Having served notice on the Royal Mail that they intend to hold a ballot for strike action, the CWU are today calling on every single office in the UK to hold a members meeting in a “National Gate Meeting Day”. They are asking members to create a wave of CWU activity across the Country and to you to post the images on social media using the hashtag #RiseUp.
The CWU are also planning to the biggest Trade Union meeting in a generation by inviting thousands of CWU members to join them for a live Facebook Q&A. They want to give Posties the chance to hear from General Secretary Dave Ward and Deputy General Secretary Terry Pullinger on the dispute and ask questions of the union’s leadership.
Naturally Royal Mail is very disappointed that the CWU has issued a formal notice to ballot for industrial action.
“We believe there are no grounds for industrial action. We remain committed to reaching a negotiated agreement with the CWU on pay and pensions, and other issues we have been discussing. A ballot does not necessarily mean there will be industrial action”
– Royal Mail
Royal Mail say that they have engaged with the CWU on the core principles of its Four Pillars. We have offered to continue working towards a new pay deal, including aspects of productivity-related pay and opportunities to consider a shorter working week. They are not proposing “to change our core terms and conditions or our commitment to a predominantly permanent workforce” and say that “A more flexible and adaptable Royal Mail is the best way to secure as many high quality jobs as possible at the Company now and in the future“.
The big wedge between the Royal Mail and the CWU is that workers simply haven’t bought into Royal Mail’s vision for the future. Actually it’s more a problem for Royal Mail than it is for the CWU who are probably rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of a strike which hasn’t happened for 8 years.
The world has changed and whilst the CWU and posties complain that with proposed changes we might not get our mail until late in the afternoon the question that really matters is do you as a consumer really care? My post habitually arrives about 1-2pm already and it’s mostly junk mail or bills. The days of receiving a card on your birthday before breakfast are a long distant memory and what most consumers want today are their ecommerce purchases delivered as quickly as possible.
The only way that Royal Mail can compete with other couriers is to offer retailers later cut off times, a more agile delivery proposition and for that they need to engage with their workforce and sell the future to them. There’s no point harping back to a past when the post arrived early morning and a second post arrived at lunch time. Those days are gone and it’s not a service that businesses or consumers necessarily want to see brought back.
Now is the time for the Union to get real on their demands and the Royal Mail to engage with their workforce and sell them on a future that works for everyone. Otherwise it appears almost a certainty that there’ll be postal strikes this Christmas and businesses will leave Royal Mail never to return.
73 Responses
So royal mail could soon claim “We used to deliver more than one billion parcels a year to over 29.3 million and now deliver just 750 million to 29 million people”
Rather than the current claim (from further up this site page) “We deliver more than one billion parcels a year to over 29.3 million “
“Get real” what’s real is real earning £1.9 million and not happy with that so then top it up with a extra £60 grand from easy jet for just over a weeks work, or is real working hard 5 days a week for peanuts,scared of losing your job, and now having your pension messed about with that’s real.
The Union and us workers are not ‘harping back to the past’.
Very one sided and uninformed article Chris which is not like you.
Need to do more research this time mate.
wont be long now until before royal mail is bought out by the germans
As a postal worker myself,I agree with your statement that people no longer bothered what time they get there mail,however the issue’s around pensions,pay and total flexabilty are major concern.Royal mail workers have worked extremely hard since privatisation,profits have soared to £742 million and yet we’ve been offered a paltry £375 this year which is pro rata and taxable.Moyra Green got 23% upto 1.9 million salary at our expense,there increasing our pension payments yet slashed £1000’s off it and total flexabilty means they can change all elements of your job including your day off at short notice.This is not a deal that many people could except.So I and many of my colleagues feel we have no other choice but to support our union.
End of the day Royal Mail stopped our final salary pension scheme in 2012 and offered us a inferior scheme and the workers took a hit of a few thousand a year loss on there pension. Now Royal Mail want to change the pension scheme again this scheme will mean a further hit off approximately 6 k a year loss on your pension it’s virtually a basic savings account we cannot accept this ! The company is making good profits .
