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 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.
