Ray Richardson, one of the union’s industrial officers died on January 12. 
Ray had been suffering with liver problems for some time, his illness got dramatically worse in December and he passed away peacefully in his sleep at home in the morning. The funeral was on January 17 at Springvale.
Ray looked after our more complex Unfair Dismissals and Under payment claims.  He was great at thinking ‘outside the square’ and brokered some excellent settlements under the most unfavourable of conditions. He was a really beautiful person and a union worker of the highest calibre and principles.  We miss him very much.

We have survived Christmas, but has Australia Post's Reputation 

Generally speaking, Christmas was bearable in Transport, the Mail Centres and in Delivery. The Letters Network managed to cope with their work-load and the stuff-ups caused by the Parcel Network’s inability to cope with the huge increase in parcels.

This increase in parcels led to delays in letter deliveries to Delivery Centres and to trucks being diverted to parcel delivery on numerous occasions.

A major issue over the Christmas period was retail fulfillment problems.  The sale of Post Logistics Australasia and the contracting to a major competitor - DHL to undertake this function has been an unmitigated disaster.  A post office without stamps is like a pub with no beer. This was not helped by the fact that MTC supervisors left 2 semi’s full of supplies down at Altona over-night, early in December, because they forgot to put this duty on a duty-board.

The inability of parcel management to plan for the long expected increase in on-line shopping was pathetic.  The troubles began when management failed to secure a warehouse for ‘the uglies’ i.e. the over-size non-machine able parcels, over Christmas. 

The management of the docks was also hopeless with docks being closed down because they were being used as storage.  Having 2 docks out of action for extended periods and trucks queuing out onto the road was not helpful.

The Melbourne Parcel Facility has been chronically under-staffed and full of agency staff for several months.  This is totally unacceptable when the growth in parcels has been in the order of over 10% a year for the last several years and more.  Any manager should be able to see there needs to be a pro-active recruitment plan for MPF.