Cheers Hellie.
I hope that the public realise that the Postmen and women across the U.K. taking strike action today is in the public's interest.
10 years ago, Royal Mail was the pride of Britain - now it is a shambles. We have lost the 2nd Delivery, 25,000 Post Offices, 60,000 Staff, and a lot of the mail arrives in the middle of the afternoon.
Management will tell you that there is a 10% year on year drop off in the mail volumes, so the 'business' has to adapt. Firstly, this is bullshit. There may be a 10% drop off in personal mail being sent every year, but Royal Mail compensates for this downturn by delivering millions of other letters and leaflets (crap) through your door. Royal Mail made a £321 million profit last year, it's first profit in 20 years. Secondly, Royal Mail should not be run as a business anyway. Royal Mail should always be run as a public service - subsidised in full by government... with profits put back into the service.
We currently have hard-nosed busnessmen running the affairs of Royal Mail, who choose to pay themselves millions in bonus payments every year - all this while we apparently are going through a national crisis.
The Postmen and women have no agenda here, and we do not want more money...and are losing money each day due to making a stand.
Things need to change.
The public need to realise that if things continue as they are at the moment, they will be no deliveries at all in 5 years' time - they will be picking their mail up themselves each day from a depot in the middle of nowhere.