When I was in the CWU, I was sometimes known to heckle at meetings on the basis that “T&C should be preserved, even at the cost of a few jobs” rather than the Union line of “JOBS must be preserved at all costs, including T&Cs!”
So, 200 £500pw jobs under threat can end up as 100 £500pw jobs OR 200 £400pw jobs…
Needless to say, my “maintain the T&Cs” argument had me being treated as a helmet as often as seems to be the case on this board over other matters.
Some aspects of pay went on “mark time” years ago, and of course after years of that, the jobs disappeared anyway. Lose/lose. Even the pension got closed as final salary (defined benefits) and got changed to this crappy CARE scheme, where you spend the first 6 years paying the commissions of the fund managers with your weekly contributions.
If the Union had thought to maintain T&C, then the firm would have probably got rid of too many jobs in the first wave, which then would have meant stacks of overtime, plenty of work for agencies, and even the firm recruiting again by now!
So what T&C’s were sacrificed since 2002 to “preserve jobs” that didn’t get preserved after all that?
Pre 2002:
Overtime: 1.45 weekdays, 1.65 scheduled, 2.00 weekends, 1.5 + day off in lieu bank holidays, and even at one point NDA of 1.33 after 7pm!
My biggest ever earnings year at RM was 1999-2000 tax year where (pre-WTD Euroregs) I’d be doing a 60 hour week for about £42k back then! 
.
Post 2002:
Overtime got cut to 1.15 across the board. Scheduled Attendence multiple was maintained at 1.65 for a while, but at mark time hourly rates.
Weekend overtime dried up, but was nowhere near double time anymore, AND you had to have a certain number of hours in the premium day to qualify for the higher rate (if there was one) and any day off in lieu. Eg. if you did a BH shift starting at 22:15 hours for 12 hours, you’d NOT get the day off in lieu, and you’d get docked 1.5 hours for breaks, rather than 1.00 hours. So, you’d get 10.5 hours @ 1.15 rate rather than 12 hours @ 1.5 rate and a day off in lieu! Even introducing “not being paid for breaks anymore” was like a 12.5% pay cut when you were on 4x12 hour shifts per week, now getting docked 1.5 hours per day of it! The BASIC was increased by quite a bit… 27% sounds about right, but anyone doing overtime lost out overall, because of the cuts to the allowances and overtime. Only flat monday-saturday day drivers gained, as very little allowances were “Lost” by such folk. 38t drivers on nights lost the most, 17t late late drivers lost a lot too! as these were the folk that did the most overtime, and depended upon it, myself included.
Pre 2002, you got trained in levels 1-6 which alllowed you to do the jobs of others, including management, computer stuff, Forks, Reach truck, etc. You got extra allowances for these, and mileage if you were “acting” at another office some commuting distance away.
Post 2002, drivers got “driving allowance” incorporated into their basic, but lost all the other allowances, and you were not supposed to load your own vehicles with you on the forks any more.
Load security had to decline a bit eh? The basic was also LOWER for 17t drivers, whereas before ALL drivers 7.5t upto 38t got the standard “goods vehicle driving allowance”.
All this crushing stuff was agreed by the Union on the basis that the “jobs for life” culture would be maintained.
We might as well have taken cyanide pills, since the jobs went anyway, and the cut-T&C’s are now of course permanent!
There was even an offer from management of £1500 lump sum “to go from weekly to monthly pay”. The Union objected “on our behalfs”, and management implemented it anway, and of course we got sod all, since ‘we’d’ (CWU) rejected the “deal”! Cheers then! 
WIthout plum amounts of regular overtime, there are already stacks of drivers stuggling to pay their now-expired 5 year fix mortgages, as they’re stuck on an SVR they can’t get off, and can’t re-mortgage, because the P60 total earnings bottom line has dropped so much!
Then… whilst all this was going through the system, you’d get the occaisional actual “strike” which the press would lie about in a similar fashion to the recent tanker drivers dispute.
…You know the “Greedy tanker drivers turn down £48k, want £50k” type headlines.
I think one of them was something like “Posties turn down 27% pay rise, and vote to strike!” - Remember THAT one?
I’ve never met ANY driver on that kind of deal - well at least back to the '80s!
The strikes were an objection to having T&C’s cut - but alas too late! The union had already negotiated it all away in return for “jobs for life” - a verbal promise from the firm that of course didn’t have to be honoured, since striking wouldn’t work once the ■■■■ thing was already implemented! 
…If the Union deny this version of events, then perhaps someone would like to explain to me why the T&C’s were all given away so easily … If not for “the presevation of jobs”?
If everthing had been left alone in 2002 (“The way forward” agreement never happened…") then Postal LGV drivers would easily be (annual pay awards inflation +0.5% assumed) on a grand a week gross for a 48 hour week by this point a decade later. For THAT kind of money, those getting it would argue that the slashed workforce “was a price worth paying” instead of having paid that price anyway, and got chuff-all but downside in the interim! 
When I left 2 years back, I figured that it wouldn’t be worth going back to Full Time on the run-through T&C package as it now is.
However, I read on this very board that Agency rates for RM seem to be improving, so perhaps it’s a case of ‘supping with a long spoon’ after all this time, should some well-paid shifts be thrown my way…
I still won’t be crossing any picket lines though! 
