The week that was: 23 October
As the working week draws to a close (unless you work for Royal Mail – boom boom), Post&Parcel would like to start this excellent news round-up with a grovelling apology: As a global news channel for the mail and express industries, Post&Parcel does feel a little guilty about the amount of coverage that has been dedicated to our homeland. Please feel rest assured that once the dreaded ongoing striking situation in the UK has been resolved (and hopefully sooner rather than later), Post&Parcel will endeavour to revert to a more international flavour. But in the meantime, please feel free to jump on the bandwagon and tell us about how the UK strikes are being played out in the foreign media; who are the US news channels blaming? How many column inches are being dedicated to the dispute in China? Is anybody else reporting the industrial action with interest? Probably not. But if so we’d love to know so get in touch with us by leaving your comments below or emailing [email protected]
Apology over – back to the news, starting in the UK – *cough*
You’d think that majority of business owners, regular mailers and nervous consumers would be breathing a sigh of relief as the two-day national strike in the UK comes to an end this evening. Unfortunately the relief will be short lived as the CWU announced another three-day strike next week, starting on 29 October. Hopefully, for the above parties, the strike will be averted by an agreement being reached, leading to a normal resumption in services. I also will be keeping my fingers crossed as – quite frankly – I want to write about something else.
So I will … UPS!
The boys in brown released their third quarter results this week. Despite the company reporting a drop in revenue of almost $2bn compared to the same period last year, CEO Scott Davis said: “I’m encouraged by the signs of economic recovery that are becoming apparent, although we still have a long way to go. Ongoing strategic investment has positioned UPS to capitalise on growth opportunities around the world. We are managing operations well, while controlling costs and maintaining excellent service.”
Click here to read the story in full.
Staying in the States, it has been reported that about 18,000 USPS employees are expected to take $15,000 buyouts to leave their jobs this year – far less than the 30,000 originally projected. The buyout proposal is aimed at slashing the huge USPS wage bill in an attempt to help the financially-struggling company.
And finally…
As a part of its 200th anniversary celebrations, Australia Post is featuring 10 staff members on a set of stamps.
Well, I suppose that’s one way of getting staff to ‘stick’ about … maybe someone should recommend that idea to Royal Mail.
