Jobs, conditions, modernsation, all of the above?

Can someone write me a short paragraph explaining what the issues are and what the CWU's demands regarding them are?

I'm not trolling, I have a lot of sympathy with the strikers based soley on the fact that Royal Mail managers appear to be complete fecktards, but I don't understand the demands properly.

Anyone? A prize to the most coherent explanation.

What's the prize?

Surprise.

it was a tenner in an envelope but alas it was stolen 😉 igmc

BBC has some info, the gist of it was I think that RM would not confirm job losses to the union resulting from modernisation. Union expecting lots of jobs to be cut and replaced with part time workers. Postie rich no doubt has much more info.

I've worked for Royal Mail for 21 years.
In brief, Royal Mail is buying a lot of new sorting machinery, and threatening to close a number of sorting offices (but not saying which), resulting in a potentially large reduction in staff.
This driven in by managers who are ineffective and untrained at dealing with this kind of transformation, and so implementing it badly.

But don't they need to modernize because they are making a loss ?

But don't they need to modernize because they are making a loss ?

Nope – just less a million pounds a day profit IIRC.

NikNak7890: I guess you are in the same position as car workers were in a few years ago, automation has the potential to make a lot of people redundant. Are the union/employees trying to prevent job losses or protesting at the way it is being handled?

But don't they need to modernize because they are making a loss ?

I don't think the Royal Mail should need to be profit making, they don't have any share holders to satisfy. Their aim should be to make an operating profit sufficient to fund investment and fund the pension fund.

Nope – just less a million pounds a day profit IIRC.

Not what I heard from someone in the know…….

IIRC the RM already has the sorting equipment (and has had it for quite a while) and it's sitting in a warehouse somewhere slowly becoming obsolete.

It does appear that the transition is being badly managed with appalling 'cloak and dagger' tactics from RM. I see why CWU is concerned, but I don't think there's a real alternative for the workers unfortunately.

The outcome is inevitable – some workers replaced by automation – but the process by which that happens should have been started a long time ago, hence the present mess.

I don't think the Royal Mail should need to be profit making

I really think it should, even in public hands it should pay for its self and raise enough money to invest in the future, modernisation and pension plan included, without raiding other sources of funding

djglover – That is exactly what I said.

Some aspects of RM do need to modernise, undoubtably, unfortunately there is massive cynicism due to the fact that previous 'modernisations' have not involved new technology or mechanisation but have simply involved the labour intensive, yet relativly efficient parts of the service being made to work harder with less resources.
I dont know this next bit for sure, but have heard rumours that RM has bought a certain amount of new sorting machines, but they have turned out to be the wrong ones, and dont cope well with 'British conditions'- maybe they need bigger discs and risers? 🙂

In the nearly 27 years i worked there a common thread ran through.Every manager we had had been a failed postman .So when faced with what shall we do with him ? Answer lets put him in charge.Then as they piss off more and more staff they get promoted again .Result is management structure consists of failures right to the top .As for Crozier and his £3 million a year , previous track record not that impressive eh ?So there you have it .In a nutshell lions led by donkeys 'nuff said !

In a nutshell lions led by donkeys

come come, you're referring to postmen as 'lions'?

actually, thinking again, that's not bad, as long as we specify male lions. Lie under tree scratching your bollocks whilst the female lions go out and do the work.

The company HAVE agreed a contract to buy a certain amount of new machinery. They haven't been delivered (or necessarily all built) yet. They aren't the wrong machines, and as far as coping with British conditions, we allow virtually any shape letter to be posted without question; from some no larger than the stamp itself (I've seen plenty of those), through triangular up to brooms, flowers, live insects and blood.

The machine's are going through trials to ensure they ARE right before RM pays the company the money to deliver them.

I think the car industry is a good analogy, as there are still large sections of the business that handle mail manually, and because of that, compared to automation, costly.

There is a large percentage of middle managers that have come through the ranks via nepotism or "do you fancy having a go". There is little or no formal management training for them, and as such they have some very poor/ antiquated practices.

The reason the business is in dire straits, is that we ARE seeing the volumes of mail posted by the general public dropping, and other direct mailing companies (junk mail) are allowed to use our system at a massively reduced cost (roughly 13p per letter).
Also RM took a 13 year holiday from paying into the pension fund (note the employees weren't given that option) because it was told by the tax man that it would be fined if it didn't reduce the size of its pot, and now we find ourselves with a 12 Billion pound pension hole!

Just part of the problem but here goes…..

In our office we had 26 delivery rounds RM introduced this all singing and dancing computer module that would tell us how many rounds can be disolved between us all. We lost one, which basically means we were already working to near full capacity.

Local area manager told us of the same module been applied in Putney where they had 90 delivery rounds. It lost 27!! In other words they have been getting away with murder, and are striking because they want to keep getting away with murder.

I must confess I haven't really got a clue and have long since given up listening to the news – but somehow I can't see this ending well for the postmen.

Whether RM are making a profit or not today in the long run it is largely an irrelevance. Profit centered or not every organization has a responsibility to seek further operational efficiencies and drive out costs. If not to produce a return for its shareholders then to provide increased value for money to its customers. This is even more transparent to see when the organization itself has a monopoly over some of its service offerings with significant constraints on barriers to entry to enable fair competition.

The potential for a 1 or 2p saving on a first class stamp will mean nothing to me – but in aggregate could create material savings for many business customers who are facing very turbulent and difficult times with the longest recession in UK history

IMO the CWU need to "wake up and smell the coffee" and realize that further and continued modernization is inevitable and will help to protect jobs over the longer term.

The CWU and the postal workers may have significant pockets of public support at the moment but it will not last. In the medium term joe public will not give toss how many postal workers lose their jobs and pensions so long as they get get their mail delivered. Postal workers are low skilled, easily substituted and sadly there are far too many bad apples amongst them which distracts from the hard work that I trust many of them do.

Steps down from Soap box.

Modernisation is going to happen at sometime. The only thing to be decided is when and how ruined is RM going to be when it happens. The longer all this striking goes on, the more expensive it is going to be for the tax payer. Whilst I can sympathise with the CWU to some degree, ultimately the tax payer should be getting the best value it can – as far as I can see that'll involve slashing the workforce and introducing automation. Sad, but that's the way it is – in the private sector the workforce would be expected to suck it up.

Double post.