Comments on: Postal Strike http://www.ditdotdat.org/bigcity/2007/10/postal-strike/ Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:09:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Jon http://www.ditdotdat.org/bigcity/2007/10/postal-strike/#comment-9221 Jon Tue, 09 Oct 2007 12:36:17 +0000 http://www.ditdotdat.org/bigcity/2007/10/postal-strike/#comment-9221 I have searched and searched for a coherent or persuasive account of what exactly the CWU are objecting to. The more I read the less convinced I am by their arguments. I was for a long time a union representative for the BBC union BECTU, who have many similarities to the CWU in terms of wanting to protect many restrictive working practices that have accrued over years of muscular union action. I really cannot imagine BECTU trying to defend the position the CWU is adopting now, it really does remind me of the arguments we were having, and mainly losing, ten years ago. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2007/06/who_runs_royal_mail.html" rel="nofollow">Robert Peston</a> says it reminds him of the 70's and I think he's got a point. Having said that, I do agree with you that the management are doing a very poor job - it is they who are responsible for the daft new letter size rules and the lack of innovation in the services offered by Royal Mail. I have searched and searched for a coherent or persuasive account of what exactly the CWU are objecting to. The more I read the less convinced I am by their arguments. I was for a long time a union representative for the BBC union BECTU, who have many similarities to the CWU in terms of wanting to protect many restrictive working practices that have accrued over years of muscular union action. I really cannot imagine BECTU trying to defend the position the CWU is adopting now, it really does remind me of the arguments we were having, and mainly losing, ten years ago. Robert Peston says it reminds him of the 70’s and I think he’s got a point. Having said that, I do agree with you that the management are doing a very poor job - it is they who are responsible for the daft new letter size rules and the lack of innovation in the services offered by Royal Mail.

]]> By: Peter http://www.ditdotdat.org/bigcity/2007/10/postal-strike/#comment-9217 Peter Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:05:14 +0000 http://www.ditdotdat.org/bigcity/2007/10/postal-strike/#comment-9217 I worked for Royal Mail, delivering half a ton of paper a week, for five months. Whilst there were a number of reasons why I left (for example, I got a teaching job) it was the fact that I felt that the senior management were treating my like a dickhead that made it easy to quit. The job I was taken on to do - essentially a relief delivery postie - was poorly conceived and incompetently handed from start to finish, all of which was a senior management issue. The local delivery office managers were generally working hard to deal with the shit that was being lobbed down on them from above. I'm not surprised there's trouble. In a few years Royal Mail has gone from being a massive loss making company to a reasonably profitable one. But it's done this by delivering more items (about 80 million a day) with fewer staff. The result is that the basic postie is being asked to deliver increasing amounts of stuff. The pay is low (I was on just over 6 pounds an hour). Again, I'm not surprised there's trouble. Does it make me an old trot to think that it is the responsibility of the senior management to ensure that a company offers its services, and if industrial relations get to the point that the workers go on strike, then it is the fault of the people at the top to have lost the trust of their staff? Well, probably. Certainly it is the people at the top who benefit when the numbers add up correctly, so I think we should hold them to account when things go wrong. I worked with a man who had been a postie for most of his working life, and now he did the night shift, organising the deliveries as they came in overnight. He would "throw in" i.e. sort the walk I was going to do that day. He had an apparently photographic knowledge of every street in the area, how to divide up the bundles of post, organising them into bags for the optimum delivery route: cross over at number 103, up to 260, pick up another bag from this drop point, then do Arcadia Crescent anti-clockwise ... etc. This sort of expertise saves hours of work, and cannot be replaced with technology or market forces. (Many third party delivery providers sub-contracted the actual delivery of the items to the Royal Mail anyway - it's not cost effective to have more than one person trudging round the houses.) No doubt there are a number of problems with the way our stuff is delivered, but in my experience they have little to do with the people actually putting the stuff through the letterbox. Yes I know there are countless stories of when the postie has done something wrong, but having been there myself (often the one making a mess of it), I know who I am going to blame. I'm not surprised there's trouble. I worked for Royal Mail, delivering half a ton of paper a week, for five months. Whilst there were a number of reasons why I left (for example, I got a teaching job) it was the fact that I felt that the senior management were treating my like a dickhead that made it easy to quit. The job I was taken on to do - essentially a relief delivery postie - was poorly conceived and incompetently handed from start to finish, all of which was a senior management issue. The local delivery office managers were generally working hard to deal with the shit that was being lobbed down on them from above. I’m not surprised there’s trouble.

In a few years Royal Mail has gone from being a massive loss making company to a reasonably profitable one. But it’s done this by delivering more items (about 80 million a day) with fewer staff. The result is that the basic postie is being asked to deliver increasing amounts of stuff. The pay is low (I was on just over 6 pounds an hour). Again, I’m not surprised there’s trouble.

Does it make me an old trot to think that it is the responsibility of the senior management to ensure that a company offers its services, and if industrial relations get to the point that the workers go on strike, then it is the fault of the people at the top to have lost the trust of their staff? Well, probably. Certainly it is the people at the top who benefit when the numbers add up correctly, so I think we should hold them to account when things go wrong.

I worked with a man who had been a postie for most of his working life, and now he did the night shift, organising the deliveries as they came in overnight. He would “throw in” i.e. sort the walk I was going to do that day. He had an apparently photographic knowledge of every street in the area, how to divide up the bundles of post, organising them into bags for the optimum delivery route: cross over at number 103, up to 260, pick up another bag from this drop point, then do Arcadia Crescent anti-clockwise … etc. This sort of expertise saves hours of work, and cannot be replaced with technology or market forces. (Many third party delivery providers sub-contracted the actual delivery of the items to the Royal Mail anyway - it’s not cost effective to have more than one person trudging round the houses.)

No doubt there are a number of problems with the way our stuff is delivered, but in my experience they have little to do with the people actually putting the stuff through the letterbox. Yes I know there are countless stories of when the postie has done something wrong, but having been there myself (often the one making a mess of it), I know who I am going to blame. I’m not surprised there’s trouble.

]]> By: othermachines http://www.ditdotdat.org/bigcity/2007/10/postal-strike/#comment-9216 othermachines Sun, 07 Oct 2007 20:13:37 +0000 http://www.ditdotdat.org/bigcity/2007/10/postal-strike/#comment-9216 Sign me up! Sign me up!

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