“"So this is modernising the Post Office where customer service has become a no go area in speaking to a senior manager."

I doubt there are very few organisations where you can ring up from out of the blue and speak to a senior manager.”

“I rang the Firth Road sorting office to find out what was going on and wished to speak to senior management. By and behold no one was available and excuses were made. This is typical with the management system of the UK so not much has changed for years. The person taking my call gave me the number of 0845 600 3725 and go through the process of contacting a customer service agent similar to that of a call centre.
This I did and after twenty minutes finally spoke to one who was reading a script. My request was to speak to someone in authority but the agent said that he could not do this. So I asked why? He said it was not allowed. I then requested to speak to his line manager but it appears that this was not allowed too. But I persisted so his line manager had a word with me.
Of course the discussion was about the postal strike in Lincoln. She read out another statement to me parrot fashion. All it bounded to was that nothing had been resolved yet, discussions were still going on, and that management were still pursuing with their plan of action. It was like listening to a robot at the other end of the telephone. She was not allowed to pass on my comments to senior management because this is not how it worked. I had to ring again by making a complaint.
So this is modernising the Post Office where customer service has become a no go area in speaking to a senior manager.
So I expect that the delivery and collection service will not improve, the Post Office service will be curtailed because of budget cuts, the Post Office is being dismantled in favour of private enterprise (that will be a joke when private firms pick and choose of what to deliver, collect, and where), and two to a van in Lincoln is just a red herring. For I have been told that these postal workers will have to have driving licences to proceed with the plan for Lincoln. But there are staff who have not!
To say that the postal workers should be sacked for their action, is ridiculous. This is typical with Tory supporters using the debate.
They like to glean over what Thatcher did in the 1980s. Yes, the result was that many people of the UK suffered during the Thatcherite era where her philosophy and political thinking was the "survival of the fittest and the wealthist."
The reality was crash, bang, and wallop for most!
Well, I have good news for hanging onto their huge pensions and bonuses - it won't last long. For even the precocious of the leading economists of the UK are predicting that the bubble is going to burst around summer 2009 whereby unemployment will soar into a higher figure, not known before. And from this there is likely to be civil unrest.
If the Tories want us to return to the bad old days where people become subservient to the wealthy, the elect, and the few which controlled people, how they lived, worked, and survived, they have another thing coming.
The Tories like to divide and rule using immigrant labour to replace British workers, claiming that the British are lazy in their work patterns, and so forth.
They love to say such things to keep power and control. They will use any method to break the camels back to keep what they have only for themselves and blow everybody else, and will dispose those who get in their way. They are prepared to use the police force and the armed forces as Thatcher did when she reigned supreme over one and all.
But that was her downfall!”

“I am a postie that walked out because of my fellow workers being bullied and intimidated to do a job that he was not sure about doing, i personally only want an 8 hour day job that finishes in time for me to pick my kids up from school. I take a lot of pride in my job and always work hard considering myself a good employee. Lately a lot of full time staff have been getting warnings / suspensions / sackings for quite trivial reasons, which we seem to think is a way of reducing the staff workforce so they do not have to pay redundencies etc. We are constantly bullied into doing overtime when it isn't always convienient, when we put in a bullied compliant form it goes to a higher manager then nothing else is done about it, in fact it has been noted that the higher manager would praise his under study for having the most harrasment cases against him. We have done overtime to have the pay not payed to us with a scheme they invented about banking hours, which would be fine if all the rounds where even but it means some are working an hour a day more than others for just the same pay. Lincoln has not had a strike for a long time because of the scare mongery from the management but now with the changes coming in with no guide lines it opens up to workers making unwilling mistakes which leads to them getting the sack. The large majority of posties just want to work a good days work and go home to do other interests, but with the bullied itimidation to be told to do a job you are given little knowledge about to only be punished for simple mistakes. The majority of managers are ex posties that have stepped up the ladder thru family or friends and are not properly trained in people / time or planning management. hard to believe for such a big establishment. I really want to go back to work as it is a real struggle financially but i was told to stand up to my bullies and that is all the staff are doing.”

“all they are being asked to do is deliver mail from a van (granted in pairs being the only revolutionary 'new' idea, oh, and also take a few extra parcels with them to be delivered in the time they will save by not having to bike out)...
80% already deliver from there own cars anyway.... so what's the difference...?”

“The betfrdd bookmakers was robbed on brant road on Sunday evening, they need to lower the levels of crime in Lincoln quickly”

“I understand some of the problems with managers at RM and that there has been many problems, as a big change is on the way with Lincoln Mangers maybe this should be taken as a wake up call to the "Big wigs", listen to your staff who turn out in every weather delivering and collecting mail, from what I know the top man should of signed on the dotted line and stopped the strike today but wouldnt do it, even though his bosses said he should do it, Anyway I support the workers and so should anyone who has ever had a problem with there working arrangement, at least these posties are standing up for themselves”

“Get Mrs Thatcher back, she will soon have the postal workers strike all done with. That woman was the best thing ever happened to this country, The best prime minister we ever had.”

“Yes, you should be able to pick up your mail from the sorting office.”

“how coud you possibly claim that comments by such notables as swiss toni and mc c donald are uninformed? surely they are the true font of human intellect...or perhaps rather the holy grail of prejudice and bigotry...”

“There¿s been a lot of comment about the strike by postal workers in Lincoln, most of which is very uninformed. While on the surface it may seem that the strike is about saving the jobs of a couple of individuals (and frankly, what is wrong with that?) the real situation within Royal Mail runs much deeper.

As with so many public services, the government are determined to force our mail delivery service into private hands. At one time we had guaranteed deliveries before 10am, sometimes two deliveries a day. We had Post Offices on Cross Street, Gowt¿s Bridge, and elsewhere. But now, in the 21st century, we are seeing our services being cut while the population of Lincoln grows! While I¿m sure most Royal Mail managers are extremely intelligent, they clearly can¿t have studied English as the word ¿logic¿ clearly has no meaning to them.

Much has been made of the causes of this strike. But it should be mentioned that the anti-Trade Union laws mean that workers are not legally allowed to take action on political grounds, unless it has a direct effect on their workplace. Basically, their hands are tied. The postal workers are fighting for their colleagues, but they are also fighting for much more. They are fighting for a decent postal service for all of us, for the reintroduction of local Post Offices and for decent working conditions for all. Is that really too much to ask?

On a final note, I should mention that the destruction of our postal service is a direct consequence of the European Union¿s neo-liberal policies. While the banks and big business are allowed to run riot, national governments are forced to dismantle state-run services. Rather than fight this, New Labour and their neo-liberal supporters in Europe are more than happy to sell our public services to the lowest bidder. This is why the RMT have formed a new political party to fight the European elections in June. While I have some issues with some of the policies of ¿No To The EU ¿ Yes To Democracy¿, this can only be a progressive step. Surely now is the time for the trade union movement as a whole to wake up and realise that Labour is no longer the party of the working class? The time has come for the trade unions to lead the way in founding a new party truly representative of the working class.”