Northern Ireland Postal Strike
I know its been a while since I posted ? a mixture of having a very busy life (?) and not keeping up with what?s going on in the world. However, one thing that I can not help but notice is the DAMNED postal strike. It is the most irritating and selfish thing for the postal workers to strike and not consider the damage they are doing.
?I agree with the basis and logic behind Unions completely and think that workers must be protected and Unions are a perfect way of ensuring this. I think Unions are there for a reason and this is why illegal strikes are so abhorrent to me. Are these people not thinking about the damage they are doing? What if the hospital / doctors had sent you or a family member a letter telling you about urgent treatment that you needed ? what if you or they did not get that letter and subsequently fell ill or worse, died? Would this illegal and altogether strange and vague strike seem justifiable to you? What if a car crashed into you and you latter found out that the car driver?s insurance was up for renewal but due to the strike he/she did not know that it had expired and was therefore uninsured? Would you think its OK because the postal workers were striking, that?s life?
These are just a few of the examples of the damage they are doing, never mind the monetary damage to small businesses in terms of lost revenue and damaged reputation. In addition, I am not altogether sure why the strike is even happening ? I have heard so many stories but the common thread running through all of them is bullying by management. If this is the case then industrial action is more than justified but illegal action is not. The word on the grapevine is that the strike is nearing an end ? its about time, lets just hope most of the damage done is not irreparable.
Mr Levee: Thats precisly what has happened, both managment and union have lost a degree of public confidence. Firstly it is important to state this is not an official strike. Secondly whatever lies behind the motive of the postal workers the reasoning has been lost in the scrum for media attention. So I and the rest of the public are confused and angry.
Thankfully the Health Service had made contingecy plans. Mrs Parnell has benefited from the I.T. now being employed. The good lady has recieved both telephone calls and texts from the health providers so therefore her patient care is uninterrupted. But thats not the point.
Private individuals and business will not have set back and did nothing. One necessary service had the good sense to email me my bill, they even discounted for promp payment. Postal Union and Managment beware you have started something you won’t be able to control much longer.
Sorry I should have addressed the above to Sister in Law.
I agree Parnell, I have been largely unaffected by the strike because I rely more heavily on email and the Internet.
I have more than a little sympathy for those people who aren’t as lucky to have convenient Internet access to work around this.
Seems like a case of “strike now, think later”
I need books for queens - badly. I’ve ordered one and refuse to order the rest until this ballocks is sorted out.
Sack the lot of them and get some people in who want to work.
I understand completely Beano. And by the time you get your books you will be behind in your work and will have to make it up ? even though its not your fault in the first place!! Really irritating.
I am getting married in Italy in June and my paperwork was sent to the authorities the day after the strike began ? but obviously it hasn?t got there and its essential they have it soon or the wedding may have to be postponed (worst case scenario) or at the least it will have to be sent again which is such a hassle and entails taking more time off work to pick up paperwork and cancel cheques and bankers drafts. Do they not realise that people have no sympathy for illegal strikes?
I support the strikers and I think you are all being incredible selfish.
One woman took time off work to mourn for her son who had died and got a written warning. Another man was in a hospital bed and his line manager came into the hospital, not to see how he was but to give him a written warning.
And these go on their permanent work record.
I know people who have worked at Toome Street and they have told me that the managers do not know how to handle authority, they are not sent on courses or taught how to behave responsibly with this new authority so the power has gone to their heads and they hand out warnings (both verbal and written) like librarians hand out late fines.
Also, there are a load of cliques in the post office (I know you get cliques everywhere) but apparently it has got out of hand in the sorting office.
So I support the strikers and I hope that they get their independent, third party review of management/superior discipline procedures.
JP,
If the postal workers situation is so bad, why haven’t they been putting this across to the media? I like sis-in-law and Parnell had no idea of why such action was being taken despite watching the local news every day.
Also if their situation was so dire why was an official strike not agreed to?
Your stories do seem upsetting for those involved, but I’m sure there were better ways to handle the situation. Surely the Labour Relations Agency or a similar organistion could have suggested an alternative to any aggrieved employees.
