Postal Letter

Should the striking postal workers not just be grateful they have a job?

It makes me think that the armed forces go into combat with ill armoured helicopters and inadequate weapons for a paltry £16,000 salary. Yet postal workers are striking in a recession where tens, if not hundreds of thousands of unemployed people would jump at a chance of a job. You don't see the armed forces striking do you? Your opinions please.

Public Comments

1. You have my stamp of approval
2. If the armed forces go on strike, they get sent to prison (we don't shoot them any more). If the CWU and Royal Mail management can't stop behaving like a couple of prima donnas, Royal Mail will disappear, its services will be flogged off and the workers will have to ask Mr Murdoch for a job. If I worked for Royal Mail, I'd be asking my union some questions.
3. They are selfish and inconsiderate. Really, if they really wanted better pay they should be working on creating their own business using the knowledge and expertise they are being paid to use and quit complaining. There are loads of people who work part time and have their own business. Millions are currently out of work in the UK and we have postal workers compaling; but should be happy to get some funds coming through.
4. yes & no really, you could say the same about bankers getting bonuses. I think workers have to struggle for decent wages, it's a fact of life.
5. Postal department is under heavy loss b coz of inefficiency. People have lost faith in that. It is good time to close that permanently, sooner, the better.
6. No private organization is going to make doorstep deliveries in rural areas. They only want to cherry pick the best and most lucrative areas. So who is going to serve villages and farms? If you think this one through the Mail like the Rail should not be privatised. It will lead to more problems not less.
7. You mean sort of like "Accept what we give you and how we ask you to work, and dont complain about it" And just how long would you stick at your own job for if you were working under those conditions? Perhaps it would suit you to go back to the work houses and penny rope? TD's ? Oh, so you do prefer the workhouse idea then?
8. Soldiers get more than that ... lol £16k ! you are mad. New recruits are on 18k after training at least. My gay ex bf rejoined recently as a Private and got put on £27k ! Nobody should just be grateful for a job. WE SHOULD BE ENTITLED TO HAVE JOBS & TO STRIKE IF WE ARE BEING EXPLOITED.
9. This is the kind of thing that will lose them their jobs if they drive business away to their rivals. The post has been very good in my opinion - it would be a shame to wreck it.
10. The postal service here in the U.S. is also losing billions of dollars. For too many decades it provided not too demanding jobs that paid several times what other jobholders with similar education were getting. Those jobs usually went to the connected good ol boys, and there were not very many women who got them. Groups of workers who have had the power to be overpaid get a sense of entitlement, like autoworkers and teachers in certain parts of the U.S. When the political and economic power shifts, they think they are victims.
11. A "paltry" £16k eh? I recently was offered a job with a starting salary of £16k (starting in September), and I had to compete with hundreds of other qualified applicants to get that position. I was unemployed for a whole year prior to that, and often relied on the postal service to deliver my job applications and CVs on time. So posties, please forgive me if I DON'T offer you any sympathy on this occasion. I might have been more sympathetic if we weren't in the middle of such a bad recession. In the current climate, if you earn more than £16k in the UK and you aren't at immediate risk of redundancy or loss of earnings, you should consider yourself very lucky. I was on £31K before 2008 but that was then; it's a different world now.
12. Yes they should. It is a p!!!!!!!!!!!! take.
13. I don't think anybody should be 'grateful' for a job in that they have to put up with poor pay and conditions just because millions are unemployed. Everyone deserves a decent days pay for a decent days work. Employees are taking advantage of the 'recession' by asking for more hours with no pay or bonus (except for those 'Fat Cats' at the top) because they know employees are scared for their job. This isn't just the Post Office - I mean companies in general. E.g the 3% annual payrise in my husband's contract is currently 8 months overdue! My brother works as a postie and rather than having his own 'round' he is now part of a 'team' that share several rounds. Apparently this makes delivery more efficient. In reality, if someone is on holiday or off sick or if they don't have a full team employed then the other members of the have to cover that round but no extra pay. This is just one of the gripes. They have also been told that they cannot go home early if they finish delivering but have to 'make themselves useful by sweeping up or something'. Hardly an incentive to hurry up and get those letters delivered quickly! I don't necessarily agree with all their demands but feel unless you are doing the job and involved with the action you cannot understand the whole story and the media are hardly renowned for being unbiased!