[news] Postal Strikes probable?

[localzuk]

BBC NEWS | Business | Q&A: Royal Mail dispute

 

I am quite a level go most of the time but this situation with Royal Mail is driving me mad. As I see it there are several issues here.

 

1. Why is a government owned, universal service that is necessary for the smooth running of society, so obsessed with making a profit?

2. Why do the workers think they get to shape the company? They don't, they're employees. If the company is making such a loss (or such a tiny profit on massive revenues) then they should expect changes - that is how business works.

3. Why is the government staying silent on the issue. These postal delays and the like are costing the economy a lot of money. They are driving the electorate insane. First class post should not take a week to arrive. Second class post should not take 2 weeks! Neither, went sent from a local business should have to be routed through a sorting office in Chester!!

[saulhudson]

I have several friends that work for the Royal Mail in various IT roles and they are also sick of the people within the company who are hell bent on striking and causing chaos. As always it only takes a few bad eggs.

 

From what I can gather this is mainly the Unions and the front line post men and women who are refusing to come back to the depot after a round and actually work the remaining hours they get paid for. *roles eyes*!

 

Not a great situtation but typical of the UK at the moment ... everybody wants to take something from the system.

[NikChillin]

I ordered something from the USA last Friday and it was delivered to my door on Monday! :DThat never happens here, not in my rural location!

[cookie_monster]

1. Why is a government owned, universal service that is necessary for the smooth running of society, so obsessed with making a profit?

2. Why do the workers think they get to shape the company? They don't, they're employees. If the company is making such a loss (or such a tiny profit on massive revenues) then they should expect changes - that is how business works.

3. Why is the government staying silent on the issue? These postal delays and the like are costing the economy a lot of money. They are driving the electorate insane. First class post should not take a week to arrive. Second class post should not take 2 weeks! Neither, went sent from a local business should have to be routed through a sorting office in Chester!!

 

 

1. It’s just silly that if they’re making a loss after years of efficiency drives that they can’t raise the price of their core product, stamps.

2. Yes they need an attitude change.

3. The governments aim is to privatise the Royal Mail but they don’t have public support ‘yet’ they’re loving this as it will alienate the public. They’ve been deliberately mismanaging the service for years with an aim to make the service look like an expensive nightmare that only a private company can solve. They completely miss the point that it’s more than just a postal service in a lot of the country.

 

I'm pretty sure about point 3 as I know someone whose job was to basically assess various offices and pretty much make them look unprofitable. Again the profit angle I've no idea why it should be expected to make a profit.

Edited October 8, 2009 by cookie_monster

[sparkeh]

1. Why is a government owned, universal service that is necessary for the smooth running of society, so obsessed with making a profit?

I have often wondered this. Its probably as successive governments have been obsessed with privatising all our public services or running them on a private business model. We all know the government would love to/are planning to privatise the Post Office so it has to run this way now or it will never survive when it is sold.

 

Personally I think all essential services should be state run and run as not for profit. I think one of the biggest statements that can make as a 'civilised' nation is to ensure that, firstly, everyone has access to the fundamental requirements needed to survive and, secondly, services that are essential services required for the smooth running of the country are provided at a fair price and run for the benefit of the country and not a few shareholders.

2. Why do the workers think they get to shape the company? They don't, they're employees. If the company is making such a loss (or such a tiny profit on massive revenues) then they should expect changes - that is how business works.

I think that is a little harsh. I believe that people should have a say on major changes to their working conditions, after all they were all offered jobs with certain contractual conditions. After the last strike a agreement was reached that everyone signed up to. This was flagrantly disregarded by the Post Office and the changes are being forced through anyway so I do have some sympathy. II think that if you listen to individual postmen rather than the noises coming out of the union, then there are genuine concerns about the changes being forced through.

3. Why is the government staying silent on the issue. These postal delays and the like are costing the economy a lot of money. They are driving the electorate insane. First class post should not take a week to arrive. Second class post should not take 2 weeks! Neither, went sent from a local business should have to be routed through a sorting office in Chester!!

Perhaps they are happy to let the service deteriorate to make the move to privitisation smoother?

