27/4/17 Mount Pleasant Bulletin from anna

[anna]

Hi and sorry about forgetting to post up the bulletin just before Easter. I will paste it below this one in case anyone missed it!! Have a good day...

WE HAVE TO FIGHT THEM TOOTH AND NAIL!
It’s obvious RM bosses want to go for our jugular - this attack was just delayed by that so-called “groundbreaking”(!!) agreement after privatisation - which we could and should have fought, but didn’t... Anyway, too late to cry about it. Now we see the inevitable consequences in that CWU handout. This time, the whole bang shoot of it has to be chucked back in RMs faces. CWU conference just said that “if RM tries to impose anything” they’ll call a strike immediately. But they’ve given RM until August to withdraw their plan.

WHY NOT CIRCULATE FULL DETAILS?
Of course the first big issue is the threat to close the DB pension scheme in 2018. The detail of the CWU alternative proposal - “Wage In Retirement Scheme” (still!) hasn’t been widely circulated. There’s a video on YouTube, from one CWU branch. It says that in the CWU scheme, the retirement age would have to go up to state retirement age and there’d be annual valuations, (instead of 3-yearly) - allowing us to “share the risk” with RM, i.e., losing inflation increases in bad years, but gaining higher than inflation increases in good years. Cheaper for RM, it sounds like a slightly lesser DB scheme, which brings in everyone in the lousy DC scheme. We await elaboration!!

RM’s LIES
Yes, but the problem is that RM is basing its proclaimed £1bn a year increase in pension costs - which it says are “unaffordable” - on actuarial estimates which are not open to any scrutiny and anyway, are wholly theoretical. Already they claim “they” pay the £400m a year - but actually that’s partly (if not wholly) paid by us! Why should we accept this excuse? Or to be more accurate - this lie! So yes, as the CWU leaders argue, it is only right for all workers to be in a final salary scheme which pays a guaranteed pension we can live on! The current DC scheme must go, and no further such schemes can be tolerated. We all need guaranteed living pensions - that’s absolutely the bottom line!

ONE PIPELINE COMPROMISE FOR ANOTHER?
And what if RM says OK to the CWU pension proposal - but only so long as the CWU accepts a whole load of the other cuts RM has proposed? Already, the union has an “alternative proposal” for the way the “business operates” (the pipeline) - as if that’s the union’s affair! But then again, the CWU is clearly also seeing itself as “a shareholder” allowing this little bribe of a few shares to turn their heads, as RM intended! So what compromise might be accepted (behind our backs) to avoid a strike?

SHAREHOLDERS FIRST?
Indeedy, we see a (perhaps unintended?) “slip” on the 4 pillars petition which the union’s silly-gimmick department came up with. It reads: “We the undersigned RM employees, Company Shareholders and CWU members”...

SURE, BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!
But why does the CWU need these “pillars” in the first place? Why not have straightforward demands? And why do they keep asking us to “support the CWU”? For goodness sake, members are the CWU, aren’t we? BTW: where they say on the petition that we’ll support the CWU “with any means necessary” do they mean as Malcolm X proposed?

PAY CUT? COUNTER-ATTACK NOW!
So among all the attacks we see - not only do we get no pay rise - we actually get a PAY CUT! They offer a £250 lump sum, but only after cutting RRIS, TPM, Reserved rights, Legacy payments...! This, when inflation is hitting 3.1% and rising!
As for the rest: no sick pay for first 3 days, full and half sick pay reduced, redundancy pay cut, going onto monthly pay, seasonal variation of working day, start and finish times later; “Kaizen” team-working on deliveries; PDA used to pay only for hours worked; new starters paid 20% less, and for them, no sick pay, 4 years’ probation, worse conditions, etc., etc., etc...
We have to attack back, without delay.

DRIVING US MAD!
We drivers are in the same boat as everybody else, of course. We’ve worked out that by losing allowances the cut in our pay will amount to between £60-£80 per week!! We’ve all of us, fought for these Ts&Cs over decades, for ourselves and for all new recruits, too - and we’re not having any of it!

NO DUTIES ANYMORE?
Nowadays when we turn up to work we don’t even know where we’ll be working… We can be sent to machines, packets, back to letters and then machines again… yup, we know just how it feels to be a ping-pong ball!

PRACTICING PETTY POWER
How petty can you get? Now Processing is told we have a 10mins toilet break and if we’re 1min late, they’ll write it down and deduct our pay, by whatever a few minutes are worth! Proposed remedy: laxatives in managers’ tea.

STOP THIS CHILDISH HARASSMENT
We are warning that manager (Caspar copycat) on Lates who keeps victimising certain mates for no reason. It’s plain victimisation - and if he doesn’t stop he’ll pay the price. We’ve got his number.

EVEN PRIMITIVE TECH DOESN’T WORK
WTS was a bit much this week - teaching grandma to suck eggs again! Or rather how to cancel stamps. We would if we could. But the rubber stamps never have any ink..

“PROP-FAC”?
We’re glad to see that Romec no longer exists and is now called “RM Properties and Facilities Solutions”. But whatever the name, we’d be happier to see new uniforms and a new locker-room - which was supposed to have been ready months ago? And what about some money, in lieu of RM shares?

