to be getting a leeeetle bit hacked off with the postal strike...

[AtheneNoctua]

Today I have to take a 2 hour lunch to sort out a Halloween costume because I can't rely on the mail to deliver one if I order it online. That is 2 hours of my work which I will have to make up if I want to be paid for it.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8327158.stm

I selfishly hope they hire the contract workers.

What about the public who relies on this service? Where is our compensation?

I will add I don't know the details of the reasons for the strike (because they aren't reported and not because I haven't looked). So I don't have an opinion on whether the strike is justified.

But I am starting to feel they have made their bloody point and I want my mail service back.

we are getting our post everyday in fact we got 2 the other day unheard of i see one of the mail order companies i buy from has started using City Link instead of royal mail

We gotr post today but lots we are waiting for is delayed in the mail, and we have arcels to collect but I am wary to take the boys as they get scared easily and there might be pickets so having it delivered to the post office instead. Only one of theitems is a pita to wait for (earmuffs to help ds1 cope in public- asd) so we'll survive. If it escalatesany morewe're going elsewhere for the business. Dh used to work for TNT and DHL (not the post sections!) sp maybe one of those

Mornin' All!

"By BobbingForPeachys Wed 28-Oct-09 20:12:26 Add message | Report | Contact poster Oh I am not makimg a moral; jusdgement wither way BTW, but i refuse to search for the reasons in order to gain sympathy for posties: they want it they should imptrove their press relations.

Does any family of, or actual postie acknowledge that some peoples livelihoods are at risk because of decision to strike made by RM staff? And do they care? Becuase nobody so far has responded to any mention I have made of it."

yes, on both counts. we do know how much it could affect livelihoods and yes, we do care.

but it's important to stand up for workers' rights, because it really isn't acceptable just to sit back and be walked all over.
this isn't China, for god's sake, this is Britain. We're supposed to have human rights and we're supposed to be an advanced society.
I am unwilling to sit back and let someone who has never met me tell me that I can't do my job unless I toe the line.
That's not democracy and it's not fair.

and don't we find it interesting that the "impartial" (still out to debate on this one!) BBC ke3eps saying "talks have broken down"?
it sounds like both sides have just gone "that's it! no one's listening to me and i've had enough! I want my dummy!!" and stormed out of the room
anyone want to introduce them to the phrase "talks have not been concluded as no agreement has been made"?

i missed you all last night.

do you know we have had post every day since the strike, which is unheard of in normal service , my postie doesnt come daily the rest of the time, though i did see he popping in neighbours house for extended deliveries a couple of times recently

distribution are out today, the sorting offices are out tomorrow and the posties are out on Saturday.
(makes a change for them because normally they only get one saturday in six off)

ooh, littleducks!
gossip!!

I ordered some door knobs from Milk and Honey and they blamed the postal strike on them not arriving (I ordered them in September so I thin kthey are having me on) and now want me to pay £4 for DHL to deliver them. I understand it must be difficult for small businesses, especially as it is putting me off buying from them and recommending them to my friends.

Thanks The Devil- sometimes a littleacknowledgement amkes a big difference; our postie is a glumman at the best of times and we get comments from the postmaster about different tings all the time- DH formerly working for TNT, DH now having an ebay shop..... it gets mightily annoying at times when we're just trying our best!

Our busness dosntmake massesbut just enough ( willhopefull be better next yearn as dh will be qualified to install as well as retail) so things that threaten itcan be scary.

Yes, workers rights do matter- a lot. And I could tell you a few stroies relevant to one of the many potential takeover companies facing off the RM. Except I can't,becasue they'd sue me LOL.

yorkshiregirl, i think that's it's appalling that a bad company is blamingthe strikes for their own incompetence!

Bobbing: it's tough for everyone, me included. Fingers crossed the union/bosses agree to something soon.

well the postman's bike was parked round the side of sasid neighbours house all afternoon so it does appear thats one postie missing from the picket line

Every day DD asks if the Halloween outfit we got on EBay nearly 2 weeks ago has arrived. The other things we ordered afterwards turned up so I am having trouble understanding the delay.

Our postman (not the usual one, much nicer in fact) said if it doesn't come tomorrow, to pop to the local office on Saturday and get someone to look out the back.

I wish I understood the reasons for the strike- all seems a bit unnecessary tbh.

Mummy apparenbtly they sort the fresh stuff rfirst- thats whats happening to us anyway,, thuings posted post strike arriving but stuff before not.

Hope it arrives for her but will the office even be open to pop into? I'd be looking for a back up plan tbh as on saturday nothing will be left in store

the sorting office should be open even if the posties are on strike, there will be managers working inside. certainly at our local place they have no problems with customers going in to collect their parcels - it's not the public they are striking about, it's the company.

On a Halloween tip, I got loads of great stuff from Morrisons yesterday all marked down at half price or less - result!

it's a union agreement that the picketers aren't allowed to stop people going in and out: they just get annoyed with it.

but i think it's something to do with human rights, anway.

as an extra, i'm getting the union rep to get me the information on overtime, because that's one of the bones of contention too (mainly because they are dicouraged from doing more than 10 hours a week by the OT rate being reduced after 10 hours and because they're employing more part-timers instead of full-timers because they don't have to pay more than normal rate for OT under 40 hours, so it saves them money if 2 posties doing 25 hours normally do 5 hours overtime each (for example) but it also means that the customer suffers because the part-timer doesn't sort his own deliveries: it means they don't get to know the customer in the same way as a full-timer who's sorted it all as well)
still no news on any settlement though.