There's this announcement so yes it seems they've been on strike in a few places.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8149463.stm
Where they tend to lose my respect though is when they always plan these things to tie in with the weekend and school holidays. If they did it mid week when there was no obvious benefits, and actually picketed then I'd have more sympathy but frankly this "free holiday" routine just makes me see red.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8149463.stm
Where they tend to lose my respect though is when they always plan these things to tie in with the weekend and school holidays. If they did it mid week when there was no obvious benefits, and actually picketed then I'd have more sympathy but frankly this "free holiday" routine just makes me see red.
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It confounds me how they manage to fiddle the figures to make the Royal Mail look profitable, yet the Post Office look liek it is loss making. The Royal Mail is crippled by its largely lazy 70's style unionised workforce. They resist any kind of pragmatic change.
I remember a strike a couple of years ago over plans to enforce restrictions that prevents the use of personal vehicles to deliver the late sorted post. They tried to make out that it was a daft bureaucratic decision, but it was quite the opposite. Often it worked out that each member of staff would try and grab an item of post which they would take on their way home in their personal vehicles. Then they would claim four hours of overtime for the delivery, even though it would only actually take a matter of minutes to do. This also obscures the fact that there would be literally hundreds of staff sitting about doing nothing waiting for the late sorted post, which amounts to more wasted money.
In reality the Royal Mail is probably overstaffed by a factor of at least 2, and there are many many many optimizations and improvements that could be introduced. But the staff have succesfully stymied most atttempts for change and secured increasingly counter-productive working terms over a prolonged period of time.
I remember a strike a couple of years ago over plans to enforce restrictions that prevents the use of personal vehicles to deliver the late sorted post. They tried to make out that it was a daft bureaucratic decision, but it was quite the opposite. Often it worked out that each member of staff would try and grab an item of post which they would take on their way home in their personal vehicles. Then they would claim four hours of overtime for the delivery, even though it would only actually take a matter of minutes to do. This also obscures the fact that there would be literally hundreds of staff sitting about doing nothing waiting for the late sorted post, which amounts to more wasted money.
In reality the Royal Mail is probably overstaffed by a factor of at least 2, and there are many many many optimizations and improvements that could be introduced. But the staff have succesfully stymied most atttempts for change and secured increasingly counter-productive working terms over a prolonged period of time.
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Just to avoid this becoming a "tar all with same brush" thread... I do happen to know some Royal Mail staff who work very hard so, for me at least, this is no means a case of "they do a cr*p job". If anything my experience with Royal Mail has been incredibly positive this past year.
I just find the convenient timing of strikes to coincide with things like the cup final, weekends, holidays, etc.. too bl*ody "convenient".
There are plenty of jobs worths in almost any situation, there's plenty of people on here who've hired and then tried to fire them so it's easy to say they're all the same when it's blatantly not... The Union does itself nor its members any favours. The perception is that they're out to take the p*ss and they do nothing to discourage that notion at all.
I just find the convenient timing of strikes to coincide with things like the cup final, weekends, holidays, etc.. too bl*ody "convenient".
There are plenty of jobs worths in almost any situation, there's plenty of people on here who've hired and then tried to fire them so it's easy to say they're all the same when it's blatantly not... The Union does itself nor its members any favours. The perception is that they're out to take the p*ss and they do nothing to discourage that notion at all.
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In case anyone missed it there's more strike action planned for the end of July...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8156970.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8156970.stm
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