Will An Post be better, or like now, when they strike?

the_syco

How do you think An Post will be like when the strike is on. Do you think the delivery will be better, or just as bad as it is now. Anything I order in the last few months has taken 3 or 4 weeks for it to come from England.

Prior Of Taize

semi state bodies man. i work for one. they dont have to make a profit...so why bother.

Laguna

I thought the whole issue with the strike was that no mail would be delivered at all?, anyway my opinion is, An Post needs to be privatised, there's no incentive for them to improve their service if they're a state body..

As usual, with this strike the ordinary people are going to get done over, If they think that's going to win support for their cause with the general populace, they've got another thing coming to them.

On a near yearly basis theres some ****ing group of workers striking in this country, more often than not a public body, didn't ESB get averted from strike action not weeks ago?, what next?, the trains?, the Gardai? (well, if you live outside of the Mecca that is Dublin, having Gardai on strike wouldn't make a difference.. more than likely to bring the crime rate down)

Sparky

im pissed off tbh, im expecting 4 cheques adding to a total of €3462, for various works carried out by myself, and knowing 2 are in post, i have the hastle of trying now to hand collect the other 2, so i have to take time from my schedule and drive out to wicklow and pick up one and blanch for the other
So mush hastle for me, i can imagine how much hastle major companys will feel, not to mention the extra cost for hiring services like DHL UPS and fedex.

Eoin

Laguna wrote:

I thought the whole issue with the strike was that no mail would be delivered at all?, anyway my opinion is, An Post needs to be privatised, there's no incentive for them to improve their service if they're a state body..

I think it's just a ban on overtime, but obviously approaching Christmas, it will seriously hamper (to use a seasonal word) delivery. Very cynical by the CWU.

The problem with privatisation is the universal supply obligation that would be imposed upon a private company. It would probably be hugely unprofitable for them to deliver a letter to someone in the arse-end of nowhere, but they would have to do this. This would possibly put off companies.

Laguna wrote:

As usual, with this strike the ordinary people are going to get done over, If they think that's going to win support for their cause with the general populace, they've got another thing coming to them.

This is what I don't understand. Unions, or at least their shop stewards / spokespeople honestly think that the public is behind them - even the taxi drivers said this, when they all but barricaded off town a few years ago.

The reality is that they are screwing up people's holidays (baggage handlers), commutes (bus & rail), safety (Guards) etc. I remember when the people who work the East Link went on strike a few years ago. All they did was refuse to take the tolls and handed out fliers to anyone driving through. There was no disruption to the public, and I think this gave them some support. What really pìssed me off (and no doubt, the strikers off more so) was that apparently NTR were paying the people who were brought in to work the booths during the strike the same wages that the strikers were actually looking for!

Laguna wrote:

On a near yearly basis theres some ****ing group of workers striking in this country, more often than not a public body, didn't ESB get averted from strike action not weeks ago?, what next?, the trains?, the Gardai? (well, if you live outside of the Mecca that is Dublin, having Gardai on strike wouldn't make a difference.. more than likely to bring the crime rate down)

As I said before, it's pure cynicism. They know when the worst times to strike are, and hold the country to ransom accordingly.

boneless

Do you all actually think any worker wants to go out on strike or enter into any form of action that will effect their take-home pay? 90% of the postal workers voted in favour of strike action... does that not reflect the desperation of the situation?

I worked in the postal service for 19 years and was a union activist for many of them. This present dispute is the continuation of a long line of disputes going back to 1992. Every time a new set of management takes over they have their own agenda; the present lot are winding down services to facilitate the privatisation of the service... service is the important word here!! Even the US Postal service is beyond privatisation, and for very good reasons. A postal service is part of the infrastructure, economically and socially, of a state. Should it be run for the benefit of the people of the state or for the profits of a few Fat Cats? I ask you all to look at the case of Eircom and then decide.

secret_squirrel

These union militants sicken me...of all the semistates An Post is one of the worst and needs to change to move forward. Just take a look at the joke service provided by An Post compared to the rest of the nationally owned Post Companies throughout Europe and beyond.

In the UK you can send a first class letter before 5pm and be pretty sure it will arrive the next day. Here you are lucky if it arrives after 3 days.

Personally Im sick of their shoddy service and they way they are acting now - they deserve to be privatised. Would serve them all right. Payback for years of below par services.

