Latest / Best of Business / John Maynard: Postal Workers Union co-president on NZ Post confirming it will close 142 more locations

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John Maynard: Postal Workers Union co-president on NZ Post confirming it will close 142 more locations · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks'd be follow
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  Speaker 2: So we have yet another blow in the slow demise
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  Speaker 2: of the postal service. New Zealand Post says more than
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  Speaker 2: one hundred and forty of its stores are closing as
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  Speaker 2: part of changes to its urban network. The city's most
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  Speaker 2: affected are Auckland and christ Church. John Maynard is an
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  Speaker 2: organizer for the Postal Workers' Union and with US Hi.
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  Speaker 2: John Hi, Now, John, just give me an understanding of
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  Speaker 2: what's going on here. Is New Zealand Post closing those
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  Speaker 2: those little post shops where it's like a little post
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  Speaker 2: shopping run inside a dairy? Is that what's closing?
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  Speaker 3: Just they closing one hundred and forty two of those
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  Speaker 3: ones which they've franchised out and now they're going to
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  Speaker 3: close them down.
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  Speaker 2: That's right, okay. And then they're keeping the kind the
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  Speaker 2: bigger ones like where you go in and it's a
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  Speaker 2: proper postal place.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the interesting thing is there's some good news about this.
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  Speaker 3: The hubs that they're going to set up are going
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  Speaker 3: to have good service and good services. But I noticed
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  Speaker 3: that New Zealand Posts won't come out and publicly talk
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  Speaker 3: to the news media about this, because it's one thing
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  Speaker 3: for the company to adjust to changing mail volumes and
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  Speaker 3: people's communication methods, but it's quite another to consistently act
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  Speaker 3: in a manner which undermines people's confidence in the postal service.
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  Speaker 3: And here's a chance for them to come up and say, well,
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  Speaker 3: actually there's some good news here, but they're hiding behind
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  Speaker 3: the parapets. They won't come out to talk to you.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, now I'm going to get to I'm going to
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  Speaker 2: get to that with you, because that is quite weird.
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  Speaker 2: But explain to me why they're shutting down these little franchises,
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  Speaker 2: because I can't imagine that they cost that much to run.
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  Speaker 2: So what's the point.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, it's going to hit their enfranchises because you know,
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  Speaker 3: I've got people running chemist shops and bookshops and libraries
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  Speaker 3: and things, and that's going to reduce the foot track
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  Speaker 3: traffic going through there. But they're certainly trying to consolidate
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  Speaker 3: the government's leaning on them to cut costs and to
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  Speaker 3: return surplus cash, extra cash back to the government. So
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  Speaker 3: how much money though, though no doubt will be saving
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  Speaker 3: money from this, or they wouldn't be doing it, and
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  Speaker 3: it's going to reduce the services, of course to the
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  Speaker 3: people and further reduce people's access to this public service.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so there are some ninety percent of people still
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  Speaker 2: live within four k's of a postal place, which I
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  Speaker 2: suppose is not that bad. But there are some people
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  Speaker 2: who are going to live about thirteen k's away, which
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  Speaker 2: is a hell of a long way to drive to
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  Speaker 2: post a letter. Where do you know where these people are?
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  Speaker 1: Like?
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  Speaker 2: Which are the communities?
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  Speaker 3: I tell you what. I spoke to a person in
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  Speaker 3: a post shop franchise who had to look on the
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  Speaker 3: website to find out did she still have a job.
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  Speaker 3: So even people in these franchises weren't aware of what
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  Speaker 3: was going to happen to them. Four kilometers away may
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  Speaker 3: not seem very far. I means you've got a walk.
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  Speaker 3: I'm familiar with a shop that is in the middle
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  Speaker 3: of an area where there's a large residential area. People
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  Speaker 3: walk there with their parcels for their mail, and there
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  Speaker 3: are a couple of rest homes close by, retirement villages.
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  Speaker 3: Now those people are going to have to drive into
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  Speaker 3: the city because they could walk down to the little
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  Speaker 3: place on the main road. Now they're going to drive
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  Speaker 3: into the city in a car. And the other problem
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  Speaker 3: they've got is where to find parking, because people have
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  Speaker 3: told me some of the hubs that the company are
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  Speaker 3: setting up are not very good trying to get parking.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so what is going explain to me what's going
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  Speaker 2: on here? That New Zealand Post makes an announcement then
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  Speaker 2: turns its phones off.
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  Speaker 3: Do they always do this if there's bad yep. If
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  Speaker 3: there's bad news like run out of Christmas stamps to
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  Speaker 3: Christmas in the row, they won't talk about it. Promote
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  Speaker 3: postal voting, they won't talk about it. But if there's
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  Speaker 3: an opportunity to say, oh we're going to lay off
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  Speaker 3: all of our postings, oh, they'll talk about it from
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  Speaker 3: the rooftops. Oh we're going to go to three day delivery,
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  Speaker 3: We'll tell everybody, oh we're going to lay off one
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  Speaker 3: hundred and forty two post shops. But they should be
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  Speaker 3: out there now promoting what is good about news on
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  Speaker 3: post and it's very rarely that they do it. And
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  Speaker 3: here was a chance today to come out and say, well,
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  Speaker 3: there will be these hubs and these are the good
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  Speaker 3: services you're going to get there. It's taking me from
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  Speaker 3: the union to tell people that there is something good
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  Speaker 3: about this. Why isn't he on post doing that?
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  Speaker 2: John, it's good to talk to you. Thank you very much,
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  Speaker 2: John Maynard. Postal Workers' Union organized
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