The postal strike [Merged]

[Southover Street Seagull]

But weren't you striking about losing overtime, or some other daft reason, during the summer?

Ever other company (bar the NHS I think) is losing it's Final Salary pension. Get over it, and whilst getting over it could you possibly deliver some mail. The fresh morning air might help you clear your mind.

No I wasn't striking about overtime in the summer, it was about pay, flexibilty, operational changes and the destruction of workplace agreements by Royal Mail.
Royal Mail has now cynically brought the pension issue into the fray onto the back of the pay deal.

I won't get over the pension scheme, this is my future and something I beleive in fighting for. We wouldn't be in this mess if wasn't partly due to Royal Mail having a 17 year pension holiday and if the current board challenged the government on the unfair regulation we are now under.

I don't deliver mail for Royal Mail.

My mind is very clear.

 

[London Calling]

its not the postmans fault it is Royal Mail.
Postman aren't striking about pay, its Crozier and Leighton asset stripping

Crozier, arr yes, Post Office through and through that bloke.

 

[Southover Street Seagull]

Stat - what do you think about there being no early post? I don't get mine before 1 on a good day!

Royal Mail introduced this as a cost cutting measure.

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

It is still a public company owned by the government, please read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mail

Why shouldn't I keep the final salary scheme I have been paying into since I was eighteen? It is piss poor management by previous directors and Leighton and Croziers lack of a challenge to unfair postal regulation that is causing problems in Royal Mail.

Ok, but it doesn't receive any public money, and nor should it.

Do you mean the unfair regulation that opened up the postal market to regulation. How is that unfair? Should the public have to pay more to keep the posties in the manner to which they have become accustomed. Why shouldn't they modernise like other public services?

 

[ben andrews' girlfriend]

Royal Mail introduced this as a cost cutting measure.

So they cut cost, yet dont give money to you? Does it make your job easier, or harder?

 

[London Calling]

Post Office managed to lose some of mail - Recorded Delivery - again recently. Nope it wasn't in the sorting office, nope, it wasn't at the local PO, nope, we don't know where it is. "But we can have it redelivered, to your house or your Local Post Office". "But our local Post Office - since the closures is a mile away" and you don't know where it is so how can you redeliver it.!!!

 

[clippedgull]

Here we go again, people who slag off out postal system should try a few other country's services. then you;d learn to appreciate what a good service we have. The postal workers are merely trying to save their jobs so I don't blame them one iota. It's just amazing how selfish some people can be.

Agreed.

Good luck to the Posties.

I can wait for the bills, no rush

 

[pasty]

That last sentence makes my point. face a fact, with all due respect to them people who become postal workers do so as they don't have a lot of options hence have far more difficulty finding a job than many.

If I am reading that correctly, that is incredibly patronising towards posties. Why would someone who is a postman have any harder time finding a different job than anybody else?

 

[DIFFBROOK]

Agreed.

Good luck to the Posties.

I can wait for the bills, no rush

Seconded. Good luck to all Posties, esp the ones on here.

 

[Southover Street Seagull]

So they cut cost, yet dont give money to you? Does it make your job easier, or harder?

Harder with all the cost cutting, and the public get a worse service too!

 

[ben andrews' girlfriend]

Harder with all the cost cutting, and the public get a worse service too!

Well, i can understand that!!

Our postie doesnt knock on the door when he's delivering a parcel - he jsut puts the red card through!! He put a red card through for a recorded delivery (when we were all downstairs near the door) and also put a red card through for an amazon one - when it could go through the letterbox! (I tried it!) Is it worth complianing about - or will it just be ignored?

 

[Southover Street Seagull]

The same as your mother's hourly rate?

This is a postperson's wage excluding allowances and overtime.

I am assuming the first two brackets are for 16-18 year olds.

Length of service Pay
£215.95
£251.94
First 6 months £327.43
Next 6 months £343.67
£359.92

For a 40 hour week this equates to £8.99 per hour before tax.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Ever other company (bar the NHS I think) is losing it's Final Salary pension. Get over it, and whilst getting over it could you possibly deliver some mail. The fresh morning air might help you clear your mind.

Most companies are not losing their final salary schemes, they are just not allowing new starters into it. That is certainly what has happened where I work.

 

[Southover Street Seagull]

Well, i can understand that!!

Our postie doesnt knock on the door when he's delivering a parcel - he jsut puts the red card through!! He put a red card through for a recorded delivery (when we were all downstairs near the door) and also put a red card through for an amazon one - when it could go through the letterbox! (I tried it!) Is it worth complianing about - or will it just be ignored?

Yes complain, beacuse as far as I know they should knock on the door and see if someone is in. I say far as I know as I work for Royal Mail but am not a postman.

 

[Woodchip]

This is a postperson's wage excluding allowances and overtime.

I am assuming the first two brackets are for 16-18 year olds.

Length of service Pay
£215.95
£251.94
First 6 months £327.43
Next 6 months £343.67
£359.92

For a 40 hour week this equates to £8.99 per hour before tax.

40 hour week. Jeez, you guys are part time compared to milkmen. And as for overtime, milkmen can only dream of that.

 

[The Wookiee]

mate of mine got post this morning? strange

Scab

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

Most companies are not losing their final salary schemes, they are just not allowing new starters into it. That is certainly what has happened where I work.

All Civil servants have been moved onto an average wage plan.

 

[Uncle Buck]

All Civil servants have been moved onto an average wage plan.

Do not give my lot ideas, the Final Salary Scheme is one of the few perks left.

 

[Southover Street Seagull]

Ok, but it doesn't receive any public money, and nor should it.

Do you mean the unfair regulation that opened up the postal market to regulation. How is that unfair? Should the public have to pay more to keep the posties in the manner to which they have become accustomed. Why shouldn't they modernise like other public services?

That is quite correct we do not receive public money. The 1.2 billion pounds we recently received from the government is a loan which we have to pay back at commercial rates. We also received £800 million off the government which has gone into an Escrow account to protect pensions if the company goes bust. This £800 million is technically Royal Mail money, as when Royal Mail took a pension holiday it still bought government bonds with the money it could have been putting in the pension scheme.
I will give you an example of the unfair regulation that Royal Mail has to put up with.

Royal Mail from time to time comes up with new products to sell to it's customers. In the past Royal Mail just created these products and sold them to the customer. Now however they have to show the new product to the regulator, who in turn shows it to Royal Mail's competitors. They then say if they are happy with it and if that is the case the regulator approves the new product for Royal Mail.

Royal Mail has to give access to its pipeline to rival competitors, it is called Downstream Access (DSA). Royal Mail is not allowed to set the price for this DSA work the regulator does, and this favours the competitors who have invested nothing in the Post Office structure since it was founded in 1660. So they can undercut Royal Mail and offer a cheaper service and they have done nothing for it. So they just cream off all the profitable mail from Royal Mail, they aren't interested in social mail just business mail.


Royal Mail has to offer the same contracts to big organisations all over the country. So say for arguments sake Royal Mail wins a mail contract with East Sussex County Council, they would have to offer the same terms to all other County Councils in the country. Our competitiors can mix and match and undercut Royal Mail.

That is why I say it is unfair competition

 

[Gazwag]

Fair play to the posties,they have familys too and don't obviously get paid for striking.

Whole thing about striking is its a big risk to cross the picket lines so even if you dont agree with the strike you dont get much choice if the unions tell you to strike.

When I was young my Dad (a British Rail driver) was on strike for ages and even today (30? odd years later) those that crossed the picket lines are ignored and known as scabs.