County postal staff join strike
Thursday 22nd October 2009, 3:15PM BST.
Stikers outside Shrewsbury Sorting Office. Darren Ward, Sally Joiner, Mike Dunfrey, Mark Bagley, Martin Eddies and Pete Kelly and Steve Bennett.
Hundreds of Shropshire postal workers today staged a walkout in the first wave of national strike action which is expected to bring massive disruption to the county’s mail network.
Nearly 500 workers, who are based at the Royal Mail sorting office in Castle Foregate, Shrewsbury, were involved in today’s 24-hour strike, which was launched at 4am.
A further 700 Shropshire workers at Royal Mail centres in Oswestry, Oakengates and Wellington will walk out tomorrow in the second wave of industrial action by the Communication Workers Union in a bitter row over jobs, pay and modernisation.
Up to 42,000 mail centre staff and network drivers across the country launched the strike today and 78,000 delivery and collection workers will walk out tomorrow.
A fresh wave of strikes, likely to be held for three days at the end of next week, is expected to be announced.
Pete Kelly, area delivery representative for the Shropshire and Mid Wales branch of the CWU, said: “We want this dispute to be resolved by negotiation as quickly as possible and we want the management to honour the agreement they signed in 2007 which was to work with the workforce to create a more productive industry.”
Mr Kelly said mail in Shropshire would face a delivery backlog, on average, of about four days.
At the Shrewsbury protest today, one worker, who did not want to be named, said: “This is about protecting the service for the customer and jobs for the people who’ve got them.”
Prime Minister Gordon Brown today urged both sides to resume talks.
“It’s essential that everybody gets round the table, gets round the table as quickly as possible.
“This strike is soluble and I believe that management and the workforce can reach a solution to this and they should do this as quickly as possible,” he added.
Royal Mail managing director Mark Higson said: “My door is open and my phone is on and I am urging them again today to meet me so that we can all sign that agreement, get the strikes stopped and give us some peace in which we can get on with delivering Christmas for our customers.”
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They look chuffed in the above picture, wonder if they will look like that when they are in the dole que??
Do they realize that people just think Royal Mail are moaners who should be lucky they have jobs???
Get on with your jobs and stop moaning!!
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The problem Royal Mail workers have is strikes only really work if they garner public sympathy. Unfortunately the public have received a very poor service from Royal Mail as a whole for years and in the advent of email and fax I don’t know anyone who uses Royal Mail unless they absolutely have to. If I ever got my business post before midday or they didn’t lose my registered deliveries and refuse to trace them I’d have a lot more support for them! Doesn’t matter to me if they strike or not – I’ve got email!
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In times when there are so many people unemployed and desperately seeking jobs it is hard to find sympathy for those who are lucky enough to find a wage deposited in their bank accounts every month. It’s not like Royal Mail staff are fighting fires or operating on the frontline of emergency medicine and frankly when it can take up to 2 weeks (cheers Royal Mail you missed my deadline) for a 1st class letter to arrive you have to ask what difference a mail strike is really going to make…
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What Royal Mail haven’t considered is that whilst their on strike, people will make alternative arrangements. Royal Mail would normally see an increase in business at this time of year due to online shopping for Christmas, businesses still need to dispatch their goods and they won’t be using RM.
They will lose revenue and businesses will lose confidence it their service and go elsewhere, This mat result in job cuts and less money in the pot for payrises. They obviously haven’t fully thought this through.
Get back to work, before you do any more damage.
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Sack them all. There are over 4m people not working in the UK – problem solved.
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On BBC24hr News- Small Business Rep.has taken poll with his members
70 per cent want RM to stay public
30 per cent want some part-privatisation of RM
0 per cent want full privatisation of RM!
Mandelson hasn’t a mandate from small businesses to privatise RM.
All you moaners above wll no doubt be moaning when it’ll cost 1000 times more to send packets and lettters if RM is privatised.
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JOHN: You clearly have’nt heard of email then?
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if you dont like the terms of your job LEAVE
if you still want to have a job when service requirements are declining then adapt
so many unemplyed people would be happy for even the most basic of entry level salaries
get back to work!!
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Cant send packets by e-mail or fax! Get behind the Royal Mial staff, they are NOT striking over pay, it’s all to do with working conditons, protecting jobs and management styles! Why do you think you don’t get your mail until later in the day than the past? Lazy Postmen? NO, it’s down to management trying to save money! Laying off night workers so the postmen can do it before they go out on their walk.
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quote “Cant send packets by e-mail or fax!”
ok maybe not but there are 29 other companies that will deliver them cheaper and on time without losing them on the way!!!
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I went down to the picket lines this morning to support the Royal Mail staff who are striking to defend OUR public service.
The government and senior Royal Mail management are trying to run the service into the ground to prepare it for privatisation. Allowing competition in the postal service has meant private contractors have siphoned off the “easy” jobs such as collection, but then leach off of Royal Mail to deliver it. The whole postal service should be brought back into public ownership, controlled democratically by the workforce and service users.
Best of luck to the Royal Mail strikers!
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Shrewsbury Resident
You and I must have been standing next to each other! By the CWU Banner??
