Royal Mail Strike Action

Cuchulain · 4 Oct 2007 at 17:35

fothsn said:
Okay 'I live in a perfect world' who do I get my mail off? The dustbin man!

Well, he'd probably do a better job, at least they turn up on the day they're supposed to.

Dolph · 4 Oct 2007 at 17:35

scorza said:
I'm with the strikers. Some guy on the Jeremy Vine show was saying how he couldn't give a hoots about pay but was striking because of the changes to his terms and conditions whereby now he has to go back to work after he's finished his rounds. If a posty finishes his round why shouldn't he go home? Explain to me how it benefits me, the customer, if my mail gets delivered at 10am instead of 7am?

Well, with regards to the first question, that would depend on whether they paid by the hour or a set amount of time over the week. if it's the latter, then if they finish their round early they still have hours to make up, if the former then they should be paid for the amount of time they actually work.

As for the second question, that's what happens when you have ineffective competition, the company in question can abuse their monopoly by giving crap service. It's not like you can easily get an alternative service as a residential customer after all...

Azagoth · 4 Oct 2007 at 17:39

monkeyspank said:
Smacks of bad planning to me.

How is it bad planning? Do you expect a guy from Wisconsin to know all the intricacies of our pathetic, failing postal service? How is he supposed to know that out of all the times to post something that this weekend would be a problem because the monkeys at Royal Mail decide to strike?

Mr Joshua · 4 Oct 2007 at 17:40

I've never had a problem with the mail that was down to the postie. The only time things have went belly up is when someone sent a bulky item in an normal envelope and when the storage box things for half of the posties round got broken into.

I'm on the posties side but I don't know if striking is the best way to go about it, however, if it's the only form of action they think they can take then I fully support them. They have a backbone to stand up for themselves unlike most others in this country who whinge and get on with it.

scorza · 4 Oct 2007 at 17:43

Dolph said:
Well, with regards to the first question, that would depend on whether they paid by the hour or a set amount of time over the week. if it's the latter, then if they finish their round early they still have hours to make up, if the former then they should be paid for the amount of time they actually work.

As I understand it, they're paid to do a round - a lot of them use their own cars to do it quicker so they can have extra time off. If they are to be paid by the hour (which I think is the change to their contracts that the unions are disputing) then they won't use their own cars - they'll use official RM cycles or walk, which means that it'll take them ages to do their rounds. Personally I think posties should have our gratitude for using their own assets to get our mail to use quicker!

Dolph said:
As for the second question, that's what happens when you have ineffective competition, the company in question can abuse their monopoly by giving crap service. It's not like you can easily get an alternative service as a residential customer after all...

You can say that, but imo it's no coincidence that Royal Mail's level of service started dropping real fast as soon as "modernisation reforms" and competition started happening. It seems that modernisation and crap service have become synonymous these days

Dolph · 4 Oct 2007 at 18:07

scorza said:
As I understand it, they're paid to do a round - a lot of them use their own cars to do it quicker so they can have extra time off. If they are to be paid by the hour (which I think is the change to their contracts that the unions are disputing) then they won't use their own cars - they'll use official RM cycles or walk, which means that it'll take them ages to do their rounds. Personally I think posties should have our gratitude for using their own assets to get our mail to use quicker!

Well, actual working practices don't concern me as much as a good balance of good service and competitive prices. Unfortunately the lack of competitive pressure in the market means this doesn't happen. Fundamentally, this strike is about the shift in attitude that has to come when you're no longer taxpayer funded and expected to balance the books.

You can say that, but imo it's no coincidence that Royal Mail's level of service started dropping real fast as soon as "modernisation reforms" and competition started happening. It seems that modernisation and crap service have become synonymous these days

You're right, certainly with regard to Royal mail. The problem is that RM is trying to behave like a competitive company but is actually a state mandated monopoly, and that doesn't work. (See the railways and water companies for more examples). Competition acts as a driver but also a restrictor to change if a company goes about it the wrong way. RM doesn't have that limiter.

seaviewuk · 4 Oct 2007 at 18:26

Cuchulain said:
I bet you're one of those people who got a Dukes of Hazzard style airhorn installed on your car just so you could "toot" those lazy firemen when they couldn't be bothered to work.

Stop putting ideas into my wallet :mad:

todd flanders · 4 Oct 2007 at 18:32

Azagoth said:
My behalf? How the hell can it be bad planning on my behalf when I'm the one expecting the mail? No wonder your Company is so screwed up!

