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Post Office - on strike again??

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O'Reilly | 12:39 Fri 12th Oct 2007 | News
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I have just found a website with updates that I'll put here for anyone who is interested:-

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?ca tId=1000002&mediaId=51600692&campaignid=update

I guess the strike starts tomorrow but happy to report in Devon where I live I have not seen a postman out today (or a post van) now, as far as I am concerned they can strike for as long as they want because as unemployed I am waiting to take over one of their jobs (on the hourly rate) and not expect to earn more as overtime that I don't work. However, the link as above I hope will help some of you knowing what on earth the postmen are doing workwise at the moment.
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I've no sympathy now. If they don't like the conditions then look for other work. I'm sure there are plenty of Eastern Europeans who would love this kind of work.
Hmmm, i say give them their pay rise if they want it, but then they need to sack a few of their colleagues to fund this...
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No, I don't have any sympathy either now, but I thought the link may be useful for people to know when they are on strike and when they ain't - that's ignoring the wildcat strikes that I am hearing about.
Nobody should be allowed to strike in this day and age.
This will make you laugh...my Socialist, Trade Union loving father is peed off because he is waiting on documents.

He told me: ''Your principles go out of the window when it affects you personally''.

Made his capitalist daughter crack up laughing, he did.
i had mail during the recent strike and have been speaking to my postie who tells me that they are up to date on deliveries. although on saying that i have been waiting for a letter posted 4 weeks ago to arrive, but then thats just the royal mail on an average day isnt it!
For an essential service like Healthcare, Transport, Post, there should be a law against this kind of 'blackmail'. What they are doing is illegal and I'm glad that they're not getting paid. The Postal Service is about to become a competitive industry: they will lose their jobs anyway if they do not go with the adaptation. Welcome to the free market economy.
Not that the service is up to much anyway. I think it's crap. My local service declines a parcel redirect because 'it's not something we really do here'. Try saying that when TNT are your competitor across the street. That'll buck them up faster than they can say 'Where's the dole office?'
As for these so called "wildcat" strikes, surely they have broken their contract by having an unofficial strike? They should make an example and sack a few. Maybe it would make the others see sense instead of making the public suffer this way.
I am hardly noticing this action. Have been at their mercy for 8 months, during 2 moves and post redirections and coming from Watford, where postal workers are well known for industrial action at the drop of a red elastic band.

Early summer in Watford saw photo evidence of around half a million undelivered pieces of mail. No real cause admitted for this and it was before the national problems. Situation there is still ongoing. Even Crozier being involved hasn't solved it.

I have waited 2-3 weeks for some mail on redirection from Watford. One solicitors letter sent a week before redirection got to me one week after. Credit card bill 1 day before payment. Mortgage paperwork - 10 days. My postie said it was all OK now. It is not. Customer services admits it still exists. The man I spoke to said he would phone Watford and chase up a missing letter. Result? Another week before it showed. My postie proved it by handing over redirections 3 weeks after the redirection ended. He blamed the calibre of staff (whispering the words 'foreign' and 'agency').

I hear what the workers are saying about preserving the postal service but I think they are preserving a system which has meant they do not work a full week unless overtime is offered. My husband, as a youngster, clearly remembers his postie uncle always seemed to be home - and in his uniform. My husband is now 57.

I just hope management and workers can resolve this and we can get a good postal service again (and Watford can see the end to their problems) but I think that, along with much these days, we have seen the best of it.
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Ooops! I did not intend to start a tirade but simply to give a link to the next strike action (wildcat strikes exempted) i have deliveries I am waiting for (ebay, amazon etc) but I can wait longer and that is no hassle to me. I think the postmen are greedy pigs but I do like to see online when I can expect mail and when I can't.

I apologise if my post was red rag to a lot of bulls because I was only trying to be helpful.

(O'Reilly goes to his local to down a few pints of guiness and feels sorry for himself right now as he won't be getting bills to be paid) it's a hard life with no post!!
Haven't read all the comments, just some rather silly ones.

Firstly, forget all the rubbish about us being on fiddles or overtime. The majority only get basic, basic which has been made up with hard fought for allowances which are being eroded in one fell swoop by a management determined to drive our mail service out of existence (for which they get multi million pound bonuses). As for the conditions, management are introducingh changes which will have a serious and detrimental effect on workers. For example, the new late starts (and so later deliveries) has screwed up the childcare arrangements of at least 3 colleagues, not to mention the financial pinch we are all going to feel at those allowances being taken away.

