Hi there, here is the latest MP bulletin
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cheers, Anna
WHISTL’S FOR IT?
We got a bit of a shock at the sudden suspension by Whistl of its e2e (end to end) deliveries to 1.2m residential addresses. Haven't we been told ad nauseum by RM that we better accept worse and worse Ts&Cs and job cuts because private companies like TNT-DutchPost “threaten” us?
Of course the 2,000 Whistl posties (half on zero-hours contracts!) got the real shock – via a callous note saying they'll just get one week’s pay and that’s that! They're being treated no better than City Link mates last Xmas.
MORE PROOF : MAIL SHOULD BE A PUBLIC SERVICE!
Yes it's just another case of workers paying for the greed of cowboy bosses! But to be honest, it was always on the cards that a private company, starting from scratch would fail to make profits out of e2e mail delivery – even by cherry-picking the easiest locations, as TNT-Whistl did at the time, and even by using and abusing workers like semi-slaves. RM still succeeds only because of what it built up while it was a public company. What's that tell us?
THEIR HANDS AND FEET ARE STILL NEEDED
For the moment RM is “absorbing” the deliveries which Whistl suspended. We say RM can just as well absorb ALL of the Whistl workers as well! It's ironical that in March the Community union had just managed to get Whistl to agree to give workers on zero-hours contracts, guaranteed hours after 6 months in the job. Now they have nothing. What did TNT say when it changed to Whistl? “We chose Whistl because happy people Whistle”. Yeah.
DAVE'S HYPOCRISY
So what does “our” new GS have to say? “The sad truth is that if Whistl had been successful then it would have been at the expense of more job losses in RM and the end of 6-days-a-week deliveries to 29 million UK addresses”.
In other words Dave Ward has precisely the same argument as Moya Greene, using the threat of the “danger of competition” to yes, enter us RM workers into that “race to the bottom” on our Ts & Cs, so that RM could “succeed”, for its shareholders! When there was (and is) always a choice – to refuse, to stand our ground and to fight!
ITS LOSSES CUT, THEIR LIFELINE CUT
Of course, while Whistl is no longer doing residential deliveries, it still intends to carry on with its sorting, collecting and parcels business, which was doing OK as far as it was concerned... All it's done is cut its losses. By making its foot-postmen and women pay for them.
THE JOY OF THE FEW
And for those interested in the ups and downs of RM shares, well… they went up as soon as Whistl lost its equity funding deal. Sure, shares prices are unpredictable, but something we can predict, is that each time workers are made to pay the bill, usually by losing their livelihoods, shares will go up.
OUR CHOICE WHERE NEXT?
We’ve been hearing rumours for quite a while now that one of the ILSMs may be moved to make space for the a new packet-sorting machine… (Good luck with that.) If RM goes ahead with this, the few of us working on the machines want to know where we’ll be working next? Mates elsewhere in processing are in such need of hands, we could go anywhere!
TAKING ACCOUNT OF EVERY WORKING SECOND
Isn't our break meant to be a moment in the day when we can rest, chat and... breathe! Something one of the Romec bosses just doesn't understand! The last thing we want to hear when we’re on our break is his annoying count-down, telling us how much of our break is left!
NOISY AND HEAVY
It felt like holidays, when the Path-ological elephant was off for a few days... too few in our view, we need more of these breaks from him. In fact we wonder what Pathological things he’s doing? We made a sort of joke about cute Dumbos, but the disrespectful behaviour he displays and his mad pointing at the clock is more Rottweiler-like. A new Buzzing Bee on the cleaning side.
TEACHING HIS GRANDMA (AND PA) TO SUCK EGGS
So yes again on Processing nights we had to wait for the Bee here to buzz off again for smooth working and decency to prevail. Because it's doubly annoying having him around when he insists on telling those of us twice his age and a hundred times his ability, how to do the job. It's enough to make you come to a complete standstill.
TOO MUCH PRESSURE
We were please that HMP wardens arranged for us to have blood pressure checks here last week. But cheapskate RM asked the Stroke Charity to do it. Now we’d like to see what the overall results were: what percentage of us had raised BPs? We’d guess the majority - and probably the wardens included!
STRIKE BALLOT PENDING?
By the way, talks over the proposed sell-off of Romec to Cofely and our counter-proposal that it is taken back in-house by RM are meant to conclude at the end of May. Next week. We are waiting to know if we are going on strike or not...
MOYA CAN’T COPE
Apparently £1.35-million-Moya has a problem making ends meet and so she’s taken a 2nd job! Yes on 7 May, she started as a non-executive director of the top-rated North American financial services and insurance company, Great-West Lifeco Inc...
Many of us here in HMP also have second jobs. In particular part-timers. So we understand very well what Moya is going through… and she can count on us keeping it in mind next pay round!
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