Royal Mail national strike looms for Christmas

dopester

new_home_owner wrote: »

People like you make me sick, your just a jobs worth, did you think that if not working for free you might have created another job for someone else? these post men graft hard and a lot of the time they are humping tons of junk mail.

I used to be a postman. Firstly got a temp job on the Christmas post at the sorting office. An awful job.. a huge slanted table for post to be dumped on (regularly). There were a few of these tables. Each had a line of about 12 temp Christmas workers stood against the table sorting out 1st and 2nd class post. Put 1st class envelopes on top conveyor belt and 2nd on the lower conveyor belt. The conveyor belts running to the franking machine. 8 hours shifts just doing that job. 10 hours if you wanted it.

Thankfully the 25 year old supervisor I recognised as one of the older cool in-crowd from my local area, and he recognised me from my BMX biking, so he switched me to the main franking machine, which was slightly less mind killing - making the time go a little quicker.

Then got a call from Royal Mail asking if I'd be a postman over Summer. At least half the postmen used their own cars whilst doing the post - not solely on foot, or with bike. You go quicker when you can dump the weight of 2 full satchels in the car, coming back for a few streets worth of post a time, before moving the car further on. Perhaps there were security risks to mail that way but none of them seem too worried. Some of them were lightning fast at their jobs and then had time to chill out / go home.. whatever, before coming back for 2nd post. I was much slower on foot. The weight of the post was what I disliked most about it (without a car). The early start. Also some letterboxes snapping back on your fingers.

There were less pressures back then to work-out your full hours, if you'd sped around your delivery (which to be fair astonished me how some postmen were so quick and efficient), and other performance stuff they became stricter on. I dislike getting letters now. Prefer it all electronic / internet / email / phone. No waste to get rid of, or file.

dopester wrote: »

I was a postman for 4 weeks at a teenager one summer gone by - it isn't such an easy ticket as some might think - not with 4am starts at the office to sort the mail in to your walk in order for each street, and then two heavy satchels of post digging in to your shoulders as you head out at 7:30 am to deliver.

One credit-crunch TV show recently pointed out how some companies are sizing down the junk mail, to cut down on material costs and postage costs- but yes, I imagine there will be less and less junk mail being delivered.

SingleSue

bo_drinker wrote: »

You can lick as many ar5es as you like at the end of the day you are indespensible and just a number

Very true...although you can make it difficult for them to think about getting rid of you.

a11waysindebt

The union will drive RM in to the ground, then once the post is contracted out to a foreign competitor the union will be banging on again about jobs for the British worker.

azza21

What a joke, Royal Mail are a joke, they think they have a devine right everytime something doesn't go there way in the workforce to go on strike. There is a recession going on, thousands of people have/are losing there jobs yet royal mail are playing the going on strike trick again. The nock on effect this has on businesses, whom depend on royal mails services, it just makes matters worse.

Its time the goverment looked at other avenue's now, TNT other options available, because i'm sick of them, the public from what i'm reading around the web is sick to death of royal mail behaving the way they do too.

With lack of public support in these harsh times, i only see it heading down one road, the same road that the coal minors went down.

nearlynew

azza21 wrote: »

With lack of public support in these harsh times, i only see it heading down one road, the same road that the coal minors went down.

Is this another thread about child labour?

custardy

azza21 wrote: »

What a joke, Royal Mail are a joke, they think they have a devine right everytime something doesn't go there way in the workforce to go on strike. There is a recession going on, thousands of people have/are losing there jobs yet royal mail are playing the going on strike trick again. The nock on effect this has on businesses, whom depend on royal mails services, it just makes matters worse.

Its time the goverment looked at other avenue's now, TNT other options available, because i'm sick of them, the public from what i'm reading around the web is sick to death of royal mail behaving the way they do too.

With lack of public support in these harsh times, i only see it heading down one road, the same road that the coal minors went down.

what like giving them a license to collect,sort,deliver mail?

Generali

TNT other options available

custardy wrote: »

what like giving them a license to collect,sort,deliver mail?

A few hundred pounds of TNT at the union HQ should encourage the workers back to work!

Seriously, the Royal Mail is a failing business. People send emails and bank electronicaly these days. My (4 year old) kid wanted to send a 'letter' to his Grandma so we got him to dictate an email to send, that's the way things are going.

If you're working for a firm in a declining industry then you can either help it become more competitive by getting more work done for less money (either by being more productive or accepting that you must work harder) or you can watch the company shrink in line with the industry.

By striking and putting in place restrictive agreements time after time, the unions have wedded themselves to the latter course of action. Every time they strike or push for better conditions is another nail in the coffin of the company.

azza21

custardy wrote: »

what like giving them a license to collect,sort,deliver mail?

Well its not like there is one company a monopoly, City Link, fed ex, ups and so on, all offer services i know there more expensive and not setup as well as royal mail as off yet. But these strikes are only going to make there businesses stronger, people will look for alternatives there has to be other options.

Why can't the goverment do what they done to the rail industry, we got EWS, freightliner and more all working across the country everyone at the time said that wouldn't work. Its working better then ever.

Generali

azza21 wrote: »

Why can't the goverment do what they done to the rail industry, we got EWS, freightliner and more all working across the country everyone at the time said that wouldn't work. Its working better then ever.

Does private rail freight work well? I have no knowledge of the subject other than a generalised idea that rail freight has been declining for decades in favour of road freight.

azza21

Generali wrote: »

Does private rail freight work well? I have no knowledge of the subject other than a generalised idea that rail freight has been declining for decades in favour of road freight.

Some companies are struggling EWS are in paticulour but just looked back how was the rail in the 1990s when it was all british railways before the big change it was in a state. Also in respect most sector in the world econemy are struggling at this moment. The railway is damsight better then it was as just one.