Growing up in the north-east market town of Darlington, Simon Thompson has fond memories of attending the nearby Durham Miners’ Gala in the 1970s and 1980s.
For many working-class families, the annual union jamboree was – and remains – a highlight of the social calendar.
“My grandfather was one of the [Arthur] The Scargill boys,” says the Royal Mail chief executive.
“He was huge [trade] trade unionist. I remember when I was a kid they always had the Durham Miners Gala. With all banners. I haven’t been in years, but I remember it very well,” he adds with a light laugh.
Convincing working-class masses of the merits of change is serious business — as Thompson witnessed firsthand growing up.
“My grandfather and father had a bit of a rocky relationship. My father decided he wanted to further his education; he became an accountant. I think he was the first to back away from what his father would have thought [was normal].”
With Margaret Thatcher dominating the ballot box, politics was an even more sensitive subject.
“Whenever there was a general election, my father and grandfather would never see each other for months,” he says.
Four decades later, after a career that included stints at Apple, Ocado, Honda – and as managing director of the NHS’s testing and tracing program – Thompson witnessed another industry scandal. But far from being an innocent young bystander, he’s right at the center.
On Tuesday, 115,000 members of the Communications Workers Union (CWU) are expected to support strike action at the former state-owned postal monopoly. They oppose reforms to ‘Amazon-ify’ Royal Mail and demand steep pay rises.
Speaking from Royal Mail headquarters above the sorting office in Islington, north London, the 55-year-old refused to be drawn in by the “what ifs” of the vote’s results.
It’s no secret that the company has remained in the dark ages for far too long – as Thompson’s predecessors are at pains to point out. Since it was privatized by David Cameron’s coalition government in 2013, Royal Mail’s fortunes have been volatile – usually determined by the support, or lack thereof, of powerful unions determined to cling to the working practices of a bygone era.
“There are things we are doing now that are absolutely at the level [cutting] edge, edge. And yet there are other things that when you walk around and see, you’re just like, ‘Oh come on!'” he says.
“During my time here as CEO, we will not have our Kodak moment.”
Thompson does not mean this in a positive sense. Rather, he’s referring to the American photography company’s refusal to embrace the digital age that pushed Kodak from a household name to a corporate one.
The same fate awaits Royal Mail if the unions get their way, he argued: “We have an opportunity here and we have to take it.”
“Our whole operating model in delivery is based on what we used to do with letters,” he says. “We start at the same time, finish at the same time and do a six-day week. But that’s not what our customers want.
“We have to make sure we have a duty cycle that covers seven days a week,” adds Thompson. “We need later opening times so we can have those later deliveries in the day.”
Automated but unused
A brief tour of the Mount Pleasant site, once the largest sorting office in the world, reveals some of the conundrums of Royal Mail’s working practices.
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