This is about saving your actual postie, the person you personally know and who delivers your mail, the person who you actually say hello to and wave to in the street. It's not just a political rant, please read on!
Royal Mail has already been sold off. What the current CWU ballots and potential postal strikes are about is protecting terms and conditions of employment for longer than the three years that RM's new owners propose.
Today I chatted with our fantastic postman, Julius. I am sure many of you know him. Not sure what his round is but it does include Clarence Road, N22.
*Suddenly*, it is his last week. He has just found out. He finishes this round on Friday having done it for years, wonderfully, always going the extra mile and waiting for me to run down the stairs as my intercom doesn't work.
So what happens is, the person who has been at the depot the longest gets to cherry pick which round (or walk) they want to do, and down it goes until the last in gets the worst round. Perhaps there's some fairness in this, but what of the posties who do go the extra mile and are part of the community, know the people on their walk and who we don't want to lose?
If you love your postie and they work out of the Wood Green Delivery Office, 1a Buckingham Road, London N22 7TU, you can contact the manager there, Simon Evans, and make your feelings known, or call on 0208 219 4810.
I'm sure we'll all be polite about it, but I do feel it's worth fighting for our posties. We love ours.
If you are going to act, make it sooner rather than later, as you may have a new postie next week and will miss your old one.