https://sputnikglobe.com/20221016/british-postal-worker-royal-mail-bosses-have-been-shocked-by-level-of-support-for-strikes-1101884544.html
British Postal Worker: Royal Mail Bosses Have Been Shocked by Level of Support for Strikes
British Postal Worker: Royal Mail Bosses Have Been Shocked by Level of Support for Strikes
Sputnik International
More than 100,000 UK postal workers went on strike on 13 October to demand better pay and working conditions, and there is more industrial action promised... 16.10.2022, Sputnik International
2022-10-16T05:26+0000
2022-10-16T05:26+0000
2023-05-28T15:21+0000
analysis
strikes
industrial action
royal mail
inflation
recession
cost of living
workers
uk labour party
united kingdom (uk)
https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/101599/38/1015993853_0:72:4437:2568_1920x0_80_0_0_44c1186fefc6d41947d70accd2e7360d.jpg
"I do a four-day week of about nine-and-a-half hours a day," said a British postal worker who spoke to Sputnik on the condition of anonymity. "I work in a rural location delivering the post for Royal Mail. I have done so for more than 25 years. It's a long day. I'm walking probably 10 miles a day every day that I'm at work. Most of it is very physically demanding."The postman delivers letters and parcels to around 400 or 500 houses every day. The job takes its toll on Royal Mail employees: many of them suffer musculoskeletal injuries at work.It's All About Making ProfitAnd Royal Mail does not make things easier for them. On the contrary, the company is trying to get more work out of postal workers in the same amount of time, trying to make them work faster and harder, Sputnik's source says.It hasn't always been like this: when Royal Mail was a state-owned company it was more about being a public service. Its employees still worked hard but they weren't pushed as hard as they are now, according to the postal worker."Since it's been privatized, obviously it's all about profit, making money. Work harder, work faster, work longer," the Royal Mail employee said.Tracking Royal Mail EmployeesBut that is not all: the Royal Mail bosses also want to track their employees' actions and locations."They monitor us constantly with devices, a PDA [personal digital assistant], something that we use to scan parcels and collect signatures," noted Sputnik's interviewee, "but it also tracks what we're doing all the time, where we are, how long we stopped for, those kinds of things. Currently, they're unable to use those for disciplinary reasons, but again, that's something they want to change in the current dispute about terms and conditions. So you'll be monitored from the minute you go to work to the minute you leave."The company's executives want to renegotiate these rules to monitor their employees all the time they are on duty which infringes their personal freedom, according to the postal worker.Strikes as Last ResortThe unfolding cost of living crisis and swirling inflation have complicated matters further. Even though UK inflation climbed to 10.1 percent in July, Royal Mail imposed an anemic 2 percent pay increase for workers.This drove the company's employees to vote overwhelmingly in August to go on strike for better pay and conditions. The strikes have been scheduled for September, October, November and December and are being organized by the Communication Workers Union (CWU).Sputnik's source thought that Royal Mail had started with the assumption that postal workers weren't up for the fight and would give up easily. However, the exact opposite has happened. Even though people were losing money while being on strike, the industrial action has got stronger and stronger. "That's because of the behavior of the company and the way it behaved towards people," the employee explained.Having been forced back to the negotiating table, the company announced that, nonetheless, it would fire 10,000 workers. According to the Royal Mail employee, the union believes that the company is resorting to intimidation tactics because the strikes are going so well."So to try and strengthen the workforce and say, look, if you carry on striking, we're going to cut jobs and stuff like that," the postal worker said. "Yes, they are due to speak next week, I believe. But maybe the union is not being heard in the meeting room, but it's certainly being heard on the picket lines and in the streets around our offices. Yesterday, we were on strike and there are many, many images across social media of huge picket lines outside post offices or delivery offices across the country."Postal Workers, Trade Unions Team Up With