You don't have mail

You’ll remember I had quite strong opinions re. the tube strike, and now we’re in the midst of a postal strike. Extremely inconvenient when you’re awaiting 60 – odd wedding RSVP’s! I don’t think members of the public ever get the full story; there’s too much hyperbole, rhetoric and sabre rattling when it comes to public service strikes, but I must admit, asking the post office to be better is something a lot of people want! So there are some among us scratching our heads and wondering why the postal service is on strike for being asked to modernise and be more effective?

Now let me just state something before you think I’m a Thatcherite stooge, I’m pro-unions. Without unions most of us would still be working under appalling conditions for shocking pay. Think sweatshops and illegal factories and you have an idea of some of the working conditions of only a few decades ago. Even now, unions still have a crucial role in protecting women who have been victimised and sexually harassed, gay workers drummed out of the workplace and subjected to sick jokes, black workers denied promotion… And at the turn of the last century when tithe property was so much more common, you had men dismissed for no reason, or injured at work and no longer able to carry out their duties and who lost their home as it came as part of their job. Whole families homeless because workers had no status, no protection. Unions helped to change all that – valuing people and protecting their rights is never a bad thing. But from your ‘ordinary person on the street’ (although I feel I’m anything but ordinary, lol!) I can’t understand what the problem is in this case. When I was younger you had two deliveries a day. The morning delivery arrived before I left for school. We had the same postman who was fairly friendly and always looked smart and postman-like. He used his common sense when delivering things when we weren’t in – i.e., asking neighbours to look after the odd parcel.

Now we have different post men (all fairly pleasant!), some of whom use their common sense, some of whom don’t even bother to ring the doorbell when they have a parcel for us. (I have been in and the boys upstairs have been in and we’ve come down to find a ‘we tried to deliver a parcel’ card to which we’ve said to each other, did they ring your bell, because they didn’t ring ours?!) Uniforms have become more relaxed, so much so there is a young man that wears his shirt open because I suspect he’s rather proud of his chest. We have one delivery; it happens anytime between 10am and 3pm. More mail goes missing and is delayed than ever before…

Something has gone badly wrong, and I’m sorry to be a selfish little sod but whilst I don’t want anyone to lose their job – unless their useless – or be treated badly, I do want my RSVP’s (and a rugby t-shirt I ordered a week ago)!