Dinosaurs due for extinction. A relic of a bygone age. A reminder of a dark past. All the usual phrases have been trotted out over the airwaves, in print & online about the postal workers in their dispute (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/07/royal-mail-amazon-postal-strikes ).
Time for just a scintilla of the reality & reasons behind the dispute, courtesy of a postal worker who writes a letter in today's Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/10/royal-mail-strike-amazon ):
"Why have I become a Mail Militant? Consider the fact that delivery office managers (DOMs) will get £8,000 each for making improvements in their office. Section managers, however, only receive £2,000 each. The postmen who have been 'encouraged' to help make things work will receive £0. As an added thank-you we will not be receiving a pay rise - a kind of 'stick and stick approach', as they can't afford carrots. In addition the chairman is to have £145,000 paid to top up his pension fund at a time when there is insufficient money available from the huge recently announced profits to alleviate the Royal Mail pension fund that is allegedly a little short. Obviously the £2m bonus he got in the past was insufficient."
There'll be a lot more black propaganda employed against the postal staff in the coming days & weeks, be assured of that. However, what won't be mentioned is the context in which staff feel that industrial action is their only option. That context begins to be conveyed in this letter.
Remember that the next time even the BBC talks of "misery" at the disruption of the mail service.
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