Mike
That statement remains to proven true! Onlt time will tell! Every delivery company has its detracters and poor service stories to match!
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Each delivery company actually delivers the post and i’m sorry but how often do you hear about parcel force or dhl or ups being in the press about poor service….. never! royal mail…. always!
the union has ruined royal mail and now the public has had enough its as simple as that. yes stand on the picket line in the rain in shrewsbury but remember that 99.9% of people that drive past you, drive past you in disgust!
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Each delivery company only deliver parcels & packets NOT letters! They collect and RM dleiver them. You look at your mail in the top right hand corner where the stamp should be. TNT UKMail DHL etc. all delivered by Royal Mail, at a loss I may add. The only profitable part of mail is business, parcels & packets. RM are bound to offer a Universal Service at one price by law dictated by the Govt. Royal Mail aren’t ALWAYS in the press re. poor service, or maybe I read the wrong sections in newspapers! There was good support from the public this morning and people stopping to chat and wish us well. Thanks to all of you who are sympathetic to the Posties! By the way Parcel Force is part of Royal Mail!!
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oh i’m sorry are we missing the point here, i’m sure that without plugging the companies, there are at least 13 that do deliver letters! including the one that delivers to my company and is nothing what so ever to do with royal mail.
the people supporting you are friends and families who are really hoping this goes away so they can get paid and put food on the table instead standing around a picket fire moaning that its cold!!!
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Prove me wrong, Name the companies who will deliver letters direct to your door 6 days a week 52 weeks a year and offer the same or better service than RM. Your last statement is just ridiculous, or maybe I have the same family & friends as my working colleagues! Also we had no picket fire as it was a lovely warm morning! ;-)
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Mike… I read in this mornings paper that DHL deliver letters for 5.95 a pop and it takes up to two days. By the way, is your real name Peter Mandelson?
Local resident, I was down on the picket line 6.30am round the back gate
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@mike oxlong
name the 13 companies then?
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F.A.O. Mike oxlong & Ian St John dogsbody.
before you both carry on talking absolute rubbbish..which, by the way you are.
do your home work and find out why this is happening..they are on strike for all the right reasons.
just becuse times are hard,does not mean we cant still fight for our rights and whats entitled to us.
yes its annoying that it effects us, but thats just life im afraid..stop being so totally selfish and think of them……OH! i wonder what predictable argument/point your going to make??????
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Shrewsbury Resident
I turned up at 08:00 front office, sorry I missed you! I’m back to delivering tomorrow!
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Dear Readers,
Your mail has been arriving later and later in the day due to Royal Mail cutting shifts (nights etc) gone are the days when your post used to arrive before 9am due to delivery staff having to sort all the mail the night workers used to do, then sorting their delivery before going out. Also if you can’t complete you delivery in your contracted hours you are basically told ‘tough’ by managers just do it.I’m sure some members of the public think delivery staff just stroll into work pick up a bag and walk the streets for a couple of hours, no get to work, sort for 3 1/2 hours, go out on delivery for 4 to 5 hours then finish…oh no break either by the way. Start times for delivery staff are also due to be later next year so look forward to even later deliveries. All in the name of Profit NOT SERVICE.
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Concerning DHL charges-the cheapest rate they charge is for an item less than 0.5kg with a delivery time of 1-2 days will cost £11.60 within the UK.
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“Bulling managers forcing change on the poor hardworking staff” What a laugh!! Bulling and victimisation are the first two words out of a work shy sherkers mouth as soon as manager need to make changes in order for the business to change. strickers in Shrewsbury should know better living in Darwins home town. “The animal that can’t adapt to change will surely wither and die” Keep this up royal posties and you will all be exstinct. There are thousands out there waiting for your jobs and private companys willing to take up the mantle. Its not as if its technical work that you do.
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Private mail companies may be itching to take over RM’s business but they will cherry-pick the best bits – business and inner city deliveries – and leave the rest to rot. This is just what has happened with Telecomms – private cable companies are not interested in rural areas and hence we have to put up with basic phone services and slow broadband. Mail delivery is best left in the public sector to ensure a universal service and public accountability. Even the United States, the champion of free enterprise, has kept its mail service in public hands. I wonder why?
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John Howard
I agree with you. Cherry picking has already happened. This is why RM have to deliver for DHL etc. “the final mile” making a loss on every item they deliver. Govt constraints dictate what RM can charge, and it’s under cost! People may wish for the demise of RM but will be sorry if it happens!
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I agree with loads of the comments above get rid of the strikers and get in people who are willing to work for a living.
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Also @ the local postie
I’m under no illusion that a postmans job is as simple as that. But the amount of times we have recieved other peoples post is ridiculous esp when the address is completely different and then theres the countless times you send letters that never arrive.
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Well sack them all, you are in a basic job i have had one of those and when the employer changed conditions made life awkward i left your not going to get great pay and this new sorting machine will be brought in because it is 2009 and things change and we do not need you to do it and if you are paid for 8 hours you work for 8 hours simple really
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John (22.)
