To think Royal Mail workers should not be striking

[Hitthehighseastoday]

They’ve already been offered a 9% pay raise and declined. Royal Mail is already making a loss. It’s a national service for the public which is now being severely disrupted by strikes, it’s appalling.

Solidarity to the RM workers. They have my full support.

The key worker rhetoric is getting boring now... until key workers go on strike and everyone loses their mind

Except everything just comes with a courier?
I am not sad that the postman couldn't bring some junk mail for a few days?
My bills are all online, any hospital appts whatever are texted to me now. I feel sorry for the older generation who do rely on the royal mail more though!

@RewildingAmbridge 9% is a very good pay offer in the current climate. I work in the public sector, we got 3% and that's the first payrise we've had in nearly a decade

9% over 2 years with detrimental conditions attached might be a good offer in certain circumstances, but is clearly not a good offer in the current climate, with inflation at 11% per year.

3% in a decade?!
(a) That’s fucking awful. You probably should have gone on strike.
(b) Do you really want other people to be treated as badly as you?

Obviously some people are upset that RM staff are striking, otherwise the OP wouldn't have started the thread.
And they weren't the only key workers I was referring to.

Many companies send on line orders via RM, its not just a bill or an appointment, even relatively larger parcels come via the postie and in rural areas, posties know where everyone lives... who leaves their mail and who doesn't, our community FB page is full of pictures of incorrectly delivered parcels.

You realise that many courier companies are struggling to get drivers? ZHC, pay is terrible, large turn over of workers, no sick or holiday pay, no pensions and often they need to have their own vehicle but your happy with all of that? nice.

This.

And conkersareback responding with an ad hominem attack directed at me tells me everything I need to know about him them.

Thos is so obviously a union plant thread, not a tory plant thread as previously suggested.

My parents recently returned from a four week holiday - something they never would have been able to afford until they inherited some money after a death in the family.

Who the fuck are you to tell people how to spend their money? You have have no idea of their circumstances.

In real terms wages have not risen very much/in line with inflation in many sectors over the last 12 years or more. Meanwhile people at the top are still finding money to give themselves huge pay rises. Many contracts are being replaced with less attractive t&c’s are zero hour contracts becoming more common and staff more and more stretched.

I absolutely support their right to strike, it can’t continue that working people continue to struggle whilst those at the top pocket healthy rises. If you have had pay freezes, 1%, 1.5% for the last decade then the increases being asked for now are not that huge, just redressing the balance.

They have every right to withdraw their labour. Strikes are supposed to disrupt services or what's the point? It's not just about money, it's about working terms and conditions also. Employees being bullied into unsuitable hours etc. We have rights in the UK, a lot of big business would like to see them gone. The workforce cannot allow this to happen.

The posties are quite right to strike. RM are plotting to sell the company off to some very unsavoury characters. The idea that senior management want what’s best for the service is laughable.

www.standard.co.uk/business/royal-mail-strikes-vesa-equity-czech-billionaire-west-ham-investor-daniel-kretinsky-royal-mail-kwasi-kwarteng-grant-shapps-b1036395.html

Except everything just comes with a courier?

I am not sad that the postman couldn't bring some junk mail for a few days?

My bills are all online, any hospital appts whatever are texted to me now. I feel sorry for the older generation who do rely on the royal mail more though!

so you’ll have a problem if couriers stop working as price rises in fuel etc keep rising and they have to find alternative work as their self employment doesn’t pay the bills

RM deliver parcels not just letters and junk mail

It’s also the change in conditions, my husbands hours would change meaning he could no longer collect out children from school which would cost us lots in childcare, and he would have to work more Saturday and Sunday work would be compulsory, having a massive impact on our family life. It’s not what he signed up for.

You do it then.....easy money. FWIW I'm one of those agency workers who people think should be able to just step in and do the job of someone striking. I wouldn't because guess what..I and many other agency staff also belong to various unions and support those striking.

