2nd July 2014 Mount Pleasant MC/DO bulletin

[anna]

Hi there, here is latest Mount Pleasant bulletin (from this week):

THE BIG COMPETITION GAME
Now we have Jul/Aug Voice, we again see how CWU leaders push the idea that we must defend “our” industry against competitors, supposedly to preserve the USO. But we don’t own RM and what these guys pretend (or do they believe it?) is a real “say” in the so-called business, is just a con to screw even more out of us.

THE (NEW) WAY FORWARD
Yes, the flotation they agreed to, without the slightest intention of leading a fight against it, was never anything other than an invitation to competitors - and a way to run down (cheapen) the public service. If we want to defend our jobs and conditions, we have a huge fight on our hands - to take back RM! How else?

HOOPER HOPS IN... AND OUT?
What’s more, we see RM appointed Richard Hooper, the architect of privatisation, to advise on how to fight the consequences of privatisation! Yes, the same guy taken on by Mandelson to advise on selling off RM for Blair/Brown! And his updated report underpinned the ConDem’s flotation.
Now Hooper’S meant to “encourage” Ofcom to review the letters delivery market (end-to-end competition)... What a joke! And once he’s done, we’ll probably see him popping up on the board of TNT to help them beat RM. That’s how this system works, after all!

BUZZ INTO THE BLUE YONDER
Apparently 7 July is the deadline for managers to hear their fate. Of course as usual there have been “leaks” and some already know where they are going. But there’s one manager - and we all know who he is - who we’d like to “disappear” asap, given the problems he causes. And it’s no use if his shift is just changed from nights to days. No workers anywhere, want to put up with him, anytime. We guess it’s up to us to devise his exit...

PROVIDING US WITH A DIVERSION?
Why have we been having mail, including lots of packets, diverted to us here? Is it because other offices can’t cope, or is it just bloody-mindedness, to keep us busy?

MORE DUTIES?
And on the subject of packets, (sorry, parcels) we hear that Sunday deliveries are starting in some areas. So tell us how this is going to work, given that they’ve been running down weekend duties up to now... Are these going to be run back up?

NAME THE TUNE...
Gee whiz... Billy Hayes wants “to teach the world to sing”... in perfect harmony with the bosses? We know where he wants to go with this, but maybe he even wants to skip the Alan Johnson MP stage, and go straight up to the Lords, or even maybe the angels, who do quite a lot of singing, apparently...

...AND WE ARE SINGING THE BLUES
So what’s this new thing: a magic blue cloth for Romec cleaners to carry around dusting everything they come across? Watch out everyone! You may get your nose polished! Who’s idea is this? And do we have to sign for each one?

GREMLINS ARE NEEDED
As for the cleaning in the nursery, this isn’t going very well. Of course a nursery has to be super-clean, but there just aren’t enough cleaners to stretch that far. We suggest the nursery boss hires an army of micro-fibre blue smurfs to do the job. The kids’ll love it!

THE WORKERS’ CONCILIATION SERVICE
We have a solution for those 2 Romec managers who can’t agree... if we kick up a fuss, they will be able to unite against us and everything will be back to normal.

SUAREZ AWARENESS WEEK
Dog attacks on Postal workers are up 8%. The union had a dog awareness week, but when it was, we don’t know. Anyway, we suggest it should be during the coming week, and since Suarez is now on the loose, we should all be careful, especially if we are Italian. And there are red cards for all owners of dogs more vicious than Luis.

MAIL DOGS
There was a good story about a postman who took his dog along with him on his round - which effectively kept the other dogs away and kept him bite-free. This is the only thing which we have heard of lately which actually works. So how about training dogs for all walks? Sort of like guide dogs? Maybe they could also be trained to pull small doggy-trollies full of parcels?

SOLIDARITY WITH USA POSTAL WORKERS!
USA postal workers are fighting against privatisation. And Billy Hayes is offering advice. Lets hope they don’t listen. And that they don’t trust their own union leaders either. Because unfortunately on both sides of the Atlantic, workers have the same problems and these include having union leaders who like to get in bed with the bosses.