General PublicThe interviewee noted that probably 70 percent of the staff at the delivery office where the employee works went out on the picket line. There will be more picket lines with hundreds of people joining - not just postal workers but also other Britons who come out to support Royal Mail workers, according to Sputnik's source.Many netizens, including politicians and journalists, have sided with British postal workers. Nadia Whittome, a British Member of Parliament for Nottingham East, took to Twitter to accuse Royal Mail bosses of utter hypocrisy."Royal Mail bosses should be ashamed of themselves," she tweeted. "The company made £758Mln ($847.4Mln) profit last year. Its chief executive Simon Thompson got paid £753,000. They can afford to pay workers properly instead of threatening job cuts to break the strike."Peter Stefanovic, an Australian journalist, reporter and television presenter, also spoke in defense of Royal Mail employees: "Royal Mail… gave its chief executive and chief financial officers £2Mln ($2.23Mln) in bonuses and £400Mln ($446.8Mln) to shareholders. Today 115,000 postal workers will continue their fight for a fair pay rise. Damn right I stand with them," he tweeted on 13 October.Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020 also saluted British postmen and women on Twitter and expressed solidarity with the CWU.The next strikes are scheduled for 20 and 25 October and 28 November. The CWU has described the Royal Mail workers' industrial action as the biggest national strike in any sector this year.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20220825/royal-mail-reportedly-mulls-scrapping-major-deal-with-union-on-job-protection-ahead-of-strikes-1099967577.html
https://sputnikglobe.com/20220621/uks-tory-government-faces-social-collapse-having-no-one-but-itself-to-blame-1096507888.html
https://sputnikglobe.com/20220826/115000-posties-walk-out-in-royal-mail-strike-over-pay-1100037413.html
united kingdom (uk)
Sputnik International
feedback@sputniknews.com
+74956456601
MIA „Rossiya Segodnya“
2022
News
en_EN
Sputnik International
feedback@sputniknews.com
+74956456601
MIA „Rossiya Segodnya“
Sputnik International
feedback@sputniknews.com
+74956456601
MIA „Rossiya Segodnya“
strikes, industrial action, royal mail, inflation, recession, cost of living, workers, uk labour party, united kingdom (uk)
strikes, industrial action, royal mail, inflation, recession, cost of living, workers, uk labour party, united kingdom (uk)
British Postal Worker: Royal Mail Bosses Have Been Shocked by Level of Support for Strikes
05:26 GMT 16.10.2022 (Updated: 15:21 GMT 28.05.2023) More than 100,000 UK postal workers went on strike on 13 October to demand better pay and working conditions, and there is more industrial action promised. While the cost of living crisis bites, Royal Mail executives are trying to squeeze more and more work out of their employees for the sake of profit.
"I do a four-day week of about nine-and-a-half hours a day," said a British postal worker who spoke to Sputnik on the condition of anonymity. "I work in a rural location delivering the post for Royal Mail. I have done so for more than 25 years. It's a long day. I'm walking probably 10 miles a day every day that I'm at work. Most of it is very physically demanding."
The postman delivers letters and parcels to around 400 or 500 houses every day. The job takes its toll on Royal Mail employees: many of them suffer musculoskeletal injuries at work.
"For instance, where I work, at least three or four people who are probably in their late forties, early fifties, they've already had knee replacements," Sputnik's source noted. "There's a lot of damage to ankles, as you can imagine, constantly walking 10 miles a day. It's a tough, physically demanding job that we do every day."
25 August 2022, 05:56 GMT
It's All About Making Profit
And Royal Mail does not make things easier for them. On the contrary, the company is trying to get more work out of postal workers in the same amount of time, trying to make them work faster and harder, Sputnik's source says.
"That's part of what the current disputes about the terms and conditions [are about], they want us to be working at a certain pace all the time and it doesn't matter what age you are," the postman says. "We have been working from the age of 18 and maybe to the age of 65, 67. Quite clearly someone aged 18 is going to be quicker than someone aged 65. It's just natural, isn't it? They want to have standardized performance across the board for everybody, which obviously makes it harder for older people to work."
