Royal Mail plans future without union support
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A leaked Royal Mail document has allegedly revealed the postal service’s action plan against union members as they prepare to stage a two-day national strike.
The BBC last night (16 October) obtained the leaked document which proposed changes to Royal Mail’s staffing with the backing of the Government. In its “Strategic Overview”, it says it plans to achieve reform “with or without union engagement”.
In response, a Royal Mail spokesman says: “No member of the board or the senior management team at Royal Mail has seen, or is aware of any such presentation.
“Royal Mail’s policy and strategy in relation to the current dispute with the Communication Workers Union (CWU) is to reach agreement so that the CWU calls off its damaging and irresponsible strikes. For the avoidance of any doubt Royal Mail has never had any strategy to derecognise the CWU and nor would we seek to do so.”
The CWU yesterday announced two 24-hour nationwide strikes. The first day of the strike on 22 October will primarily involve mail centre staff and drivers, while the following day will involve delivery and collection staff.
A growing number of large retailers are deserting Royal Mail or implementing contingency plans with other delivery services as a result of the strike action. They include John Lewis, Amazon, eBay and Argos.
Meanwhile, Royal Mail is planning to postpone some of its marketing campaigns and is reviewing future activity.
Readers' comments (6)
c burrell | Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:13 am
iam a disullusioned postman as all this could have been avoided, if we were allowed to charge the same as our competitors.for example a 500g package to america costs £11 with royal mail, with ups its £45!! so iam afraid,jobs and service reduction is enevitable as we cannot compete due to regulators.
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Anonymous | Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:44 pm
Not sure that the price comparisons are appropriate - the UPS service is fully real-time trackable to the customer throughout it's journey, insured and guaranteed overnight/in a week (dependent on service offered). In comparison, RM's service is a very different offering, so cannot charge the same.
RM needs to significantly modify their processes and systems to be perceived in the same league in terms of reliability and speed, and only then would they be justified to charge those sorts of premiums (for a premium service) should the regulator allow them to. Regulators will always demand that a standard service is possible, but this must be able to be managed at a lower cost overhead, which also necessitates modernisation.
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Anonymous | Fri, 16 Oct 2009 1:02 pm
History repeating itself ? The miners' strike resulted in the virtual ending of mining in the UK. Don't let the Royal Mail go the same way.
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Anonymous | Fri, 16 Oct 2009 1:05 pm
I agree, the two are not camparible in service offerings, ref traceability etc and therefore do not warrant comparable pricing.
I fear more strikes will ignite a fuse for the RM and signal the begginning of the end for the service.
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Anonymous | Fri, 16 Oct 2009 1:26 pm
I am in full agreement with the above comment, the regulator has brought about competition in the UK more quickly and in advance of many other european countries and the government is standing by and watching as this increased competition puts incredible pressure on the Royal Mail to modernise at too fast a rate.
The government and regulator together must take responsibility for endorsing the competitive environment that Royal Mail now faces and that is driving the necessary changes that are not surprisingly unpopular.
The fact that the union agreed all those changes should mean that they support the Royal Mail leadership but those commitments have not been followed through.
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Anonymous | Fri, 16 Oct 2009 1:55 pm
Charities are suffering a lot from the postal strikes. The money that people have worked so hard to raise isn't making it through the post.
Do postal workers care about the innocent victims of their actions?
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