Mount Pleasant Workers fight bulletin 17/12/14 from anna

[anna]

Hello this is the latest WF Mount Bulletin and sorry for taking lead story from the Chat, but it is worth letting readers on the ground who may not have internet know about unofficial action - it can still work never mind the no-strike deal. cheers and merry Christmas...


BRENTWOOD SHOWS THE WAY
Just to show nobody needs to take the managers’ nonsense - this comes from someone posting on the Royalmailchat from Brentwood DO last Friday: “Walked out Friday over managers trying to go against the Christmas deal. Told do what they say or the office was off pay, 99% then left the office as refused to back down to managers’ demands. Back to work as normal on Saturday with the issues resolved from Friday. Massive back-log, so working Sunday doing packets was offered, but only a few went in and it was mostly managers that were in.” Managers, everywhere, beware!

SUPPORT OUR POL MATES!
Solidarity to Post Office Admin&Supply Chain mates who’re striking against compulsory redundancies. It’s the first time in 400 years that the PO has threatened to sack workers like this. It’s a small workforce as it is, 1,500 who deliver cash etc., in a risky job - and we’ll have to support them every way we can. The government may have split the PO from RM, but as far as we’re concerned, we’re still one workforce. PO job cuts, no way!!

PREDICTING THE PREDICTABLE
We reckon we've been sorting over 3-4 times more yorkies (and even more on Mondays) since the week before Xmas casuals came in - and now our casual mates are here, we’re still short, even if it’s more the “final hour” on Lates that’s so crazy. Could someone explain why MP bosses are unable to predict this very predictable situation? Doesn’t Xmas come every year?

WE’RE MORE LIKELY TO GET TWO FRONT TEETH
We suggested they do collections earlier or more of them during the day - but of course RM has just, in its usual unwisdom, decide to lump some collections altogether! As for equipment, when we ran out before, they said don’t worry, it will be here for Xmas. Oh sure..!

MERRY XMESS
So now we’re in the middle of mad chaos: volumes up, managers always getting in our way, and us getting shifted all over the place! On one day, they took everyone off Primary to put casuals there, so that they could be trained. But they forgot to leave anyone there to train them! You couldn’t make this up! Help!

WHATEVER NEXT?
A bizarre rumour is circulating: that the mighty HWDC, which cost over £370m and only really got going 5 years ago, may close because Stansted seems to be replacing Heathrow for air mail freight? Sounds mad, but when it comes to RM’s plans, we’ll believe anything and its contrary. After all, wasn’t MP meant to shut 10yrs ago...?

THE BOSSES’ CASUAL ATTITUDE
It’s a bit shocking that over the last couple of years, casuals have only had a 3-week Xmas contract - on the minimum wage. A brief spell of work like this may help a (tiny) bit with Xmas bills, but that’s only if there aren’t the usual problems with getting paid. Last week we got no payslips, so we’ve no way of checking yet if we’re being under-paid “correctly”...

GRAVEYARD
So managers sent some of us blue shirts, to the basement… and we agree with casuals: the basement, in winter, is not suited for even a cold, dead, body. Maybe we have to explain to managers that in winter, it gets cold? They show so little common sense nowadays…

PROUD TO WORK FOR RM… OR NOT
Since when are managers meant to have an opinion on our private lives? If we can't come to work, because one of our kids is sick, or for any other reason, we give notice and that is that! Managers' tongues (and in some cases wandering hands) should be kept in their right place! Or we'll have to show them how to behave, with our feet!

ROMEC'S TWELVE DAYS
We’re glad Romec decided to pay our wages early, on Xmas week. It’ll help us with last minute expenses. But what about OT pay? We'll only get that on 2nd Jan… just when we’re taking the Xmas decorations down... A bit late, isn't it?

POWER SHARING IN ROMEC
As the old African proverb says: when 2 elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers. In this case, it’s the Romec bosses who’re fighting. And we, the grass, may be suffering, but we’re also laughing our heads off. One boss has moved from the main office to find his solace in a cleaner’s store room! Perhaps the best place for both, would be the zoo?

THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN
What’s this about several Romec workers getting accused of bullying? Is this some kind of joke? There’s only one kind of bullying going on here and that’s managers bullying us. And they do it for all kinds of reasons, but especially when they are trying to cover their own backs...

SPOT THE TOTAL LACK OF INSIGHT
Are these guys for real? Romec offers a “safety prize draw” for £1,000: they write, “the great news is that staff will automatically qualify ... if they do not have an accident at work which results in time off during the period 1 December to 31 March 2015.” We can safely say that managers have lost their marbles - so careful, don’t slip or trip on them, or you won’t qualify for their draw...

[baldrick]

WHATEVER NEXT?
A bizarre rumour is circulating: that the mighty HWDC, which cost over £370m and only really got going 5 years ago, may close because Stansted seems to be replacing Heathrow for air mail freight? Sounds mad, but when it comes to RM’s plans, we’ll believe anything and its contrary. After all, wasn’t MP meant to shut 10yrs ago...?

HWDC was supposed to cost around £300m when it was originally planned, but it ended up costing a lot more. Royal Mail always refused to disclose the final cost because of 'commercial confidentiality', but it was believed to have been almost three times the original estimate. But disclosing that would have made nonsense of RM's claims that it would be financially sensible to move mail processing there from London and other foreign mail processing mail centres around the country, against Mount Pleasant CWU opposition.
Alan Leighton when he took over as RM CEO was supposed to have said he wouldn't have approved it if he had been in charge at the time.
I always thought that a privatised Royal Mail would look at closing it down, so I'm not at all surprised at this rumour.

[rainbowwarrior72]

Re the rumour about HWDC closing it could have legs considering that both JMC and Greenford are rammed with work at the moment and Swindon having problems they could move GU/RG & SL work over to the HWDC site. Jubilee and Greenford maybe merge somewhere around the NCR maybe not at PRDC as that could be closed down due to the HS2 and CrossRail projects and various Rail maintenance sites at Oak Common having to relocate. Also it is definite on the cards that Gatwick and Croydon merging somewhere near Godstone and the KT work could be moved there too.

This is idle speculation and a lot of people say I am crazy but I remember reading that phase 2 of the Mail Centres review starts in 2016 ie Postcodes reshuffled and the remaining Super MCs reviewed. Greenford is bang in the middle of the planned HS2 project and Romford is too small for the work it has. JMC was not built for 3 postcodes let alone 4 postcodes. Watch this space