David Fiske A subtle blend of affiliate marketing and web development

For those who don’t know, Royal Mail employees want a fair pay rise and Royal Mail won’t give them 100% of what they are asking for. The Communications Workers Union has instigated several one day strikes, then last month it moved onto rolling strikes in an attempt to slow the whole postal network down.

They have now just issued a 5 day strike.
 
The CWU have issued two separate strikes – the first on Friday 5th October and Saturday 6th October. There are no Royal Mail deliveries on Sunday 7th October. The second strike then runs between Monday 8th October and Tuesday 9th October 2007.

Dave Ward, of CWU states here: “Strikes are a proportionate response to an employer that is completely out of control. Rather than running the business, Royal Mail’s actions demonstrate they are intent on destroying it.”

The CWU say that from the 15th October 2007, rolling strikes will continue every week until Royal Mail give in.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not blaming the CWU or Royal Mail individually. I’m blaming them both for attempting to kill off e-businesses.

Let’s assume I purchase a DVD from Jersey. They usually take around 7 days to arrive (or at least it has done for my recent orders with dvd.co.uk, hmv.com and powerlaydirect.com). Let’s assume I order it and it’s dispatched on Thursday 4th October 2007. I will probably not see it until Tuesday 16th October! Am I prepared to wait 2 weeks for delivery? Probably as I don’t have any birthday’s to buy for but what happens if it’s aunty Doris’s birthday on Sunday 14th October? No last minute shopping here!

Lee McCoy runs Delivery Hell which looks like a great place to vent some of this frustration but I think what needs to happen is some heads need knocking.

Ecommerce will suffer if this rolling strike rolls on and on. Ok, some companies will switch to using couriers. But your 50p widget you won on eBay doesn’t look that much of a deal if you have to pay £10 courier fees.

I agree with Dave Ward in that if something doesn’t happen soon, the Royal Mail will start destroying itself.

What do you think?