07/10/21 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 7 October. Comments welcome, as usual!

WE CALL IT A STITCH-UP
So the fit-up did go ahead in the end, starting this
Monday - although we are told that it'll be
temporary... But of course, what isn't temporary are
the jobs that have been cut for good! Those of us
who were on jobs that disappeared are still waiting
to see what managers will try to impose on us with
these new duties - but we already know that the fit-up
won't fit unless they recruit new workers.

THEIR TACTICS...
Yes, because we all know it's all part of the job cuts
they've been talking about for when the Parcel
Sorting Machine comes in next year! First we're
offered VRs, then jobs disappear. Next, they'll try
their re-sign. We know how the last re-sign went a
couple of years ago... At this rate, the Mount will
become a Mount of unsorted parcels!

WHERE'S THE ACCOUNTABILITY!
So is this latest fit-up, which affected many of us on
Nights, the reason why we saw top managers and
the union having a big meeting at night last week?
We wonder why we weren't told about it and why we
haven't had a report back either... Maybe union
officials in here need a reminder that they first need
to ask us what we want before they meet managers
and then report back after!

WHAT WILL THEY DO ABOUT IT?
Managers told us about the sad death of our
workmate on Wednesday 22 September, and that
was that. But what are they planning to do about
manning the Bookroom 24/7 and giving all First
Aiders refresher training - including on the
defibrillator? In fact a full-time nurse on duty would
be far better.

THIS HAS TO CHANGE!
Because we all know that the medical equipment in
the Mount is old and in some cases completely
inadequate. Even the little things, like plasters, are a
hundred years old - when we cut ourselves (and it
does happen often in letters), we're given plasters
that are so old, they don't stick any more! And what
about the medical room? It isn't fit for purpose!

SNAIL PACE RESPONSE
And yes, paramedics are taking ages to get
anywhere nowadays: just a couple of weeks ago,
one of our workmates started bleeding through the
nose non-stop. It took our union rep to make sure
he was sent to hospital..!

THIS IS A REMINDER
Covid is still among us, alive and kicking hard. We
have heard of several of our workmates sick at
home with it. We have even heard of one mate in
hospital! This pandemic is far from over, it is in fact
getting pretty bad. So we all have to take extra precautions,
since managers keep closing their eyes
and hoping for the best...

IGNORANCE GOT HIM (IT) THERE
The one person we want to see given a very long
sick-leave is the Elephant! Yes, it proudly went
around, without mask, and now it has the virus! We
hear that it's feeling better, but we know that even
after recovering, it could still have it in the trunk and
pass it on. So since this elephantus ignorantus
doesn't like masks, we grant it a year's leave (at
least)!

PS: And by the way, we were glad to have a break
from his unprofessional and totally out-of-order
language. Who does he think he's fooling when he
explains that "f*****g lazy" is an "English idiom"! And
he keeps telling US to "learn English"!

"THE VOICE", BUT NOT OURS!
We can't say we've seen any change for the better
in "workplace culture and environment", as TeePee
was writing about in the CWU magazine this
month… And we're not sure how exactly he planned
to bring it about, since he confirmed yet again that
the "adversarial days" of the CWU are over. Yes,
this "culture" needs changing, and there's only ever
been one way of doing that...

AND IN THE REAL WORLD...
What a system this is, where a few of us writing our
little comments online can knock 8% off RM's share
price! Yep, that's what CEO Simon Thompson
claimed in his recent company Q&A: investment
bankers are worried that RM won't save £100m this
year, and apparently it's because they read
Royalmailchat! On the other hand, it does show how
much they worry about what we might do... But if
RM doesn't meet its "productivity" goals, it won't be
because of our fingers typing online, but our feet
walking off work!