23/03/22 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi there! You can find below this week's Mount Pleasant bulletin (23/03/22). Comments are welcome, as usual!

NO TO JOB CUTS!
Re. that "important update" on RM VRs, which is a
joint communication from the union and
management: apparently the redundancies we were
all expecting are to go ahead... but not until the
machine is "fully operational", which will be in July,
they say! It's clear to everyone that whatever great
automated advantage they think they might have,
with fewer of us around, the work is just going to
pile up even more. And we'll let it...

SHOULD WE DRAW ANY CONCLUSIONS?
By the way, this isn't the first joint communication
we've had, where union and management behave as
one. But before this particular letter, the CWU logo
used to be on one side, and the Royal Mail logo was
right on the other side... We notice that this time,
they are both on the right, next to each other, and
almost kissing!

WHERE ARE OUR HARD HATS?
So they finally figured out how to strengthen the
floor for the new machine... They've even provided
us with colour diagrams and they ask for suggestions
on how to improve the disruption (the handling?)!
Just tell "Harry" if you have any ideas…
PS We might have one: what about, "don't come to
MP while these works are on..?"

PICK AND MIX-UP
On the morning shift in Processing the work is in a
right mess at the moment. None of the managers
has given a single thought to how the extra DSA
work from Romford would be done - they borrow
workmates from one area to do it and that area is
left short. Clever, hey? But typical...

MORE DRIVERS OR WE BRAKE
On Distribution side some of the work coming from
Romford is already incorporated into our work... In
fact, we're already doing a new permanent route to
E15. But guess what? Managers haven't thought it
necessary to bring in new drivers with the new work:
they're trying to cover it with overtime and agency...
when we know many agency drivers could do with
permanent jobs!

LETTERS NOT YET EXTINCT
These days we're sometimes left with as few as 4
people working on letters! Sure, RM makes a big
deal that letter volumes have gone down, but there
are, in fact, still letters to sort! It's no wonder that
the first dispatch on the late shift often misses its
deadline of 7.30pm!

NOT WORTH OUR TROUBLE
Oh dear, this is the time of the year when the
"employee survey" is coming our way... Most of us
have been here long enough to know that these are
as useless as a chocolate teapot... We write what
we think, and nothing ever gets done about it.
Where is the dustbin?

KEEP CLEAR!
So the bosses sent a new DUM to West1 - and we
hear he's got a rather bad record. Yes, apparently
he's sack-happy. Well never mind, we can make him
sack-sad! And why not Sad Sack..?

BRING BACK THE CHEF
We hear that a manager for Eurest got a promotion
for implementing "cuts and savings" at MP. So no
wonder the night canteen can't provide decent food,
and they took away the chef! But that cannot be the
end of the story, if we can't eat properly we can't
work, so we insist they bring back the chef.

A THREE-COURSE PAY RISE NEEDED
The canteen staff are due a pay rise, and we hear the
CWU is asking for 6%. Hang on, official inflation is
likely to be 10% by April/May... And isn't this
company, Compass Group/Eurest, the largest food
service contractor in the world? We think they can
afford a little bit more...

SHOOTING THEIR OWN FOOT
We see RM's increasing the price of 2nd class
stamps by 3% (to 68p) and 1st class stamps by...
11.8% (to 95p)!! And this is their excuse: 1) people
are sending fewer letters and 2) inflation is high...
Once again, management makes no sense at all. It's
obvious that if people are sending fewer letters, it's
because it's already too expensive. As for inflation,
they're fuelling it! So we expect our wages to go up
by at least 11.8%.

SOLIDARITY WITH OUR P&O MATES!
Apparently the manager that appears in the video
sacking 800 P&O workers was a RM manager in the
past. Well, we're not too surprised about that.
However this isn't the first time bosses have fired
workers, on the spot, by text message or zoom! The
difference here is that they fired 800 ferry workers
engaged in essential sea-transport - and the video
went viral. He shouldn't get away with it.

UP THE (WORKERS') REPUBLIC!
Everyone's being given a long weekend from 2-4
June for the Queen's Jubilee... except us? And
we're supposed to be the "Royal" Mail?

[Jack1960]

Can you put this put as a daily addition, take my mind off following Everton

[aiden01]

Can you put this put as a daily addition, take my mind off following Everton

Now we know why you are so down an deluded

[Jack1960]

Can you put this put as a daily addition, take my mind off following Everton

Now we know why you are so down an deluded

[wazer]

How much on average would u get for redundancy. 8YRS .Would it still b option in June /July