Is my employer doomed? :-( Postal Strike content . . .

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Is my employer doomed? :-( Postal Strike content . . .

31 posts & 22 voices | Started 2 years ago by SST | Latest reply from toby1

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SST - Member

We ship between 3000 and 5500 packets/large letters a day.
That's around 8 Yorks for International and anything up to 15 Cages for UK post.

By the time the 2 Royal Mail lorries arrive at 4pm our despatch area is jammed, overflow goes out in the car park.

If we were to miss a single days dispatch we would simply run out of space.

The business is 100% mail order (80% via Amazon). There is no other way to buy our product.

A one day strike would make life very difficult. Anything longer will be fatal.

60 peoples jobs are a stake.

So, are we doomed . . . . .

Posted 2 years ago #
atlaz - Member

Nope. Go for a different postal service. Sadly, the strikers are making it so more people are switching from Royal Mail to couriers.

Posted 2 years ago #
BigJohn - Member

Get TNT or Citipost to come and talk to you.

Posted 2 years ago #
uplink - Member

Do any couriers deliver letters door to door for anything like the cost of a stamp?

I'd hate to reduce anyone's right to withdraw their labour but I really do think that that essential services should be made to accept independent arbitration with the outcome binding on both sides & without any interference from government.

Posted 2 years ago #
ernie_lynch - Member

Sadly, the strikers are making it so more people are switching from Royal Mail to couriers.

Nope. Not the strikers, but Royal Mail management.

Royal Mail management was fully aware when they tore up the agreement to work with the CWU that it would precipitate industrial action. But they couldn't have cared less, believing that the public would blame the CWU and not them.

There was never a chance that CWU members would allow management to walk all over them, and well they knew it. Had Royal Mail management wanted to avoid strike action, then they would stuck to their agreement with the CWU. Simple as ....... but they clearly couldn't have given a toss.

The entire top management and their negotiators should be sacked and replaced by a management who puts their customers before their own fat bonuses.

EDIT : And Peter Mandelson should accept full responsibility for the mess that Royal Mail is in now and resign, or be sacked.

"With great salaries comes great responsibility"

Posted 2 years ago #
tails - Member

sst i would speak to another courier and fast, perhaps if alot of your business is through amazon speak to them about who they are using. Ask your boss if anything has been put in place, you can always change back to RM when they are more stable but you can't if you go under.

Posted 2 years ago #
uplink - Member

if alot of your business is through amazon speak to them about who they are using

Amazon primarily use RM IIRC

Posted 2 years ago #
Flaperon - Member

Equally, because of the union's refusal to accept modernisation, we have the most backward postal system in the world when it comes to sorting. The new machines are sitting in new, purpose built areas and are unused. I have more sympathy with the management than the workers tbh.

Posted 2 years ago #
tails - Member

Amazon primarily use RM IIRC

it was in the news this week that amazon are looking or already have and alternative due to the strikes. Whether they will advise the op i don't know

Posted 2 years ago #
ernie_lynch - Member

because of the union's refusal to accept modernisation, we have the most backward postal system in the world when it comes to sorting. The new machines are sitting in new, purpose built areas and are unused

Simply not true. The CWU fully accepts modernisation. That was the whole basis of the 2007 agreement with management. An agreement which management has now chosen to throw out. In fact that's the crux of the problem. The CWU wants modernisation, whereas the politically motivated management wants downsizing and cuts in services to make the company ripe for privatisation.

The CWU has accepted much of the changes needed to modernise the service such as the new walk sequencing machines on trial in the Gatwick and Bristol. But these changes must lead to better services, not simply greater profits (on top of the existing huge profits) with worst services to satisfy profit hungry foreign privateers.

Royal Mail management has insisted there would not be any compulsory redundancies, and that quote : "We do these things by agreement". Obviously not the case. And btw, with unemployment creeping up to 3 million and the worst global recession for at least 60 years, the number one priority right now, should be to try to safeguard jobs. Not finding new ways of throwing people out of work. Modernisation by all means, but in the interests of customers and those who work in the industry, not foreign privately owned companies.

Posted 2 years ago #
project - Member

Amazon are now transfering deliveries to Home delivery network, the people in the white vans.

Probably the other companies will not be able to cope with the sudden influx of new work, due to lack of staff and logistics problems.

Royal Mail needs sorting out,but cant be got rid of just adapted tio the new world.

