I can't beleive that the post office workers think that announcing strikes up until Christmas was a good idea. This will result in more job loss.

Every business listening to that will now be looking to take their delivery services to private companies for the busiest period of the year! Just type in postal strike in google and all the private firms are marketing to benefit from it. This coupled with rising prices is going to lose the post office business... which means they'll have to cut back even more... which means the easiest resource to get rid of... labour.

Some people!

Your strike actions have resulted in my daughter losing out on her £ 600 holiday that her mother had arranged for her as a graduation gift.
You have caused her passport to be delayed.
WELL DONE I HOPE YOU ARE PROUD OF YOUR SELVES.
The quicker the post office de-mans all the dross/shit stirrers the quicker the honest ones can become more efficient and get a bit more money in their pay packets.
The business that you have cost the post office to lose will undoubtedly lead to redundancies; hope whoever was responsible for her passport delay is included!
I wish i could meet you in person!
I notice you have a sign at the counter stating you expect people to be courtious etc, sorry but with your behaviour that goes out the window SCREW YOU!

bring in some better workers that appreciate your decent terms and conditions eg the polish, etc

Part of the reason for the strike is because the management and the government are prepping the service to be privatised.

You think a strike up to Xmas will lead to job losses, keep sniping and wait while the RM close your post office.

And missing out on a holiday sucks if that is true but why is it the strikers' fault and not the RM's brinkmanship or the Home Office's rigidity? They knew this is coming but chose not to amke alternative arrangements.

When you apply for a passport you can tick the express box – your passport would then come by SDS as specialist courier. You are normally advised to wait at least six weeks for the processing of passports unless you go in person and take out the express service. From what you are saying it is clear you did not use the express service as your passport is being delivered by Royal Mail. The passport Agency does not use Royal Mail for the express delivery of passports. So you only have yourself to blame for the situation regarding your passport.

The strikes have been well advertised for many weeks so I can only assume you are an extremely thick individual. Don’t blame other people for your own stupidity.

In terms of the strike all looks well. No one has gone in at my local office

Rebecca - The posties are striking to defend their livelihoods. What other weapon do they have? When the bosses are cutting your pay and piling up your workload to unbearable levels, Christmas or not, you have to fight them. Refusal to work is the only option to protect yourself from this greedy onslaught. Strikes are timed to cause maximum disruption but customers should lay all the blame for the impact on the public (or businesses) with the management.

Neil, as Mark says, the strikes are well advertised and surely you could have sorted the passport out sooner?! (speaking as someone who had to make a rush trip down to London passport office for the same sort of thing once - all my own fault!)
Exactly how will cutting the number of posties make the ones who are spared the sack more efficient? The terms and conditions are far from decent and are threatened with further attacks - now their pensions are also at risk, and retirement age set to go up.
The sign at the counter asking you to be courteous is for the benefit of flustered scab managers often shipped in to cover for the strikers - so be as irate as you want…

This country is still blighted with the sickening self-interest and small-minded lack of compassion and empathy that Thatcher bred. The working class can put this cancer into remission, by showing solidarity to fellow workers wherever they stand up to fight for the better life that we are entitled to.

Good luck posties, you have our support!

How is calling someone "stupid" who is showing dismay at a family members mis-fortune at the hands of the strike an intelligent or deserved answer?

All I can say is that I haven't seen a private courier or delivery service act like this. The post office should be completely privatised. I wouldn't miss my branch. I would happily go into a W H Smith. I live in a city and I went into the post office which had an abundant amount of staff in on Sat, but the place was quite empty. Most of the branches are these days. Even if there was a queue would people really care that it was in a dedicated post office branch or in a newsagents? Most branches are turning into a newsagents anyway... why? Because no-one uses those facilities that much anymore. Even benefits are being paid electronically now.

For the last few years the Post Office has changed. They are offering loans, insurance and all other types of services... why is this? because they couldn't compete. Why? because the Post Office doesn't have a monopoly on the communications market, the market has changed considerably in the last thirty years. Like any business they are trying to cut costs. Unfortunately they've grown so big they have baggage in the way of staff which is easy to get rid of.

Just because a company has employed someone for twenty years does that mean they HAVE to employ them for the rest of their life? It should be up to the employee to get the best career they can and make the change themselves. Where I work they dont give a pension. We have to sort that out ourselves. I most probably pay more out than everyone else but at least I'm making decisions that concern my own life not everyone elses.

Maybe the people striking are SCABs?

"How is calling someone "stupid" who is showing dismay at a family members mis-fortune at the hands of the strike an intelligent or deserved answer?"

Because this person is attacking striking workers who are being screwed because he has been inconvenienced by his own actions. This is not only stupid but selfish.

"Most of the branches are [empty] these days. "

Absolute cobblers. I live in Birmingham in a suburb near two post offices and every time I go in they are busy. They provide a wealth of services, from paying money into a bank account (because all the bank branches close at 4.00pm - fat lot of use "private" corporations are), to getting car tax renewed, in addition to postal and parcel services. have you ever thought how cut off people who live in rural communities would be if they didn't have access to these services? There won't be alternatives where they live so it is a great thing that they have a post office even if it does need to be subsidsed. Stop being so damn selfish. Your attitude stinks of "I'm okay so sod everyone else".

When privatisation has screwed over so many previously public services making them even more expensive with lower service quality are you so sure that privatising the post office would be beneficial?

The only privatisation that resulted in a cheaper service was the energy industry, but now this policy is wreaking havoc with the environment as the private sector's only goal is profit, not the greater good of humanity. Train services are more expensive, later, and more dangerous than when they were nationally owned. Water rates are more expensive, and the infrastructure is crumbling due to underinvestment and record shareholder profits year upon year. And BT is now basically a private monopoly which has stiflied competition, and serves it's rich shareholders rather than being run for the good of society.

The economic arguments for privatisation are flawed and contradictory. Apparently competition reduces costs as businesses strive to win business, and the cost reductions are passed on to customers. In reality corporations pocket most of the savings for their shareholders, not their customers or workers. Why would they bother otherwise? If there is any real competition to benefit customers it is for a short period of time before 3 or 4 corporations reign supreme. At which point price fixing becomes a common interest to all of them, yet is almost impossible to prove. just look at the petrololeum industry, mobile phone industry, supermarkets, all of which have been investigated/fined for price fixing.

Apparently economies of scale (mass production) produces efficiencies, yet we we are lead to believe that the splitting the postal market would reduce prices despite reducing the potential for economies of scale.