Hi here is the latest Mount Pleasant Bulletin, constructive feedback, criticism, corrections and comments always welcome... cheers
MEET OUR HIGH STANDARD!
We saw that Romec workers are going to be asked to accept a 2.5% pay increase, after turning down the 1.8% initially offered. But with RPI inflation at 2.4%, this 0.1% is barely a rise. It certainly won’t meet our needs... and it’s almost 6 months late! A Gold Standard increase would be more than £50/w, no less! So, definitely no go, until Romec meets our high standards!
AND IN THE “POST OFFICE”...
Now Post Office Limited workmates in Admin, Supply Chain, and Cash and Valuables in Transit are being given a consultative ballot - not a strike ballot - “to get the bosses back to the negotiating table”... So even more delay? They were due a pay rise in April, but nothing was offered till August when a below inflation offer was made. What’s more, reorganisation/duty revisions are now proposed, to cut costs and jobs. They’ve every reason to fight - and not alone, either...
SURPLUS? WHAT SURPLUS?
Why are EC being denied the holidays we ask for? We’re told to take “unpaid leave”, when we’ve annual days left and service days and lieu days which we’re entitled to!! Of course, it’s because RM has got rid of so many of us that they’re now getting into a big panic whenever they can’t cover the work. But that’s their problem, not ours.
HANDS-FREE IS DANGEROUS
In fact we see that this refusal to give us time off when we need it, is happening all over the Mount. No longer is there a “surplus” as they claimed before (was there ever one?), but today, there’s a deficit in hands in every section - be it cleaning, sorting, deliveries, or driving... And the solution is so simple: in one word, “recruit”!
STOP THIS CASUALISATION NOW!
Yes, but when we say recruit, we don’t mean the zero-hours casual recruitment the bosses all carry out these days - here in Romec, for instance. We cannot allow working conditions and wages to be degraded like this!
THESE WERE ZERO-HOURS “CONTRACTS”
In other Delivery Offices, this has been the case for many years already - guys waiting at home to be called in to do a walk. And it seemed all to be happening beneath the CWU’s radar, since nothing was ever done about it.
Of course there have been grandiose press statements from CWU HQ, which claim the union is fighting the exploitation of temporary workers. But ask Angard casuals how that went.
CCTV IN PERSON
So another routine managers’ spot-check took place last week. Tree impersonator boss-Dicky from PSA and his side-kick stood outside writing down the names of those of us who were leaving half a minute early (after we’d finished all our work!). And for what? To deduct 5 minutes pay from us? To get a little bonus for super-pettiness? Are we back at high school? It sure feels like it.
FOR A WORKERS’ SOLUTION
That said, for those of us (it’s always the same few) who’re left “holding the baby” if work comes in late, it doesn’t seem “fair” if some workers are allowed to leave early, instead of coming round to help out. But RM bosses getting their “punishment” notepads out, once a year, isn’t a solution. Their notion of “fairness” and ours’ is definitely not the same!
MISSING BONUS?
Where’s that bonus we’ve been missing for over a year? We seem to remember there was a meeting round about the time of the privatisation about this. But we’ve never seen it. And while bonuses are no substitute for a decent wage, we do expect to be paid what was promised.
BUT CAN WE ALL FIT IN IT?
Three years pass, and no raincoat yet for each Romec worker. Imagine! They’ve given us one raincoat for all of us to share. Yes, in a country like Britain, where it rains every 5 minutes! Is it made of some kind of super expandable, self-cleaning fabric that we can all get into at once? Not likely! Unhygienic, manky, yuk!
CHEAP “MANAGERS”
Night boss Bee is just the pits. But maybe some of those acting managers who were put back in uniform (after so very many years!) will be grateful to him for asking them to do ”managerial duties” again... while paid at uniform rates!?
WHISTLE FOR IT
We thought it was a joke when we heard that RM’s Enemy Number 1, TNT, was changing its name to... “Whistl”! And they spend money to find such brand names?! It’s supposed to represent “the natural reaction when people are happily going about their work”. Well, first, somebody has to tell them they’ve spelt it wrong. And second, there’s nothing natural about being happy going to work! Sounds like RM’s “we love parcels”...
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