Just to add to you comment about DHL…
Point is you will probably pay £11.60 for them to lose your parcel… Hence the nick name Drop-it, Hide-it, Lose-it…
As mike said…Use email, or if it’s that important use a courier…not DHL though.
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If you honestly believe the posties are striking for the good of rural comunities, you live in cloud cockoo land. unions only send out to strike if it involves members having to work a little harded or leaner for the same pay. they seam to have forgotten the nice little bonuses they all got a couple of christmas’s ago when RM finally made a profit. Talk about slapping a gift horse in the mouth!!
moving with the changes wil safe guard the “ruralies” and safe guard hard works jobs. If RM need to cut the wheat from the chaff then so be it.
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I support you all FULLY. It’s time “management” in this country were more proactive and less reactive. Too much “Us and Them” syndrome. Support your staff. Enough said
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as a self employed courier i find the striking post workers a great boost to my earnings, never been so busy delivering parcels and mail. if you provide a reliable service then customers dont mind paying a little extra.
to remain competative any business needs to modenise, adapt and improve to remain in the market place. no doubt this will involve job losses, which whilst hard on those concerned, it just reflects todays modern forms of communications. come on post persons dont be blinkered by unionst dinosaurs, get back to work and continue the great job you do.
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Stay on the picket lines and strike if you want, but remember your jobs will go like all the others in Telford to workers that will do what the company wants and for minimum wage. it’s life in this country so get used to it and be grateful you still have jobs. I wish I had one! Yours soon by the sounds of it!
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Does anybody get that the only reason RM are cheaper at ldeivering letters is because they are making a massive loss – this means that whether you use RM or not your tax money is subsidising this service, it certainly is not making a profit as some seem to think. For me its making a loss, charge real prices, break even, compete on wages and terms with private companies in same market or close down and let the private companies deal with it.
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So no matter how bad work conditions are or how people are treated by management we should say nothing because we are lucky to have jobs?? What a great country this will be in a little while. Bring on a nice redundancy package and a kick up in front of the TV while claiming allowances….
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@mike oxlong
I’m still waiting for the names of the 13 companies you have said will deliver letters.
Concerning DHL I was answering Shrewsbury residents comment about them delivering letters for £5.95 a pop for a 1-2 day delivery span.
Have checked their website nothing about £5.95 a pop.Point is courier services are very expensive.Would you send a legal document by email?
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Redundancy package yeah great but anything too high and you can not claim benefits, money wont last that long then will it. No time to watch tv because no money equals no mortgage payments then no house. Be real the country is rubbish and you are lucky to still have a job. Read the comments and open your eyes before it is too late. Seek redundacy advice now and be prepared for a shock.
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The Post service are not striking for better conditions for customers they are striking for one reason. MORE MONEY. I fail to see how paying Postmen more money will result in a better service.
Could someone explain to me how this will result in a better postal system?
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Did you see the postie on the news last night? He wasn’t striking, had come in from private sector after being made redundant. His view that his colleagues were striking because they didn’t want to have to work harder in order to do the job they are already being paid to do. Interesting. I have no knowledge of the issues so I won’t express an opinion, but that item on the news did make me think.
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Once again we see a litany of comments from the usual bunch of ill-informed people.
‘Sack them’ they scream. Do you people like being downtrodden by your employers?
The Royal Mail workers have voted to take industrial action – that’s perfectly legal – and you can’t sack people for legally withdrawing their labour in a formal dispute.
It’s an important right won by the blood, sweat and tears of previous generations of workers, and even more important in a recession where greedy employers are apt to take cynical advantage by cutting jobs and pay and blaming the recession – why would you be so keen to give it up?
As for private companies replacing the Royal Mail – there’s certainly a threat of this – but you could forget daily collections and deliveries, especially in rural areas. And don’t forget what happens to prices when you privatise – look at the greed of the electricity and gas suppliers for evidence of that.
I get excellent service from Royal Mail – I regularly send papers by 1st class mail to Scotland, and get them back by 1st class mail without fail just 2 days later. All for the price of a couple of 1st class stamps.
Good luck to the posties, and lets hope their greedy managers see sense soon.
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And you have the audacity to say that you are not a Marxist Peter. Your comment oozes with all the tired, worn out philosophy and cliches’ of the “oppressed working classes” of the 1900s and more latterly of your mates in the 1970s. The “them and us philosophy” where the managers are automatically villains and the workers are the downtrodden, oppressed, over worked, underpaid starving masses. We have moved on from the era when the unions brought us to the dead lying unburied, rubbish piled high in the streets and every other industry champing at the bit to go on strike at the behest of their extreme left and communist leaders.
Managers are there to manage and these people seem to think that they should run the show. They must understand that their intelligence and capablilities limits them to the workers who within reason should do as they are told for the good of the company for whom they choose to work for. If they don’t like the conditions, do what intelligent people would do, leave and go somewhere else.
These anarchists, for that’s what they are would take us back to the 1970s when the unions brought this country to it’s knees.
They should be given a reasonable chance to see sense and then, if they still think that they have the right to do as they please, they should be sacked. The CWU have pushed their luck over the past 7 years or so to the limit, it is time they were slapped down.
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