22/07/26 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, here's the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 22 July... The bulletin takes a little break and will be back in September.

NOT ON OUR TIME!
During Work Time "Sleeping", managers handed out
little slips entitled "Unsafe Act/Condition Log" for us
to fill in. They say it gives us the chance to report
"unsafe practices" in HMP - but we don't even know
where to start! Are managers going to give us a full
shift to sit down and fill in the hundreds of slips we'd
need for all the unsafe things we spot around here?

A REAL NIGHTMARE!
Talking about safety, the Sunday before last, two
workmates were trapped in the lift by the Platforms
for three hours!! Fortunately, they're both ok, but
how can this happen in the first place?? Managers
passed the buck to the lift company, saying their
engineer had to come from outside London... It
sounds like a poor excuse to us, but what we really
want to know is: what are they going to do to make
sure this doesn't happen again?!

BATTERING RAM!
There are contradictory rumours about a realignment
in Distribution. On the one hand, we hear that RM
wants job cuts; on the other, that it wants to recruit
more drivers! But we do know the bosses are trying
to close and merge DOs, and they still want to
increase the use of 17T lorries instead of the 7.5Ts.
So behind which closed doors are these plans being
discussed? We'd be glad to pull them wide open!

NO AGREEMENT TO JOB CUTS!
By the way, the three-year "no compulsory
redundancy" agreement between CWU/RM is nearly
up... But then again, many workmates have retired
without being replaced, which amounts to
compulsory job cuts! And we certainly don't agree
with this. Less work? Then we share it equally and
everyone works less with no cut in pay!

DO WE NEED TO FORCE THEIR HAND?
Managers obviously didn't find enough volunteers to
work overtime and are now bringing back casuals...
This comes after they said they'd stop using - and
abusing - our temp brothers and sisters! So when
are they going to admit they need to recruit them
onto proper permanent contracts?

WE AREN'T PICKING UP A MOP
The Lost Sheep has been begging to get one of us
moved from the POCL area to the Platform, even if
it's just for an hour. But he keeps pushing 2-3 yorks
at a time, and the workload still doesn't seem to
clear. He's like Mrs Partington, trying to hold back
the tide with a mop...

GIVE IT A REST!
The Parcel Sorting Monster has been having issues
every week... Management puts pressure on us
engineers, but since they've decided to push it 24/7,
the Monster is obviously completely knackered - not
much we can do about that!

NOT COOL!
During the recent heatwaves, no cold drinks were
brought round - like they used to be many years ago!
The weather might be a bit more bearable this week,
but high temperatures are only going to become
more common - we all know that. So what's it going
to take before we see trolleys with cold squash and
iced water? And extra "hydration breaks" to help us
cool down?

BRING BACK THE CHEF!
The lone Night shift worker in the canteen is on leave,
and yet again, the contracted company hasn't
bothered to provide a replacement. So are we
expected to make do with vending machine
sandwiches and microwave ready meals? When it's
obviously on nights that we most need decent, hot,
nourishing food!

LONGER BREAKS FOR LEISURE!
In fact, we miss quite a few things that have
disappeared over the years, like the membership
clubs, the Sports Club store, and so on. But back
then, we had longer breaks and even the occasional
extra 20-minute break, which gave us the time to
keep those membership clubs alive...

DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
Security cameras are everywhere in HMP: the
canteen, the shop floor, etc. The only time we don't
have a pair of digital eyes watching us is when we go
to the toilet (as far as we know!)! Does anyone have
the IT skills to hack them and make them blind? Or
should we use old-school spray paint?