Postal Workers Strike over Pay

18:01.58 - Thursday 7th June 2007   (Link to This Entry)

Postal Workers have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action in a recent ballot - the first time they've gone on strike since 1996. After tube workers, Postal Workers must be the most self-entitled bunch of halfwits I've ever come across.

I'd support the Postal Workers in their endeavour if they did a decent job, but just recent the Post Office's service in general has been completely hopeless. First Class used to get a letter from one end of the country to the other by the next day if it was posted in time, but over the last few months we've seen letters (both personal and business) taking five days or more to reach their destination.

Last year an insider/whistleblower TV programme showed systematic apathy amongst Postal Workers, with a distinct lack of pride in their work. From personal experience I've found them to be thieves, liars and absolute grade A bloody jobsworths. I've known letters go missing, parcels stolen, others left out in the rain at the back of the house (no card through the door - too much effort), late deliveries, wrong deliveries and so on. Parcel Force - the Royal Mail's parcel service - is a standing joke in itself.

If postal workers want to validate their jobs and prove their worth in the form pay rises, they should bloody well do a decent job in the first place. The Post Office is an institution that used to mean something, but recently it's just a joke.

Update! A geezer writes...

In defence of *some* postal workers (A relative has been a postie for few years now), I would say that a lot of your complaints are down to management ass-hattery - yup, the British disease.

Many of the problems shown the C4 docu last year were caused by them taking any scummy chav/asylum seeker off the steet as a temp and entrusting 'em with your mail. They've stopped this now but there's a lot of unrest in the ranks.

For example, guarantees about bonuses have recently evapourated into thin air (this despite the PO generally making a decent profit) and they're constantly piling more "every door" junk mail onto the posties. It is actually back-breaking work, with unsociable hours, in all weather, with risks like muggings and dog attacks hourly.

Yeah, its a well paid job (where else is unskilled work like this rewarded so well?) and whether a wage increase is due is open for debate (the official "OMG! THEY WANT 47%!!!" stuff was bullshit of course). But maybe the management should get their act together and stop failing to deliver (ouch) on their promises - if there's not gonna be a bonus, stop bullshitting about it right up to the week it's snatched away.