Don't post any mail until further notice....

Atlantic Dawn

An Post advising people not to post anything until further notice due to industrial action. When I first read the headline that An Post staff were going on strike I was imagining hundreds of people on picket lines, it's a grand total of 36 people bringing the whole show in the country to a halt...

An Post has advised customers not to mail any items with immediate effect due to industrial action.

Staff who maintain key equipment in the four An Post mail centres are taking strike action over cuts in pay.

The 36 staff in question are employed by contractor IO Systems, but are retained by An Post to maintain the automated postal processing machinery at the centres in Dublin, Cork, Portlaoise and Athlone.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/1002/731833-an-post/

whiskeyman

Time to register for Irish Water so!


















/wha? You did't get it? I deffo sent it in to ye!

NachoBusiness

What about deliveries? I'm waiting on a Fleshlight from Amazon.

Menas

But...the Cheque is in the post!

mahoganygas

What I don't understand is why there is no manual contingency.
Instead of using the equipment, get people to manually sort the post by hand.

An Post advised it's customers not to mail anything until further notice. Which means there will soon be a lot of An Post workers (not IO Systems workers) standing around with nothing to do.

Yes it will be a hell of a lot slower. But putting a complete stop to mailing any items seems bonkers to me.
Surely they can ask businesses to send deadline-critical items only.

Private couriers will make a fortune out of this.

These 36 are employed to maintain the automated system. So wonder how long until An Post uses automated systems to maintain the automated systems, and only requires 5 of the 36 on strike to maintain those.

When you're in an industry that is rapidly becoming automated, is striking really the best choice?

Streetwalker

Well done to these workers. Standing up against the race to the bottom is always the right thing to do.

mahoganygas

Streetwalker wrote: »

Well done to these workers. Standing up against the race to the bottom is always the right thing to do.

These worker's jobs exist because of the 'race to the bottom'.

Automated mechanical mail processing replaced manual sorting.

RayCon

Bollox , I just posted 5 packages to the US (registered mail) and the teller in the PO never mentioned anything.

AndyBoBandy

They should be all sacked immediately, and their jobs offered back to them under the new terms for 1 week, and after 1 week, the jobs are offered to the wider public.

The days of needing unions are long gone, they were set up for the days of old when there was no proper employment law around. these days, they do nothing but hold the country to ransom because 'their" members don't want to take the same cut everyone else took.

Mike Guide 69

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

They should be all sacked immediately, and their jobs offered back to them under the new terms for 1 week, and after 1 week, the jobs are offered to the wider public.

The days of needing unions are long gone, they were set up for the days of old when there was no proper employment law around. these days, they do nothing but hold the country to ransom because 'their" members don't want to take the same cut everyone else took.

"All sacked immediately.......", I can guarantee , you'll then have a national problem on your hands, knowing what the reaction might be.........

donegaLroad

just what I needed to hear... I am waiting on a cheque! :-\

Harry Palmr

Menas wrote: »

But...the Cheque is in the post!

Cheque....post.....welcome to the 20th century!

I actually got a pack of ink cartridges this morning, just made it in time by the sound of it.

Strazdas

It's a bit surprising that the country's entire postal service can be brought to a halt by a dispute involving 36 people. You would hope this will be sorted out with extreme urgency, this is something that affects millions of people after all.

DivingDuck

I've got a time-sensitive package waiting to be collected in the depot tonight.

Could have done without this on an already stressful Friday afternoon...

mahoganygas

Steve Fitzpatrick, General Secretary of the Communication Worker's Union: "CWU members will continue to do everything in their power not to impact An Post services."

Great work Steve.

Atlantic Dawn

What will Winning Streak do they will have no 3 stars received to get contestants from?

oppenheimer1

So the general sorting machine has gone down in one of the four sorting centres and the large parcel machine is our of action in another. Unfortunate timing when it coincides with a maintenance workers strike. Without the breakdowns this dispute could have gone on for ages without any urgency

Peppa Pig

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

What will Winning Streak do they will have no 3 stars received to get contestants from?

Hopefully send Marty Whelan on a long holiday

mad muffin

BUT IM WAITING ON TWO PACKAGES FROM CHINA!!! ARGH!!!! :mad:

Tracking doesn't seem to be working at the moment either :mad:

Strazdas

donegaLroad wrote: »

just what I needed to hear... I am waiting on a cheque! :-\

I'm awaiting some prescription medication myself. This is a damned nuisance.

The Backwards Man

This is what you get when you break up the P&T.

allybabe84

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

So the general sorting machine has gone down in one of the four sorting centres and the large parcel machine is our of action in another. Unfortunate timing when it coincides with a maintenance workers strike. Without the breakdowns this dispute could have gone on for ages without any urgency

The thing is the machines break down every few mins, mostly by mail jams which can be rectified by the an post employee operating the machine. A more serious jam which requires the attention of the maintenance staff would maybe occur once an hour on each machine on a good night, but it is usually more frequent than that

efb

Strazdas wrote: »

I'm awaiting some prescription medication myself. This is a damned nuisance.

