07/09/23 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi! The Mount Pleasant bulletin is back from its usual August break. Here's the bulletin of 07 September... Comments welcome!

THAT'S WHAT'S NEEDED!
Our Stanraer workmates - 100% of them - have voted to
take action short of strike after managers prioritised
tracked parcels over USO items... Of course, union
officials would prefer not to make a fuss about this, in case
they upset their relationship with the bosses. But we've all
got reason to stand up and fight - against the
implementation of the rotten agreement, over USO,
whatever... and not just to take action "short of strike"
either! And by the way, we never used to wait for a ballot...

NOT A PENNY OFF OUR PAY
New part-time duties in Processing started this Monday,
which RM implemented using more or less "fire and rehire"
methods! Bosses told part timers that we had to accept
new duties and contracts - and a wage cut! - or we'd be up
for "redeployment". Many of us part timers who were on
26-34 hour contracts, are now on 25 hours, and we've lost
between 1 and 9 hours of pay a week. Management
cannot be allowed to get away with this!

THE THREAT IS BACK!
The threat of "redeployment", for instance to Chelmsford,
is back on the table, despite the fact that management
hasn't got enough hands here at MP! This means that an
immediate fight is needed over this issue. There is no time
to waste!

"PRINCE HARRY" DUTY? NO WAY!
Of course management now call those of us who refused
to sign for new duties "spare". They know very well we're
not "spare" at all. So why should we play along with their
stupid games? We should all be back in our old jobs.
What's "supernumerary" in this place is management's
latest "plan"!

"COMPENSATION"... FOR THIEVING US?!
Top union leaders have apparently been discussing our
situation with management (behind our backs). And we
hear we're being given some "compensation" for reducing
our hours. But how much and for how long is not clear! It
sounds like we might get paid for our lost hours, but for
only 9 months? No wonder they didn't ask us!
PS: Incredibly, if our hours are increased again, we are
told we'd have to pay back the money...

DECENT JOBS ONLY!
Since bosses have cut so many hours from Processing
with these changes, what's going to happen when things
get busy? We can guess, of course. They'll want to bring
in agency workers. But the rule is that they're meant to
increase permanent, part time hours first...

PARCELFORCE WORK?
Now on Deliveries we have to deal with even more big
parcels coming from... ParcelForce! In fact, there are a
few ParcelForce vans at the Mount at the moment. We
can only guess that this extra-work comes from the
Camden ParcelForce depot... but the question is, will
ParcelForce workers come as well, to share the growing
workload?

MEAN BOSSES' AGREEMENT
Apparently asking us to deliver ParcelForce items is part of
their bloody new agreement. In a Letter to Branches, the
union says that it is totally normal, that in section 5 they
agreed on a Optimised Single Parcel Network and that
therefore, many DOs in rural areas will process
ParcelForce parcels (we're in London, is that a rural area
now??). And then, they go on to say that "there will be a
'means test' performed at DOs … to ensure that they have
the capability to undertake the ParcelForce work...". OK,
so let's use this as a "means" to stop this bulls**t!
PS: What will happen to ParcelForce workers? Are they
joining us in the DOs? Because we need them!

PERSISTENT DUMS
Sometimes, not all the parcels fit into the vans, there's so
many! And now we hear that W1 DUMs want to cut 15
duties in the upcoming resign (October?). They've tried it
before, when they merged walks, and they had to backpedal.
So they may as well start their pedalling in reverse
right now.

WE WORK LONG ENOUGH!
This new "seasonal variation" started this Monday on
Deliveries, which means that we start 24 minutes earlier
and finish at the same usual time. Yes, that's a whole two
hours more work per week for each of us, without being
paid for it! They're supposed to give us back the hours
later on in the year. But will they? We can't count on it!

USO SPELLS "US"
We better start sending our Xmas cards now, if we want
them to arrive on time! From what we can see with the
way management is carrying on at the moment, it looks
like they have no intention of upholding the USO. Parcels
are already piling up to the roof. But of course ultimately
this is in our hands, as we're the ones who do all the
sorting and delivery.

WHAT THEY WANT
Ofcom has just announced that it will be "gathering
evidence" on how the USO could be changed in the future.
Music to RM shareholders' ears, who reckon they could
save at least £225m a year just by cutting Saturday letter
deliveries. Of course, both Ofcom and RM preferred to talk
about falling letter volumes and "changing needs of postal
users" as reasons for changing the USO, rather than RM's
profits… The CWU leaders, for their part, said they're
happy to agree to changes, as long as they keep their
seats at the table...

WE TIME
What a lovely Work Time Sleeping we had this week on
Nights! The manager couldn't remember the code to turn
the TV on, so we had a good chat amongst ourselves
instead. Any way can we hack the TV code, so this can
happen every time? Since we can't rely on managers'
incompetence alone...