I think people forget that the postman also delivers to schools,shops and other firms. If the postman starts his deliver at 12 or 1 and has a 6 hour delivery route. Then some schools and firms wont be getting any mail (they will be closed). Plus 6 hours walking in the summer sun and cold DARK winter evenings(no thanks) thats real and a fact.
We have been flexible in regard to change and mechanization ever since i have been a postie of 20 years and more. The employer is now driven by shareholder dividends and ” EFFICIENCY SAVIGS “, this has now resulted in totally unrealistic unit budgets and daily pressure tp complete unachievable duties……as a result line managers can only manage the depleted workforce with pressure tactics, we become demoralised, sickness levels sore and ” working as a team” falls apart. We would be a commited Ms Green if only you were. Recognise what you’ve got, before you destroy it.!!!
Well Chris , your right that the CWU hasn’t bought into Royal mails vision of the future For this company and that’s because it’s grim , postmen & women are not adverse to a different way of working , far from it they have been delivering efficiency savings in every single office up and down this country and most of them totally unrealistic with no thanks or reward in fact the only reward they are going to receive is their pay pensions and terms and conditions attacked and postal services weakened , i would not hand over my pension or pay to satisfy shareholders and CEOs with huge Salarys and nothing to lose, Royal Mail has paid out £800 million to shareholders already , consistently delivering greater dividends, this smacks of greed attacking your own workforces pockets
In total agreement with the last comment by Gadd 69, we the CWU postal are 130, 000 odd with one voice, and united ,we are not ” pack horses ” , we are a diverse and articulate membership , and are no longer going to tolerate being pushed.and shoved by an ill informed out of touch employer. Get.round the table Royal mail with a genuine intent to move forward with intelligence!!!
Chris dawson I would give you a couple of weeks being a postie and you would not being writing the same article trust me
hope your mortgage lenders are understanding , were sure my hermes will find employment for a few of you
Glasgow postie hermes dont make me laugh. Cant deliver parcel’s after all they leave them hanging out letter boxes doesn’t count or doorsteping them we deliver or take back to our offices the way people expected us too after all 500 years cant be wrong but royal mail dont see it that way so we will fight to the end to protect our loyal customers who else would deliver both mail and parcels not tnt dpd ect you get the message. Tnt tryed and failed. STUFF SHAREHOLDER S After all we are too but we dont care about that WE CARE ABOUT OUR SELF RESPECT and standers NOT PROFITS JUST A GOOD HONEST LIVING for what we do
No need for so many postal workers at Royal Mail if a chunk of your business turns to companies that can provide the service you will not be providing.
By all means strike. And accept the consequences.
Others do not have to accept loss of revenue just because some of you are willing. The courier companies will be glad to have the extra work.
even though posties may have legitimate grievances,
some posties cant seem to grasp the futility of striking,
every customer here is telling posties very clearly
we will just go elsewhere
I have sympathy with the post workers. Green is not a great CEO and as a shareholder she will not get my tick next year, I want her gone. She just seems to cut and slash, and does not invest in RMG honest so much potential not being used. I have reinvested every dividend I have been given and yes they are generous, maybe I should have taken it and ran.
From what I am told RMG do treat their staff pretty poor however, and their is only so much you should take.
Anyway it is all a symptom of our time, Poor employers everywhere it is not just RMG who treat workers very poorly, they are all at it profit before people and all that.
The main reason RMG are making money is people like myself. E-Commerce is evolving all the time, and it was always going to be be tough for some people to accept the world moves on at RMG and they needed to modernise (boy do they need to modernise)…..Striking will really only benefit Amazon at the end of the day. We need to trade at this time of year and are already sending 70% of our stock into FBA centres. RMG will lose business and a lot of it, and all this just not just effect post workers but millions of self employed and SMES.
I hope the post workers get a result and get their working conditions improved, but there will be a lot of consequences. The public just do not care anymore unless it effects them it is the way people have become.
