03/11/21 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 03 November. Comments welcome...

NO TO THEIR HUDDLES!
As if we were born yesterday! Imagine, these
managers telling us that there will be "job
opportunities" when that Parcel Sorting Machine
comes (early next year?). What's more, this is the
hot air that comes out of a team huddle, along with
those little round things with spikes on...

THAT'S NOT WHAT WE WANT!
Oh yes, but everything should be okay, since
managers said that the PSM will give us plenty of
overtime to do. Really? In the context of
automation-related job cuts? That's probably what
they mean by "job opportunities" then..? But what
about starting by giving decent full-time jobs to part timers
(without Saturdays!)? And they'll need to get
extra hands in here to share the rest of the work.

BROKEN BEFORE IT STARTS
We've heard that those of us who'll work on the
PSM won't even get the usual machine allowance?
Yes, we already see it coming: a 5-minute training
and no properly-defined duty on the machines...
and then, utter chaos! In fact they've already
started to cause chaos before the machine's even
arrived!

DON'T DO WHAT THEY SAY ON THE BOX
So much for RM's "investing in the future"! The
new PSM arriving here is "smaller in size and
scope" than the machines which are already
installed elsewhere. According to the union
therefore, they will "require one less operator". But
we can be sure that these "el cheapo" machines
will cause us more problems and need many more
people to run!

CUDDLY TOY!!!
Mr. Witless has got to be kidding... On PSA during
the Late shift, we're having to scan and sort, all at
the same time, while this damn, long conveyor belt
keeps moving! We feel like we're in Generation
Game, trying to remember what we just scanned
and where it should go, and not succeeding!

SOME BRAINS IN THERE?
This way of sorting on PSA hurts our backs, and
the rest of our bodies as well, with all these
repetitive movements, twisting, etc.... Mr. Witless
thinks it can be done with fewer of us on the job?
Well, maybe a good few failings on the shift will
hammer some sense into his head...

NAP TIME
We aren't in a hurry to see Work Time Snoozing
coming back, with Covid cases increasing
everywhere. Like one workmate says on the Royal
Mail Chat forum, it's a waste of time anyway.
Managers could just direct us instead to where the
screens are, for their "ass covering" videos (manual
handling, fire safety, etc.)... The only things we
might miss is the chance to sleep!

HEAR HIM TALKING
So what's the point of these meetings with the
Elephant in RM-PFS? Last Thursday, as usual, he
just wanted us there to hear his latest set of rules
and that's all... He gets a kick out of hearing
himself speak?

AND WE'RE NOT CAMELS...
Yeah, he likes to hear himself speak, but not us.
This Elephant has banned us from speaking to
each other in our own languages; he has banned
us from looking at our phones, sending texts and
talking on them; in fact he has banned us from
talking full stop! And yes, he's so petty, that he
stalks us, trying to catch us breaking his silly - but
discriminatory - rules. This is getting to be the very
last straw!!

IT'S NOT A PIECE OF CAKE
Are we meant to be thankful to RM's "Chief
Commercial Officer" for his updates on his
customers? He made it known that he had been
meeting Amazon to discuss delivering "a big slice"
of their parcels for Black Friday and Xmas… Only
problem is, just who exactly is going to be sorting
and delivering that "slice"?

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU
Did anyone see that video on Royal Mail Chat
(https://vimeo.com/641106687) s h o w i n g C E O
Simon Thomson thanking each union official in
succession, starting with Mark Baulch (assistant
secretary for deliveries). He praised them all
because they have "never stopped collaborating".
Sounds about right…!

[no1postie]

Brilliant rant, dont know much about your situation as i work on delivery, but it seems that the rot is all around us. we used to have yorks come in with purple cards for tracked and white cards for regular packets, but now anything goes ! we are all just trying to stay afloat, stay strong brother. dont let the ba@tar*s get you down.

[SpacePhoenix]

Brilliant rant, dont know much about your situation as i work on delivery, but it seems that the rot is all around us. we used to have yorks come in with purple cards for tracked and white cards for regular packets, but now anything goes ! we are all just trying to stay afloat, stay strong brother. dont let the ba@tar*s get you down.

Same in MCs we get from other MCs large and small, Tracked and non-Tracked mixed together with the odd SD thrown in. When you're sorting large packets, there's some yorks that are near enough all smalls

[Tman]

The usual rant, although calling for "world-wide Communism" is a new angle.
I wonder where the writer copies-and-pastes this nonsense from? Morning Star Online maybe?

[yellowbelly]

The usual rant, although calling for "world-wide Communism" is a new angle.
I wonder where the writer copies-and-pastes this nonsense from? Morning Star Online maybe?

I'm sure he's got some valid points in these bulletins somewhere, but when it all gets mixed in
with the harking back to the 1970's industrial landscape and attacks on the 'elephant' and 'Mr Witless'
who none of us have got a clue about who they are it loses it's way and potential audience.

Never been to Mount Pleasant but assuming it's a large facility with
a significant number of staff I would have thought they should be able to get enough workplace support to rectify some of the
issues he keeps banging on about. Unfortunately you need to pick the battles you've got a chance of winning in this era,
we're not going back to the 1970's whether we like it or not.