Royal Mail Strike Again - Where Will It End?
Once again royal mail workers have gone on strike across the UK leaving millions of homes and businesses without any post.
The Communications Workers Union (CWU) has announced further strike action. Two 48-hour strikes are planned. The first will begin at lunchtime on Thursday 4th October and ends at lunchtime on Saturday 6th October. The second will begin in the early hours of Monday 8th October, ending in the early hours of Wednesday 10th October. Whilst deliveries will recommence on Wednesday 8th October, we anticipate it may take some time before normal service resumes
Again the strike is over pay, pensions and jobs, where will it end?
Hopefully if talks go well and workers achieve their goal deliveries should be back to normal by next Thursday.
It seems that Royal Mail has gone on the offensive, saying it was “hugely disappointed and extremely concerned” that peace talks had failed.
Trade unions accused ministers of showing “complete disinterest” in the dispute and urged them to intervene.
Billy Hayes the CWU general secretary said: “If this was Northern Rock they would be pouring money in.
“This is a company that they own and they seem to have no interest whatsoever.
“There is no indication of their concern in the slightest. The Government have been deafening by their silence.”
A spokesman for the Royal Mail said: “Rather than accept a solution the union continues to table unrealistic and unaffordable proposals.”
Here’s some questions for you to answer:
Has it gone on long enough now? Do they actually have any public sympathy?
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express your views on the strikes!
Are there any alternatives to the Royal Mail?
Maybe it’s time they where all sacked and replaced.
It’s a stupid monopoly. Seriously, the government should just nationalize another company.
i think royal mail have to think quick before it is too late come november which is the busiest month for royal mail
royal mail cant handle with very few causal workers
so i think royal mail is gone lose a lot
I’m in total agreement with Richfir.
Royal Mail lost £150 Million last year and companies that rely on their services will be forced to look elsewhere meaning yet more lost business for RM.
All postal workers that continue to strike should be sacked immediately. And get rid of the CWU!
If something is not done soon either by the Government or RM there will not be anything left to save.
yes sack us all and replace us that will really help matters.
You’re not helping yourselves with these prolonged strikes, if RM goes down you go to.
I’m conscious of being an outsider wandering into a passionate an emotive debate, so I caveat this with the apology of it just being opinion based on the news in the last few days.
But, the postal industry is heading for a much deeper crisis: email has slaughtered the amount of physical post we all send, direct mail marketing budgets are haemorrhaging (last month’s PWC audit of direct mail spend made depressing reading for direct marketing agencies), and most business communications have switched to email and the web. Whatever your political stance, the economic reality is that ecommerce is the one rung holding up the revenues, and jobs, in the whole sector.
It’s the bitterest of ironies that the companies who use the Royal Mail to deliver their goods are almost single-handedly responsible for preventing the Royal Mail’s profitability from going into freefall, and are all now incentivised to look for alternatives.
I’m neither political, nor involved in the postal industry, so really just another observer with a probably over-inflated opinion. But I’ve been writing about the effects the digital networked society has on companies for more than a decade, and it’s the classic businesses (rather than the digital natives like Amazon and Ebay) who need to adapt the most. There are no easy answers in all this, but if we’re to save rural post offices, preserve daily deliveries, have a nationwide efficient network, and save the jobs of the workforce, then some alternative models need to be figured out.
Let’s just hope – for everyone’s sake – that happens.