30/04/25 Mount Pleasant bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, here's the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 30 April. Comments welcome, as usual.

DO THEY REALLY EXPECT US TO BELIEVE THEM?
Managers say that the casuals who've been brought
into Processing are here because of the bank
holidays... As if they don't bring these workmates in at
other times - and at weekends, especially. Yes, they've
cut, cut and cut our permanent jobs and now they're
surprised when work fails - and not just when it piles
up during bank holidays, by the way, but on an everyday
basis!

DOWN WITH THEIR 2 nd TIER!
We know management is de facto creating a 2nd tier
workforce in Processing made up of casual workers,
who they think they can use and abuse according to
their whims... But we're not having it! "Equal pay and
Ts&Cs for equal work" - that's always been our
principle and we're prepared to fight for it!

WE'VE NEVER BEEN "SURPLUS"!
Finally, we heard that a few part-time
"supernumeraries" (5 out of 30!) got offered a full-time
duty... but only on a "temporary" basis?! What the hell
does that mean? Well, at least it's an admission by
managers that we aren't "supernumerary" after all. But
that still doesn't solve the problem they've wilfully
created.

BETTER NOT BE...
What are those 12 full-time "duty vacancies" on large
parcels which were advertised on 17 April? They all
include Saturday/Sunday or are Night Shifts - in other
words, nothing we'd be prepared to choose. Is this a
forewarning of what's to come, in the "big"
realignment due this Summer..?

JOBS AND HOURS FOR ALL
Many of us part-timers want full-time duties. Nobody
can make ends meet on 25 hours (or even less so on
20, or fewer!). And yes, many of us had our hours cut
last year after we were threatened with being sent to
heck-knows-where or becoming "supernumerary". But
since now managers are forced to row back on this, we
want all of our hours restored! And that's just for a
start..!

GOING AT OUR OWN PACE
Managers have cut jobs on the Platform. On Nights
there are only 3 of us left on one Platform and just 1 on
the other! But the number of yorks keeps going up!
So obviously, we're loading and unloading slower than
before. So - incredibly - they tell us to push 3 yorks at
a time! Yes, an absolute H&S transgression which has
always been a disciplinary offence!

BREAKING THEIR OWN H&S RULES
Apparently these managers slept through the Work
Time Learning session a few weeks ago, where they
showed us a video explaining how to lift heavy parcels
and how to push yorks safely? Or do they have some
other excuse?

WE AREN'T COACHING NOBODY...
We've been told about a "great opportunity" on
Processing to become a "workplace coach", for an
extra £44 a week. Yes, that's what they call "acting
JVs-6½", now? Apparently we'd be expected to "act" a
little less and "coach" a little more! So, who's up for
this? Hahaha...

FAILURE BEFORE IT EVEN STARTS
On Deliveries, DUMs tell us they expect their cut-down
Universal Service Obligation pilot to start on 19th May.
But Deliveries has been super-hectic, even before this
pilot's supposed to start... In other words, they know it
can't work, so why even try?

SURPRISED?
One thing we've read in Royal Mail Chat from
workmates in the North (where pilots have already
started) is that they've been asked to deliver 2 days'
worth of Door-to-Dustbin material along with 2 days'
worth of 2nd class letters and parcels, plus, all of 1st
class! When delivery bags are already impossibly
heavy and walks impossibly long. Result? Daily cutoffs,
all round...

WE'LL CUT THE RATE!
And we hear that their management's "risk
assessment" was to fit delivery workers with heartmonitoring
devices! So guess what? Heart rates are
rising to dangerous levels... So much so, that
Occupational Health has to intervene! Seems
therefore, that this USO pilot has already done its job!
Yes, by proving that the new USO proposal is
unworkable, on health and safety grounds alone!

NEXT TIME WE'LL IGNORE THEM...
On Thursday and Friday evening a couple of weeks
ago, the fire alarm went off. However managers told
us to ignore it... without even telling us what triggered
it! But whether these were false alarms or just tests,
given the untrustworthiness of management, if we
hear the fire alarm, we reckon we need to evacuate
ASAP, regardless of what they say!

RM FOOLING ONLY THEMSELVES
What a lot of nonsense we read on RM's webpage:
they explain to the public that the changes in USO are
so small, nobody will even notice... Indeed they claim
very little has actually changed.
Of course there's not a word about the closures of
offices, nor the thousands of jobs cut (at least 10,000 in
the past two years)! Do they think nobody notices how
this translates into late and intermittent post - even
before they try to impose their cut-down USO!?

[baldrick]

Hi, here's the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 30 April. Comments welcome, as usual.

GOING AT OUR OWN PACE
Managers have cut jobs on the Platform. On Nights
there are only 3 of us left on one Platform and just 1 on
the other! But the number of yorks keeps going up!
So obviously, we're loading and unloading slower than
before. So - incredibly - they tell us to push 3 yorks at
a time! Yes, an absolute H&S transgression which has
always been a disciplinary offence!

BREAKING THEIR OWN H&S RULES
Apparently these managers slept through the Work
Time Learning session a few weeks ago, where they
showed us a video explaining how to lift heavy parcels
and how to push yorks safely? Or do they have some
other excuse?

So how's the pushing 3 yorks at a time going? I remember when we used to get pulled up for pushing two at a time.