Royal Mail strikers cost company £25 million contract

[GTI]

Great job guys, won't it be great when you finally drive the business to the wall?

Royal Mail loses Amazon contract as postal strikes loom
Threat to deliveries forces major client to pull plug on £25m deal

Dan Roberts
Wednesday 7 October 2009 22.28 BST

Amazon has ended its contract with Royal Mail to deliver parcels weighing more than 500 grams. Photograph: James Grimstead/Rex Features

Royal Mail has lost a crucial contract with its second largest customer, the online retailer Amazon, as a wave of strikes threaten parcel deliveries in the busy pre-Christmas sales period.
The news comes on the eve of a national strike announcement by the Communication Workers Union that is likely to bring the simmering industrial dispute to the boil and further disrupt deliveries across the country.
CWU members are angry about the Royal Mail's handling of its modernisation programme and are expected to escalate their programme of local strikes in a dispute they say is about consultation over changes to working practices.
But a backlog of undelivered mail has worried customers, particularly small businesses and internet retailers who argue that the unpredictable nature of the strikes has led to a collapse in reliability. The loss of this business will be a severe blow to Royal Mail, which was relying on the growth of online shopping to compensate for the decline of its letters business due to rising email use.
Customers of eBay have already been particularly vociferous, claiming the strikes are causing damage to small businesses that suffer negative feedback and lose their online reliability ratings.
Now the Guardian has learned that Amazon.co.uk has cancelled its long-term contract to use the Royal Mail for parcels over 500 grams and will use a rival service, Home Delivery Network (HDN), which also delivers for Tesco and Argos.
HDN declined to comment directly, citing commercial confidentiality, but the Amazon contract is thought to be worth at least £25m and is one of the first times a major sender of medium-sized parcels has chosen to defect from the Royal Mail in this way. Until now, the state-owned operator has won the bulk of new internet business.
HDN's chief executive, Brian Gaunt, said he expected others to follow suit once the national strike ballot was passed. "We are seeing a number of our customers preparing to start marketing their deliveries as free of Royal Mail risk," he added.
Two years ago Royal Mail lost a smaller Amazon contract worth £8m to deliver second class parcels during the last national strike, but fought hard to win the business back, claiming improved industrial relations. Losing the new, bigger contract will exacerbate the operator's financial woes, which lay behind its need to cut staff, but more worryingly sends a dangerous signal to other suppliers about Amazon's faith in the network during the crisis.
Last night the CWU said it regretted disruption caused by the strikes, but added: "We are very concerned that if we don't get this right now, there will be a lot more disruption to customer services in future." It blames the way private competition has been allowed to "cherry pick" profitable parts of the postal market and fears more damage will be done in future: "The scale of change planned … is frightening."
Royal Mail declined to comment.
Even if private sector rivals do step in to take some of the contracts, it is unlikely to prevent major disruption. HDN says it would be unlikely to get enough resources in place at short notice to compensate.
More importantly, there is very little alternative for delivery of letters, with private operators such as TNT and DHL using Royal Mail for crucial parts of their delivery infrastructure.
The last time CWU members called a national strike in 2007, it was solved when Royal Mail managers agreed to series of pay deals and also offered to talk further about consulting the union on changes.
Complaints against Royal Mail

Local strikes have been spreading across the country, largely unreported. This week alone, 24-hour stoppages are scheduled in locations including Bristol, Kilmarnock, London, Carlisle, Coventry, Chelmsford, Leeds, Nottingham, Swindon and Warrington.There have been reports of mountains of undelivered mail in sorting offices and claims that postal workers are not waiting to see if customers are in before leaving cards asking them to pick parcels up from the sorting office.
The Royal Mail disputes some of the claims, but has used managers to try to shift the backlog, exacerbating tensions. The CWU is not expected to give details of its strike plans, but they are likely to involve rolling action, targeting different parts of the chain on different days, causing maximum disruption without too much loss of pay.

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[Fear345]

Serves them right unemployment so high and they are striking fucking genius.

[beansontoast]

This puts me off buying from amazon for things over 500g, I wonder if they thought of it that way? When I have things "delivered" by HDN I'm never happy - clothes & shoes are thrown over the back fence and early this year I had a book left just inside my side gate in a cardboard box in the snow. It had "the book people" written on the box ffs. With the post office there's always a local place to pick up any missed parcels too which is secure & dry, and the woman there is gorgeous.

[Northernbloke]

When the lazy fookers actually have to work the full shift they are paid for then maybe I'll feel some sympathy for them - for too long thay have had things far too easy like being paid for a full shift which includes sorting and delivering one round of mail to their route - then even if that takes 5 hours of their 8 hour shift they can't go out and deliver any other rounds unless they are paid at over time rates.

Step into the real world then you might actually have a genuine grievance about pay and conditions - I'd love to work half a shift and be paid for a full one and then get double time on top of that for the rest of my original shift. First Class Greedy Fookers (IMHO)

[Fear345]

When the lazy fookers actually have to work the full shift they are paid for then maybe I'll feel some sympathy for them - for too long thay have had things far too easy like being paid for a full shift which includes sorting and delivering one round of mail to their route - then even if that takes 5 hours of their 8 hour shift they can't go out and deliver any other rounds unless they are paid at over time rates.

