...a postman, y'know! But I made a mistake that cost me my job. Not a warning, or a reprimand and an order to "get it right", no; I got fired!
The dispute between Royal Mail and the CWU is not about money. It's about safeguarding the jobs of the workers who are being bullied into working longer shifts, taking bigger deliveries, and losing pension benefits. And that's just for starters! Many postmen and women in my region lost their jobs unfairly, yet the union legal team have been losing nine out of ten appeals. The rot has set in good-an'-proper!!
Part of the problem (and probably the biggest part) is that Adam Crozier; the highest paid civil servant in history; wanted to sell off parts of Royal Mail to his wife's company - TNT. The government were behind him all the way up until thoughts of elections turned their heads. Crozier becomes another Dr Beeching!! Let's kill the Royal Mail and make it cheaper for my wife's company to but it!
He's lied about the fall in mailings to get the government back on board. Less letters mailings appears to equal less work. BS!! The rise of internet trading has INCREASED mailings significantly!! That's how the Royal Mail were able to announce record profits this year!! Strikes are affecting the internet trader more than any other business sector. Because that's how they make their money. And the internet is still in its infancy.
We're all victims of "the Corporate Dollar". Service industries should be 'not-for-profit'. They should not be at the mercy of the greedy few major shaerholders. Industry is for that!
Here's another thought on the Corporate Dollar - We're constantly reminded of the dangers of leaving our DVD players on 'standby'. As a postman it was my job to deliver letters to an unsuspecting host of customers. A good 80% of what I delivered went straight into the bin unopened! Mostly because it was unsolicited advertising gunk. So I did a quick calculation: a single item of mail, averages around 22grammes. We delivered to some 35million addresses in the UK. If each address received just 1 item of junk mail per day, that would equal around 7000 tonnes of waste paper per day, six days a week! However, given that we delivered unsolicited product catalogues weighing in at some 20 times more than the average, and promotional magazines with even more pages, how much paper is wasted on chasing sales?
