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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

314 replies

AtheneNoctua · 27/10/2009 11:34

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.

OP posts:
tethersend · 27/10/2009 18:36

So... everyone should get less money and work longer hours then EdgarAllenPoo? Or just be grateful for what they've got?

I'm not really sure what you're saying....

"so, it isn't normal for employers to demand a certain level of performance from staff?"

Who decides what 'level' is reasonable?

'Scab Labour' is a distasteful phrase because it is a distasteful action. Hiring temps during a strike constitutes using scab labour, you can't alter the English language I'm afraid. The word is in common usage.

hellsbelles · 27/10/2009 18:38

haven't had time to read the thread but I run a small business that relies on the Royal Mail for distribution and I have completely lost patience (and business). I accept their right to strike but they are forcing me and others like me to look at the alternatives - which I wouldn't have done before.

And if that trend continues they will lose so much business that their job losses (in my opinion) will be huge.

southeastastra · 27/10/2009 18:38

working for royal mail is a skilled job, hiring temps will do nothing for it's reputation. dp had to pass an exam to get in years and years ago!

it's a pity that all of this anger is being placed at the worker. should be directed at those who are running it into the ground.

southeastastra · 27/10/2009 18:39

the job losses have already been huge btw.

tethersend · 27/10/2009 18:40

well said southeastastra

EdgarAllenPoo · 27/10/2009 18:44

royal mail always hire temps during xmas..they're just hiring more.

ImSoNotTelling · 27/10/2009 18:49

But we still don't know what they're striking for. If we were told then maybe people would be sympathetic.

All I've heard is about the pensions - and I don't think that the employees have a leg to stand on with that one I'm afraid. Final salary schemes are cripplingly expensive and in private sector only top execs have them now. Private sector workers accepted the closure of final salary schemes as they understood that financing them was financially impossible. For eg in my employment I get a stakeholder scheme with no contributions from employer. Set that against final salary which equates to employer putting in 15-20% of salary.

EdgarAllenPoo · 27/10/2009 18:52

erm...it is normal for a company to demand a reasonable level of performance. whenever a company sets that level, it generally gets objectors saying it can't be done. then, when they try and implement it either they 1) find it actally can be done or 2) chnage what they'r doing to make it possible or 3) change the objective.

striking is no way to handle this.

notanumber · 27/10/2009 18:57

Forgive me if I am missing something here, but would someone please just lay out here on Mumsnet, the facts of the strike clearly and succinctly.

Five bullet points would do.

I know, TheDEveilEatsBabies that you have said, "i think it's clear that the "working conditions" is the list of conditions that have been stated. I'm not saying that you should agree with it at all, I'm just saying that the information states the facts and it is very hard to talk about all of the conditions without sounding like a runaway train: i think maybe that's the problem; there are so many reasons and so many things that the bosses have rescinded since the last agreement."

But despite there being "...so many reasons and so many things that the bosses have rescinded since the last agreement." this does not make stating all of them an impossible task, surely? We are intelligent adults. We can cope with lots of information.

If I have the information clearly in front of me then I can form an informed opinion.

But in the absence of that you are asking me to take it on faith that their arguments are valid.

I don't care if there are seventeen hundred gripes; would you please just tell me what they are?

Cadelaide · 27/10/2009 18:57

hellsbelles, you may be interested in my thread here

pointyhat · 27/10/2009 19:02

Yes, that's what people need, number. A simplified bullet-pointed breakdown of the reasons for it.

If you are going to strike - and I have every sympathy for the RM staff - you really need to get your PR sorted out these days so that you don't completely alienate all your customers.

southeastastra · 27/10/2009 19:05

i'm searching for a post my dp made a couple of years ago, not alot has changed since then, think it's gone now.

he would put it well but as i said he's not home as he's at work until after 9. hence why i am always on here.

yama · 27/10/2009 19:10

The strikers have my support.

Why? Compassion.

southeastastra · 27/10/2009 19:12

the link from arolf at 15/52 is good

notanumber · 27/10/2009 19:15

"The strikers have my support. Why? Compassion."

Yama, I cannot have compassion for something which I don't understand and has not been explained to me.

Do you understand the reasons for and the aim of the strike action?

If so, I'd be grateful if you would lay them out here.

If not, I find your stance very difficult to comprehend. You are supporting them simply because they're striking?

Georgimama · 27/10/2009 19:22

I agree with Athene. Being a postal worker isn't compulsory. If the pay and conditions are so very terrible, leave. Get another job. If you can't get another job, you'll have to put up with it. That's what most people in this country have to do.

Striking is immoral, and calling someone a "scab" because they don't want to be forced not to work by the bossy union who dominate their industry is contemptible.

southeastastra · 27/10/2009 19:33

and so it goes, round and round, rather like the talks

Georgimama · 27/10/2009 19:41

Oh gosh, sorry southeastastra, didn't know you had been appointed God of the thread.

My husband also works till gone 9 o'clock at night most nights. Lots of people are grateful to have a job in the current economic climate, frankly. I know I am.

LaurieScaryCake · 27/10/2009 19:44

Striking is "immoral" ?

Withdrawing your labour because think you are being exploited is a fundamental human right.

Unless you live in fucking China !!!!!

southeastastra · 27/10/2009 19:45

thanks for that georgi, i'll tell dp you said he needs to just put up with it or get another job.

southeastastra · 27/10/2009 19:46

and i'm sorry, i really did not think i was being 'god' of this thread (whatever that means) quite frankly it's making me very angry

Georgimama · 27/10/2009 19:46

Good. You do that. It's what everyone else has to do.

Could you tell the head of the CWU as well while you're at it?

pointyhat · 27/10/2009 19:47

How did I miss 'immoral'

notanumber · 27/10/2009 19:47

southeastastra, I agree. It's frustrating for us all when you kept being met with the same responses.

But if you can't give any further information on why shouldn't (some of)the public feel the way that georgimama describes?

So please, would you attempt it?

Just bullet point the main causes of the strike action?

pointyhat · 27/10/2009 19:47

georgi, you are coming across like a premier arse now