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

imitation · 02-10-2015 03:45PM

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 · 02-10-2015 04:07PM

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 · 02-10-2015 04:07PM

Oh no not the post. How will we know?

imitation · 02-10-2015 04:20PM

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 · 02-10-2015 04:40PM

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 · 02-10-2015 04:48PM

Anyone have any ideas how long this might last?

DEFTLEFTHAND · 02-10-2015 04:54PM

Smash the unions. :pac:

Strazdas · 02-10-2015 05:01PM

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 · 02-10-2015 05:03PM

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 · 02-10-2015 05:04PM

hmmm wrote: »

Maybe in the 50s that was true.

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

Moanyhole · 02-10-2015 05:05PM

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 · 02-10-2015 05:06PM

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 · 02-10-2015 05:07PM

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 · 02-10-2015 05:10PM

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 · 02-10-2015 05:22PM

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 · 02-10-2015 05:23PM

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 · 02-10-2015 05:26PM

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 · 02-10-2015 05:29PM

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 · 02-10-2015 05:30PM

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 · 02-10-2015 05:47PM

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.

mahoganygas · 02-10-2015 05:55PM

blade1 wrote:

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.

I get my phone, TV, broadband and insurance bills sent to me by email. Super Valu text me information instead of post. 3 people I live with are the same. The same goes for my parents and siblings.

An Post now have competitors which they didn't have years ago. I send and receive a lot of parcels and almost always use An Post's competitors.

redsteveireland · 02-10-2015 06:00PM

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.

Why would they necessarily have known?

Maybe because they work there?

SPDUB · 02-10-2015 06:17PM

redsteveireland wrote: »

Maybe because they work there?

Most post offices are not run by An Post employees but are independent contractors

TrustedApple · 02-10-2015 06:21PM

SPDUB wrote: »

Most post offices are not run by An Post employees but are independent contractors

That is 100% True my local post office was going to be closed down a few years ago by an post a town of 3000 + people to make it worse and they even built a counter in the local super valve to replace it. It was bought up a independent contractor in the 13th hour.

Bit of a joke that we cant post anything no wonder all my amazon parcels have gone missing LoL. Stupid IO systems

Strazdas · 02-10-2015 06:52PM

mahoganygas wrote: »

I get my phone, TV, broadband and insurance bills sent to me by email. Super Valu text me information instead of post. 3 people I live with are the same. The same goes for my parents and siblings.

An Post now have competitors which they didn't have years ago. I send and receive a lot of parcels and almost always use An Post's competitors.

I don't think you would be typical of the general population. I believe four million letters a day are delivered in Ireland.

alcea · 02-10-2015 07:30PM

mahoganygas wrote: »

I get my phone, TV, broadband and insurance bills sent to me by email. Super Valu text me information instead of post. 3 people I live with are the same. The same goes for my parents and siblings.

An Post now have competitors which they didn't have years ago. I send and receive a lot of parcels and almost always use An Post's competitors.

In some rural areas people request paper bills to help ensure continuation of a service that they might otherwise lose. Rural areas have already been hit badly by loss of some services to lose An Post mail service would be devastating.

uck51js9zml2yt · 02-10-2015 07:47PM

Parcel motel sent out an email today in response to the strike. They're on a winner.
I changed an amazon order that was free delivery to pm.:(

xredmanlfcx · 02-10-2015 07:47PM

Any time frame for this? Will they have it back up and running on Monday?

If a letter was posted this morning before the strike action announcement.... what happens it? Is it still sitting in the post box?

alcea · 02-10-2015 07:53PM

xredmanlfcx wrote: »

Any time frame for this? Will they have it back up and running on Monday?

If a letter was posted this morning before the strike action announcement.... what happens it? Is it still sitting in the post box?

It will have been picked up as normal, if a letter or parcel is in the postal system it has to be delivered.

xredmanlfcx · 02-10-2015 07:54PM

alcea wrote: »

It will have been picked up as normal, if a letter or parcel is in the postal system it has to be delivered.

Excellent, hope you're right!

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

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