Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines Royal Mail (RM) postal workers' industrial and political behaviour to assess whether they, or certain sections of them, can be justifiably characterised as 'militant'. It explores the underlying reasons for the changes which postal workers are experiencing and often resisting. The book considers the political economy of RM and the PO as a public sector corporation, which while remaining in the state sector, has become increasingly commercialised and similar in its industrial relations to many privatised organisations like the privatised electricity and water companies. It then considers the impact of these imperatives of the new managerial agenda of RM itself; the various HRM, customer first and total quality management (TQM) initiatives and programmes within a reorganisation of the business along divisional and decentralised lines.