As it tries to implement modernization, the Royal Mail is being held to ransom by its unionized workforce who are adopting an intransigent position to what's being proposed. In a real throwback to the 1970s and 1980s, we're now looking at a full on showdown between management and the unions which threatens not only the existence of the Royal Mail... but will cause damage to businesses and the loss of jobs up and down the country.
Against that context, should we have sympathy for Royal Mail staff ? They're better paid than their contemporaries and benefit from a final salaried pension scheme that's underwritten by the government... something very few of us in the private sector have today.
Unlike 25 years ago, when the miners, steelworkers and shipbuilders garnered significant public support, most people I've spoken to these days do not appear to support the Royal Mail staff [union] position... I guess against the backdrop of a recession where people are lucky to have jobs at all, its probably not a surprise. But is this a true guage of feeling around the country ?
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