November 30th Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[anna]

Here is latest Workers' Fight bulletin from Mount Pleasant MC/EC-WC DOs

WHY AREN'T WE OUT TOO?
We're told our CWU brothers and sisters from Crown Post Offices and admin&supply chain will strike once more on 3 December - Saturday - against the ongoing closures, job cuts and the threat to their final salary pensions.
This fight’s been going on almost a year and these mates aren't any further on. But CWU leaders haven't changed tack. They’re still left to fight on their own, even tho' we've common cause with them! This is a small battalion who work in a minority of POs. Given the threat to our pensions, if we were on strike with them, they'd have a chance of winning once and for all - and so would we!

THIS FIGHT CAN'T BE DELAYED
Yes indeed, Moya Greede has been clear that the RM final salary pension scheme is to end - her lie is that it is "unaffordable". When this is a matter of choice: RM's directors decide where the excess profits go - to shareholders pockets, or to pay workers their due.
But the CWU leaders are deliberately delaying the fight against Greede's forthcoming closure - while criticising her for a "premature announcement". This fight for pensions is going to be necessary, without any doubt, and the sooner the better - especially when our PO mates need us alongside them right now.

THEY 'RE IN THE MONEY
By the way, RM may have had lower than expected profits, in the second half of 2016, but dividends still went up! Its European GSL arm "acquired" two big businesses this year alone - Spain's ASM (parcels delivery) for £60m (71m euros) and California's GSO (overnight deliveries in California, Nevada and Arizona) for £72m ($90m). And Ms Greede is very pleased with how it's all going, including the zero growth in the workforce. We need to remedy that fast.

UNSEEMLY RELATIONS
Actually we'd quite like to know just how the "workers'" general secretary Dave Ward can justify being in bed with Ms Greede - in this partnership - when the "good results" are based on fewer of us doing more and a policy to push more work onto a part-time basis, cut drivers and close more offices and ultimately our DB pension scheme.
But what did he say? "We hope Royal Mail will continue to work closely with the CWU to deliver future growth in the business." He speaks of "mutual interests" with regard to the pending attack on our pension scheme. As if bosses' and workers' interests aren't diametrically opposed. So the plan is to remain in that cosy bed?

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE
After all, Xmas pressure OT will be offered - for 3 weeks this year. Since many of us count on this OT in order to make ends meet over the (inevitably costly) Xmas/New Year holiday, it’s obviously a relief, even if it’s so short.
But (there has to be a “but”!), with most of us part-time, the pressure was already on - in our pockets and on the sorting floor, where RM is once again producing Xmas chaos! It’s not overtime we need, but full time. And more permanent hands.
YES, NEW HANDS CAN’T HURT!
A warm welcome (in advance) to the casuals, most of whom start on 5th December. To have only 3 weeks assured work is even worse for them. There’s no real excuse for not giving them at least 4 weeks - because their training should really take one week (or more)!
But that’s not happened for years. They’re thrown in at the deep-end, and RM’s “agency”, Angard messes up their pay, so they’re often left penniless for weeks!

BACK TO THE FUTURE
As for the organisation skills of MP managers - well, even before the rush, they’re already being tested... and so far it's full marks for mail delay!
We didn’t even have enough red sleeves to put in the yorkies last week! And what did managers give us instead? The cheap cardboard ones. If managers are given a free hand to apply their brilliant solutions, soon we’ll get dollies instead of yorkies and horse carts instead of vans!

SO ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL?
After Romec's "Milkgate" - the female locker-room scandal and the removal of our fridge - we've been told we're all getting a brand new messroom in the basement. Engineers included! Very good. So now we're waiting for the grand opening, which apparently will be as soon as January. But we wonder, will the mice be special guests?

THE LATEST TRUMP-PET
Because of this, tho', we have one more grump against the Heffalump. He implies that he doesn't have to take on more cleaners, as part of the basement will be cordoned off for building the new messroom. So he can take the basement duty on his own?

16th COMMANDMENT: THOU SHALT NOT SPEAK!
Romec’s rule number 16 is being invoked! We're not supposed to talk to each other in our own languages - but to speak "English Only" at work. OK. We don't want to make anyone feel excluded. But for those of us who're still learning the language, it might feel like a gagging order. Unless we agree to have exceptions.

DEAR SANTA
We probably need to write a collective letter to Santa this year so we can get some new microwaves to heat our dinners - among other “needs” which should be sorted! But a hot meal in the winter comes near the top of the list. And we don’t want to waste our breaks standing in the queue to heat our food!

JUNK DOWN
Clearly the Brexit situation has had one positive effect - it's cut the junk mail by 8%. Over which the bosses are shedding tears, but we certainly are not!

