28/03/2018 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi there, here's the bulletin of the 28th of March. You'll also find attached the front page of the bulletin we distribute. Comments welcome as usual!

WAS THERE EVEN A PLAN “B”?
So 90.1% voted for TP's "Landmark Agreement" altho' only
55.1% turned out - and a good 6,167 of us said no! But
given that the union leaders put this ballot forward as
“choosing the right side” by voting yes, they weren't even
offering a choice. They said this would help them to fight for
a "positive culture and growth era"... whatever that means!!
A comfy seat at RM's dinner table? No wonder almost half
the workforce didn't bother to return the form.

THE “LEFT” SIDE?
Well it’s not the first time that CWU leaders play this kind of
game. Except that it’s our pensions and livelihoods, not to
mention feet and backs at stake here. Using the latter (feet
and backs!) we can still fight for a wage rise well above
inflation, DB pensions, full time jobs for all who need them,
shorter walks and more workers if we choose to!

CHEERS FOR THE WAGE CUT?
As for the union officials' porkies, we repeat, the actual wage
rise is not 5%+2% + another several % from an eventual cut
in hours. We had a "real" pay cut in 2016 (1.6%,
RPI=2.61%!), so the 5% could be said to be stretched over 3
years! But even if it was 5% over 18 months, it still works out
at below inflation (~3.2%?). RPI is 3.6% now and prices are
unlikely to be falling in the near future!

THEY SAID THERE WAS NO CHOICE
Let’s remember, the leaders agreed the so-called CDC
pension (which depends on future legislation) only because
they accepted that it was “unaffordable” for RM to pay for a
DB scheme in the future. It wasn’t unaffordable. Now some
of us will lose up to 22% of our pensions and maybe more,
as a result. And just how "temporary" will this transitional DC
scheme be?

SCARED TO LOSE THEIR "PARTNERS"
For BT workers the CWU has agreed a hybrid scheme which
preserves an element of defined benefits (DB) (only 1/105th
of up to £17,500 for each year's service), a lump sum, with
the rest made up by a DC pot. So they also accepted BT’s
claim (like RM’s) that it could no longer “afford” a DB scheme!
Yet BT’s profits are £1.9bn and rising! RM’s £272m! Are
these companies which “can’t afford” decent wages and
pensions? Of course not. But they’d have had to be forced
to pay up, and that’s the fight that the CWU leaders were and
are afraid of facing... claiming, on the contrary, that it’s us
workers who aren’t prepared to “lose a penny”...

“PRESERVING” LEGAL PROTECTIONS?!
Another thing to remember: the new pension schemes are
no longer part of the government’s Pension Protection Fund,
saving RM money in contributions, and leaving us high and
dry if RM decides to go into liquidation one day...

TEACHING GRANDMA TO SUCK EGGS
Now managers on the drivers' side are talking about having
daily briefings on our driving "style"! Are we back at school,
or what?! Here's an idea tho': daily collective meetings to
give managers a piece of OUR minds regarding the wrecks
we've been driving and the long shifts we've been doing…
Maybe that would help these bright sparks to shine some
light on the real problems with the fleet?!

TELEMETRIC THIS: BACK OFF!
And by the way, the telemetry system fitted to vehicles to
record our every move is like having a manager (instead of a
co-driver!) sitting next to you - very pleasant indeed! Of
course, when they fitted these spying devices managers said
they wouldn't use them for disciplinary reasons…

SORTING BROKEN PIECES
Do managers really think it's OK to routinely push us parttimers
on Lates to stay longer to clear the work? They broke
the system so why should we pick up the pieces? Maybe we
should say: no overtime, but fulltime?! And what about
bringing back the morning collection so that the workload is
evened out during the day? But of course, there's method in
RM's mayhem: it's cheaper and thus more profitable.

OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER OF SHIFTS
Yes, the OCD Bee is pushing the work to later, stepping on
the toes of his former shift! So when we come to our frames
on Nights, we find Lates' mates still working on them… OK,
no problem: perfect opportunity to have a chat and a cuppa
together!

BIG BROTHER'S WATCHING YOU!
Going back to the totally vague “Four Pillars Agreement”, one
future RM/CWU "joint sign-off" is the roll-out of a system to
track... us, not to track mail! RM's already run a trial in
Greenford, PRDC and a couple of DOs using PDAs to record
every minute worked by our mates. To make sure we work
our hours and go home on time? Of course not! The bosses
are after "work efficiencies" and we all know what that
means: loading more work on our backs!

ACTUALLY BUGGED
On Deliveries it's the same story, managers have updated
the PDAs to follow us while on walks - they've been trying
this already in Cheshire and Mersey areas… They say it’s
for customers to track their deliveries. We say it’s for
managers to track our every move! CWU officials want to
“reassure” us on these elements in their agreement (Delivery
Production Plan, PDA Actuals which log us every second!) -
all subject to working parties, way down the line - but we
“reaffirm” our opposition!

MARATHONS OK BUT NOT WHILE AT WORK!
As for RM’s idea to allow “customers” to track delivery
workers bringing them their parcels within a guaranteed 4-
hour window... RM will have to come up with a full army of
new recruits on deliveries! Because we certainly can’t and
won’t walk the extra mile for it!

SURVEY TIME
The Elephant says he doesn’t mind if we cleaners write
anonymously in a survey that we don’t like him. But it’s not
“him” we don’t like, it's what he says and does... and we’d
need several A3's to fit it all in!

TICK-TOCK
We also suggest that if he is so bored he can take a mop
and bucket and do some cleaning, instead of constantly
watching the clock?

[deltaforce]

Any good news happening?

[redneck]

I'm still amazed that the vote was 9-1 in favour. I foresee unofficial walkouts aplenty in the next 12 months. The 'deal' has again skirted round the real issues in the industry.

[cliffeyhez]

Thanks for the latest bulletin. This is the only source of information that seems to be in tune with how I see things. Please keep them coming. Always much appreciated.