So, the CEO of Royal Mail send me an open letter appologizing for the planned strikes in December. I think he send that to the wrong people.

This is what they wrote:

Dear Beatrice,
 
At Royal Mail, we know this is the time of year when you rely on us most.

So we deeply regret that the Communication Workers Union (CWU) is planning further strikes on 9, 11, 14, 15, 23 and 24 December 2022.

Last week we delivered around 700,000 parcels during strike days and recovered service quickly. I want to thank personally more than 11,000 of our employees who came back to work during that last strike.

But the task gets more challenging as Christmas nears. So we’re asking customers to send Second Class mail by 12 December and First Class by 16 December 2022.

We’ll do everything we can to respond. And we’re doing everything we can to settle this dispute.

Eight months of talks with the union. A pay offer of up to 9% over 18 months. But even before the strikes we were losing £1m a day. So we can only afford that offer if the union stops resisting the changes needed to deliver what you, our customers, ask for today.

You’re sending 60% fewer letters than you used to, and the number keeps on falling. You’re sending more parcels, which you want delivered quickly, including at weekends.

We’ve also listened carefully to our employees. Existing employees who aren’t required to work Sundays won’t be required to do so. And we’re introducing family-friendly options to help with our need for more afternoon working.

We are bringing in new recruits on different contracts, but their terms, conditions and pensions will still be the best in the industry. This is not the gig economy. We have a generous voluntary redundancy scheme and are NOT making compulsory redundancies.

We are the only people who deliver a universal one-price-goes-anywhere service to the whole United Kingdom, and we know how much you need us.

We urge the CWU to call off these damaging strikes. And we’ll do everything we can to deliver Christmas.

For everybody.
 
Yours sincerely,

Simon Thompson
CEO, Royal Mail

So I decided he needed to know that there are customers who fully support the fight for fair pay and I wrote back:

Hello thanks for letting us know. However, we fully support the workers who try to get decent pay for their hard work. It would be a different matter if politicians, ceo’s and shareholders would take paycuts too. But they don’t. It’s the workers who create the profits and they deserve to have a fair share. Christmas is not that important. Fair pay and fair working conditions are. And as soon as you support that you won’t have to appologize.

Kind regards

Bee & Andy Halton

I am really pissed off with that “oh workers are so greedy and they make trouble for everybody” narrative in the UK.

WTF!!!!! That is the whole point of a strike! That’s the way to get your demands. And as long as companies and ceo’s make billions they have no right whatsoever to ask of their workforce to take cuts.

And it’s time all of us get behind workers and to tell the greedy politicians, ceo’s and companies and they should cut the bullshit and sort out decent work conditions and pay.

Rant end!

Please stay safe, stay kind and remember to tell the bastards that “we the people” deserve better!