Whatever the rights and wrongs of the postal strike, if the postal service is to avoid commercial suicide, management and strikers need to find a radical solution and fast, argues David Soskin.
There is a curious thing about internet commerce. When the first websites were launched, people said they would be very damaging to the "traditional economy".
In fact, the internet has proved a fillip to many traditional businesses. And the Royal Mail is one example. It may have suffered from email and the internet-driven decline in direct marketing; but it has also benefitted from the rise in online activity.
Take eBay, which has spawned tens of thousands of mail-using small businesses in the UK. Or Swapitshop.com, the kids' trading platform with which I am involved, which posts thousands of items around the UK for young Swapitshop users exchanging goods with each other. Then there’s DVD rental giant LoveFilm.
The effect of a postal strike on these types of internet-enabled businesses is enormous. But, right across the business sector, there is a tale of woe.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the postal dispute, what matters is the fact that, in the depths of a major recession, the private sector is faced with yet another problem to add to the dreadful state of the economy; the huge burden of tax; the mountain of red tape. Cashflow dries up with no cheques arriving and for mail order businesses a postal strike is crippling. Small enterprises are especially hard hit.
I had hoped that the party conferences would address the postal strike. But as a political issue, it’s either so intractable or so sensitive that it was the elephant in the room which no one dared to mention.
So I ask the question: is anyone in government listening - or have they given up?
An anti-war friend of mine suggested the other day that the 9,000 troops in Afghanistan should be brought home immediately to deliver the mail and supplement the efforts of the 30,000 temporary workers whom the Royal Mail is planning to engage. That may be a bit extreme. But he did have a point: a radical resolution is necessary, and fast.
Is it still viable in 2009 that the cost to post a letter from Lands End to John O’Groats is the same as from one part of London to another? Can you imagine if rail or air travel was priced like this? Is it reasonable to afford the Royal Mail ‘final mile’ monopoly protections while, at the same time, allowing their employees the right to strike?
The current strike may prove to be suicidal anyway. If the right to strike is maintained, this threat alone may encourage more and more businesses to seek alternative suppliers - even if it means increasing their cost base and charging their customers more. For example, Amazon, one of the UK's biggest online retailers, is considering Home Delivery Network (HDN) instead of the Royal Mail for parcels over 500 grams, according to The Guardian.
If Royal Mail’s customers do desert during the current unrest, then the likelihood of them returning is nil. The business risk of dependence on such an unreliable network is just too great.
A post office union leader recently boasted that he was in a much stronger position than that of Arthur Scargill during the miners’ strike of the mid-80s, exclaiming: “you can stockpile coal but you cannot stockpile letters”.
This smacks of hubris. The seven week 1971 postal strike bankrupted the post office union and hastened the decline of the British economy. At that time, there were no delivery alternatives for business. Now, forty years later, there are (albeit at a price); and there is email. It is time for the strikers to wake up and smell the coffee.