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[Tman]

Here is latest Workers' Fight bulletin from Mount Pleasant MC/EC-WC DOs

JUNK DOWN
Clearly the Brexit situation has had one positive effect - it's cut the junk mail by 8%. Over which the bosses are shedding tears, but we certainly are not!
*

Two bizarre statements in one post. Why would Brexit "cut junk mail", and why would anyone working in RM wish for it to be cut?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Two bizarre statements in one post. Why would Brexit "cut junk mail",

Ask the Belast Telegraph they claimed that headline http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... IT#p750294" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[DirtyHarry]

Working for this bastard of a company, I have more than enough s**t to contend with on a daily basis so, I for one, am well pleased that junk mail is in decline.
Long may it continue.

[Newbie001]

Think the decline in junk mail is more down to the on going clamp down of companies targeting vulnerable pensioners than brexit. I've certainly noticed the few targets on my walk now get 1 or 2 junk letters as opposed to dozens or so like they used to get.
Sorry just noticed they were talking about D2Ds

[anna]

Dear Tman - I am sorry if you think the idea that junk mail may have been "cut" by Brexit or that this isn't good for delivery postmen and women who have to put this door to dustbin stuff through doors and lug it around. Maybe you also didn't like Roy Mayall's "Dear Granny Smith" back in the day.
Of course a commercialised RM would want to rely on selling postmens' backs to junk mailers. How is that a good thing? Will it go bankrupt without that? Or just make a bit less profit?

As for the junk mail fall: See Moya's last official report to shareholders. The economy has reacted to brexit - first the pound fell and hasn't recovered (yet, but can it? as the background to all this is a severe global recession from which nobody including the British financiers has yet recovered) and second the "uncertainty" the bosses talk about is already translating into cuts in marketing and less investment/expansion... And the low pound is causing high prices for imported goods, more expensive parts for British manufactured products. So companies have to make cuts and paper marketing is expensive so they have chosen to cut it. Maybe there are also other reasons I haven't mentioned.

[Tman]

="anna"]Dear Tman - Of course a commercialised RM would want to rely on selling postmens' backs to junk mailers. How is that a good thing? Will it go bankrupt without that? Or just make a bit less profit?

Jeez.....are you so short-sighted that you can't acknowledge that less mail (of any sort) means less jobs?
"Selling postmen's backs".... Really?

As for the junk mail fall: See Moya's last official report to shareholders. The economy has reacted to brexit - first the blah blah.

Except of course Brexit hasn't actually started yet, and many events attributed to Brexit by business and Remainers could/would have happened anyway, but it's a good excuse to raise prices, cut services etc.

[anna]

You may be right that some of these effects are not due to brexit. But the immediate fall in the value of the pound was a reaction to brexit, with its economic consequences.
On accepting junk: there was another way to stop jobs being cut - but that battle was not fought - for a service, publicly funded, rather than today's commercialised profit-maker which has to rely on more exploitation, junk, etc. They need fewer workers to earn less to make more profit and postmen's jobs haven't been saved, they are still being cut. But let's not argue. You clearly have a very different opinion.

[anna]

PS I mean the brexit vote of course, brexit hasn't happened yet.

[pj2001]

16th COMMANDMENT: THOU SHALT NOT SPEAK!
Romec’s rule number 16 is being invoked! We're not supposed to talk to each other in our own languages - but to speak "English Only" at work. OK. We don't want to make anyone feel excluded. But for those of us who're still learning the language, it might feel like a gagging order. Unless we agree to have exceptions.

Why make excuses? I think it's just plain rude to choose to speak in a foreign tongue and be in a "click" amongst English speaking colleagues

[Tman]

What, you mean you don't celebrate the diversity in RM??
You'll have the Liberatti after you...

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Why make excuses? I think it's just plain rude to choose to speak in a foreign tongue and be in a "click" amongst English speaking colleagues

Irony ?

Its clique.

Although if I accept the premise of your argument I wonder why the forces don't make it compulsory to at least have a conversational grasp of the local countries they base serviceman and women in.

Food for thought at least.

[postslippete]

Why make excuses? I think it's just plain rude to choose to speak in a foreign tongue and be in a "click" amongst English speaking colleagues

Irony ?

Its clique.

Although if I accept the premise of your argument I wonder why the forces don't make it compulsory to at least have a conversational grasp of the local countries they base serviceman and women in.

Food for thought at least.

Believe it or not the army are trying to encourage soldiers to learn a secondary language by making it a requirement for promotion. Soldiers without the basic capabilities in a foreign language would not be able to be promoted to a rank above captain - specifically French and Arabic - languages spoken in North Africa and the Middle East: the location of many serious conflicts.

And I would find it quite intimidating working in Royal Mail with colleagues on the shop floor that speak their own language with each other all the time. The truth is if Royal Mail could recruit quality staff who have an excellent grasp of English over someone who struggles with the English language, then with all due respect to diversity, I think we both know who the company would rather employ.

[baldrick]

I agree that people should at least try to speak the language of the country they are in.
But how many Brits working abroad speak to each other in that country's language?

[Tman]

But "working abroad" implies short term residence, while "immigrant" should mean for life, and there's a big difference.
Whilst it's perfectly understandable why people would converse in their own mother tongue, it's also incredibly rude and divisive when done amongst non-speakers. RM is right to attempt to stop it.