Congratulations to Allan Leighton – Royal Mail and to Billy Hayes – Communications Workers Union, for reaching agreement to suspend the proposed industrial action at 458 crown offices.
There is a fine line between the rights of both the employee and the employer and the subsequent effect on the consumer. I don’t argue against the rights of any employee but let us please remember that consumers make the market, not us involved in the supply. I am sure that the direct mail industry also applauded this news. The “junk” mail that we all receive in our homes has become an accepted facet of modern life.
Whether the employees of the many organisations who depend upon the direct mail industry, be they designers, printers or fulfilment houses, would agree with the postal workers we may never know. The issue that maybe all concerned should consider is that once given an alternative many markets simply never return. The increasing use of mobile marketing to provide, what in many cases is a cheaper and more effective solution, to unsolicited direct mail is evidence of this.
As a customer of ours recently commented in a TV interview “It would seem that we can never control whether people will open an e mail or a letter, but frankly we’re all to tempted to open a text the minute we get it.” Mobile networks don’t take industrial action and rarely do consumers throw their mobile phone in the bin without digesting the contents. To see the interview in full view Interview