Post Office staff in strike vote

cheers for all this info tony - were you in the Communication Workers Group by any chance?

No, but I am a postman (on the vans) and a CWU member, and have been for almost 26 years. I am not so active in the Union now, but have been an activist and Union branch officer in the past (and I don't have the Capital to be a Capitalist!).

26 years a postie? Crikey! Easy life on the vans though

For the record, I'm ex-Communication Workers Group and UCW floor rep. But that's in the dim and distant. Almost rejoined the RM in 2001 - a close call!

Not so easy now - we have barcode readers which record the times and places we pick up, so management can track us.

Don't know what you do now, but you probably made the right decision not to rejoin RM, things are getting worse every day, since the 'Way Forward' Agreement.

Ah okay. I've edited your profile to put employment sector communications rather than public sector, because it probably won't be public sector for much longer, and that's the classification we use.

McCormick if you're interested in finding other ex-CWG people you can add it into the "comrades re-united" section of your profile. Just click My Account under your name on the left of the page, then Edit, then Networking and politics and add Communication Workers Group in there. There are a few ex-CWG people about here, I know you know at least one...

but hmmm barcodes? that sounds like a shitty work environment...

It's the postal equivalent of electronic tagging!

Thanks for reclassifying me, I accept your classification, but I think we are likely to be in the public sector until at least the next General Election.

It's also worth noting that there tends to be opposition to the main post offices being privatised or put in shops from the local community. Just in my manor I know of campaigns against this in Blackheath, Lee Green, Bexleyheath and Catford. AFAIK none of these have been successful Most PO users are pensioners and people on benefit so tend to be quite sensitive to them closing or having even worse service. (Anyone who's ever done a mailout for an anarchist paper will know what queuing in one is like ).

There are very few Crown POs left round here and I suspect this trend will accelerate. My mum used to work in sub-Post Offices all her life and the pay was crap, they never paid stamp etc. The owner made a lot of money but the workers didn't.

Regards,

Martin

Yes, most of the campaigns against PO Counter closures and franchising hace been unsuccessful. Post Office Counters Ltd are detirmined to push them through, and the few successes have been where the prospective franchisees have been persuaded that they will get a lot of problems, and have pulled out. In Cricklewood a few years ago, Kwiksave decided not to go ahead with an instore PO counter after a local campaign, which involved pensioners filling up trolleys and then abandoning them en masse at the checkout tills.

I hadn't heard about that - good stuff!

tony, you've set your profile so people cannot send you private messages. It seems like you have a fair bit of knowledge, so if you unblock it then you could discuss it further.
I know that Joseph K., who has been posting the news articles would appreciate any info you could pass onto him, or if you could put him in touch with anyone who has info.

I'm afraid I don't know much about what is going on now, apart from what I get from the media or left wing papers, as I am not that involved with the CWU, except as a lay member (and they don't tell us much).