Post Office workers strikes
The dispute has grown directly from Royal Mail walking away from an agreement negotiated in 2006 that committed both RM and CWU to working together on the impact of competition and future of postal services.
That agreement meant the company and workforce would work together to improve efficiency, introduce new automation and underpin major change with an intent to raise basic pay towards the national average pay. Postal workers currently earn £323 per week.
Royal Mail broke away from the agreement and instead started to roll out a business plan that was simply based on cuts to services and jobs. They intended to cut £370million in the first year and in excess of £1.2 billion over the next 4 years. Through the 2007 pay negotiation, the Union called for a return to the agreed approach and a return to the commitment to raise basic pay substantially. Royal Mail responded by continuing with a cost-cutting frenzy in every workplace and offering a derisory 2.5% pay offer linked to strings that in many cases actually meant a pay reduction through removal of certain allowances. This was coupled with pronouncements from Royal Mail’s chief executive that postal workers were 25%overpaid and 40%underworked when compared with workers in competitor companies.
Since the ballot with it’s 77% support from CWU members for strike action and 2 strike days, overwhelmingly supported by postal workers nationwide, Royal Mail continue to refuse to negotiate any settlement.
General Secretary Billy Hayes has said of this ‘Royal Mail have been in denial about the rejection of their business plan by their workforce and are in denial at the strength of support shown in the strikes. No reasonable employer can bury their heads in the sand and think this problem will go away. Until Royal Mail take this issue seriously and negotiate, strikes will continue’.
The CWU continues to propose a realistic and pragmatic alternative vision that rejects the cuts in jobs, pay and services and challenges the company’s desire to engage in a “race to the bottom’ with competitors to supply the cheapest product.
Communication Workers Union
150, The Broadway
Wimbledon SW19 1RX
Dispute
The background to this dispute started three years ago when we all increased the size of our rounds from two and a half hours to three and a half hours, although this made it tough for the over 40’s, it was in the majority of cases possible. We received a reasonable increase in our wages as a result. Recently Royal Mail have been saying that when the modern sorting machines are installed they may have to reduce our hours from 8 to 6. This year, because our so called rivals (glorified warehouses) are taking our major contracts, they have started trying to bring in cuts, which will make it impossible for delivery staff to cope, before installing any of the modern sorting machines. An example is if you work your day off you get 6 hours instead of 8 hours overtime, they also propose during the summer holidays to get us covering men on holiday or sick for no extra pay.
At this time of the year our post bags are lighter but of course it is the hottest time of the year. The half the rate of inflation offer given earlier in the year to the union, has not been negotiated and it is the take it or leave it attitude of the management and the sheer contempt for their delivery staff that has sparked the strike. The CWU site is www.cwu.org. I am disappointed they did not reply to you, as only the Daily Mirror has anything good to say about us. I would prefer it if delivery men would stop using their private cars, missing their meal breaks and starting an hour earlier than they need to, but unlike the French we don’t stick together like we used to.
A postman,
Sidcup Sorting Office
• The postman did not ask us to make his letter anonymous. Ed
Joint statement on Royal Mail dispute
At a meeting between Allan Leighton, Adam Crozier, Billy Hayes and Dave Ward, it was agreed:
•That both parties commit to talks on all the issues between them, hosted and facilitated by the TUC and supported by ACAS. Both sides commit to reach an agreement by 4 September.
•That during this period the talks are on a confidential basis with no media or internal briefings unless explicitly jointly agreed. The CWU Executive and Royal Mail Board will receive regular updates on progress and would also be expected to undertake this confidentiality clause.
•That for that period, Royal Mail will not serve notice or take any unilateral action to impose changes by executive action.
•That for the same period CWU will suspend industrial action.
•That the signatories to this joint statement will review the process as and when necessary.
Allan Leighton - Billy Hayes - Adam Crozier - Dave Ward
Dear Steve Smith
Having read your articles in the last two editions with great interest, I now understand that you appear to have the plot we occupied for quite a number of years up to 2003 (Plot 12, next to Roy, Knoll Road Allotments). Our dear friends, Chris & Mary occupied the lower half for about five years, where they built their interesting shed. They left just before we did to move to the coast.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time there, but unfortunately had to give it up due to my husband’s ill health.
We were so interested in your mention of the sheds, and thought you might like to know the history of the shed at the top of the plot under the mountain ash, being our half of the plot.
When my husband, Robert, first took over the plot there were no sheds at all on that plot. However, an architect friend was in the process of renovating a 17th Century cottage in Ide Hill, which had originally been a coffin-maker’s living quarters/workshop. Robert helped his friend with the renovation on a couple of occasions and was given a small window and some white painted boards. He then put together the shed with odds and ends, incorporating the window and boards, thus making it a ‘listed building’, of which he was quite proud. This until a mighty storm caused a gigantic branch of the mountain ash to fall on top of the roof and across part of the allotment. Although it was difficult to open the door, and this couldn’t be done until the Council came along and chain-sawed the offending branches, Robert was so pleased that the structure of the shed had stood up to the impact. It was round about this time that we decided we’d had enough, especially as his health wasn’t up to clearing away the debris and starting again.
