CWU pushes Royal Mail to bigger and better things

Postal June 16 2021

Image: Dan Jardine / Shutterstock.com

Outdoor secretary Mark Baulch writes for CWU News…

As the pandemic twists and turns toward a semblance of normality, there has been no let up by the CWU in our efforts to encourage Royal Mail to look at new products and services and keep growing the business, helping in turn to deliver benefits and job security for our members.

Starting with the Deliver To Specification (DTS) product – a discounted new mailstream that allows bulk posters to send cheaper mail with a longer delivery turnaround – this is designed to compete with our rivals who access the Royal Mail system downstream of the RDC Network, usually running directly into mail centres in their own vehicles.

Many bulk posters were lost years ago with the introduction of downstream access and this is just the latest initiative that will hopefully bring back more work into the upstream part of the pipeline.

Collecting customers parcels on their doorstep, later access into Royal Mail’s network, later and later deliveries, more and more Covid contracts, and the launch of Sunday delivery of parcels are all efforts to both keep and grow share in the market for Royal Mail in a competitive arena.

We’re competing with the other parcel carriers out there whilst refusing to sink to their low wage levels and poor terms and conditions. Quality and trust on the doorstep are the keys to success, not the race to the bottom and we continue to push and demand that that theory is kept in place. We now have senior managers within the company on board with that ethos as they recognise that no successful company can shrink its way to success. Only by growing new products and services, along with innovation, will we achieve lasting success.

In delivery offices, the target remains 400 structural revisions to be introduced by October, along with the vast remaining number going through the table-top revision process. It’s a huge task but we will not be found wanting in that quest. Many of our reps are working tirelessly to bring this about and deliver the benefits to our members of long-awaited revisions, fairer deliveries, dedicated parcel routes and, of course, a reduction in the working week – and a pay uplift for our part-time members as a result.

We are working closely with the company to preserve Royal Mail’s place as the best carrier in the land and, as members of the CWU, you undoubtedly play a huge part in that and we thank every single one of you for that.

We know only too well how difficult it has been adapting to different ways of working during Covid – with shared vans being halted quite for some time ago in order to ensure your safety, whilst also potentially reducing the transmission of the virus.

Now it is about patience and returning to two in a van with caution and by following the advice, not rushing headlong and encouraging more outbreaks.

You have all been truly fantastic throughout the pandemic and genuinely evoke a fierce pride for us all at CWUHQ with the way you have coped in testing circumstances for well over a year now – you should all feel that pride in yourselves too as key workers.

Simply put – we will fight for jobs, the right jobs, good terms and conditions too – because you are truly worth it.