Thursday, October 08, 2009

Why this union must stop its back-to-the-future approach

The Royal Mail monopoly on postal sorting and delivery ended over three years ago. Parcel delivery monopoly went even longer ago. Yet the Communications Workers Union seems to be reliving the bad old days of the 1970s in which monolithic state industries with a legal monopoly run a fair chunk of the UK economy. In the real world of 2009, Royal Mail no longer has a monopoly and is now open to the harsh winds of competition.

And the result of the strikes organized by the CWU? Royal Mail has just lost the contract for Amazon, its 2nd largest customer. This is not something that can be dismissed. The growth of internet retail sales could offset the huge fall in the number of letters sent. This is the area of growth Royal Mail must get into or otherwise see its business go down the pan. And the CWU needs to wake up to the real world or risk a suicidal course of action that could destroy the business in which its members work.
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amazon are denying that they have cancelled the contract according to http://tinyurl.com/y85vz4d

Perhaps this rumour is being circulated as a warning shot - and maybe to both sides in this dispute.

I do hope thet Royal Mail executives are sharing the pain of this - necessary - restructuring with their employees - but I fear they are not.

Anonymous said...

CWU needs to wake up to the real world or risk a suicidal course of action that could destroy the business in which its members work.

......... and because of that I should accept my pay being stopped because a manager thinks I can complete my round in the time given, and I believe I cannot. This without any formal process of testing me or evaluating my round or even seeing how much I have to deliver.

....... and because of that Posties are being suspended or having their pay stopped because they cant do the voluntary 30 minutes overtime.

................ and because of that local Managers received multi £k bonuses and Posties received £0.

By the way Royal Mails figures of 10% decline has to be matched to a 30% decline in headcount, hardly sounds like a workforce against change, more like one against corporate and local bullying. Treat Posties with respect, come to agreed settlements on standards and workloads, with outside monitoring and auditing (which RM have rejected) and the strikes from March this year would not have happened.

BTW has anybody checked what the results of Modernisation have been over the last 10 years or so. Less longer and later deliveries, closure of 1,000s of Post Offices, less collections during the day, and cancellation of Sunday and Bank Holiday collections, 60,000 reduction in workforce, a more complicated charging system called Pricing in proportion, more vehicles on the road. As a postie the only modernisation I have seen is an increase in walk sorted mail, but I still have to sequence it before delivery.

Do I want a Pay rise - No its not justified in the present climate and I wish it would not be reported in the Business friendly media that this is the main reason for the strikes.

Anonymous said...

"BTW has anybody checked what the results of Modernisation have been over the last 10 years or so. Less longer and later deliveries, closure of 1,000s of Post Offices, less collections during the day, and cancellation of Sunday and Bank Holiday collections, 60,000 reduction in workforce..."

If the need for a service is declining due to alternative communication methods coming into use it stands to reason that there would be closures and job losses.

Where is the evidence that Sunday & public holiday collections were really necessary? It isn't that big a deal if something I put in the post box on Saturday evening isn't collected until Monday.

Neither did I ever see the need for more than one collection - or delivery - per day for non-business addresses at any rate.

I think CWU is in a lose-lose situation.

A prolonged strike is going to drive even more of Royal Mail's business customers to courier services - irrespective of how good or bad those services are - and in my rural neck of the woods they are usually rubbish. If that's the only way businesses can get their goods to their customers that's what they are going to do - irrespective of the hassle for - at least - domestic customers - I would far rather have Royal Mail deliver to my house than any of the couriers.

So you get to lose your jobs both ways.

No-one has a job for life any more.