Posties don’t oppose change – but service will suffer if Royal Mail goes private

Nov 5 2009 by Our Correspondent, West Lothian Courier

UNSURPRISINGLY, change is the big issue in this dispute between Royal Mail management and the workforce.

It's not that the posties oppose it. It's just that we see many alterations as unsuitable or unworkable.

Royal Mail are trying to bring in "starburst" scheme, where a crack team of posties dive out from the back of a van, throw the mail through letter boxes before running back into the van again.

This is happening a couple of times a week when managers decide. We are hustled out to places such as Blackburn and at Wester Inch village (the old Leyland site).

The residents in these areas must wonder what is going on when 30 posties descend like locusts on their streets. It’s a disaster as no one knows these areas; you are put out blind.

This idea has been on the go from April, and since April it hasn’t worked but as its dreamed up by senior management it must work.

This is just one reason why the Bathgate/Broxburn delivery office are in dispute. Would this happen in any other industry where you are forced to work an extra 30 minutes overtime for no payment?

It seems like there's a one-size-fits-all solution from management, they don‘t listen to the posties on the front line; the ones who know their jobs inside out.

As a postie I start at 6am but when I started in the business, I started 4.45am, then it was 5am, 5.30am, 6am and now with the modernisation they talk about, we will start even later.

I come in, sort the mail to each walk, then start sorting mail for our own walks for delivery, then we go out to deliver at 9.45am, whatever the weather, whatever the weight of the mail.

Everyone's in a rush. You try and take a lunch break, but it's not always possible because everyone's under pressure to achieve their targets.

I do the job properly, but the sheer amount of work prevents me from finishing at my allotted time. It is invariably 20-30 minutes over. I’m meant to finish at 2.10pm.

The posties understand that in a world of e-mail and online billing, modernisation is a fact of life.

Although we reject Royal Mail's figures over post volumes, the number of parcels delivered is rising. But why do we object to these changes that are forced on us?

Pegasus Geo Route system looks similar to Google Earth.There's a man on the screen who walks up to every house at four miles per hour. The managers then determine how many calls you'll make based on that.

But all sorts of things can stop us walking at four miles per hour – weather, obstacles. It isn't achievable at the best of times.

We're not opposed to the system, but if you feed it crap it will throw out crap. Even without Pegasus, we're still getting bigger and bigger walks.

Do management listen, no they don't. If they can force through change they all get a very healthy bonus.

Management want to give me three hours extra work that I have to do in my normal duty time. It's just not achievable. I would like to point out that the strike isn't just about poor working conditions. It's about being unable to provide a decent service for Joe Public.

Local firms I deliver to are against the strike, but when I explain to them Royal Mail's criteria, that will see them get their post at 2pm or later, they say that's unacceptable.

Then I explain to them Royal Mail will offer you your post by 9.30am, but it will cost you £3000 a year. If you want it when you want it, you will pay for it. That's not the service I joined Royal Mail to provide.

I’m baffled at the level of hostility we have to faced in the national media.

Blame the posties for all the country's problems seems to be the attitude.

We're not the bankers stealing billions of pounds from the public purse – far from it. I get £240 a week take-home and no bonus, unlike Crozier our CEO who gets £2.6m basic wage and £880k bonus.

If RM management and this or any other future government get their way and privatise RM you'll have to pay to collect your mail, or if you live in rural areas you'll get your mail once every two or three days.

The idea that TNT will be able to put orange-suited mail workers on our streets to offer the same service is a scary thought.

TNT have been trying it out in Liverpool for years and it hasn't worked. How is having two companies delivering on the same routes efficient?

The only route TNT can go is by taking over Royal Mail.

It's all very well taking over the infrastructure, but it's the quality of the staff that matters. What sort of people are going to be delivering your letters?

We have allegiance to the customers. Casuals would be harassed and on the minimum wage. It would be appalling.

It's the creeping privatisation of the Royal Mail and the opening of its "downstream access" – the final mile to customers' front doors - to companies such as UK Mail and TNT is the galling thing to posties.

Even our own council are at it, they are sending out mail from St David’s House by a company called Prime Post. The SNP have a policy of keeping RM in the hands of the public but our council do this. Yet another knife in our backs

When other industries like gas, the railways and BT were opened up, companies would get access to the optical fibres, rails or the pipes. In the mail, they get access to me.

We deliver their mail, they take the profits and you the public lose out. I have to deliver it every day, knowing it's stopping me getting better wages and better conditions.

I see the evidence everyday that someone is taking money away from me. We should question why we deliver for other companies.

If they want it delivered, let them do it themselves, for the same price.

And it's the relationships I’ve built up with residents on my route that will be lost if I’m replaced by a team of part-time casuals.

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