Postal Strike in the UK now on

[GoggleboxUK]

Royal Mail has announced that postal workers intend to go on strike within the following districts from Friday 7th August to Monday 10th August.



Friday 7th August:

Birmingham Vehicle Operation Centre

Burslem

Coventry Parcelforce Hub

Edinburgh mail centre

Essex Regional Distribution Centre

Huntingdon

London (146 offices including all deliveries, plus mail centres and drivers)

Northampton National Distribution Centre

Peterborough delivery office



Saturday 8th August:

Boston

Bristol delivery offices

Dalkeith

Edinburgh deliveries

Hadfield (NW)

Peterborough

Skegness



Monday 10th August:

Ipswich mail centre

Kings Lynn

Stanton

Bury St Edmonds

Thetford (Suffolk)



Buyers and sellers using Royal Mail services within these districts should be aware of potential delays in delivery of mail also this dispute includes Royal Mail drivers meaning cross-country mail services will be severely disrupted

[darrenburnfan]

Marvelous, ain't it? They are finally going to release a DVD box set of Winston Churchill - The Valiant Years on September 7th and a few weeks ago, I pre-ordered it off Movie Mail UK and now it looks that unless this dispute is settled soon, Movie Mail will take £26 out of my account and post the box set to me and then it will promptly disappear! Why couldn't they have released this box set years ago, instead of waiting until September, 2009?

[bluenose]

A lot of companies will hold stock and blame the postal strike.



Some may even withhold forever and blame the postal strikes.



In the meantime, these are people at the bottom of the wages chain trying to protect their jobs and the service they believe in.



This is Thatcher part 2.



When, in the early 80s the Tory government learnt through the BG privatisation that a reduced workforce was a Godsend to potential owners, it has been the norm.



"Economic" reforms meaning lost jobs, blame it on new technology them days. Equals lower running costs equals greater interest from the Pension Planners who were the heaviest investors in them days.



Now we have the same scenario. They can't sell the Post Office, for whatever reason, so they ratchet up the job losses to make the product more appealing to Deutsch Telecom or whoever.



I'd rather have my postie, doing a public service, than a TNT parcel van trying his best shot at the correct address, or leaving a parcel on the wall because I'm not in.



It's a real shame that striking is the only way to achieve things - but that's Billy for you, still re-living the miner's strike. Having said that, the PO board seem to be wanting the strikes as well - whose tune are they dancing to ?

[EHV_Emmetts]

I understand that the Royal Mail hasn't employed anyone on a permanent contract since 1995! The people they have employed since that time have been on temporary rolling six month contracts.

[DB7]

Nicely timed so the union members can have a long weekend. Ultimatley they're just contributing to putting themselves out of a job.

[darrenburnfan]

While it is true what Royal Mail say, that delivery of letters has gone down a lot since the advent of email, this has more than been made up for by the millions of items ordered online from amazon and many other places that now fill the postman's sack instead of letters. When our postman starts his round, his sack is just as full and heavy now as it would have been twenty years ago in the pre-internet age. Yes, we can all order items online at the click of a mouse and pay for them online, but, until they can find a way to make the items pop out of the computer screen and onto the carpet, they still have to be delivered personally by the postman.

[GoggleboxUK]

name='darrenburnfan']While it is true what Royal Mail say, that delivery of letters has gone down a lot since the advent of email, this has more than been made up for by the millions of items ordered online from amazon and many other places that now fill the postman's sack instead of letters. When our postman starts his round, his sack is just as full and heavy now as it would have been twenty years ago in the pre-internet age. Yes, we can all order items online at the click of a mouse and pay for them online, but, until they can find a way to make the items pop out of the computer screen and onto the carpet, they still have to be delivered personally by the postman.

Thats a fair point well made.



It reminded me of a point I made a while back when watching a DVD with friends and that Piracy is a crime trailer came on. The annoying screed that's forced upon customers when they hire or purchase a DVD. (Pirates never see these commercials.)



It starts off with "You wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't steal a television"



Quite right. I wouldn't.



Mind you, if Darren's concept of clicking the mouse and one coming out of the screen and landing on the carpet were a reality then I'd be downloading E-Type Jags and Aston Martins with 60" plasmas in the boot all day long!



Downloading cars and TVs, its a crime!

[will.15]

Postal workers can't strike in the U.S., but they may eliminate Saturday delivery because they keep losing money, even though they keep jacking up postage every six or eight months.

[johng]

In this area they took away the postmans van. They now have a trolley positioned part way on his round. So he fills up his bag at the sorting office with as much as he can carry and he is transported BY VAN to begin his round.

Another van then fills up the trolley with more mail. When the posties bag is empty, wherever he may be he has to walk to the trolley to fill it up with more mail and then trudge all the way back to pick up his round again.



End result - they now have to employ two postmen to do the round because of the lack of the van it takes more time to cover the round and additionally since the postman can no longer carry parcels they have to send out another van to deliver the parcels. Then a further van is sent out to pick up the postman after he is finished to take him back to the depot.



Surely this progress backwards and it certainly cannot possibly save any money and contribute to modernisation.



I have never been a supporter of strikes but if this is typical of what is now going on within the postal service little wonder the men are going on strike.