A lot of days I only get junk mail, how can that be right, it just goes in the bin

I would get your facts right before posting.

They are laying off members of staff and bringing in new workers on 20% less pay, terms and conditions. Laying off people then bringing in agency workers. Why wouldn't they strike? Why would any other company put up with that!?

And if it was only about pay and a fair 9% pay rise we wouldn't be striking. End of.

You clearly have no clue what you're talking about. I do, because my husband is a postman. Royal Mail ARE NOT making a loss. They made 758 million IN PROFIT last year. The two CEO's took over £2 million just in bonuses! ON TOP of the £596k salary they get. £400 million was given to share holders. They will only agree to offer a pay rise if the workers rip up their t's & c's, reduce sick pay, reduce holiday pay, reduce pay for new staff, force a 7 day working week with no Sunday enhancements ( which isn't the norm regardless of how many people spout off about it). They also want the staff to 'bank hours'. Which means during summer, when it's less busy, they will be paid a full days work for working less hours. But they will owe those hours back in the winter and expect to be working 10 hour days, with no breaks, possibly working until 10pm in the dark, cold, wet winter months.

If you're not happy that lower paid workers want to strike about their working conditions, pay and the ability to feed, heat and house their families, then there is something seriously wrong with you.

You've bought into the media lies Simon Thompson wants you to believe, so I imagine you must be quite gullible. Simon Thompson by the way was also managing director of the disastrous Test & Trace programme. That should tell you everything you need to know about this man and his ambitions.

@TimBoothseyes I would do it if I needed an unskilled job. I don't, thankfully

Yep, and they get paid separately for delivering it.

Exactly this.

For me the issue is why are people fighting for an archaic and dated service that doesn't add much value rather than workers rights.

@Guitarbar the workers are fighting for their rights! That's the whole point of the strike!

@Guitarbar posties and their union have already said they are open to change and modernisation, more parcels and what ever comes with that.
However, bringing in owner drivers, laying off staff and bringing in agency, making them start three hours later is not going to be any good for anyone or grow the economy.
It's disgusting how they are treating their hard working staff - who worked all the way through the pandemic.
They won't even issue out new uniform to existing members of staff anymore, because they want rid of them and their contracts but happy to dish out new uniform to new starts.

It's not the posties at fault it is Royal Mail and the greedy, heartless ceo and his shareholders. They are destroying a much loved, historic company.
Nobody is saying posties won't accept change but why should they accept this nonsense? It has nothing to do with modernisation but it has a lot to do with the big wigs making a tone of money whilst the working class get shat on.

You weren't exactly manning ventilators

@berksandbeyond During the pandemic I was donned up in ffp3 mask & PPE, every day on ICU/HDU/A&E resus, with patients hooked up to ventilators/aspirations/dialysis, while my postman husband was out delivering letters and testing kits and parcels, 6 days a week, to sick, dying, bereaved families, in all weather conditions from heat wave to snow storms, with no break & no toilet access, severely understaffed due to illness or retirement. There's also a bit more to it than just putting letters through a postbox as well by the way. They don't just turn up and get handed a bunch of letters.

His job and life is worth no less than mine, or yours, just because he gets paid less! He absolutely deserves to feel outrage at the working conditions being thrust upon him by a group of multimillionaires. Your absolutely shameful vitriol aimed at lower paid works on this thread is disturbing. I forget that people like you exist in the real world.

My brother and Dad both work for Royal Mail, my Dad has been there for thirty years. They work all day outside in the rain, snow and during heatwaves. They were key workers who worked during the pandemic without PPE and standing next to each other in crowded mail centres but that all seems to have been forgotten now. It isn’t just about pay, it’s about their working conditions and rights. They both used to love their jobs but are now completely fed up and demoralised to work for the Royal Mail. My brother is a single dad who is losing so much money with the strikes especially with the run up to Christmas and believe me they would rather not strike but they need to make a stand.