ABSTRACT
The capacity for disruption centres around the inter-relationship of a number of features and contours of the organisation and its logistics, the organisation of the service, the 'product', the service and its 'product' market, which are peculiar to RM. The capability to disrupt relates to union membership density, the vibrancy of collective organisation and the collective consciousness and so on. This chapter explores these issues by examining a number of characteristics of RM and its workforce. It analyses branches and branch leadership as keys mobilising agencies, and assesses differing strike propensities and locations. The potency of striking is based on a plethora of features and processes of the mail system and of the way RM operates. The chapter compares Parcelforce and Post Office Counters workforces. It focuses on the notion of 'industrial confidence', involving a mix of postal workers' collective union consciousness, union practice, collective organisation and past union struggles.