I thought you couldn't send prescription medicine in the post???

Pink Lemons

I just hope they left enough air holes in the box that my mail order bride is in.

GalwayGrrrrrl

Our hospital does send out prescription medicine to patients in rural areas (in very specific circumstances). Phone your pharmacy /clinic ASAP if your meds don't arrive so they can make alternative arrangements.

imitation

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

They should be all sacked immediately, and their jobs offered back to them under the new terms for 1 week, and after 1 week, the jobs are offered to the wider public.

The days of needing unions are long gone, they were set up for the days of old when there was no proper employment law around. these days, they do nothing but hold the country to ransom because 'their" members don't want to take the same cut everyone else took.

According to the indo they got a 22% pay cut and told they would be put on non rotating night shift. Its now 7 years since the recession began, the economy is finally getting back on its feet. The time for sneaky unnecessary cuts to peoples jobs save is a bit on the company budget is over.

I'm guessing guys in question seem to be automation engineers, who are in pretty high demand now. Personally id question the wisdom of the manager who tried to impose these cuts.

topper75

mahoganygas wrote: »

Steve Fitzpatrick, General Secretary of the Communication Worker's Union: "CWU members will continue to do everything in their power not to impact An Post services."

Great work Steve.

Just being practical really.

Strikes that lose public opinion from the get-go are doomed to defeat. It just hands a wad of bargaining power to the mgmt/govt/other party to negotiations.

gandalf

TBH it is shocking that An Post doesn't have a contingency in place for a situation like this.

They are already under severe pressure from people not using the postal service any more and a lot of private competition. All they are doing by allowing this to go down this route is making themselves less relevant and giving their competition the ability to each into their remaining business. I've already got a mailshot from Parcel Motel offering their services for parcel delivery because of the strike.

lertsnim

I wish they gave us some warning about this. I ordered something online yesterday and it will be delivered by An Post.

RayCon wrote: »

Bollox , I just posted 5 packages to the US (registered mail) and the teller in the PO never mentioned anything.

They knew as much as everybody else.

mahoganygas

imitation wrote: »

According to the indo they got a 22% pay cut and told they would be put on non rotating night shift. Its now 7 years since the recession began, the economy is finally getting back on its feet. The time for sneaky unnecessary cuts to peoples jobs save is a bit on the company budget is over.

The recession is not an On/Off switch. Every company is not in the same boat.

Postal companies have been contracting for years. People just don't send letters like they used to. Consumers shopping online has helped massively, but postal companies still needs to make a lot of difficult spending decisions.

On top of this An Post are notoriously slow at rationalising their business model. This is partly down to how effective CWU are.

imitation

mahoganygas wrote: »

The recession is not an On/Off switch. Every company is not in the same boat.

Postal companies have been contracting for years. People just don't send letters like they used to. Consumers shopping online has helped massively, but postal companies still needs to make a lot of difficult spending decisions.

On top of this An Post are notoriously slow at rationalising their business model. This is partly down to how effective CWU are.

Sure, its not universal, but more often than not its used as an excuse for these cuts by those making them and a justification for those defending them.

A 22% cut and mandatory night shift is a real cynical move and its depressing to see these 2 tier companies with one side having the full protection of employment law and whatever union benefits and the other side being treated as basically disposible.

mahoganygas

imitation wrote: »

Sure, its not universal, but more often than not its used as an excuse for these cuts by those making them and a justification for those defending them.

I absolutely agree. Some businesses justify job/wage cuts by simply saying 'because of the recession'. It's too easy to blame a companies problems on an economic downturn. There is a lot more at play.

But on the other side I feel people are too quick to herald 'the recession is over' and expect an immediate restoration of terms and benefits.

imitation wrote: »

A 22% cut and mandatory night shift is a real cynical move and its depressing to see these 2 tier companies with one side having the full protection of employment law and whatever union benefits and the other side being treated as basically disposible.

I'm not going to say that people are disposable. But employees need to recognise that business models like postal delivery service are in severe trouble. An Post has already fallen so far behind it's competitors. It's an incredibly bloated and inefficient operation.
Nobody wants a 22% cut and night shifts to happen to them. But cost rationalisation has to happen somewhere. Otherwise the entire organisation faces closure. Just look at Lufthansa Technik last year.

hmmm

Oh no not the post. How will we know?

imitation

mahoganygas wrote: »

I'm not going to say that people are disposable. But employees need to recognise that business models like postal delivery service are in severe trouble. An Post has already fallen so far behind it's competitors. It's an incredibly bloated and inefficient operation.
Nobody wants a 22% cut and night shifts to happen to them. But cost rationalisation has to happen somewhere. Otherwise the entire organisation faces closure. Just look at Lufthansa Technik last year.