I know what all you people are saying about not to strike because business will go elsewhere to deliver items.This is about postal workers(i have been a postman for 27 years)being recognised for their very hard work delivering huge profits year after year.royal mail(dear moya)sat down with the cwu union 3 years ago and both agreed the way forward for years to come.now royal mail,in their wisdom have gone back on their promises and vision for the future of our business without any regard for their workforce and are constantly bullying the workforce to deliver targets which are impossible to attain because we simply dont have enough hours in the day to do what they ask us to do.So put bluntly if you dont work for royal mail you have no idea how we in the front line are treated seeing as it is us who deliver shareholders and ms green profits every year.I would welcome everyone to do our job for a week and see how we are treated.
I look at it the other way sometimes. Yes profits are important am not stupid. The strikes will not help anyone really they never do. However we do have an issue in this country with the way many workers are being treated. One of my best friends is a post man, who I worked with back in the day with a previous employer who was not exactly winning awards, and he says it was like paradise compared to working for RMG. I tend to think if you have a better paid and treated workforce you tend to a better performance which is what will eventually benefit the employer long-term. Green is all just cuts.
We all want RMG to work well for us, those Dividends are pretty generous, and the lot at the top are creaming it. It is going to take some give and take the posties have to understand the world has moved on but still there are limits. It may be the Scandi in me.
Make posties major shareholder and there would be no strike.
Major shareholder – over 50% shareholding – give control over company – take decisions.
Its not about posties being shareholders ,its about broken promises,constant bullying from management and also bad decisions from managers at the very top on the way forward.
Directors main responsibility is to act on behalf of company’s main stakeholders. Think about at the time Royal mail was privatized, employees were main stakeholders. Directors should have convinced employees to buy shares. Perhaps arranging loan for employees.
Remember the fixed assets were undervalued – gives doubts about their action.
@S.B. Yes I have spoken with many postman over the past 25 years I have been using the business services. Talk about the tail wagging the dog!
{begin sarcasm}
Most postman despite no management or business experience, despite no formal or university education (we most of them) and despite their own biopic view of the day to day running – know exactly how to run Royal Mail.
{end sarcasm}
MAYBE IF YOU DID MAKE IT ABOUT THE SHARES YOU WOULD MAKE BETTER DECISIONS.
Alan surely if youve worked for a firm for a long time you would know what you we,re talking about.Sorry we,re not all as blessed as you in the brain department although i do have 7 o levels(not gcse,s)We are just asking to be treated with respect,surely thats not too much to ask for, not even from us dim posies.xx
Please take YOUR blinkers of Mr Patterson! Whilst you are quick to judge us posties as mindless in backing OUR CWU, why not for a moment climb out of your bubble. Most of our ” competitors” have complaint levels that we consciousness Royal Mail workers would be dismissed for. Their first time delivery percentages are high because they only get paid if an item is delivered, hence why parcels are thrown over back fences or left with less than trustworthy neighbours, or worse because of their lack of local knowledge and inaccurate sat- nav are delivered without customer signature to the wrong location. Many of us are still proud of our brand and are endeavoring to protect it from a profit ay any cost employer. So before being so quick to judge……think of you customers…..or are you metely money driven!!!*;
Sorry al i meant posties lol xx
Also maybe Alan P should look at Sport Direct!!!!! As he seems to veiw hard working posties as disposable! Some of us are guided by a set of principles that take us outside of self gratification, caring about the terms and conditions of colleagues is fundamental to retaining your dignity in the workplace. Squabbling is what you should have grown out of when you left the playground! From our point of veiw it’s about being valued……and i dont mean in monetary terms. THAT is the ” bigger picture” as you.so aptly called it.
Spoken like a true employee. No more jousting I can see you simply don’t understand. You talk about dignity…….if I had went on strike in some of my previous professions I would have been shot.
Easy to come.on here and bad mouth any opinion other than yours. Everything that you said in reply is so transparent, what a shame that people like.yourself in responsible positions adhere to such medieval ideas. Donkeys to you aernt we!
@ Ross above. thank you for your support. I think Clive will get little support for his arguments on this site lol (other than posties)
Job done then. Proactive becomes reactive…..no middle ground……and by the way i wasn’t trying to win an argument……i assumed i was voicing my oinion…
…WHICH IS MY RIGHT!