SST, what exactly do you mail out.

Posted 2 years ago #
druidh - Member

Can your employer not sue the Royal Mail (well - actually the Unions) for loss of business?

Posted 2 years ago #
Elmo - Member

Are you sure your area is proposing to strike?
Why don't you get in touch with your local Parcelforce Depot.
Although not as cheap, the sales rep may be able to sort something out shore term so you can satisfy your customers demands.
Not ideal,but under the circumstances.

Posted 2 years ago #
roddersrambler - Member

Be careful about using other companies to deliver some parcels and all letters as they just pass them on to Royal mail to deliver (fwiw royal mail deliver it at a loss,great system that ! )So you might have your loading bay cleared but if strikes are on your product might not get delivered.

Posted 2 years ago #
Trustyrusty - Member

Where's Cressers when you need him?....

....or did his world really end?

Posted 2 years ago #
big_n_daft - Member

Modernisation by all means, but in the interests of customers and those who work in the industry, not foreign privately owned companies.

I would hae thought the best way forward would be to have modernisation that benefits the customer first. The people who work in the the industry are the brake (management or staff), the foriegn companies are just going to help bale labour out of a debt/ pension crisis and rip us off.

Generally getting a world class efficient service is more important to me than subsidising a work creation scheme. I also would rather it was the current PO rather than given the 192 treatment. It just seems to be a bit of a pipedream though

Posted 2 years ago #
philfive - Member

my company is covering some of royal mails work and to be fair the operation is a joke and they must lose money hand over fist, wagons half full and staff that dont care.

im sorry to say something needs to be done to sort the post office to make it more efficient and yes it will mean job losses but they use 3 wagons to transport 1 trailer load.

Posted 2 years ago #
SST - Member

project - books. Tons of them daily all over the world.

Posted 2 years ago #
ChatsworthMusters - Member

Is ernie lynch really Billy Hayes's log on name?

Posted 2 years ago #
Mr Woppit - Member

What are "spanish practices", exactly?

Posted 2 years ago #
brant - Member

So, are we doomed . . . . .

Surely any decent company dependant on this sort of thing would have a contingency plan for such eventualities?

Posted 2 years ago #
bruneep - Member

What are "spanish practices", exactly?

Spanish Practices

Posted 2 years ago #
dangerousbeans - Member

Agree with Brant, any business that will fold after 2 days if one of its commercial partners cannot deliver would not be a well run business.

Posted 2 years ago #
Mr Woppit - Member

A- ha. Nice non-work if you can get it...

Posted 2 years ago #
dangerousbeans - Member

Not always Mr Woppit, it's not always about people trying to get paid for nothing. Can also be beneficial to the employer, for example if a worker does Sat morning overtime over his contracted hours for a number of years an employer can claim an implied contract was in place and insist on them working that O/T as part of their contract.

Or, as has happened recently at a NHS Trust I know, someone who has done permanent night shifts for over 20 years even though their contract is for days/nights is claiming an implied contract. They were asked to do permanent nights by their employer, agreed to it, and have done it for a considerable time. The verbal parts of a contract are as valid as the written parts if you have evidence of their existence.

Posted 2 years ago #
Mr Woppit - Member

I'm beginning to get the impression that both sides have been acting like a bunch of twunts. One lot that don't understand how to work responsibly and the other lot who couldn't manage a pissup in a brewery...

Someone needs to bang some heads together, methinks.

Posted 2 years ago #
west kipper - Member

I have severe issues with the unions tactics, but I think the public has been misled about the current dispute(please note, its NOT a pay dispute).
About ten years ago Royal mail was allowed to take a pension holiday, in order to fund modernisation- No modernisation ever took place.
Virtually every year since, There has been significant cuts to frontline staffing levels and massive increases in workload, all with the aim of saving money 'to invest in modernisation'- little or no modernisation took place.
Royal mail has been allowed to abandon many aspects of its service to the public, yet its PR department diverts criticism onto its'underworked,militant workforce',away from the operational decisions IT took.
In 2007 the CWU eventually agreed to see another 40000 job losses, again to modernise, but since then we see LESS genuine modernisation,more manual and more double handling than ever. Its become like that tune'Soldier, soldier', where we need to make 'just one more sacrifice'and every thing will be perfect.
At what point do people stop blaming posties and start realising that the ones responsible for the increasingly poor service are the largely incompetent appointees 'running'the company?