However, as I said, we had many happy productive years there, surrounded by good company.
May we take this opportunity to wish you happy allotmenteering and may all your tomatoes be blight free!
Regards from both of us -
Robert & Patsy Davis
Bexley’s Worst Road
Following Bob’s challenge in the August Chronicle I nominate Rectory Lane, near Bough Road and adjacent to Harenc school.
It is lethal to cyclists, and the holes reveal three layers of road topping.
Could the Chronicle investigate what is happening to Sidcup Place’s lovely flower beds? Four were grassed over without explanation last year, now the raised and circular bed has been grassed, to be ‘ later planted with environmentally sensitive plants’.
So that leaves just two at the back of the restaurant, and the semi-circular bed beside the toilets, dug over but unplanted.
Does the Council think we haven’t noticed?
Bexley may have 5 green flag open spaces, but Sidcup Place could so easily be the 6th!
Malcolm Greening.
Sidcup
Bills soar
Blair and his cronies have done very well out of us, we are the ones left worse off, (ie rail fares hiked up). Blair agreed with the Tories disastrous Millennium Dome, the cost of which could have granted every single person with a substantial Millennium gift and saved much infrastructure that has disappeared due to cost-cutting. The White Elephant Dome is now in the hands of a US-owned company. Privatisation and disposing of the family jewels was the order of Blair’s time. The Tories now want to be heir to Blair, what an uninviting prospect.
In every tyranny the masses suffer and the elite prosper. Under New Labour middle and professional classes are as despised as the poor and weak. Narcissistic ‘celebrities’ or z-class wannabees feed on adulation, riches and influence.
The last thing we needed was headline-grabbing party politicians, distanced by their aides, lauded by corporate media and the local press that seek advertising revenue from the ‘authorities’. Increasingly we have no choice and no voice, over-taxation without representation, just like anyone in third-world dictatorships. All the posturing and noise made by ministers too numerous in number to mention is no more than theatrical histrionics.
R Grootendorst
Sidcup
Black Police Assoc.
The reaction of P. Grevell (.August Letters) to my comments on the Black Police Association. misses the point. My criticism was that by creating a separate organisation based solely on colour and bankrolled by the taxpayer, is divisive and a form of racial discrimination.
Lord Scarman’s report on the police recommended an Increase in the number of black and ethnic minority officers, which for all practical reasons is a common-sense approach to modern day policing, particularly around inner city areas. I am not aware however that he proposed that these newly-recruited officers should be corralled into a separate compartment from their white colleagues. Following the murder of Stephen Lawrence the police service was accused of being institutionally racist. This segregation of non-white personnel, at a cost to the public purse, is a strange way of rectifying the allegation. It is a reminder of the dark days of apartheid in SouthAfrica when separate doors were labelled ‘Blacks Only’. How this improves their operational effectiveness and saves millions of pounds in damaged property, is beyond my comprehension.
Surely this is down to training and good line management. not which ‘union’ they belong to!
Drawing specific attention to an officer’s colour can create the very tensions that the police are striving to avoid. It’s their ability as individual officers that must be the only criteria. Perhaps we should pose the question to serving and retired members of the service themselves?
John Steward
Bexleyheath
Direct to your home
Our Chronicle Series of newspapers have been serving the community without fail now since 2003.
Now, four years later we are again embarking on a new route with free home delivery of the paper to homes throughout the borough.
We shall be continueing with our five editions;
The Sidcup/Bexley Chronicle
The Bexleyheath/Welling/Crayford Chronicle
The Blackfen/Eltham Chronicle
The Thamesmead/Erith Chronicle
The Swanley/Dartford Chronicle
• Copies will still be available through our own regular outlets. Ed
RAF Cadets in Florida
I read. with interest. your article in the August 2007 edition of The Chronicle' about the British in Florida during World War 11.
For over 10 years a party of cadets from Kent Wing of the Air Training Corps has visited Florida each year where they participate in the annual Sun 'n Fun Fly-In and Airshow. Kent Wing includes Bexley within its boundaries and the visit originated in the Welling and Bexleyheath Squadrons but is now Kent -wide and in 2007 the party comprised nearly 50 cadets and staff. During the visit the cadets participate fully in the show which attracts nearly 5000 aircraft of all types and extends over eight days. The cadets marshal aircraft, register their pilots ' help with the social events and have become extremely popular at the events where they are known as ‘The Brits’. Each year more than half the party comprises new members so over the years many young people have had a unique experience.
During the 2007 visit, the party, visited the Commonwealth War Graves plot at Arcadia which featured in your article and in a short formal parade a wreath was laid. It is sobering to note that many of the airmen interred at Arcadia were only 2 or 3 years older than the Air Cadets who honoured them on the parade. This fact was not lost on the cadets taking part.
Andrew Simpson BSc
Wing Commander PAFVR (T) rt.
Former OC Kent Wing ATC - Bexleyheath
• As a past member of the ATC (74 Sqdn) I can highly recommend the organisation. If you are keen on flying, sports, adventure training, shooting, drill or travel it’s a rewarding way of developing some personal skills. My windswept photo was taken just after I had soloed for the first time. Those were the days! Visit www. aircadets.org for more information. Ed
Pledge
In October last year I pledged to improve safety on public transport with £7.5million funding for 21 Safer Transport Teams to tackle anti social behaviour and provide reassurance to passengers.
