13/01/21 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi everyone and Happy New Year! Find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 13 January. The complete bulletin with the front page editorial is attached. Comments are welcome!

DISMOUNT!
Despite the fact our H&S rep reported on Tuesday that 27
workmates are off with Covid and 55 are self-isolating
(and we know many are off sick as well), managers still
want us to work as usual! But surely, 27 cases at the
Mount should be regarded as an epidemic within a
pandemic, and the place should shut down right away –
with all of us sent on furlough (on 100% of our pay) until
the 3rd Covid wave is under control?!

WHY ARE WE NOT TOLD?
And by the way, we're obviously not satisfied with the
minimal information we get regarding Covid cases in
here. We want to know which areas and shifts have been
affected by the virus and when... And whether our
workmates who caught Covid are getting better. Because
we've heard upsetting rumours that 4 workmates passed
away due to the virus. If so, why were we not told?

OUR RIGHT NOT TO WORK
How can things carry on like this in here? Cases and
deaths in the country are the highest they’ve EVER been,
and we’re still expected to come to work!? If the union is
reluctant to make a stand on this, then why don't they and
we invoke Section 44 of the 1996 Employment Rights Act
for our own safety and the safety of others. We cannot
work. The government says we must act as if we have
the virus.

THIS ISN’T “KEY” WORK
And what are we here for? To keep processing all these
parcels from Zara and all the non-essential stuff from
sales that people are buying! If it's necessary to keep
vital packages for the NHS or care homes moving, then
that should be arranged safely. And that’s it. Other post
can wait until the virus is under control!

THEY MUST NOT LOSE OUT!
So what about the casuals who desperately need the
work in order to have an income? We hear some had
their contracts extended for another 4 weeks. There's no
way that they should suffer any detriment as a result of
Covid or a closure of the Mount. It's up to the rest of us to
ensure that they get paid like the rest of us. One way or
another, we have to ensure that they're taken care of!

PROTECTING OURSELVES
There are some areas here which are obviously unsafe –
what's going on in primary letters and facing? We see
mates packed in, less than 2m apart, and still working!
It’s completely unacceptable, and in fact some mates
refuse to work in these areas. They’re right. Another
reason for all of us to refuse to work.

PATHWAY DOWNHILL
So after 2 years of dispute, all that the union officials and
management could come up with is some more of the
same old c**p. Because that's what their "Pathway to
change" agreement is, a stamp of approval on all the
attacks that management has been implementing for
years, plus a few more! So we're told that job cuts will
stop, but then we hear they've just agreed to "avoid
compulsory redundancies". So voluntary redundancies
will continue, without the recruitment that's needed? We
call that job cuts, because that's what they are!

MORE STICK THAN CARROT
We're glad to hear that we'll have one hour off our
working week without loss of pay – but last time, it was
introduced by taking some minutes off our shift every day,
so we didn't even notice it. And with this latest frantic
packet craze, we could do with a shorter working week
right now, instead of waiting until October! But what's this
about clocking in and out? We've no time for it!

ON THE 7th DAY...
But then, we also see that on Deliveries our working week
might get much longer! Managers and union officials
have agreed to introduce "voluntary" Sunday deliveries...
and we know that "voluntary" reads "compulsory" in the
heads of managers. Another reason to vote no!

SWEET FANNY ADAMS
As for the 2.7% rise we're getting back-dated to April
2020, it only means we've got £13 more per week...
barely enough to pay for a dinner out at McDonalds! As
for the 1% pay rise this April, what can we say? Maybe it
would buy us a dinner out at Greggs?

TIME FOR SELFIES!
So, we know how we're going to vote on that ballot, when
it's sent to us on the 18 January. And BTW, RM has
made huge profits out of the pandemic on our backs!
We've all seen the share price. So here are our
demands: a shorter working week right now; weekends
off; stop all job cuts, with many more new hires to share
the workload; reopen the closed offices! And of course
we want a better pay rise!

“KEY” WORK
We’ve noticed an increase in the number of home test kits
we’re processing. Many are bound to be covered in virus.
It’s obvious when someone does their own test, they will
put the swab straight in the vial and handle the kit. Then
when our mates collect it or we process it, we take that
risk. This kind of work needs specialised equipment - full
PPE and full isolation within the workplace!
PS Let's remember what RM is getting out of this: the
contract is worth £800 million!

NO, WE'RE NOT MATES
So we've seen that RM's got a new CEO, Simon
Thompson, who sent us a "matey" message on the RMtv
channel (since we've not had Working Time Sleeping for
a while!). We hear he's been the recent Track & Trace
managing director... that's some track record (haha). And
that's probably why he's only getting £525,000 a year...

PS Oh by the way we hear that the Romford MC building
had its lease extended, so the guys have got a reprieve.
Some good news!

[SpacePhoenix]

DISMOUNT!
Despite the fact our H&S rep reported on Tuesday that 27
workmates are off with Covid and 55 are self-isolating
(and we know many are off sick as well), managers still
want us to work as usual! But surely, 27 cases at the
Mount should be regarded as an epidemic within a
pandemic, and the place should shut down right away –
with all of us sent on furlough (on 100% of our pay) until
the 3rd Covid wave is under control?!

You can dream on if you think that everyone will get furloughed, now more than ever there'll be lots of NHS and PPE stuff going though the system.

THIS ISN’T “KEY” WORK
And what are we here for? To keep processing all these
parcels from Zara and all the non-essential stuff from
sales that people are buying! If it's necessary to keep
vital packages for the NHS or care homes moving, then
that should be arranged safely. And that’s it. Other post
can wait until the virus is under control!

Mon-Fri it's illegal for RM not to deliver the other post.

“KEY” WORK
We’ve noticed an increase in the number of home test kits
we’re processing. Many are bound to be covered in virus.
It’s obvious when someone does their own test, they will
put the swab straight in the vial and handle the kit. Then
when our mates collect it or we process it, we take that
risk. This kind of work needs specialised equipment - full
PPE and full isolation within the workplace!
PS Let's remember what RM is getting out of this: the
contract is worth £800 million!

Chances are that a very high % of mail will have virus on it

[woody38]

Think we are all having the same problems as yourself, we work in quite a modern Mail centre not an old one like Mount pleasant but so many off sick, nobody seems to know why there off sick but there is two many for COVID to be involved somewhere.

As for the pay deal in the present time this will probably get voted through, simply because people have. Had enough, they don’t want a long battle with RM.

Good they have extended the Lease on Romford, but in the long term thing they want bigger and fewer Mail centres.

[chickenwittle]

Are there any positives in working for Royal Mail ?

[SpacePhoenix]

Think we are all having the same problems as yourself, we work in quite a modern Mail centre not an old one like Mount pleasant but so many off sick, nobody seems to know why there off sick but there is two many for COVID to be involved somewhere.

In a way MP might be better off as there'll by physical barriers between some sections. For more modern MCs everything is in one large hall