Latest Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[anna]

Hi,
The latest Mount Pleasant Bulletin (distributed 26/2/14). Sorry True Blue if I am posting it in the wrong place. It's really the two-weekly "day to day life" and grumbles and observations... if not ok let me know where... cheers

IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT THE MONEY
So we got the “backpay”, as promised. We’re happy it at least appeared on time, even if some of us have been overpaid and will be expected to give it back!! But it’s hardly going to break the bank, is it? Of course, we could have got a lot more if we’d held out. And not just money - even if that’s all Dave Ward thinks we want. We’re not like him, thankfully.

LISTENING TO THEMSELVES
We were in no doubt that the CWU and management were talking with one voice in promoting the national agreement. And now these “partners” are “listening” to us... with one ear.
In Voice, the CWU shows us pretty pictures of managers and union officials, going around the DOs together, interviewing workers and writing a “checklist” of “our views”. This circus is not going to resolve our issues. We know that they listen to us only when we talk with our feet.

OLD-FASHIONED METHODS WIN
Yes, we’re happy to hear RM was forced to reinstate an East Oxford DO worker, unfairly sacked back in May for “wilful delay”. He fruitlessly went thru all the internal appeal procedure, and it was only after his mates went out on strike in September, that bosses agreed to reinstate him, on condition that the Employment Tribunal agreed. His union branch helped pay for a lawyer and he won. Goes to show: we’re better off relying on our mates, rather than on “procedures” - and it’ll be even more true when all these new procedures come in under the “Agenda for Growth...”!

FEARTIE MARK 2
Good for the 94% of Romec engineers who voted to strike over the bosses trying to mess with job allocation, TUPE and MTSF (MSA). Now Romec has backed down and agreed to stick to the old agreement(s). Or so we’re told... However, Romec still wants to cut our numbers significantly. And haven’t we got a “view” about that?

ARE WE WORLD CLASS SLAVES?
The 185 “problem” could easily be fixed, if the housekeeping agreement was stuck to. It’s not up to Romec cleaners to tidy desks, collect cups and sort rubbish and put it in the bin, unless management is planning to triple our numbers and give us pinafores and little white caps...

NO TO THIS WAGE CUT!
Oh, so the union would like us Quadrant workers to accept the 2.6% pay rise? An offer also “agreed” by the union leaders on behalf of our fellow-low-paid cleaners. They said they’re going to talk more with management over job security and canteen services... and we’re supposed to trust them to do this? If their 2.6% “recommendation” is anything to go by, that’s hardly confidence-inspiring! And by the way, the latest measure of inflation - not the government’s low CPI, but the RPI - is 2.9%, up from 2.8%. If we accept this offer, it’s a real wage cut!

THEY HAVEN’T MET OUR TARGET
As for productivity bonuses, didn’t we say we’re against them? The union has told cleaners that they’re discussing our so-called performance-based productivity bonus (£55 for 3 months). But some of the workers here get £120, so this is divisive, and anyway, we don’t accept the principle of such a bonus in the first place. We should all have at least £120x4 consolidated into our basic pay.

B THE B’s LATEZT
B the B buzzed off on holidays again. Thank goodness he has so much time off! We suggest he takes his sick leave off too, because we really enjoy the peace and quiet around here when he’s away.

HE HUFFS AND PUFFS
What’s that acting manager JV6½ trying to achieve, by hauling someone into the office, after being told that we can’t wait to see him back in uniform? When all the night shift really wants, is to have him back among us on the floor! Surely he understands that?

LOTS OF LOVE LOST
Valentine’s Day was really stacked out with packets... Which we certainly didn’t “love”, and many of which leaked and broke and had to be discarded... Worse: even tho’ bosses know it’s going to be busy during this period, they were as unprepared as ever.

TICK ANY BOX
It’s “Have Your Say” day again soon - as if managers take the slightest bit of notice of these surveys. They’re probably right not to. We never take them seriously either.

WE DO THE JOB, THEY GET THE BONUS. OR NOT.
We’ve read that HQ big shots like Moya and fellow execs are promised a big additional wad of RM shares: up to 90,000 more for Moya Greede! Only, to get them, they must meet certain “targets”, by 2016... and since we’ve never seen any of that lot around here trying to meet targets with their own hands, we presume they’ll fail? [E-mail: contact@w-fight.org]

[rainbowwarrior72]

I really enjoy reading your newsletters keep em coming

[osgoody1970]

wow, everything the union has done for us would appear to be wrong, I wonder how we get so many members!!!

[TrueBlueTerrier]

wow, everything the union has done for us would appear to be wrong, I wonder how we get so many members!!!

safety in numbers.