Postman Pat commits suicide

by | Oct 8, 2009 | I'm ranting | 2 comments

Postman Pat commits suicide

Well, the postal unions have announced a series of strikes on the run up to Christmas. What a brilliant move, calculated to undermine confidence in the postal service at the time of year when most post is sent. Presumably it’s also when the postal service makes a reasonable amount of money under normal circumstances. So if there’s no service, there’ll be less money and more chance of Pat losing his job. Sometimes the mind boggling stupidity of unions staggers me. Don’t these morons realise that there has to be a business for there to be jobs?
Over the past few weeks, London has had a shit postal service. Right now it’s just not worth taking the risk of putting something in the post. It’s unlikely to arrive. So people are doing other things – like abandoning the Royal Mail and using courier companies, and email wherever possible.
I’m going through my Christmas list, and preparing to do as much as possible by email, or failing that, giving my friends a call to wish them Happy Christmas.
I’d put money on most of London doing the same.
Well done guys

2 Comments

  1. Postman Patty
    Postman Patty on 18 November 2009 at 20:10

    Hi Stu, before I reply to your post I would like you to know I wish you no ill will for your uninformed complaints about the strikes. I myself have a tendency to whinge about our government and big business without undertaking proper research but at least I am aware of this, which I like to think puts me at least two levels above your average Sun reader.

    I work for Royal Mail, and for a long time now our powers that be have been cutting staff, lying to us about mail levels falling and piling more and more work upon their remaining staff. Management also bully staff into putting in less overtime even though they expect us to do more work. One example of this is the new practice of simply not replacing staff when they leave and then breaking up uncovered postal rounds and dividing them up between the remaining staff. My own office has lapsed two rounds in this way already.

    In addition, there is also the monstrous practice of no longer taking on full-time staff with a view to eventually having a part-time workforce. Also, Royal Mail blocks geographic transfers for existing full-time staff in order to increase the likelihood of said full-time staff leaving.

    Managers also bully part time staff in many offices into coming in an hour early UNPAID in order to be in-synch with the full-time staff when going out on delivery. This is fine if you finish early but more often owing to the increased workload this is not the case.

    In addition, all of the junk-mail you receive is delivered by postmen and women, we receive a pittance for doing this, and I do mean pennies, which has remained unchanged for 10 years whilst Royal Mail make a fortune from it.

    There are many more grievances, but I think I have made my point. I will close on this though, Royal Mail’s vision for the future is to maximise profits by keeping staffing levels at dangerously low levels and squeezing us until the pips squeak. They have reneged on 2007’s union agreement and will continue to make arbitrary changes to our pay and conditions unless we take a stand and hit them where it hurts.

    I do not enjoy striking, no-one does, this is because the backlog after a strike makes our job a real misery and because we do worry about our job security and the public’s trust in us. However a line must be drawn or the donkey’s backs will continue to be broken.

    All the best, Patty.

    Reply
    • Stuart
      Stuart on 18 November 2009 at 22:10

      Thanks for the comment.
      It is interesting to hear the views from someone on the inside. I don’t pretend to be informed about the strike, but I feel I have every right to complain about how much of a pain in the arse it was for Royal Mail customers. If half of what you say is true then I think you have real grounds for feeling aggrieved, and I would support you; but not if you stop delivering my mail, because that hits MY business and puts my livelihood at risk.
      I don’t bear postmen any ill will except for the one that couldn’t be arsed to ring my doorbell. My complaint is the effect of the strikes on your customers – me and millions like me.
      As an outsider I see a business that is struggling to compete with couriers etc.
      But I also see a business approaching its busiest time of year, when Joe Public (the customer, who ultimately pays all the bills) is looking to them to deliver Christmas cheer around the world, and the unions decide this is a good time to strike and put the Christmas post in doubt. I can’t be the only one who was mightily pissed off and resolved to look to other ways to deliver my Christmas messages.
      It just can’t be sensible to undermine confidence in Royal Mail when there are plenty of other operators just waiting for the opportunity to cream off your paying customers and take business away from you. As I said in the post, you need a business to give you guys jobs, and if the business suffers it has to make your future even more uncertain.
      I can’t help feel that there has to be a better way to settle a dispute than encourage your customers to seek other suppliers.
      I don’t know the details of the settlement. I hope it works for everyone, particularly the guys who slog around the pavements in all weathers.
      Happy Christmas, Patty

      Reply

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