Step into the real world then you might actually have a genuine grievance about pay and conditions - I'd love to work half a shift and be paid for a full one and then get double time on top of that for the rest of my original shift. First Class Greedy Fookers (IMHO)

Does this really happen ?

[Northernbloke]

According to friends of mine who were/are posties yes - and backed up by a comment from a RM manager during the week getting interviewed on telly explaining why RM was making the changes who said we want staff to work the hours that they are actually being paid for

[Fear345]

ffs i knew i was in the wrong job all this time.

[jimbo77]

Does this really happen ?

When the lazy fookers actually have to work the full shift they are paid for then maybe I'll feel some sympathy for them - for too long thay have had things far too easy like being paid for a full shift which includes sorting and delivering one round of mail to their route - then even if that takes 5 hours of their 8 hour shift they can't go out and deliver any other rounds unless they are paid at over time rates.

Step into the real world then you might actually have a genuine grievance about pay and conditions - I'd love to work half a shift and be paid for a full one and then get double time on top of that for the rest of my original shift. First Class Greedy Fookers (IMHO)

yep this does really happen....used to be a postie for bout a year when out of work and even though my shift was 5am till 12 i was always home by 10am chilling with a cup of coffee and stil was gettin paid....unless done overtime what i got double bubble for....

also sometimes home b4 the missus even went to work @ 9am....used to piss her right off

I left the post due to fookin striking when there was snow on the floor (what a disgrace) people not wanting to work when snow is on the ground and its dangerous...

[blaggard]

Fucking lazy arsed, skiving, pampered cunts!

[Goldberg]

I used to work for a Bank (obviously cannot name them...), they did not recognise Unions etc.... so no chance of strikes ever happening.

It's a fucking joke, just like when the tube workers go on fucking strike and I cannot get to work! Apparently I have to be happy that this Mondays Victoria Line strike was called off.... Cunts!

[blaggard]

It's all very reminiscent of the 70s. . . . let's see, which party was governing then? . . . . err.....ahh yes, bastids!

[BertRoot]

Ah well, hope they now up their game and come up with a better business model to support the business they manage to retain. Tough shit on the workers who decided to strike but they need to understand they don't hold the monopoly any more and businesses with sense will always look for the most reliable solution that offers best bang for the buck.

[flumperino]

buhahahaaaa, well done guys, strike your way out of a job

[super mike]

I hope heads roll from this, partly because they are useless workshy wankers that will bollocks up everything and partly because I want a weekend job.

[Mickey]

Im still waiting for compo on a parcel they lost, taken em nearly 3 months and still out of pocket by £150.
Bunch of lazy shitters, just like the striking bin men in Leeds bunch of loosers that are striking themselves out of a job

[Goldberg]

Might be worth investing in share for companies like Hayes (DX), DHL etc.... because they will benefit from this.

[burner1]

I wonder if this will all add to the cost of things we buy on Amazon though, if they go for another delivery option. Mind you, I guess I wouldn't mind paying a little more if it meant I will actually receive things I order.

[tombott]

Nice to see we are all being brianwashed by the media and government.

So Royal Mail and government do away with 2nd delivery, shut thousands of post offices, am sure this has more to do with why Amazon are moving away from RM.

RM is a fucking mess, and it's being run into the ground so the government can sell it off.

[Ginnerfreak]

I am sick of public sector workers moaning about working conditions and pay. I have not had a pay rise for 4 years and I dont get a company pension, overtime, or bonus, but I understand that my company has been hit by the recession so I am just glad to be able to pay the mortgage. I dont moan, complain or winge because we dont have a disabled toilet or shower facilities or that we dont have any blind one arm lesbians in the office.. If I did I would be fired.

I live in leeds and I have not had my dustbin emptied for 5 weeks now.. because the workshy binmen who refuse to even lift a dustbin bag that you pleace next to your dustbin wont accept that they are being paid too much for walking round the street for 4 hours smoking and swearing.. for £500 a week,... ffs... where do I sign..

set of low IQ, work shy, over pambered, sick taking, work to rule, cant exist in a proper job, dont understand the needs or normal people, observer reading, council employees..

buhahahaaaa, well done guys, strike your way out of a job

Agreed Flum

[tombott]

I am sick of public sector workers moaning about working conditions and pay. I have not had a pay rise for 4 years and I dont get a company pension, overtime, or bonus, but I understand that my company has been hit by the recession so I am just glad to be able to pay the mortgage. I dont moan, complain or winge because we dont have a disabled toilet or shower facilities or that we dont have any blind one arm lesbians in the office.. If I did I would be fired.

I live in leeds and I have not had my dustbin emptied for 5 weeks now.. because the workshy binmen who refuse to even lift a dustbin bag that you pleace next to your dustbin wont accept that they are being paid too much for walking round the street for 4 hours smoking and swearing.. for £500 a week,... ffs... where do I sign..

set of low IQ, work shy, over pambered, sick taking, work to rule, cant exist in a proper job, dont understand the needs or normal people, observer reading, council employees..



Agreed Flum

Maybe you should move firms then!

So you begrudge somebody earning £24,000 pre tax per annum for clearing up your rubbish? It's not a nice job, and granted its not brain taxing. But the hours are anti-social, the job is messy and god knows how many pricks / abusive people they have to put up with.

What is it with people, is it jealousy? Are you pissed off because you have no union, your work place doesn't recognise unions or that somebody out there actually has the balls to stand up for their working rights?