This week the 21st and final Safer Transport Team hit the streets, which means an extra 440 officers are now working to make public transport safer across London, including a dedicated team of 18 officers in Bexley.
It has only taken a few weeks since the Safer Transport Teams were deployed for them to bear down on crime and anti social behaviour. They have led a series of successful operations on and around public transport, which included arrests for offences such as robbery and criminal damage.
These new officers are sending out a clear message that crime and anti-social behaviour on and around public transport is not acceptable and I can assure Bexley Chronicle readers that we will continue to invest in measures which make all our public spaces safer.
Yours sincerely
Ken Livingstone - Mayor of London
• P.S. To find out more about local policing in Bexley go to: www.met.police.uk/saferneighbourhoods/
To err is human...
I must congratulate ‘A well-meaning Well-wisher’ for their poem ‘To err is human...’ in your August issue.
I agree completely with the points raised although I could not write such a clever poem.
The only downside was that ‘dailies’ was spelt as dailies. Was that the poets mistake or the Chronicle?
Otherwise it was a very good ode.
Irene Heath - Bexleyheath
• It would have been nice to put a name to an ode. The Chronicle accepts they probably got it wrong - again!’ Ed
Should County Hall invest pension funds in arms trading?
Tories and Labour could have performed better for the electorate than they have. They do as they please using rarely challenged bogus arguments. Unsurprisingly several generations neither believe nor care what happens in their midst, eg. New Deal, like so many Labour initiatives has cost too much and delivered little of lasting value. Spin, rhetoric and empty promises grab headlines but our £billions disappeared without doing what the money was intended for. Bureaucrats and politicians learned from Brussels / EU experience how easy it is to make the public pay inflated salaries and on-costs. Due diligence is hit-and-miss when ineptitude and irregular accounting procedures are habitual. Twenty seven competing governments belong to the EU but their people are helpless under arbitrary laws in post-democratic 2007 as the population was in Orwell’s 1984.
How useful is e-government or ubiquitous call centres. Law-abiding tax payers are soft targets to fill quotas. We are sitting ducks, over-regulated, over-worked and over-taxed for all the wrong reasons. Mind-bogglingly useless legislation restricts our spending, savings and personal pensions. Legalities don’t hamper local gangs, violent thugs, drug addicts or organised crime.
R Grootendrost
Sidcup
I live in Thamesmead!
I picked up your paper, the Chronicle on a visit to Gallions Housing Association. Although I live in Greenwich Borough of Thamesmead and your paper is called the Voice of Thamesmead it seems such a shame that we do not receive it at home. I enjoyed reading it but most of all that JohnSteward is great. A man after my own heart who writes exactly what is going on and how people are thinking and saying. It’s humorous and to the point and very well written.
I would like to know why can’t we have the Chronicle delivered to our homes - we live in Thamesmead as well.
D. Sampedro - Thamesmead
• This month we are adding thousands of new homes to our distribution list and you may well be lucky. Incidentally we only charge £12 a year if you would like a copy mailed directly to your home. Ed
Bird-brain councillors!
So we have 25% of our citizens living in poverty in Swanley so what do our Labour councillors do? Spend £1m on revamping our park so that our ducks and geese live a life of luxury. What bird-brained Labour councillor dreamt up this foul scheme? While the town goes hungry! But then our wildlife live in the posh part of Swanley. Fouled policy here, mad or what!
Jim Halford, Swanley
Low flying aircraft
I am a resident of Selborne Road in Sidcup and I have become very concerned recently about the noticeable increase in low flying aircraft going over the town.
These aircraft movements start very early in the morning, I have heard them at 5.00 am and continue until after 11.00 pm. I am fearful that if we do not act on this the numbers will continue to increase which I am sure other residents are concerned about.
If you feel as I do about this increasing problem contact your local councillor and member of parliament (information available on Bexley Council website) to voice your concerns.
Carolyn O’Donnell - Sidcup
• Not only have the numbers increased but also the size of these aircraft. Let’s do something about it by logging down those you see and hear and let’s forward them tp Derek Conway MP and Cllr. Mrs. J.Slaughter. Provided they have the ammunition they can act. Send your letters to Aircraft Noise, The Chronicle, Andrew House, Granville Road, Sidcup, Kent DA14 4BN
Bexley’s Worst Road
This months nomination comes from Mr S. Brown of Bowes Close, Sidcup. He says;
“I nominate Burns Avenue, Blackfen as the worst maintained road in Bexley.
I have campaigned for over three years to get Bexley Council to repair over 150 broken paving stones and to get the road resurfaced. All they say is they have not got the funds, and their engineers say this road meets their criteria, whatever that means!
Mr S. Brown - Sidcup
• Readers please note we now have three nominations in for the Worst Road in Bexley - do you know one near you. Let’s have your nomination. Send to The Editor, The Chronicle, Andrew House, Granville Road, Sidcup, Kent DA14 4BN