the Four Pillars agreement.
That said, there is room for cost savings in the Royal Mail. At the moment you can, theoretically, run round like a loon, finish early, take another loop as overtime and still finish before your allotted hours are up. So days wage plus overtime and finishing an hour early. Plainly this is madness. A lot of delivery offices have signing in books which are not checked. So you could write in a start/ finish time that is totally false. All that matters is the walks are covered.
It does need to change. But not in the way that the CEO is trying to do. Ripping up signed agreements, zero hour contracts etc etc will mean a lot of posties will leave. Say what you like about posties but 99% of them are honest and hard working. Replacing them with the kind of delivery system that Amazon employs will mean the service will disintegrate.
BimboBob
Well-Known Member
Oh...and please don't mix up Royal Mail and the Post Office. Different companies.