And why should I and others like me, in the job for nearly twenty years, suddenly be told that we are now going to work a system where you can work ten hours one day, maybe none the next, or be moved to a site 50 miles away to cover absences. I'll bet none of you would like to work like that!

secondly, it isn't a service any more, it's a business, and you, the person at home doesn't matter - that's the management view by the way.

You all moan about the post yet none of you have grasped the simple fact that if the senior management - who have no idea of the realities and practicaities of the job, who use sledgehammers to crack nuts - didn't interfere by crunching numbers to make an extra buckj just left things alone, things would be a lot better. They slowly been screwing things up for years, and this, to us, is the last straw - aside from our jobs and rights, we are simply trying to protect the postal service.

I wonder what you'll say when the day comes that you have to cokllect your mail instead from the local supermarket or sweet shop instead of having it delivered.....
But why punish the public like this? Especially the ones waiting for bills and so on. I would happily collect my post from the supermarket. At least I know it would be there.

I'm sure milkmen used a similar line until they found out that people will happily go out to supermarkets for milk rather than it being delivered.
it wont just be collecting mail from a shop/depot/supermarket, do you think a private comapny will offer to deliver a letter for 30 odd pence?
It isn't about punishing the public. Yes, they suffer, we know - just because someone works in the royal mail doesn't mean they don't have to wait for urgent letters etc.

There comes a time you have to make a stand against some things though, and I for one am not prepared to accept some pillock who has made millions by sacking thousands and cutting services already make more while I struggle to meet my (small compared to some) mortgage and live off cornflakes and not going out because I either can't afford it or I am too tired thru the job.

Postdog.

I'm with you all the way. So is everyone I know, I'm not sure why so many Abers seem against it. It is pretty sickeneing, As for O'Reilly stepping into your jobs, I expect he or she doesn't mind being on the miminum wage then?

I hope you reach a satisfactory settlement with regards your hours, pensions, pay and everything else.
they offer a service out of the kindness of their hearts, do they? the moment things get tough and competitive, trust me, the service levels suddenly shoot up, when you know you have a real boss to answer to, a competitive bottom line, and customers who can go elsewhere when they get treated like crap (I've made 7 complaints to royal mail because I keep getting my neighbours's post, they get mine).
I don't accept this stuff about management and scheming to get bonuses either. Let them. Frankly, it's not really your business. You're employed to do a job, under their terms, if you don't like it, leave it. I flew first and business everywhere I went, my company got taken over, it all changed to economy. I REALLY didnt like this, but I put up with it. If I didn't, they'd find someone who would. Screwing the worker for everything you can is part and parcel of the capitalist economy, if you don't work it, move to Cuba or somewhere.

Royal Mail accuses the union of wanting to preserve working practices such as:
Freedom for workers to go home before the end of their shift if they have completed their work
Automatic overtime pay if mail volumes reach a certain level regardless of how many working hours remain in the day
No overlap between functions in the same workplace
Collection drivers can expect overtime pay for doing collections outside their route even if it is done within normal working hours
Overtime pay to cover colleague absence or to help in the sorting office even if within normal working hours

How do you justify all of these?? Ridiculous, if you ask me. Bet senior management don't get these kind of luxuries.
Well I'm all for people power, but I'm really starting to worry about my suade boots I ordered and should have had them last week! Ahhhhhhh!

I just hope they wont become a casualty of the strike backlog, never to be seem again. sorry for being selfish but I did pay good money for them!
i can see good and bad in the strike and it really doesnt bother me, i have had mail throughout the strike, talking about late deliveries isnt anything new, many a time i dont get my mail until 4 in the afternoon. as for minimum wage a lot of people get only that without bonuses, i worked as a carer and received only min wage we got nothing extra for night shift, or working bank holidays or the christmas period,sometimes we only had 3 people working with nearly 50 residents, some of the residents were violent at times as well. but whatever happens i do hope the mail gets back to normal, whatever that is, as soons as possible
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I think the reason the postal workers are getting a lot wrong these days is because the powers that be are paying peanuts and getting monkeys. I no longer post things recorded as then they are guaranteed to go missing as someone along the line knows there is something of value in it. However my postmen are lovely here and go out of their way to help and are reliable. I think it's often luck of who you get, there are some bad eggs. There are also postal investigators who try to keep this in check. They are striking too. One was telling me yesterday how his pension which has been paying into for 25 years is being cut.

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