I'm right behind my former Royal Mail colleagues

Dec 3 2009

WITH the recent postal strikes, it is making me think why a job that I enjoyed for nearly 40 years (from February 1965 until April 2004) is heading for such a dark place.

Back in 1971, the strike we all went through brought weeks of hardship for everyone involved.

I am still not sure whether it helped with pay and conditions but something that did eventually arrive was the Royal Mail saying "Quality of service".

Looking back I would like to think that is what we gave for many years, as we were then given the time to do just that.

When Royal Mail stopped the second deliveries in town areas it was the start of the slippery slope to where we are now. It has brought in later start times and much larger deliveries for a smaller work force.

The journalist Paul Routledge says that Royal Mail’s modernisation is shorthand for more work from fewer workers.

I took early retirement in 2004. So it would seem that I am one of the 60,000 jobs that Adam Crozier has got rid of in one way or another in the last five years.

Maybe Mr Crozier should consider giving the staff he has left time to give quality of service once again, instead of the path he is treading where he will need donkeys to carry the amount of mail that the size of the new deliveries now cause.

Lastly I would like to wish all Royal Mail workers the very best in the struggle to come.

C Robbings

Conwy