Another royal Mail strike. Has it gone on long enough now? Do they actually have any public sympathy?

Question

under pressure - are you a postie by any chance? why are they willing to lose pay by striking? simply because they know their actions will inconvenience the public.

snetterton - I know many people who would be happy to earn £250 a week. Lots of people earn the minimum wage and they don't strike

Answer 1

I am delighted there is another strike, yeah no bills for a few days !

Answer 2

I have had the same postie for the passed 12 years and until recently never had an complaints. However, of late I have found my post has been tucked into the junk mail and I actually threw a letter belonging to my next door neighbour into my recycling bin. I only realised this when the letter fell out of the junk mail.

The point I'm making is that if a postie with long service has become so dissalutioned with his job surely there must be a problem.

However, I do not condone this strike as it going to cause a great deal of distress to those in business and private householders. And I think that in big cities and rural areas Royal Mail will lose the support of the public.

I shall still be giving my posite his usual Christmas box of five pounds as he does his job above and beyond the call of duty. But you can tell the frustration is creeping in by the mistakes he has been making of late.

Answer 3

Yes, they have my full support.
It has gone long enough only because the big bosses don't want to negotiate.
Do you think posties enjoy not being paid?

Janet H, I can see it from the public's point of view. But what do you suggest they do? If they don't put pressure on Royal Mail their big bosses will just keep getting paid millions for working an hour each week.
Those are the people the public should be complaining to.

Hear hear neogriff!
People seem to think that the posties will lose business if the keep striking because the customers will just use another courier. Well guess who sorts the parcels and letters for other couriers, Royal Mail.

Answer 4

Royal Mail are committing commercial suicide by delivering other companies mail at a loss. Do people actually think that TNT, UKMail etc are delivering the mail that they collect? because they aren't. They are giving it to Royal Mail to deliver to the public.
Would you like to have your working hours annualised? So you wouldn't know what hours or shifts you were working from one day to the next? how about if your boss changed your working week from Mon-Fri and told you you would have to work Tue - Sat instead? would you be able to cope if you were a single parent with young children if you didn't know when you were going to need childcare?
How about if your bosses decided to take £10k out of your personal pension fund (money that you have paid in, they don't contribute a penny) so that they can afford to pay their executives £1m a year whilst they won't even give you a pay rise in line with inflation?

Get a grip. It's not about public sympathy, It's about being treated with contempt by your employers. Or are you really that naive that you think this is all about trying to inconvenience the public? Have a go at Postcomm if you want someone to blame, It's down to them that RM is in this situation in the first place.

Answer 5

I have sympathy for them.

The so-called pay increase is actually a pay cut, because it is lower than inflation.

Part of the problem is the cost of living. Everything is going up, mortgages, fuel bills, council tax to name just a few. To maintain a decent standard of living, wages should go up also.

Postal workers do an important and vital job, especially at busy times like Christmas, as well as dealing with mail for our forces overseas.

Unfortunately, the British public's attitude is all too sad. "If I can't have it, why should anyone else?" . Very selfish.

p.s. no, I don't work for Royal Mail.

Answer 6

Claire, I went to church all of my life from the time I was born until I went to college. During my college years, I went whenever I felt like it. However, after moving to a different state for work, I decided that I wanted/needed to attend church again. There are no churches like the one I grew up in so I took about a year and "tested" out the different churches. I think that before you can decide which church is right for you, you need to do a little self-check. What do you believe? What are your 2 or 3 main points that a church must have as their foundation? By doing this, you can narrow the church search down. While visiting churches, take in how the people treat you and the things, classes, events that are offered for your age group. If you have children, I believe that it's vital to see what programs are offered for your children. May God bless you in getting back in church. Although I do not believe a person has to be a member of a church to be saved, it is awesome to have a group of people that share your beliefs to talk to when you need them. Hope this helps.

Answer 7

All the major letter delivery services in the UK depend on the reliability of the postal workers, they usually do a sterling job, but now feel threatened to have many of their jobs cut, and an increase in wages lower than the rate of inflation imposed onto them.
They feel unappreciated by their superiors within the company.
They are still talking, I hope they can sort things out, I doubt they can save all the jobs, but they will still need people to deliver by hand to all the addresses in the UK countries.
I am upset by the effect of the strike, but I nevertheless admire the people who do this work in all weathers, and understand some of their concerns.
I am glad talks are taking place, the workers should have been consulted on any proposed changes, before they were presented with them. I would like to see better relationships between the senior staff, and the workers on a ongoing basis.

Answer 8

I do have some sympathy for their cause actually, when the company you work for starts to go down the pan and the staff are demoralised and underpaid and conditions are getting worse.
Don`t forget that anyone who strikes doesn`t get paid and if i felt strongly enough about something i would give it due consideration.
The service from the post office has been getting worse for the last few years, the Managers need to value their employees and motivate them to do a good job or it will continue to go downhill.

Answer 9

Neogriff. I agree with you entirely.
But it seems to me that the Public have not been given the
complete picture with regards to the necessity for Postal workers Strike Action.
Royal Mail propaganda does not tell you that pay, conditions,
working practises, have been changed, by their repeated voice to postal workers, to fear Competition.
Postal System, would not be in its present predicament if
Royal Mail had not mismanaged, in the first place.
By the acquisition & purchase of Foreign Postal Systems , by
so-called "Whizz-kids" & their subsequent sale of them, at
£'s million loss.
Shortfall to the Pension fund, again caused by mismanagement.
Now trying to cut the workforce accordingly, to compensate.
Interfere with current pension agreements, without prior
consultation with the CWU.
Yes , Strikes are disruptive to normal life. But Postal
Workers , are prepared to sacrifice their earnings, by justification , to save the Postal System,
in its present form, which has always been, for a century & longer , a Caring Service to the British Poplus.
The situation certainly needs " Sorting ".
"Let Right Be Done "....!

Answer 10

I dint think that those who organise these strikes realise the damage they are causing both to themselves and,more importantly their customers.
All these strikes will do is give the private companies more of a foothold as people switch to a more reliable company to distribute and deliver their mail.
The Royal Mail in recent years has slowly got worse at providing their services what with closing hundreds of Post Offices,cutting down on deliveries and being very unreliable.
I cannot see the point anymore in having first,and second class mail because you are lucky now to even receive mail that is posted and the situation is getting worse.
The Unions do not realise that due to all this industrial action there will be mor staff laid off.
Give us a decent and good reliable postal service which we are paying for.
I support their wanting to get issues resolved but, not at the customers expense.

Answer 11

they have very little public support and the longer this madness goes on the public will turn against them, it was announced yesterday that another 2500 post office,s are to close,so why arent the posties out on the streets drumming up support with a petition informing M,P,s if they dont put pressure on the goverment to step in and do something to bring the post office into this century they will not get there support at the next election, then lets see what happens when M,P,s are suddenly threatened with there jobs after all there are post offices in every constituency, personaly i have no use for the post office but i can appreciate a lot of people do especially those in rural areas,