Workers' Fight Bulletin from 13/4/17:
RM'S AIMS ARE CLEAR...
We're glad to get an update on what's going on between the union and RM. And from what we're told so far, however, there seems to be no room for "negotiation"! Because RM bosses are clearly out to destroy what's left of our pension scheme, cut (already curtailed) terms and conditions (which we fought for over decades) to ribbons - and screw things totally for new starters. Do we need to wait any longer before we tell them we’re not having any of it?

....BUT WHAT ABOUT OURS’?
At least local reps are committed to keeping us informed in the meantime. Because yes, it shouldn't be impossible for us to have report-back meetings (we can do lunch!) and meetings where we discuss what to do now, between ourselves. If RM can "afford" to have us going to WTL, it should be no problem at all if we have regular Union Time Learning instead... It’s up to us to set the agenda.

WHAT IS THE CWU ALTERNATIVE, PLEASE?
But we'd still like to know exactly what the CWU leadership has put in front of RM as an "alternative pension scheme"...? Some of us saw a CWU newsletter produced for Greenford which had some details in it, but given how complicated pensions can be, it wasn't really enough! Anyone out there, or in here, able to help?

HOW TO MAKE RM "COMPETITIVE"...
Yes, so the long list of RM's "wishes" is incredible, outrageous and can't be granted. But especially the wish for a lower-paid, 2nd tier, part-time workforce as they gradually (or not so gradually!) replace all of us full-time, permanent, older-timers... And of course that's what the constant offers for EVR/VR aim to do - see us all off, out of here, asap!

AGAIN, FAREWELL
Indeed: we're so sorry that many of our mates are going soon - drivers received their EVR application forms a couple of weeks ago, as will the rest of us soon… and it's difficult to resist the temptation of leaving HMP, but maybe we should! Because what's in everybody's minds now are the new terms RM wants for new recruits…

2ND TIER WORKFORCE HERE ALREADY?
Of course, with the huge number of established part-timers here at HMP already - well, RM's wishes are already partly fulfilled! Yet many of us have always aspired to full-time jobs and thought we would actually get them at some point! But now we see that already, part-time driver new starts have been taken on here and at the new N1 DO down the road. So what can we do about this? Because something has to be done asap!

PRODUCTIVE, MY A**E
Do they think we were born yesterday? Those managers who're trying to play the "productivity" card with us during Work Time Sleeping, certainly were. They tell us we're less productive than other processing centres. If they keep bashing our ears with such nonsense, we can always contact mates from Romford, Greenford, Jubilee or elsewhere, to confirm that they get told exactly the same thing...

MICRO-PACKET ATTACK!
Oh dear, in processing the multiplication of micro-Chinese packets seems to be just like the plot of a bad horror movie. When we've finally cleared the pile stacked in the basement - and we think our eyes can rest from reading the micro-labels - we suddenly find the pile has magically re-grown to its full height again!

BRING BACK THE ADDRESS DETECTIVES!
We also find that the addresses on the labels are higgledy-piggledy - with part of the destination code pasted in the wrong place. We could do with a whole contingent of extra workers to decipher them... Oh yes, didn't there used to be just such a section? And wasn't it abolished because the skills of its staff "were no longer needed"?

USEFUL HANDS
On Lates, while we don't have enough workers, we can't move without bumping into another manager… It's like the Chinese micro-packets: they seem to be everywhere - even though we can no longer stand the sight of them! Don't they realise it's only making matters worse by pushing more managers onto this shift? For each extra manager, it's like having 5 workers less...

MIS-HAUNTING
As for that Lates Processing manager known as Caspar - the unfriendly ghost - he hasn't a clue about how to behave towards us. So he pops up, unannounced, to stick his nose in where he is clearly neither needed, nor wanted. Sad, really.

HUMBLED-BEE
However, we had a good laugh last week, when the Builder came early and tried to invade other shift managers' space. He was well put in his place - got told in no uncertain terms when late shift ends and night shift starts...

PHOTOGRAPHIC TALENT?
Us cleaners can't deal with every pile of rubbish we come across at the drop of a hat - we've only got one pair of hands! And so the mini-Elephants are asking us to send them photos of "excess" trash! At this rate, we could open a new account on Instagram and have our artistic snapshots online - "Beautiful sunset on rubbish hill", "Growing piles of wild cardboard"… etc...!

[SpacePhoenix]

NO DUTIES ANYMORE?
Nowadays when we turn up to work we don’t even know where we’ll be working… We can be sent to machines, packets, back to letters and then machines again… yup, we know just how it feels to be a ping-pong ball!

Duties still exist the managers are just making use of the "as directed" bit that has been on 318s for many years

MICRO-PACKET ATTACK!
Oh dear, in processing the multiplication of micro-Chinese packets seems to be just like the plot of a bad horror movie. When we've finally cleared the pile stacked in the basement - and we think our eyes can rest from reading the micro-labels - we suddenly find the pile has magically re-grown to its full height again!

Do you have a packet backlog or is the basement where the nights work to be sorted is kept?

USEFUL HANDS
On Lates, while we don't have enough workers, we can't move without bumping into another manager… It's like the Chinese micro-packets: they seem to be everywhere - even though we can no longer stand the sight of them! Don't they realise it's only making matters worse by pushing more managers onto this shift? For each extra manager, it's like having 5 workers less...

I'd be surprised if any shift in any MC has enought staff

"Longs and shorts" won't work, it goes to the wire every shift, every day, if we had "shorts" in the summer then every shift would fail every day and it probably wouldn't take long for a backlog to build up