October 17: Profits, bonuses . . . and a wage freeze
I write in response to the article in Wednesday's paper concerning the Royal Mail strike and in particular the comments from Tim Barnes-Clay.
It always seems to appear that individuals from all walks of life that do not work within Royal Mail or have never done so know so much about the job, more than that of those who actually work there.
Being a postman for the last 27 years you see before your own eyes how the service is being diminished, more so of late, and all in the name of modernisation.
For the last five years Royal Mail has been shedding jobs so much so that it has decreased its employees by 60,000 and still wishes to reduce its numbers further.
The loss of contracts is down to what is termed in Royal Mail as downstream access whereby competitors can cherry pick lucrative contracts and then post back through Royal Mail for us to sort and deliver, in some cases at a loss and always on less profitable terms.
Although Royal Mail and the CWU asked for commercial freedom, it was to be on the basis of equal footing with its competitors and not as it is now where competitors can undercut Royal Mail's prices yet Royal Mail is not allowed to lower its own prices.
The Government can find billions of pounds to bail out the banks yet declines to put up monies to bridge the gap in a pension scheme for a public service it owns.
We are continually told that mail is declining. I'm sure the delivery postmen and women who now take out seven or eight bags per day compared to the two or three they used to take out some years ago would disagree with that.
Royal Mail this year declared profits in every part of the business, the first time in some 20 years it has been able to achieve this and also year on year it still delivers millions of pounds in profits.
It can find money to reward its senior managers in the payment of high bonuses yet it imposes a pay freeze on its workforce who actually delivered that profit.
The postmen and women of Northamptonshire do not want to go on strike.
Unfortunately we are dealing with people who are purely paying lip service to the Communication Workers Union, its employees, the public and media and unless meaningful negotiations take place then the dispute will, unfortunately, go ahead.
Adam Lansbury,
Hyde Road, Roade.
Strike lessons not learned
Once again, ordinary workers are being misled by their trade union in undertaking a full postal strike.
I would have thought that lessons should have been learned from recent industrial dispute history where this sort of action harms the very people taking it.
Way back, the dockers held the country to ransom and this hurried along containerisation which saw the loss of many thousands of dock worker jobs.
The miners strike followed which resulted in the wholesale closure of pits, the huge loss in mine worker jobs and the import of cheaper coal.
Even in Fleet Street, print workers struck themselves out of Fleet Street and into Wapping.
We are on the cusp of a full national postal strike and already businesses are making alternative plans to cope.
Invoices are being sent via email and paid via bank transfer etc. Private courier companies are rubbing their hands with the prospect of an increase in business and even birthday and Christmas cards can be sent via email.
All businesses have to move with the times and the Royal Mail is no different.
Mail workers cannot act as Luddites and prevent improvements which are desperately needed in the postal service.
Should the strike go ahead, the postal workers may not have a business to go back to.
It is then no good trying to apportion blame between the union and management when they have lost their job!
Robin Flight,
Spinney Drive, Collingtree, Northampton.
Nothing wrong with rental claim
Concerning the matter of MP Brian Binley and his claim of expenses for a flat in London, I feel there is an aspect which I have not seen expressed.
I am not a fan of Mr Binley but, provided the rules allow him to claim the rental for a genuine second home, I see his expenses claim as simply good business practice, irrespective of who owns the company to which the flat belongs.
The point is: if Mr Binley did not occupy this flat, the company would let it to a member of the public and obtain the full monthly rental.
I am assuming Mr Binley has partners or business associates in this marketing company and, if I was one of them, I’d be most peeved if the business lost out because Mr Binley did not pay rent for it.
1,500 per month seems steep, but that’s London for you!
All this is assuming that Mr Binley forwards the monthly 1,500 to the marketing company.
I feel this is a bona fide expenses claim and who owns the company is irrelevant.
Sulamite Tepfers,
Kelmscott Close, Northampton.
Double standards
My late father had a saying: “Show me a person with double standards and I’ll show you a politician.”
Remind me, how long ago was it that politicians were demanding that Sir Fred Goodwin return his pension and bonuses even though they were “within the rules that applied at the time”?
Pot, kettle and black spring to mind.
Alan Smith,
Milton Street North, Northampton.
Brainwashed into the EU
IN his conference speech Gordon Brown tells us how much he loves our country. So he wants to prove it by handing us over to the “heart of Europe”. This, of course, on the road to ever closer obliteration.
We are back in 1975 and the referendum on the Common Market, three years after we had entered.
How we were brainwashed then is in the classic book from Gollanz, 1975: While Britain Slept, The Selling of the Common Market: Evans.
In Ireland Big Brother Brussels poured in our money to secure the yes vote, following the no vote a year ago. There will be no third vote, having signed up for life to this industrial, military bloc.
It is not about peace. Are we looking at the very same forces we faced in 1939?
I can hear Mamma crying still. Dad was wounded in 1917. My brother and me were in the last war and another was digging coal.
Ted Spanswick,
Hammerstone Lane, Northampton.
Not much of an Opposition
I SEE Gordon Brown has fired the starting gun for the next General Election. Labour hopes aren’t high, but what else is out there?
Do you think the Tory hopefuls, Cameron, Osborne and Haig will be any better? But The Sun and Rupert Murdoch will be trying to dictate who will be the next PM as usual.
As for the Liberal Democrats pushing Nick Clegg . . . he’s got no chance.
I reckon I’ve more chance of being Prime Minister than him.
If Clegg really thought anything of the Liberal Democrats as a party he would move aside for Vince Cable.
Northampton’s Lib Dem local white hope Andrew Simpson is being pushed as the candidate for Northampton North. What chance has he got with the recent troubles of the Lib Dems in this town? Not a party you’d even want to be associated with let alone try to represent.
Eamonn Fitzpatrick,
Ridgeway, Northampton.
Email to a friend
Print this page- BREAKING NEWS: Man dies following motorway smash on Northamptonshire border
- BREAKING NEWS: Police inundated with hundreds of complaints over snowball fights
- Huge cigarette haul by masked burglars in armed raids at Northampton stores
- BREAKING NEWS: Police name man killed in crash on motorway in Northamptonshire
- Student flats planned for Northampton town centre revealed
- BREAKING NEWS: Fishmarket art gallery offered new home
- Student flats planned for Northampton town centre revealed
- New manager of Northampton’s Grosvenor Centre says ‘This is the beginning of a new era’
- BREAKING NEWS: Police inundated with hundreds of complaints over snowball fights
- Neighbours raise concern about bid to build new house three inches from their home
- Exclusive: Saints voluntarily move key Heineken Cup match to Milton Keynes
- Bird’s hilarious take on village life absurdities at comedy club
- Northampton commuters blast railway fare rises
- Sooty may be left with bullet in neck following senseless attack
- Ashton determined to end Saints career on a high
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Northampton
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -6 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -5 C to -0 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South east
