Fluffy kittens

Tens of thousands of jobs? I hadn't heard that number being bandied around, but still comparable to other forms of employment that are under threat at the moment. And yes maybe they should be thankful they have a job and they should pray they have a job next year!!! I'm fairly sure there are more self employed tradesmen doing exactly that on sites around the country as we speak, as well as all the other people whose jobs aren't safe and they certainly aren't asking for a pay rise as well as a guaranteed job. Having a strike will only turn people against them in the current climate, also having the opportunity to strike without fear of definitely losing your job is a luxury that few have.

So your issue is that they have an avenue of power that you, and I agree with you on this one, lots of other folks and industries don't have? would you have the same strong convictions if you were part of a union that could act to try and safeguard your livelihood? You can't say they are doing something wrong and use the argument that they are lucky to have recourse to industrial action? You either think unions serve a valuable purpose to protect those that cannot individually protect themself or you get rid of them all and let the free Market dictate things. Take your pick, and again we are talking about men and women earning a very lowly wage-mind you, it takes our minds off the folks in good old London town running the financial institutions and still in a job, so jobs a good 'un.

I don't agree with unions at all. If I didn't turn up for work in protest I would be fired. I don't want anyone to lose out in all this, I just find it selfish that people would jeopardise other people's livelihoods ( by not delivering their goods and communications ) and everyday lives ( birthday cards, presents etc ) to get themselves more money and keep their jobs, especially at a time when hundreds of thousands of other people are facing redundancy and unemployment. Unions are becoming more and more short sighted and have become far too powerful in their ability to f*ck normal people's everyday's lives up for the benefit of a comparative few, which in my mind is not fair at all in itself.

I have to agree to some extent, the last time there was a strike we were in all sort of trouble waiting on cheques, it was not a pleasant period. I'm sure companies have gone bust because of strikes and therefore jobs lost. I see Royal Mail as a public service not merely a company, many people rely on it and they should not be allowed to hold us to ransom. I see unions role as protecting the individual against wrong doing not mass action.
Whilst the turnout for the vote was quite high at 67% it still leaves 60% in total who either voted NO or did not vote, which usually means they wern't bothered enough about the situation.

Lookslike they have already lost their second biggist customer Amazon, that's £25million lost. All those ebay traders getting negative feedback and we all know how people feel about 99.9% feedback :roll:

it simple, if you dont like your job then get another. their just pi**ed off that there arnt any other jobs at the moment. i agree holding the country to ransom in the recession is pritty low. they dont get my simpathy and id quite like to be a postie, but only if i could ride my own bike.

unions are an anacronism, a throwback to 'old' labour - striking for pay and conditions is pointless when there are many ways to get something done if manegment wont listen.

there are laws governing the rights of individual employees that companies have to adhere to or face hefty fines.

being made redundant twice in 18 months taught me alot.

I spent this morning in the post office queue. 25 minutes to post some photographs to Italy. There are 9 windows in my post office with three members of staff serving, one of them is lottery only, the queue stretches out of the door.

:twisted:

The sooner that they privatise Royal Mail and sack all the managers as they are nothing but incompetent career civil servants and replace the whole management structure with business minded professionals the better. I have no problem with the grunts on the ground, it's the back office chimps in that get my goat. There was one of the strutting around behind the counter today in his ill fitting cheap polyester suit. Did bugger all to help, didn't open a counter himself to get on with it, just strutted like some bewildered pheasant not understanding what was happening. I'm not a fan of 1970s unions in the least but when the staff are forced to work under such an incomptetent management team, who can blame them?

They have the nerve to put a poster up that their staff have the right to go about their work without being verbaly or physicaly abused. This is true, they do (with the exception of the management). But for the love of god, if a quantifiable number of your customers get so frustrated with your crap service that they mouth off or attack your staff doesn't that tell you something about your crap levels of customer service? Rather than put some crass poster up do something to make your customers less irked with you!!!

because of the way i got paid i got slapped for being over drawn bvy the banks this summer to the tune of 200 quid because it took the royal mail 3 weeks to deliver my pay chequ.(plus 4 working days for it to clear).......my sympathy is not with the slackers who canr get a letter 20 miles down the road in under 3 weeks...i can walk the frikkin distance quicker than that...i got sooo fed up with royal snail i collared the wages department and got paid straight into the bank...ps i have to give a mention to the guy who delivers though....always a pleasure to deal with and always works no matter the weather..pps its all scargills fault ....just cos he liked large lawnmowers....tsk.power to the people..!!

I'm suprised and disappointed at the general attitude of posters on this topic as I thought retrobikers had more sense. Some of you seem to have swallowed a copy of the sun or mail.

I'm a member of a strong union (FBU) and am active within it. I can tell you that no worker goes on strike for the laugh or just because it's Tuesday. I wonder how much research those moaning have done into why the Posties have been forced to take this action? Don't believe what the papers tell you, go and talk to those taking action and you might be suprised at what they've got to say. Oh, and the issues that have brought the Royal Mail workers to this point have been building for years and are not simply another result of the economic downturn.

Not all industrial action by workers is taken to gain a higher wage (and the idea that they would do this to get some extra christmas overtime is simply offensive). Is it wrong to try and protect your conditions and the service to the public? Believe me, you'll be moaning a bucket load if they get turned over as you will be paying far more for a worse service. I guess that'll be the Posties fault as well, eh?

None of the posties round my way are complaining, same as last time, they'd actually prefer to go to work, do their job and not cause a problem, so by talking to them I'm actually even more inclined to disagree with strike action. I have also read various articles about why these strikes are taking place and, like a lot of industries that are shedding jobs, it has a lot to do with modernisation, a concept unions don't seem to be able to grasp. It a shitty situation but part of life I'm afraid.