The week that was: 30 October 2009
Swiss Post, Royal Mail defiance and appointments galore… Welcome to this week’s scintillating news round-up, courtesy of Post&Parcel. We are approaching 700 members – and we are after even more; so tell all your colleagues, superiors, inferiors, family and friends about us. Thanks to the people who have been commenting on our stories and prompting debate – we hope more of you can take the plunge and share your opinions soon!
And back to the news: Swiss Post released their 3Q financial results this week and it made good reading compared to many of their counterparts’ spreadsheets. In the first three quarters of 2009, Swiss Post generated Group profit of 553m Swiss francs – an increase of around 11.5% compared with the same period last year. The rise is due primarily to successes chalked up by PostFinance. The mid-year result had shown a 16% drop from 12months previously. Well done to them!
The second phase of strikes is in full-swing across the UK this week, ending tomorrow (just in time for Sunday, when there are no deliveries). The CWU and Royal Mail talks stalled once more leading to a majority of services grinding to a halt. But the Royal Mail PR machine has been in overdrive since the strikes began – keeping us informed of the backlog of letters now sitting redundantly around the UK in various sorting stations. The latest from Royal Mail is that the total volume of mail delayed by this week’s strikes by the CWU is around 35m items, but that virtually all delays caused by last week’s strikes have now been cleared. The company added that it continues to do all it reasonably and legally can to clear mail delayed by the CWU’s strikes and get the post to our customers as soon as possible.
There have been appointments galore in recent times. Brace yourselves: Brian Roche has been appointed chief executive of the New Zealand Post Group, PostEurop has appointed Botond Szebeny as the new secretary general for PostEurop, and former vice finance minister Jiro Saito has been named president of Japan Post. Post&Parcel wishes all the new appointments the best of luck in their new roles.
And finally…
It has been announced that USPS is branching out into greeting cards this year. Post&Parcel wonders whether the company will be sending birthday cards to employees, with a buyout offer tucked nicely inside!