Lets face it - it will take 2-3 days of striking for us to notice any difference in the speed of delivery.

Supercell

Post striker mind set ///

I want my cake and eat it too....

I am overworked ..i have to work overtime all the time to meet the demand levels..I get paid a decent overtime level though.

No you cannot employ casual workers to meet the increased demand..this will reduce my overtime wages!!

I want my cake and eat it too!!

/has ZERO sympathy for the postal worker scammers and their 10% sickie rate!!! . In any other company having a sicky day every second week on average is unacceptable ..frankly you are lazy bástards , quit whinging about being asked to do so much overtime (which btw you enjoy being paid silly amounts for by block..not by amount done) and allow An Post to hire ppl to do the work you couldn't be ársed to do !!

boneless

secret_squirrel wrote:

These union militants sicken me...of all the semistates An Post is one of the worst and needs to change to move forward. Just take a look at the joke service provided by An Post compared to the rest of the nationally owned Post Companies throughout Europe and beyond.

In the UK you can send a first class letter before 5pm and be pretty sure it will arrive the next day. Here you are lucky if it arrives after 3 days.

Personally Im sick of their shoddy service and they way they are acting now - they deserve to be privatised. Would serve them all right. Payback for years of below par services.

Lets face it - it will take 2-3 days of striking for us to notice any difference in the speed of delivery.

What makes you think it's the employees fault that the service is shoddy? Again, I worked in the post, I know what the long term objectives of the so-called management are, and they are achieving them by winding down services and creating a negative image of An Post.

They have spent millions on new technology over the past nine years; how come this investment has resulted in a worse service level? Machines are supposed to be faster than humans- under the old manual sorting system the next day delivery rates were better.

try to listen to both sides of the story and don't swallow all the propaganda put into the media by a company which wants to sell off something you all own!!

secret_squirrel

Me wrote:

These union militants sicken me...of all the semistates An Post is one of the worst

How do I know its the employee's fault that the service is shoddy? Easy I work in one of those semi-states myself. Now is it purely the employee's fault? Of course not, the major problem with semistates is that as well as crap timeserving employees they also have crap timeserving management. Two sides of the same coin tbh.

Yes there are good people in semi-states. But all good people are drowned under the shít they have to shovel on behave of the unionised incompetants.

I honestly know of less than 2 cases over the last 6 years where incompetants were fired from my company. It simply impossible to get rid of them under the current heavily unionised regime.

Do unions do good work? When they dont think the company owes their members a job for life - Absolutely. Do unions need breaking and slapping down occasionally? Absolutely.

My counterpart across the water in our organisation gets more done in a week than I can do in a month - simply because there are no ridiculous union rules like job demarkation.

hardCopy

eoin_s wrote:

I remember when the people who work the East Link went on strike a few years ago. All they did was refuse to take the tolls and handed out fliers to anyone driving through. There was no disruption to the public, and I think this gave them some support. What really pìssed me off (and no doubt, the strikers off more so) was that apparently NTR were paying the people who were brought in to work the booths during the strike the same wages that the strikers were actually looking for!

They also paid through the nose to contract out the counting of each days takings.

At some point these things always seem to become about both sides refusing to back down rather than any principles

Red Alert

An post should never be privatised, just as Eircom should never have been. All it did was line Alfie Kane's and a few other goon's pockets.

it's absolutely vital infrastructure and the sooner it's incompetent management are gone and replaced by someone who'll shake it up and if necessary implement work practices which can be shown to be better FOR IT'S OWNERS (ie you and me) than now the better.

OfflerCrocGod

There is a solution to this problem and it's called Royal Mail, I cannot wait until the market is opened up. Free market rocks!

ballooba

I don't see where people are getting this idea that Eircom were so great before the float. I remember ringing up Eircom probably twice a week asking them why my office's connection in Dublin 2 deteriorated so much during office hours.

It was dialup and dialup speeds were all that were expected but it was atrocious.

boneless

ballooba wrote:

I don't see where people are getting this idea that Eircom were so great before the float. I remember ringing up Eircom probably twice a week asking them why my office's connection in Dublin 2 deteriorated so much during office hours.

It was dialup and dialup speeds were all that were expected but it was atrocious.

My point exactly... The infrastructure was put in place using public (our!!) money, but it was never used to it's full potential while the company was still in public ownership.

Then the asset stripping began, and the rest we know... rich people got richer and the joes got ripped.