Or perhaps they are actually, like a lot of other issues, they are out of ideas. Labour look more and more like a party waiting to leave office and happy to let the next administration deal with the problem.

[localzuk]

1. It’s just silly that if they’re making a loss after years of efficiency drives that they can’t raise the price of their core product, stamps.

2. Yes they need an attitude change.

3. The governments aim is to privatise the Royal Mail but they don’t have public support ‘yet’ they’re loving this as it will alienate the public. They’ve been deliberately mismanaging the service for years with an aim to make the service look like an expensive nightmare that only a private company can solve. They completely miss the point that it’s more than just a postal service in a lot of the country.

 

I'm pretty sure about point 3 as I know someone who's job was to basically assess variouse offices and pretty much make them look unprofitable. Again the profit angle I've no idea why it should be expected to make a profit.

 

The thing is, much of this problem is actually caused by the EU this time - removing postal monopolies by 2011. I agree competition is good, but if Royal Mail is forced to compete, what happens when a competitor refuses to deliver to rural addresses, but Royal Mail is still forced to by UK law. So, the UK will then change the law to stop penalising one company, and unless they force all companies to deliver everywhere (which, to be honest, is unlikely), you'll end up with tiered pricing. So those who live somewhere rural will end up costing 10x as much to mail something to as those who live in central london.

[cookie_monster]

The thing is, much of this problem is actually caused by the EU this time - removing postal monopolies by 2011.

 

Very true this is being pushed hard by the expansionist Dutch postal service who are frustrated that they can't get into the U.K market.

 

I agree competition is good, but if Royal Mail is forced to compete, what happens when a competitor refuses to deliver to rural addresses, but Royal Mail is still forced to by UK law. So, the UK will then change the law to stop penalising one company, and unless they force all companies to deliver everywhere (which, to be honest, is unlikely), you'll end up with tiered pricing. So those who live somewhere rural will end up costing 10x as much to mail something to as those who live in central london.

 

No private company can compete and they have said that this is why in inner city areas the Royal Mail sorts post and gives it to the private company. Basically private companies will cherry pick all the profitable areas and the Royal Mail will be left as an expensive service delivering to rural areas that will eventually be chopped by a future government as too expensive as they have no way to generate income in profitable areas to subsidise the expensive areas.

Edited October 8, 2009 by cookie_monster

[Jamman960]

Most of their front line employees will have been able to abuse the system from the day they joined, they simply don't want that to change. From what I gather there is no motivation to move up the ladder- my dad used to work for them and started out as a Postie then moved to driving followed by management followed by IT then got outsourced to CSC yet most of his friends back in driving/management are still there and are still hammering the overtime 10-15 years down the line and have no intention of moving on.

 

Whats really annoying me about these strikes is how they're staggering them around here, first the drivers go on strike then the next day the sorters go on strike followed by the posties the next day so that they each only have to take 1 day of without pay yet effectively stop the post for 3 days and then do overtime to make up for the 1 day without pay and catch up with the backlog they created!

[localzuk]

I think that is a little harsh. I believe that people should have a say on major changes to their working conditions, after all they were all offered jobs with certain contractual conditions. After the last strike a agreement was reached that everyone signed up to. This was flagrantly disregarded by the Post Office and the changes are being forced through anyway so I do have some sympathy. II think that if you listen to individual postmen rather than the noises coming out of the union, then there are genuine concerns about the changes being forced through.

 

The thing is - the changes being forced through are things like automated sorting machines. Automated sorting machines will lead to one thing only - lay offs. There is no way around that, and to stay competitive with the new rules coming out in 2011, they have to introduce automation as much as possible. The postal workers seem to be saying that they want to have no lay offs, which is just not going to happen.

 

Also, the agreement that was penned in 2007 was relatively clear, it said Royal Mail was going to make layoffs. Now that they are implementing it, the unions are turning around and saying 'you didn't say how many!'. Well, saying how many doesn't make a difference to the fact they're being laid off. That's life.

 

The thing that sticks for me is this - if Royal Mail haven't become efficient enough by 2011, and other more efficient postal services appear over here, RM will get slaughtered in the open market. Layoffs will happen then because the company will just collapse.

Edited October 8, 2009 by localzuk