Sorry but the postal strike is really annoying me. My Hubby works in a very low paid job?

Question

Hubby works nights for which time I have to have a carer. He does not have the oppurtunity or luxury to strike. For those of you that do not know, we do not get free anything for me being diasabled. But we prefer that Hubby earns a living rather than claiming it all back in benefits. I am currently waiting for a hospital letter regarding an operation. With the postal strike it is easier to phone the hospital. Do they not realise that post is not the only form of communication? If Hubby could get a job with the post office it would boost our money substantially, but alas, he has to continue to work for a very low wage.

Answer 1

I know what you mean, the postal service is on strike and all the big businesses are using couriers to make deliveries that are important, and letters can be sent via email or by using the phone, so at the end of the day it is there problem when they will have to catch up with all the work that has been already posted and waiting for delivery as soon as possible.
They are going to feel the strain when they go back and most of us are not really waiting for important stuff so much because we already new the strike was going to happen.
It is only the really poor and needy who suffer through these times as they have not got a computer to receive emails and might have not got enough money to pay there phone bills, I bet the post office workers families are not going without, they get more than enough money for the job they are doing.
I have had lots of things delivered by Royal Mail that has just been left on the doorstep and could have been stolen, just because they cant be bothered to wait until you get to the door and as for cards with money in they always seem to go missing but your bills never do.
I dont know how they sleep at night and think that if the money is not good enough for them then they should be sacked and let someone who works hard do it for them.

Answer 2

I am sorry to hear you are being inconvenienced by the strikes. The strikes are not about pay and everything to do with working conditions. The management are refusing to negiate in the hope that the longer the strikes go on public opinion will turn against the workers. the union is willing to negiate, it is the management who refuse to budge. They expect postman to cover sick leave and holiday cover as part of their working day, i.e no overtime. That isn`t going to happen.
As for the uniformed person who says bring on the competition. That is exactly what all postmen say because under the current system rival companies are bleeding Royal Mail dry without having to provide a rival service to royal Mail. If the competiton were forced to provide a sorting and delivery system with delivery to every door in the UK as Royal MAil must, very few, if any rivals would be touching the mail in the UK. before I go, both the Dutch and The Germans are moving in on the UK postal market yet the governments in those countries are still to open up their mail systems to competition to rivals. Is that fair?

Answer 3

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?catId=1000002&mediaId=51600692

The current strike action by members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) ends in the early hours of Wednesday 10th October. Royal Mail regrets the impact of the latest strike and apologises to its customers for the disruption this has caused.
After lengthy negotiation we are very disappointed that the CWU has announced more strikes for the week commencing Monday 15th October. We are currently assessing the impact that this will have on services, and will communicate this as soon as possible.

Answer 4

I'm waiting for my work contract to come through the post and without that being signed i might not get paid at the end of the month. So the postmen are annoying more people. They should do what my husband done, when his bosses wouldn't give him a pay rise, he went and got another job else where on better money.

Answer 5

"He does not have the opportunity or luxury to strike".

Sure he does, that is why we have Trade Unions and that is why Post Office workers are on strike, to protect their rights, their rights to a pension. I think I know what I'm talking about, my dad just retired after 42 years working for the Post Office.

And striking is never a luxury, it is the one ultimate power that all workers have, to withdraw their labour.

Answer 6

This is, of course, the nub of the problem.

It was not so long ago that the terms and conditions enjoyed by Post Office employees were common in the UK, but the defeat of the Miners led to a gradual worsening in the conditions of service, rates of pay, and pension rights of many ordinary working people, and have led to the pauperisation (indeed, in many cases the elimination) of jobs available to the unqualified person. However, the monies released from the requirement for employers to pay a living wage to their employees and to honour pension commitments have not gone to improve the condition of the average person, nor to assist the disabled or similarly underprivileged. These monies have gone to shareholders and to huge bonuses to City financiers. Not one jot or tittle has gone back to those who have been robbed for the sake of Capital.

The Poat Office workers are striking to preserve their pensions, retain a living wage and to prevent themselves being subjected to new working pratices that have been resurrected from the novels of Charles Dickens.

Striking is not a luxury, it is a right, the right of a person to with-hold his or her labour, in pursuance of a legitimate industrial dispute. Had the ordinary person not been abandoned by the (so-called) Labour Party to the tender mercies of the Market, you and your Hubby would have been enjoying the benefits of Attleean Socialism - the Welfare State as envisaged and actualised by the Attlee Government of 1945-50 and perpetuated by the Trades Unions to ensure that we all got a fair share of the cake.

These happy days are past for most of us. Our rights have been stolen and the proceeds therefrom line the pockets of the already rich. The shipyards of the Tyne are now idle or landscaped 'leisure amenities' because the owners would not pay a decent wage to their workers. We now spend immense amounts on buying ships from Finland, France, Taiwan and Korea and equally immense amounts on benefits to keep a proud ex-workforce from starving. We import coal mined with child labour from Colombia because the Thatcher Government was not prepared to keep their promises, and thus provoked a massive strike against the duplicity of the Tory Oligarchy.

The Post Office workers are amongst the last to enjoy decent wages, good working conditions and the prospect of a reasonable pension. Why should they be castigated for fighting against State-legitimised theft.

Answer 7

I agree. I have lost two weeks money as I get my work from a company and I work from home. I get paid on the 28th of the month so my Christmas money will be down.

Roll on free enterprise where other companies get a shot at the postal service. We should not be used like this.

Answer 8

God bless them this coming Xmas for tips will be in short supply. My forgivingness for wrongful delivery will also be in short supply following this disastrous withdrawal of labour.
I am unsure as the level of income the postmen receive and, if it is not competive within the workplace, then they deserve a just return for their duties. However, their CEO receives a much higher than affordable income and indeed I suspect he has to suppress the incomes of his workers to afford his salary/bonus'.

Answer 9

my sympathies are with u, i am f/t carer for my mum with dementia, i was working before and had to give up my job, the money i get is half what iwas getting before, and i cant work at all as she needs 24 hr care. good luck with yr op and best wishes to u.

Answer 10

So sorry darling, really. So many people are affected in a very serious way by these strikes. Personally I hate the bast*rds, always did. Got a job, get paid for it, then go to work.

I'm a nurse, then specialised in psychiatric nursing, and get paid nothing. Me go on strike for more, never. I would rather starve then let my patients down.

Hope it works out ok for you