The man is just being rude and offensive now Alan. Folk do that when they cannot win their argument. I can’t believe so many posties on Tamebay trying to justify strike action. Perhaps they will get a true taste of the lack of public support. Lol – he is telling you they are donkeys as if you said it. Not worth it. Met people like this before . If he is part of the CWU like his name suggests then God help us (but it explains a lot). I can’t believe he is attacking your business when they are the ones going on strike. Ignore .
I think you will find that you are in the minority’s on here Clive . You are a bit of a bully are you not? Is that how you got your position in the CWU? You represent CWU ? They would approve of your posts on here? They would approve of your donkey reference ? Alan never mentioned that. are you getting counselling for this anger ?
You know what bully’s do? When folk are arguing a point a bully will come on and turn it personal. This thread is about the strike action. But you Clive – you started to get personal. Is this how you get your own way at the CWU. You know what I do with bully’s? The only thing you can do – ignore them – it takes away their power. Bye bye, there was a good topical discussion going on here until you ruined the thread with your behaviour.
My colleagues trust me, i have to.stand up for them against bullying almost daily. Abuses of.negotiated and agreed ways of working are never far away. I do only what is asked of me…..which is much more than i am payed for, some folk lack the confidence to stand up.for themselves so expect me as their democratically elected representative to voice their concerns and when necessary to stand in their corner. I do this for no extra pay whilst doing exactly.the same job as them. So belittle me all you like, but.i will never be ashamed of standing up for what is right. That is all.
I have contacted Moya Greene to complain about their IT systems, specifically the Shipping API. One of the people in charge of the Shipping API then contacted me and said it is “not fit for purpose”.
She also told me that Royal Mail is “not a wheel and spoke delivery company”. I have absolutely no idea what that is supposed to mean. If anyone from Royal Mail can enlighten me I’d be grateful. She said this to me after I told her every other delivery company on the planet lets us integrate with them and print labels.
What exactly has Moya Greene done to deserve her salary? Here are her achievements:
– Alienated the workforce
– Crashed the share price
– Got the company kicked out of the FTSE 100
– Inherited failing IT systems and made them worse (by inaction)
– Got a giant pay rise
I am hoping the staff go on strike and force the awful management out. Hopefully our account manager goes too. She never replies to emails or answers her phone so they’ll have a job finding her to sack her.
People at Royal Mail who need to go:
Moya Greene
Our account manager
Everyone involved with the Shipping API
Everyone involved with PAF
The people who signed IT contracts with companies like DataIQ and ATOS
People at Royal Mail who help our business:
The drivers who collect from us every day
The mail centre staff
The postmen
Well said Sammy……sanity at last!
@ northumbrian. couldnt agree more. in fact strikes and flag waving will knacker the business for future generations. Its very short sighted and quite moronic. They think they are saving Royal Mail but it is in fact quite the opposite.
Did you see how this Clive character tried to put words in my mouth above – then got personal about my business. I am sure my business is not the thread. He knows nothing about me but I know a lot, a whole lot about Royal Mail and the damage strikes have done in the past.
I have been working with Royal Mail for 25 years. I witnessed the many strikes of the 70s that killed British industry.
They are short sighted and idiotic actions and completely out of date. Clive lost all his credability when he tried the tactics above which I think I last experienced in the school playground). I suppose he had a chance to put across his point of view but he blew it and now I am taking Ross`s advice and I aint even reading his posts.
But I will read your posts northumbrian…… I always like what you have to say (well almost always).
and Sammy above has done an excellent illustration of my “tail wagging the dog” theory lol
Alan, say something constructive then, your “just get on with it theory” is the only thing on here which is short sighted
Alan, I get it now, I see from a previous post that you’ve encountered problems with people you have employed, tribunals etc. , hence your dislike of employees speaking out against employers. Well that was a business you created unlike the people in charge of Royal Mail who are very well paid proffesionals in it for the short term applying the same business model everywhere they go a one size fits all approach , it’s not a business they created it was created by its workforce, they have an out of date short sighted approach of stealing their workforces pay , a bit like your employees tried to do to you
Alan, I hope Hermes or yodel serve you well they sound like your sort of firm goodnight
Alan, it might also interest you or get you even more upset , is something this article failed to mention the fact that Royal Mail managers have already voted and rejected the boards proposals
Looking at Clive and gadd and other posts – it seems they are all posties or unions. Appalling attitudes and not very good at presenting their arguments . Instead they like to undermine our argument by throwing mudd. I have enjoyed this thread it has proved me right about their stinking attitudes . DPD get my business and their delivery success rate is up close to special delivery at a fraction of the price . To Royal Mail – don’t let these idiots bully you to get their own way. I’m not against Royal Mail the company – just some of the people in the front line who think they know better.