Yep Ill strongly agree they have organizational issues, the circumstances of this show this, somebody decided it was a good idea to target a small group in the organization with a vital role and give them such a pay cut that they thought this was a runner.

To be honest I havent really heard of this kind of situation because contractors would be slow to strike for fear of getting replaced individualy or even the whole company loosing the contract.

redsteveireland

Why was I not told this when I walked into the Post Office to buy stamps at 2 O'Clock today? W@nkers!
I posted a letter that has to be received before Wednesday, I'm really pissed about this.

DivingDuck

Anyone have any ideas how long this might last?

DEFTLEFTHAND

Smash the unions. :pac:

Strazdas

DivingDuck wrote: »

Anyone have any ideas how long this might last?

Hopefully it's sorted out urgently. A country that has no postal service is not an option for anything longer than a day or two.

hmmm

Strazdas wrote: »

Hopefully it's sorted out urgently. A country that has no postal service is not an option for anything longer than a day or two.

Maybe in the 50s that was true. I doubt most people will notice, other than the volume of junk they get will decrease.

DivingDuck

hmmm wrote: »

Maybe in the 50s that was true.

It's true for all of us waiting on deliveries today.

Moanyhole

I just had the post man into our office to collect post.

He said that An Post are not on strike. The machine workers are on strike.

Post away guys.. Post will be collected and delivered.

mahoganygas

DivingDuck wrote: »

Anyone have any ideas how long this might last?

I just spoke to somebody close to the Union.
It's back to business as usual. With slight delays expected next week.

Azalea

The Internet hasn't eliminated the need for postage of physical items! If anything, there is probably more parcel circulation nowadays because of online shopping.

redsteveireland wrote: »

Why was I not told this when I walked into the Post Office to buy stamps at 2 O'Clock today? W@nkers!
I posted a letter that has to be received before Wednesday, I'm really pissed about this.

Why would they necessarily have known?

Strazdas

hmmm wrote: »

Maybe in the 50s that was true. I doubt most people will notice, other than the volume of junk they get will decrease.

In the 1950s though, it was almost exclusively letters being posted. These days huge numbers of people use mail order to order items through the post (any companies who operate online in Ireland would be badly hit by a prolonged strike).

mahoganygas

Hatless wrote: »

The Internet hasn't eliminated the need for postage of physical items! If anything, there is probably more parcel circulation nowadays because of online shopping.

Nobody suggested that.

Yes, there are more parcels delivered. But there are substantially less letters being delivered.

Letters fit through letter boxes.

Parcels don't fit on a postman's bag/bike and require a van. They don't fit through letter boxes. Most people aren't at home when the postman has driven over and knocked at the door. It has to be brought back to a collection centre. The collection centre needs to be manned in the evenings and weekends so people can collect when they are free.

Providing this expanded service costs money.

Atlantic Dawn

It's now one of the top 10 most popular stories on BBC telling people not to post items to Ireland...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34426129

DivingDuck

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

It's now one of the top 10 most popular stories on BBC telling people not to post items to Ireland...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34426129

What will actually happen to any letters that can't be delivered? I am assuming they will get there eventually-- they'll hardly destroy them.

Considering that the letters that came in before/during the action will have to be processed before the ones that came in after, it makes as much sense to post it now as to wait?

alcea

I spoke to a postman and apparently it seems that if there is post in the system it has to be delivered.

Because of a strike in IO Systems, An Post employees are waiting to hear if they are going to be put on protective notice.

Have I got this right - Because IO Systems management are acting the b*l*x with their staff we could lose our postal service?

Atlantic Dawn

DivingDuck wrote: »

What will actually happen to any letters that can't be delivered? I am assuming they will get there eventually-- they'll hardly destroy them.

Considering that the letters that came in before/during the action will have to be processed before the ones that came in after, it makes as much sense to post it now as to wait?

I suppose there's a limit in what they can store, 3 or 4 days worth would probably be 1 days worth around Christmas, I would assume they could store a weeks worth without much problem, what then though possibly store at army barracks or wherever ballad papers for elections are held? Some post that would be date sensitive might be posted anyway so people would get the post mark date on them.

blade1

mahoganygas wrote: »

The recession is not an On/Off switch. Every company is not in the same boat.

Postal companies have been contracting for years. People just don't send letters like they used to. Consumers shopping online has helped massively, but postal companies still needs to make a lot of difficult spending decisions.

On top of this An Post are notoriously slow at rationalising their business model. This is partly down to how effective CWU are.

People don't send letters like they used to but surely there's way more companies sending stuff through the post....
Eircom,Vodafone,Three,Meteor and Irish water.
Also stuff like club points from Tesco Dunne Stores and SuperValue.
Also most people get there Motor Tax and insurance in the post not to mention the amount of penalty points being dished out.
That's only some of the stuff that's being posted that wouldn't have been posted years ago.