It hasn't always been like this: when Royal Mail was a state-owned company it was more about being a public service. Its employees still worked hard but they weren't pushed as hard as they are now, according to the postal worker.
"Since it's been privatized, obviously it's all about profit, making money. Work harder, work faster, work longer," the Royal Mail employee said.
Tracking Royal Mail Employees
But that is not all: the Royal Mail bosses also want to track their employees' actions and locations.
"They monitor us constantly with devices, a PDA [personal digital assistant], something that we use to scan parcels and collect signatures," noted Sputnik's interviewee, "but it also tracks what we're doing all the time, where we are, how long we stopped for, those kinds of things. Currently, they're unable to use those for disciplinary reasons, but again, that's something they want to change in the current dispute about terms and conditions. So you'll be monitored from the minute you go to work to the minute you leave."
The company's executives want to renegotiate these rules to monitor their employees all the time they are on duty which infringes their personal freedom, according to the postal worker.
The unfolding cost of living crisis and swirling inflation have complicated matters further. Even though UK inflation climbed to 10.1 percent in July, Royal Mail imposed an anemic 2 percent pay increase for workers.
This drove the company's employees to vote overwhelmingly in August to go on strike for better pay and conditions. The strikes have been scheduled for September, October, November and December and are being organized by the Communication Workers Union (CWU).
"We've had six days of industrial action so far," the postal worker said. "At the beginning of the interaction, the company was adamant that they would not speak to trade unionists and wouldn't have any meetings with them at all. But the strength of the industrial action and the power of the members have forced the company back to the negotiating table."
Sputnik's source thought that Royal Mail had started with the assumption that postal workers weren't up for the fight and would give up easily. However,
the exact opposite has happened. Even though people were losing money while being on strike, the industrial action has got stronger and stronger. "That's because of the behavior of the company and the way it behaved towards people," the employee explained.
Having been forced back to the negotiating table, the company announced that, nonetheless,
it would fire 10,000 workers. According to the Royal Mail employee, the union believes that the company is resorting to intimidation tactics because the strikes are going so well.
"So to try and strengthen the workforce and say, look, if you carry on striking, we're going to cut jobs and stuff like that," the postal worker said. "Yes, they are due to speak next week, I believe. But maybe the union is not being heard in the meeting room, but it's certainly being heard on the picket lines and in the streets around our offices. Yesterday, we were on strike and there are many, many images across social media of huge picket lines outside post offices or delivery offices across the country."
26 August 2022, 18:11 GMT
Postal Workers, Trade Unions Team Up With General Public
The interviewee noted that probably 70 percent of the staff at the delivery office where the employee works went out on the picket line. There will be more picket lines with hundreds of people joining - not just postal workers but also
other Britons who come out to support Royal Mail workers, according to Sputnik's source.
"I think Royal Mail has been shocked by the level of support for the strike, first from postal workers and secondly from the general public and other trade unions," the postal worker said, adding that people should wait until next week to see how the negotiations will pan out.
Many netizens, including politicians and journalists, have sided with British postal workers. Nadia Whittome, a British Member of Parliament for Nottingham East, took to Twitter to accuse Royal Mail bosses of utter hypocrisy.
"Royal Mail bosses should be ashamed of themselves," she
tweeted. "The company made £758Mln ($847.4Mln) profit last year. Its chief executive Simon Thompson got paid £753,000. They can afford to pay workers properly instead of threatening job cuts to break the strike."
Peter Stefanovic, an Australian journalist, reporter and television presenter, also spoke in defense of Royal Mail employees:
"Royal Mail… gave its chief executive and chief financial officers £2Mln ($2.23Mln) in bonuses and £400Mln ($446.8Mln) to shareholders. Today 115,000 postal workers will continue their fight for a fair pay rise. Damn right I stand with them," he
tweeted on 13 October.
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020 also
saluted British postmen and women on Twitter and expressed solidarity with the CWU.
The next strikes are scheduled for 20 and 25 October and 28 November. The CWU has described the Royal Mail workers' industrial action as the biggest national strike in any sector this year.
