General Chat

for the first time in years, today I got my post before 10.00am. regarding the post strikes, I bet the bills manage to get thro, lol

jean

The trouble with the postal service is the unelected Lord Mandy. Because he was beaten earlier in his bid to privatise the Post Office he is now determined to finish the Post Office Union just like Maggie did with the Miners. He is working hand in glove with the PO bosses.

The sooner this Government, (with a quarter of its cabinet unelected), has gone, the better. Lets have democracy back.

If I post a letter it 'always' gets there the next day.

I have a problem 'this' week though. I have posted 8 birthday cards on Friday last and hope they get there by this Thursday. Anything posted before then should be there by now.

I get very little junk mail Sue, other than that in various magazines, that I could do without of course. I do get some put through the door by other delivery men (not post office) but only a couple of bits a week from the postman - I have opted out though so that makes a difference.

Perhaps if businesses didn't use the postal service to deliver all the crap mail we get each week the mail service would be able to carry more 'real' mail.

Personally I could do without all the junk we get plus all the utter crud that's tucked inside our TV magazine.

If I want to know what Somerfield are offering this week I will go and look in the store!!!

Make businesses either target their market through 'opt in' schemes or force them to use a private delivery service.

x

I don't suppose I would be either, Ann. I would have thought though that a lot of small businesses could manage in other ways - account transfers and so on. Either way, not good for the Post Office.

Sorry, a PS. I think if I lost my job because the business had gone down because of the postal strike, I would not be magnanimous enough to say 'that's OK chaps, I agree with you striking even if my family don't now have a breadwinner". So I do think they will lose the goodwill of at least some of the people.

Oh certainly David, the management are to blame but it is the postmen who will suffer, not the management, they will be given something else to mess up and will have their payoffs etc. postmen will lose their jobs if there is no work for them. Management rarely suffer if there is a strike, it is the general public who suffer.

Sue, ours has really gone downhill in the last few years. Too few postmen covering too big an area. So we get it late and it's unreliable.

Ann, I do have a lot of sympathy for small businesses with things like this - I work for one and my family runs one. But I disagree that the postmen will lose the goodwill of the people - I think many people are sympathetic to the way the PO treats its staff these days and the only power they have is to withdraw labour. I do agree that this could be the beginning of the end for the post office but personally I think the management are to blame.

I don't really know all the ins and outs, not enough to know whether the postmen have a reason to strike. However, I have personally always been against strikes, they seem to cause more problems than they solve always. I can't help feeling that, because small businesses will go to the wall if there is a strike and they don't find alternative means, postmen will suffer in the long run because there wont be a postal service to save. No matter how badly off they feel they are, and they may be right, there are people all over the country having lost their jobs, the country is in a recession, businesses rely on the post and will go down, causing more job losses. The postmen are not going to have the goodwill of the people.

Its a pain just now,,

am waiting for a book from London to send off to OZ which has family members in................., eveything to go with it is gathering dust,

I think it'll end up getting there 2010 or2011,,,,,,,,,,,!!!grrrrr

but posties have my sympathy,:}

lol Rose, I could cheerfully wish for a few union reps to explode at the moment.

x

Just think "Crosier" he made a mess of the FA.and was bought in to ruin the post office,they have to deliver mail for private mail companies at less than the cost it would normally be charged at. thats not business thats suicide,curtosy of this Government .**M**.

lol Teresa... i did feel for him .

I have got in the habit of watching the subtitles also , when we moved here the tv was in place and it was set for text for the hard of hearing, almost instantaneous voice to text ( done by computer?) ... throws up some great phrases . my recent favourite on the news was about the take over of a failing school...

Voice..." In the first week 15 pupils have been excluded"
Text ...." In the first week 15 pupils have been exploded"
lol

xx

PMSL I imagine he meant VOTE with their feet LOL..

Listening to part of the news on this.... gentleman saying it was his opinion that "the customers would walk with their feet " LOL I bet he wished he hadn't said that ;)

xx

Fortunately Norwich hasn't been involved in the series of one-day strikes, so we still get deliveries every day, somewhere between 9.30am and 2.30pm, but Peterborough was involved in all of them, and that is one of the places there is a backlog.

I can see where the grievances are, and we should support our posties, or lose them, but on the other hand, something has to give in the post office system, it's simply not working as it is, and they are losing heavily to other parcel delivery companies. They have to become competitive.

To do so, they should be consulting those on the front line though, as they are the ones who know first hand where the changes need to be made.

I don't think it will turn into another on the scale of the miners strike, but they are whispering about a 'winter of discontent', and that is quite possible.

Last time they came out we went with them....hmmmmmmm

My OH has worked for the Post Office for years, so my feelings about the postmen's grievances are quite predictable. However, although they have little opportunity but to strike: there will be job losses either way; I can't help but fear that this will be the miners' strike all over again - and we know what happened there!

yep strike action again...you and your sodding unions Suesue...