Posted 2 years ago #
stumpyjon - Member

Royal Mail management has insisted there would not be any compulsory redundancies, and that quote : "We do these things by agreement". Obviously not the case. And btw, with unemployment creeping up to 3 million and the worst global recession for at least 60 years, the number one priority right now, should be to try to safeguard jobs.

Well if the CWU believed there would be no compulsory redundancies they were pretty stupid. Modernisation normally entails speeding things up and mechanising processes, reducing the need for people who cost a lot and are inconsistent in what they do. RM may have hoped they could reduce through natural wastage but it was unlikely in an organistion as people heavy as RM.

As for safeguarding jobs . The whole point of the RM is to provide a service for it's customers or depending on your viewpoint generating a profit for it's shareholders. Jobs creation and rentention is completely irrelevant, if you are speaking for the unions side then no wonder people have little sympathy. It's not all about the workers (obviously it is if you work for RM), we just want economic and efficient deliveries. The trouble is the union seems to equate quality of service with whatever the employees want, thing is the rest of us can see through that gibberish.

Posted 2 years ago #
west kipper - Member

The heartbreaking thing is, stumpyjon, is everybody HAD an efficient and cost effective mail service that used its monopoly position to offer a low cost, high standard service to all.
When(not if)RM gets it way over this,the service you receive will be even worse-people are naive to think coming changes are going to benefit them.
Royal mails long term aims are to reduce deliveries from 6, to 5, to as low as 2 day a week, depending on how central your location is. Want a more frequent delivery than that? you'll be paying extra/ paying for a PO box.
Personally I'm pretty resigned to loosing my job .I work a 9 to 10 hour day for 8 hours pay, am expected to take no breaks and work at 100% during that period.It won't break my heart for me to do something else.
But I will be desperately sad for what the country has lost.

Posted 2 years ago #
ernie_lynch - Member

Well if the CWU believed there would be no compulsory redundancies they were pretty stupid.

Pretty stupid to believe Royal Mail management ? Pretty stupid not to realise that Royal Mail management are liars who don't stick to agreements ? Well I suppose you might have a point there stumpyjon.

After all, the CWU leadership has shown it itself to have been pretty stupid in it's tactics, believing that totally ineffectual regional and one or two day strikes would in anyway at all, bother RM management or their political masters in the government.

RM management and Peter Madelson know full well that these long drawn out tactics only serves to turn an ill-informed public against the union and haemorrhage customers to the private sector - which after all, is the goal of Peter Madelson and his overpaid cronies in RM management.

A national indefinite strike would have had a real effect and would have sent the Royal Mail wreckers running to the negotiating table within a couple of days. Sadly the CWU leadership is spineless and wants to take industrial action which has "minimal effect" on the public, and the New Labour government which they prop up.

And incidentally, the CWU leadership is still committed to supporting New Labour despite all the damage it has done to it's membership and it's attacks on the industry. Yes, "pretty stupid" sounds a fair description.

.

As for safeguarding jobs

Why the rolling eyes ?

What sort of pretty stupid person doesn't realise the importance of saving guarding jobs, specially in the depths of a global recession ? What sort of pretty stupid person doesn't realise the importance of having someone at work paying taxes rather than subsidising them to sit at home and watch daytime TV ? What sort of pretty stupid person doesn't realise that "modernisation" can mean improved services for customers such as the reintroduction of twice daily delivery ? What sort of pretty stupid person doesn't realise perhaps RM does not need increase it's profits when last year it had already doubled it profits and all four parts of the business is making a profit ?

Unless of course, the support even more profit for profit-hungry foreign privateers .....

Posted 2 years ago #
toby1 - Member

Re having a contingency plan, what if for example you ship from Jersey where you are forced 'legally' to ship through Jersey Post, who effectively just sort for the Royal Mail what then in a market of high competition and high customer expectations, you are left forced to use a striking shipper who do you no favours by going on strike in the approach to Christmas and what for a large volume of online retailers will make up 75% of your years business, and what if it's alerady been a crappy year and you really need this Christmas to be a good one.

By the way, I appreciate that the posties aren't to blame as such, the crappy cost saving management and unions are a pain.

If I'm still in a job this time next year it won't be thanks to the bloody Royal Mail!

Posted 2 years ago #

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