Postal workers send message to Consignia about conditions;Analysis

Postal workers send message to Consignia about conditions;Analysis
From THE TIMES, May 24th, 2001
Christine Buckley

Changes to shifts were the catalyst for a dispute that now involves
50,000 workers
IN ONE small town, the time before the morning bike ride is a fretful occasion. Before riders set out there is usually a squabble over lights, because the lights are mixed up the previous afternoon when they have to be handed in to prevent them from being taken home out of mischief. The cyclists jostle to get their own lights back.
This is not some Dickensian junior school where the teachers have decided to take a firm hand with their young charges. It is the modern-day post office.
The daily scrap was just one of the practices to astonish some high-profile visitors whom Consignia had asked to view operations at a selection of rural and urban post offices.
There are many others. If you thought you hated junk mail, spare a thought for postal sorting officers all over the country who are forced to struggle daily with the growth in junk mail’s larger envelopes. Their problem is that the sorting pigeon holes are invariably too small, designed for more modest-sized items. Regional offices have invariably failed to enlarge the sorting divisions causing the job to take longer because items have to be stuffed in the correct place. This is despite the fact that Consignia until recently pinned much hope for increased business on the growth in junk mail.
However, some rural delivery workers may look enviously on the plight of their sorting colleagues with a Monty Python cry of “Luxury!”.
In more remote areas some have to contend with postal receptacles so large they fear they may tumble into them. Large secure boxes are placed at various points so cyclists can pick up several consignments which would be too large to carry at once. However, they are considered so large as to be dangerous so postal workers will often make friends with residents who will allow postal sacks to be stored in their gardens. It may lack the security of a designated box, but it reduces the risk of accidents.
Many postal workers say that if it was not for the friendliness from the public, their comparatively lowly paid job would not be worth it.
Consignia is uneasy about this relationship despite vaunting its postal workers as one of its greatest assets.
Recently post office managers wrote in terse terms to the owner of a seaside cafe in Scarborough asking him to stop a practice they believed was interrupting the smooth flowing of their operations. His crime? He had for years offered a free cup of tea to his postman to refresh him on his round.
No doubt the independent team that was recently appointed to conduct a review of the appalling industrial relations at the Post Office will turn its attention to these and other working practices at Consignia.
The Communication Workers Union, which is not supporting the escalating round of wildcat strikes, blames militaristic management for many of the problems that have dogged employment relations for years.
Consignia blames left-wing union activists who are beyond the control of national CWU officers. Certainly there has been an intensification of action ahead of union elections for a new general secretary, the announcement of which is due today. Such positioning was blamed for the spate of action before Christmas.
The general election may also be part of the motivation for some of the current action as union activists attempt to show their unease with the new competitive era for Consignia. The Post Office no longer has an absolute right to its monopoly of letters costing less than Pounds 1 and competitors may apply for licences to carve off niche services.
But Consignia also has a legal obligation to provide a universal service at a universal rate and has argued strongly that it needs sufficient business in order to deliver that service.
Obviously letters to far flung places would cost a great deal more than those going just down the street if the service was provided on an actual cost basis.
In a thinly veiled warning, the regulator has said that increased strikes could encourage more competitors and that Consignia now has to meet tough delivery standards. The organisation, which last year could not even reach its own targets, would seem to have little hope of achieving that.
The present dispute has developed like wildfire. Has it been a spontaneous uprising to deliver a political point or could Consignia have handled things more adeptly?
This time last week only 800 people were on strike compared with the estimates of up to 50,000 that were out yesterday. The dispute was confined to Watford where negotiations over new working practices had broken down with an apparent refusal by the managers to try to draft a further agreement. The change to shifts involved more unsocial hours, but similar patterns had been agreed and implemented at other sorting centres, including some of those that are now out on strike.
With Watford’s sorting at a standstill, post office managers decided to try to get the mail sorted elsewhere. They selected Liverpool, one of most militant areas and hardly a location that is on Watford’s doorstep.
As one insider said: “If you wanted to provoke the situation this is exactly the right place to choose. If you didn’t it’s hard to imagine how you could choose a worse place.”
Liverpool refused to handle Watford’s mail and promptly walked out. Managers took the mail elsewhere, quickly bringing most of the North-west services to a halt. The whole of London, including the international mail operations at Heathrow and rail terminal at Willesden in north London, have joined the action. In all, 13 main centres out of the 43 centres walked out.
This latest industrial clash is one of the worst single outbreaks Consignia has faced and comes after years of complaints over its employment relations. It has faced criticism from the Government, the Trade and Industry Select Committee, the regulator, and the postal consumers’ group. The escalating nature of the action must raise more question marks over Consignia’s ability to operate effectively in its new commercial world.
Today the CWU will announce the election of a new general secretary. However, postal managers will not be able to pin hopes on wooing the new leader into an era of partnership if the regional operations are constantly fractious.
Consignia may face continued unrest unless there is a more fundamental overhaul of the way it conducts employment relations. While attitudes towards bike lights and cups of tea may sound laughable examples of eccentric and old-fashioned practices, the millions of homes that are not getting post will not be so amused.