@ Gadd – it does not interest me or upset me. So little of my business goes through Royal Mail now it would not effect me personally. what I am addressing here on this thread is the principle of the situation. It would seem I care more about your employer than you do.
If you think that would upset me you have completely missed the point. I have found that most posties who collect from me are fairly “bright” – although often insular and institutionalised)……..I assume you are not an actual postman. You meet the second and third criteria but not the first.
I have spent too much time on this post already. al least when debating with other sellers on Tamebay it is polite and constructive. However what I have seen from posties on here has not been pretty. The ugly side to the front line staff in Royal Mail.
I will not be revising this thread. Common sense it would seem……..is not very common.
Well pointed out Gadd, i didn’t think Alan would be interested in that kind of detail, he seems to know it all.
what are you postman and union workers doing messaging at this time of night? i mean, your not getting paid for it right?
The sellers above are accurate. I would like to add several things:
1. Clive and Gadd you are not children – try and engage an argument without getting personal.
2. Clive – why are you still posting – every post you make you look worse.
3. People who are for the strike are selfish gits and Ross and Alan are accurate with their points.
The attitude of many postman sucks so i have been giving my parcels to DPD who have given me prices that match Royal Mail but without the attitude like above. I would not are speak to customers of my business like that it is very unprofessional. it just makes people not want to use you guys.
Look at you Clive. You are just dying to get someone on your side so you can say to them bravo. Children the lot of you. Children in a union is dangerous.
Now go to bed you have work in the morning.
@ Katie ….. you are funny in a passive aggressive kind of way. I presume you are not a postman.
Clive, your right Alan does seem to know it all at least he thinks he does, Alan you have said nothing constructive on here you are the one that should analyse something you know about you have quite clearly demonstrated your dislike of anyone exercising their right to vote for industrial action you sir have never worked for Royal Mail and despite what you say clearly no nothing about it ,you are the arrogant ass
Wish I could sit behind a computer for eight hours a day , then call the postie who delivers my items dumb!! Maybe you should get from behind the computer and try stepping into a Royal Mail office? Stop moaning and change your courier if you don’t like Royal Mail . You seem to know a lot about posties but sit behind a computer all day!! Very bitter man who sounds like he bullied his workforce too! Them days have long gone too
We don’t use Royal Mail since the small packet fiasco and volumetric price hikes. However our posties are always friendly and look after elderly residents of our area. Same as the post office staff in our village shop- they can’t do enough to help. I believe anyone has a right to strike action if they so wish, though it has to be sensible- not because worker A changed the lightbulb instead of worker B. The days of 1970’s industrial action are I hope a thing of the past. I often don’t agree with Alan P, especially on his rose tinted spectacle view of eBay, however he shouldn’t be personally abused. He has a right of opinion like anyone else, same as workers have a right to strike.
How naive !
Alan p ross k and katie a,i suggest you apply for a job in teresa may,s cabinet because you are the sort of people who would work well in a conservative government,i.e alienate the working man from your world,treat hard working people like third class citizens ,all because not everyone has your one sided,biased outlook on what is right and wrong.We don,t pass judgement on how you conduct yourselves,so don,t judge hard working postmen/women just because you think everything you say or think is right,IT ISN,T.As the saying goes don,t judge a person until you,ve walked in their shoes.
Guess what? The CWU is planning its own final salary pension cuts, whilst ballotting members on strikes over the same issue with Royal Mail.
https://www.professionalpensions.com/professional-pensions/news/3017324/cwu-plans-to-close-final-salary-schemes-while-balloting-members-on-royal-mail-scheme-closure