Well in that case you haven't paid for anything then have you?

Nelly · 4 Oct 2007 at 18:39

How much do people at Royal Mail get paid per hour anyway? Just out of curiosity i.e. Post men/women, delivery drivers, sorting officer workers, supervisors, managers etc etc.

Biohazard · 4 Oct 2007 at 18:39

Dolph said:
It's not the post office that caused the strike, it's the union, so I'd hope compensation claims should be directed to them.

Striking is all well and good, but anyone who strikes should have to accept the consequences of their actions.

How ill informed, I must say. Or bad semantics.

You think that the 'Union' caused the strike?

I think you will find that the strike action was caused by a ballot of members, into which I think its evident that they voted for strike action.

I fail to see how the Union caused this. If there were no 'grumbles' there would be no strike, but still a Union in place. Or are you referring to the fact that they (CWU) facilitated the strike?

What should those consequences be? Hung, drawn and quartered at dawn perhaps?

Fothsn · 4 Oct 2007 at 18:42

Biohazard said:
How ill informed, I must say. Or bad semantics.

You think that the 'Union' caused the strike?

I think you will find that the strike action was caused by a ballot of members, into which I think its evident that they voted for strike action.

I fail to see how the Union caused this. If there were no 'grumbles' there would be no strike, but still a Union in place. Or are you referring to the fact that they (CWU) facilitated the strike?

What should those consequences be? Hung, drawn and quartered at dawn perhaps?

It seems thats what a select few members in this thread want

Biohazard · 4 Oct 2007 at 18:43

fothsn said:
It seems thats what a select few members in this thread want

Molly cuddled rich boys!

(Or buisness owners who read the FT too much for their own good)

Nelly · 4 Oct 2007 at 18:44

Moses99p said:
Manual Data Entry Keyers are the lowest pay grade I think, they get £7.50 an hour (night shift, Sundays, and bank holidays gets you more)

If thats correct, I can understand them not wanting a paycut etc but when they ask for payrises whether its the employee's or the pathetic union all I can say is:-

"GREEDY ********" :mad:

Anyone would think they was on the mininum wage the way they carry on!!! :mad:

I only thought they was on about £6.50/hour, which is still a lot more than most people are on.

geeza · 4 Oct 2007 at 18:53

I had 2 deliveries this morning but i was at work. Will the sorting office people be on strike aswell or can i go and get my items on saturday.

Agreed, the lazy ******* *****!

Biohazard · 4 Oct 2007 at 18:54

Care to explain how and why they are lazy geeza? For arguments sake.

Fothsn · 4 Oct 2007 at 18:54

Moses99p said:
Well I recently quit as a MDEC keyer, so the figures are correct, and I think MDEC keyers are the lowest pay grade. (pretty sure about that though)

Ah okay, did you work in a main hub? and what exactly did you do?

Just intrested

I know a postie it just over £8.00 may be £8.07 can’t remember of the top of my head, wouldn’t know what managers earns, probably in the £20K mark.

TheOtherOption · 4 Oct 2007 at 19:03

I was pleased to see OcUK's response to the strikes :-

"Due to the current Royal Mail Strike announced this morning we have upgraded all 1st and 2nd Class Royal Mail orders to City Link Next Day service, and Royal Mail Special Delivery orders to City Link Next Day AM service at no extra cost. Normal Royal Mail service will resume on 10th October 2007."

Schnippzle · 4 Oct 2007 at 19:12

One of my mates works for Royal Mail and most people in his office dont even know why they are striking so they are just spending the days off and at home doing whatever they want....

Lopéz · 4 Oct 2007 at 19:17

Taken from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7028539.stm

Nick Murray of TNT, which delivers mail between businesses, says that the strike will not affect its orders.

"We deliver parcels but operate in a business to business environment, not personal deliveries. So a Royal Mail strike doesn't have a great effect on our business.

Didn't stop a ridiculous number of people ringing us today wanting to send letters, never ever seen it so busy.

Nelly · 4 Oct 2007 at 19:21

TheOtherOption said:
I was pleased to see OcUK's response to the strikes :-

"Due to the current Royal Mail Strike announced this morning we have upgraded all 1st and 2nd Class Royal Mail orders to City Link Next Day service, and Royal Mail Special Delivery orders to City Link Next Day AM service at no extra cost. Normal Royal Mail service will resume on 10th October 2007."

Thats nothing more than they should do, consdering the profit margin they make on top of City Link standard prices - I actually check prices in depth!