At least I can spell.
Going on Strike
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At least I can spell.
If you hate your job that much as far as I'm concerned thats your problem.
Striking, to me, is nothing better than a child who asked for a packet of crisps and not getting it deciding to have a tantrum in the middle of a super market.
It may be effective and change the parents mind just to shut them up, but it's still not the way you should go about doing things.
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I've done almost 20 years with RM in a variety of different jobs over different positions.
Ten years ago our delivery sections moved to two satellite offices and I took the position of night PHG in one of them leading to an increase in responsibilty to see whether I fancied moving on up the chain, a role which I held for five years before I'd seen enough.
Forgetting the admin side of what *they* do, I know more about the running of a delivery office than any of them and there are too many of them swanning around anyhow.
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Yeah it has been available for a while but the data pushing systems that allow external couriers/printing plants to use it wern't in place straight away. And in part it is Royal Mail's fault, the two guys that built the system to integrate with DSA used to be lead software developers for RM but left due to poor management/pay.
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First thing I've read from you that I can agree with!
But it'll never happen. They've created themselves a nice little year upon year cost cutting culture to shape up RM for privatisation and in the process "earned" themselves tasty four figure bonuses (whilst we do well to get three figures).
Now that RM isn't apparently going to be privatised, no-one seems to want to buy it, they continue with their cost cutting because they've all got a taste for their bonuses and don't want it to stop.
Royal Mail always used to provide a decent service as far as I'm concerned and the price of stamps has never really been a unfairly high, so that's a bit of an unfair charge imo. I would argue that the old Royal Mail was a good example of how a necessary monopoly should be run.
The situation only changed when the government of the time forced unfair competition on them, where private companies can cherry pick the most profitable pick-ups, and forced the RM to deliver them at an unfairly cheap price. It really does beggar belief why they did this.
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Fair play to you, but you're still niave, naive or incredibly wet behind the ears to post an OP like you have done.
FWIW you cited "better wages/holidays/pensions" when none of these apply to any of the IA that RM is taking.
Deleted member 66701
Deleted member 66701
EDS/HP employees will probably be on strike by the end of September, severely affecting many government IT services no doubt.
The strike action is in response to forced pay cuts, erosion of terms and conditions and the many redundancies that are coming, despite the company making $1billion in profit last year, rather than trying to force ridiculous pay rises through.
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/08/06/eds_hp_paycuts/
http://www.microscope.co.uk/welcome/news/vendor-news/unions-vow-to-fight-hp-redundancies/
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/01/16/hp_moves_compulsory_redundancies/
The strike action is in response to forced pay cuts, erosion of terms and conditions and the many redundancies that are coming, despite the company making $1billion in profit last year, rather than trying to force ridiculous pay rises through.
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/08/06/eds_hp_paycuts/
http://www.microscope.co.uk/welcome/news/vendor-news/unions-vow-to-fight-hp-redundancies/
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/01/16/hp_moves_compulsory_redundancies/
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Who said I hated my job?
On a nice day, once I've left the sorting office I struggle to think of a better job. I'm my own boss, out for a walk, see people that I've got to know over the years, get the kind of respect that normal people in civvies don't get. It's awesome.
It's just being in the company of the pocket hitlers in the first half of the day what spoils it.
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Ha, in Royal Mail? Nooooooooo!!!
Oh I see so it's just management that is the problem?
Well boo-hoo, I'm pretty sure this is the atmosphere in every company on the planet.
bonuses for what exactly? Doing your job that you're paid to do in the first place?
I had generalised the reasons for striking as these are usually the common reasons. I didnt say that had anything to do with the current strike action, I had been talking about past strikes. I don't really care for the reasons why they are striking, if they aren't happy in their job they can leave there are plenty of people who want jobs.
Of course if you said a mature statement instead of a "LOLZ U IS NAIVE" in big bold capital letters, I would have taken the statement seriously but you didn't bother.
How is it that plenty of other industries manage to hire management that aren't 'pocket hitlers'?
Do all these 'rubbish managers' gravitate towards RM and the rail companies?
I'm pretty sure it isn't. <anecdote>Everyone but one person I know in full-time employment seems to be happy with (a) their job and (b) their managers. That said, I don't know anyone who works for RM.</> So again - what is it about RM and the rail companies that means that they've hired idiotic managers, whereas most other companies and industries get along fine?
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It isn't really about Royal Mail's service, good, bad or otherwise. It was more a response to a rather silly assertion that a monopoly makes money. Of course it is going to make money, it is a monopoly, you can go nowhere else for the service.
Indeed, pretty much all privatisations have been handled pretty poorly generally putting in place private monopolies or hamstringing the once nationalised institution so it can't compete.
I dislike nationalised industries on the general principle that without a money making ethos and without competition you tend to get a lack of responsibility towards money, a gradual slide of service and uncompetitive charging. However there are probably some things that would be better off nationalised than not. However they then become political playthings which also has its issues.
See, I'd consider this a good thing provided it is done correctly, there are bound to be scope for cutting costs now that the monopoly has been broken and the company is expected to stand competitively. As a taxpayer, I don't want to be subsidising royal mail, I want it (even if government owned) to be an effective, self-sufficient company.
The fact that no-one wants to buy royal mail now says far more about the prevailing economy than it does about RM (although there is still a huge need to reform the pensions to solve that major shortfall).
Royal mail is a company in need of reform, that much is undeniable if the company wishes to remain relevant and build a customer base of its own (rather than having a customer base because the customer had no choice). That will mean change, that is unavoidable, but too many people at all levels are too concerned with protecting their own little empires rather than protecting the company as a whole.
Striking shouldn't be an option. If you are so unhappy with your working conditions that you feel that striking is the only option, you should seek alternative employment. After all, thats what 95% of the population have to do. If I told my boss I wasn't happy with not getting a payrise this year and was going to picket the front gate, I'd be out on my ******* ear.
Also "in civvies" - you are a "civvie". I don't think people respect RM in the slightest anymore, not when you see the amount of mail that get stolen and some of the utter scrotes that deliver post.
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Theres no point whatsoever in members of the public discussing the merits of pro or anti monopoly where RM are concerned because it never has nor never will affect you. If anything the regulator is doing the man in the street a favour because if RM were allowed to charge what it actually cost (and an extra penny for profit) for letters and packets then you'd see a significant increase in the price of stamps, although not to the point where you'd think it was unreasonable. The end of the monopoly has always been about buisness mail, or Downstream access which has already been mentioned, thats the killer.
As for the cost of stamps, I reckon it wouldn't be unreasonable to charge 50p, 60p or even upto a £1 for a first class stamp when you think about either what a pound buys you nowadays and the value for money you get with a first class stamp.
Making the unions liable for the cost to HP/EDS will put an end to that
What if it was whoever was being unreasonable that was liable for the costs? So if it was the unions it would be them, if it was HP/EDS it would be them? Do you think this would improve working conditions and reduce union militancy?