Mrs L, Sis in Law, Parnell et al
The media probably did not report on it because the media prefers a sob story involving the general public rather than workers rights. I don’t want to sound like citazen smith here, but when strikes are called, the media always ignore the workers and focus on the general public.
Like the firemen’s strike a few years back (i didn’t agree with it btw. 40% away and sh***) but the media focus on how it would affect the general public.
But I heard those stories about the man in hospital and the mother who lost her son on Radio Ulster. Once and only once it was never reported again.
The media focused on, valentines day, hospital appointments, business’ and other little things like that. Not the reason why they were striking.
One of the worst instances of media manipulation was the pleb on radio ulster from 9am - 1030. He could “exclusively reveal” that the man leading the strike was sacked, Owen Davey I think. Owen was sacked when he was elected union representative and for no plausible reason and he is in a tribunal wanting to know why he was sacked.
This was Stephen Nolen being nothing more than a sensationalist. And everyone knew he had been sacked, it wasn’t exclusive. Nolan continually led the anti strike attitude in Northern Ireland, something like 4 days straight he dedicated his show to people phoning up complaining about not recieving birthday cards.
Official action wasn’t taken because it requires a majority vote, two thirds in many cases and that is from everyone in the union working in toome (is it toome or tomb?) street? So they would not have got it because the line managers etc would have been entitled to vote and obviously they do not want to draw attention to their dire people skills.
I do not know if they went to the Labour Relations Agency or similar. They may have done and if they didn’t they sure as hell should have done.
I hope your documentation arrives soon for your wedding Sis in Law and you do not have to postpone it.
JP: The majority vote thing isn’t exactly true. When the strike began, I heard (possibly on Nolan) that the strike had been contrary to advice from the Union. In fact, Nolan at the time cast aspersions on the relevance of the Union if the workers weren’t prepared to take their advice.
Like I say, I wasn’t terribly affected by the strike at all, but it seems that Post Office workers are always up in arms about something.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t it once a certainty every Christmas that as the IRA declared a ceasefire, the Post Office workers declared war going after better conditions?
If I were dependent on snail mail at all, I’d be sorely pissed off. It seems that the Post Office workers hold us to ransom at frequent intervals. Perhaps Parnell is right and they’ve maybe set in motion a chain of events that will make them a less essential service to business.
Why pay any attention to what Nolan said? He’s not a journalist, he’s a tabloid muckraker with a big mouth (in more ways than one).
The media are completely right to comment on the effects to the public though. Complex issues of industrial relations are boring - that’s why the LRA etc are there.
People not getting letters re hospital appointments, exam results or valentines cards is a much bigger audience pull.
If it was so bad then an official strike should have been called. I don’t honestly believe that a few line managers voting could stop the majority of workers agreeing to strike and winning the vote if the workers felt so strongly about it. The postal workers in Derry voted against joining the strike for this reason.
Local businesses have lost millions of pounds because of this and more importantly the reputations of these companies have probably been irreparably damaged.
Couldn?t have said it better myself Daniel
Local business may have been damaged, but I would put people and workers rights before profit.
And it wasn’t just a few line managers, maybe I did not make myself clear, but an old tactic of strike breakers is to cosy up to a good few people, promise them promotion, overtime, time off at weekends in order to vote against the strike. Line managers and their cliques, carry a lot of weight in organisations like this.
Maybe the workers in Derry are happier than the ones in Belfast because their isn’t such a hierarchy or workers.
Media focusing on the poor general public does nothing to highlight the reason the postmen were striking in the first place and did nothing but build resentment to their cause. Now I am sounding like citazen smith.
But yes, maybe unions are on their way out. I for one, would not accept a job if I wasn’t allowed to join a union, so I am biased that way.
With all due respect mr levee, I do not think that the post office called strikes just for the sheer hell of it everytime at Christmas, I know one time they did because they were told they would only be given their Christmas bonus’ if they worked overtime for nothing extra. Hence their bonus was nothing more than the overtime payment they deserved.
Now the strike has been resolved, we can wait and see what measures will be taken to address whatever cultural issues were involved in this.
One striker told me he lost ?900 over the period, there was a lot more than annoyance over 1 or 2 individuals involved here.