Royal Mail workers have voted to strike by a huge majority
What are the Tories going to do now?
They ruled that strikes would only be legal if more than 50 per cent of a workforce voted in favour. Here are the stats on the Royal Mail strike ballot:
The decision by Royal Mail workers to strike is Democracy in Action:
•111,000 Posties
•73.7% Turnout
•89% Vote to Strike
•72,873 v 8,954— Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) October 3, 2017
So posties are going on strike. And who can blame them?
The CWU believes it is a “watershed” moment for unions as well as the Royal Mail, which it has accused of following a “relentless” programme of cost-cutting to maximise short-term profits and shareholder returns.
The union accused the company of “unilaterally” closing its defined benefit, or final salary, pension scheme, with new entrants going into an “inferior” scheme which will leave them in “pensioner poverty”.
The union is also in dispute over pay and issues such as delivery office closures.
The union’s deputy general Secretary Terry Pullinger said: “This ballot result is hugely significant and demonstrates a strength of feeling that can only be translated as a massive vote of no confidence in the managerial leadership of the Royal Mail Group and the direction that they advocate.
“Any sense of vocational spirit and working together with management has been lost in a climate of fear and insecurity. This massive failure in trust has created a breakdown in relationships and a toxic environment where working together to solve difficult problems has become almost impossible.
“The managerial leadership has failed and should resign or be sacked. This is a dispute about honour and we refuse to simply stand aside.”
Source: Royal Mail faces first national strike since it was privatised
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The loss of pride and commitment was very evident in the rail workers when that that was privatised/vandalised.
Our postal service has gone from being excellent to very poor, with our post not being delivered until late afternoon. This is not the ordinary postman’s fault because costs are being cut to such an extent that they are having to do up to three rounds – with the inevitable loss of good service to the public. I’m with the posties all the way.
Well the Royal Mail like the other Utilities should never have been sold off in the first place, with a decreasing amount of Mail to introduce competition by other companies for the parcel delivery in particular has left the RM struggling to survive, add to that social media replacing a large amount of letter writing, and pensions not needing to be cashed at a post office, and it can be seen that the RM has deliberately been placed in an untenable position.
It’s like turkies voting for Xmas. With electronic media getting stronger and stronger and email romping home overtaking snail mail and very competitive alternative and more reliable parcel delivery companies this is probably not the best idea in the world. With the mood to take back public utilities from private ownership this is not the best advert to get JC some renationalisation backing ….. if they believe their leadership has sussed out a new brilliant strategy for them to follow and are willing to put their jobs on the line behind them well best of luck to them. My father followed Scargills strategy straight to the dole Q and the pit closed for ever..
The Post Office is separate from Royal Mail. The Post Office is still in public hands, and hopefully will continue to be.
You took the words right out of my mouth. Allowing “competitors” to only operate the most profitable parts of the business, this was a foregone conclusion; some might say, engineered.
Good luck to them, they get my backing all the way
when i moved here 20 years ago+… it was apparent very quickly that we had the same postie all the time except for days off. but we still got another one that did that one day regularly. eventually it got so our posties would pass the time of day with you. you got to know them. in a community of single/elderly/or disabled people who couldnt always get out , they were invaluable. posting letters/birthday cards for you,etc. you knew that should your curtains not be drawn open when they came (always around 11am) they would know something was amiss.and raise the alarm. suddenly a few years ago things changed. there was a reshuffler of posties and we started getting different ones every day. still dont speak to any of them/they come at differing times, often before i get up. i know its not part of ther duties but by i do miss that young man and hearing about his family