17/06/2020 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of the 17th of June. The full bulletin with front page editorial is attached.
Comments are welcome, as usual.

TESTS FOR ALL OF US!
We've heard from all quarters - the union, the press,
RM - how “crucial to the national testing programme”
we are. But when are we going to get the tests we
need? We know we can access priority testing - if we
have symptoms...
But since 70% of those infected don't get any
symptoms and since we're told that there's enough test
capacity (which came very late, like everything else!),
let's put it to good use! In fact we need regular testing
- and antibody tests as well... if the government can
finally find any that work!

WORKING OUT THE RISK
And by the way, it'd be good to know how this
pandemic has affected our own ranks as postal
workers - allowing us to assess the risk of being on the
job. But it seems we'll have to work it out for
ourselves. So taking the apparent incidence of Covid-
19 in the entire population, as a simple proportion, out
of 140,000 of us, we'd expect there to be at least 630
cases...

... AND WHY THEY DON'T TELL US
...and maybe a lot more, because unlike the majority of
the population, we've been working together in
enclosed spaces... and if we were outdoors, we were
touching letterboxes, gates, doors, etc.. and many of
us have been travelling on public transport throughout
the pandemic! No doubt why RM isn't revealing these
figures to us, no matter how important they may be.

ONLY WHEN WE’RE READY
How can managers ask us to return to work when
we’re shielding or caring for someone who is
shielding? They use the excuse that governmentordered
shielding will "come to an end" on 30 June -
but that's not even true. That's the date for
government review. But given that shielding is a last
defence against C-19, now that the lockdown's
effectively ended, it has to be up to us to decide, no
matter what the government or RM says.

SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO
We heard we'd be getting a “supportive” and “nonthreatening”
phone call from a manager to discuss
going back to work. Just hearing their sweet voices is
bound to make us feel a lot better! But there's one
hitch... they might find it a wee bit difficult to get in
touch, given they mostly don’t have our numbers.

DUMB AND DUMBER
Should we be worried when we see a manager
casually walking around with a Covid-19 home test kit
in his hands? As far as we know, there should be a
special area where they're sorted, but he obviously
didn't know where to take it! Let's hope the packet
didn't have any bits of virus on it... Just in case, we'd
better monitor him (from a distance!) over the next 2
weeks!

MUDDLED-HEADED
Can anyone tell us why the union officials got it into
their heads that Saturday letter deliveries (added to
packets) should return a week earlier than planned?
When having a lighter Saturday would be fine with us,
thank you very much!
PS: And we wish DUMs good luck with that... coz our
walks are busy enough as they are and we're not going
an extra mile to deliver extra!

PROTECTED AGAINST MARATHONS
Phew, we're so hot on deliveries! It's really impossible
to wear gloves and a mask given the fact that despite
the pandemic (or because of it?) we're constantly
running to catch up. Ok, so we can “hand-sanitise”
every 2 minutes, but would that be enough? Slowing
down and having fewer doors to deliver to, might be
even more “protective” - and not just against viruses...

THE BONUS CON
So the £200 one-off “recognition” bonus for having
worked during the pandemic is melting away very
fast… And RM's refusing to pay it in full to those of us
who've worked part-time or who took unpaid leave.
Which is a big problem - even though we'd rather have
a decent pay rise than this temporary “tip”...

THEY OWE US!
Some of us, are really struggling financially at the
moment, with a reduced family income. Everyone
(even the government!) agrees that these are “special
circumstances”, but not RM apparently. These stingy
b******s refuse to pay us a full wage, so that we could
manage if we had to stay at home to shield, care for a
vulnerable person, or look after kids off school.
Instead, they tell us to apply to the Rowland Hill Fund!
There’ll be nothing left in it soon!

WE'LL SEE YOU OUTSIDE
We hear the union is asking for an above-inflation payrise!
Except that the inflation rate is only 0.9%... So
how much "above"? No, we say forget the current
inflation rate, let’s work out how much we need and
ask for that. RM won’t want to give it, but so what –
their “behind-closed-doors” discussions never gave us
anything anyway. We'll have to tell them to come
outside, where we'll be waiting...!

OUR FEET IN HIS MOUTH
Our mates in Bridgewater DO (Somerset) showed how
things can get done. One hundred of them walked out,
twice, after a manager didn't quite understand when to
shut up. He'd threatened workmates with disciplinary
action for “wilful delay of mail”... until they used their
feet to make him back off.