22/06/17 Mount Pleasant Bulletin from Anna and Jim

[jimallen]

Hi and sorry about forgetting to post up the previous bulletins! I will paste the last 2...

22/06/17:

STRAIGHT TALKING WOULD DO JUST FINE
We’ve seen a poster online announcing: "The CWU Presents The Four Pillars of Security Campaign: Unit Reps Tour 2017” So what's this gig? And who are the "Four Pillars"? A new rock band? Are tickets free?
But seriously. Why does the union always need to use gimmicks whenever we need to be getting ready for battle? And by the way, they don't need to convince us about fighting to save what's left of our conditions and pensions (the bits they haven't sold yet) – it seems that they are the ones that need convincing!

LE TOUR DE CWU
Yes, while they organise their "Tour", RM’s imposing all its cuts. So what’s happening with the strike ballot? August is far, far away! But never fear, the next concert... sorry, appearance, is on the 26th June at Friends House (no time given). We're not sure if it's the Unit Reps who are performing, or whether they're the audience... Whatever the case, surely we're all invited – to convey our clear message: we need to fight now!?

WHO’S RUNNING THE SHOW IN HERE?
In Processing, we’ve seen managers pushing workmates to leave HMP... and what's more they’ve succeeded in some cases, when our mates are too sick to tolerate them breathing down their necks and have decided to go! RM’s drive to cut our head-count and the managers implementing the cuts like obedient donkeys is sickening. But we can stop them getting away with murder – after all, we do all the useful work around here!

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
We’re curious to see how the new re-sign on the drivers’ side is going to work out... There weren't enough of us to cover the duties in the first place! Or do managers think they can wield magic and duplicate us? They may just end up with boots instead of wheels in the street!

WHATEVER IS REASONABLE FOR US!
Why is the air con so poorly designed in Processing areas? Many outlets are in the wrong places, cooling the storage yorks but not the workers! The hot air gets so stale, we could cut it with a knife! Since there’s no law enforcing max workplace temperature, it seems we'll have to be a law unto ourselves and take a break whenever we need it: eg., stop for 15 mins in every hour when the temperature hits 25 degrees or above?

BRING BACK THE DRINKS TROLLEY!
Of course, back in the day trolleys would come round with iced water or squash if it got too hot. And in many places workers imposed their own regular "heat reliefs": since the bosses' regulations have no respect for us, why should we respect them?

WE DON’T GET FOOLED
We hear 5 managers (M3s) are going – but what exactly is behind this we don’t know. What's for sure is that it's
going to be (as The Who sang), "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss..."

THE END OF HMP?
Another rumour is that the status of HMP is to change. When? They don't say. When the new housing development starts? Apparently it won't be possible to bring in big lorries and so this place is going to shrink to deliveries only... And where will sorting go? This doesn't make any sense. Anyway, who knows if it's even true. 16 years ago we were told HMP was closing!

HMP THEME PARK
Seems we have to get ready for tourists descending on what's likely to be a very popular attraction – the mail train... as part of the Postal Museum, due to open on July 28th. But how will they access the lift, without walking through our work areas? We also wonder if we and our families will get free tickets? Or will we have to become voluntary (wage-less?) tour guides to get in?

WHERE’S THE (ROUTINE) COVER?
It's unbelievable! On earlies us cleaners were meant to work five people short this week! Yet 2 of the missing workmates were on (entirely predictable) annual leave! So where was their cover? It's just not good enough to tell us to clean what we can and leave the rest...

DRESS-LESS
And why are we still waiting for Royal Mail uniforms? Why can't management just arrange for these to be issued to us? Cool cotton please!

NO TO THE CLOCK!
Hasn’t the ancient practice of clocking in and out been dispensed with in modern workplaces? Why go backwards and introduce it now? Worse, they want "fingerprint IDs"! And it’s nothing to do with “security”, just squeezing every last working second out of us!

TIME LIMITS MUST BE ENFORCED
Good news: 70 mates in Canterbury (CT1-4) took unofficial strike action last Thurs, after 6 mates were suspended for not completing their overloaded deliveries. That’s the way! About time these DUMs got taught a lesson! Because incredibly, there's no limit on the lengths/timespan of our walks, unless we enforce it!

WE'RE WITH YOU
Many of us have already shown our support to our fellow worker from Grenfell Tower. It's hard to find adequate words of comfort in such circumstances. But we’re sure she knows that her workmates are here whenever she needs us.




08/06/17:

WHAT INCREDIBLE CHEEK!
We couldn't believe our eyes when reading the letter from RM bosses two weeks ago, telling us that now that the consultation process was done, they'll just go ahead with introducing the DC pension scheme... Never mind all the discussion and the union's alternative proposal?!! So what's the plan now? Surely we'll now go ahead and fight this serious attack on our retirement pay?

SO WHAT NEXT??
As for the leaflet from the CWU London Division, which was meant to be an update on pay and pensions, this was actually preaching to the already converted. It's hardly likely any of us would support the blatant attacks against all of our hard-won Ts&Cs let alone the theft of our pensions!! So what we want to know is what the CWU is planning to do, in order to ensure that the collective fight-back needed, takes place, pronto! Yet this leaflet concludes by merely asking us to "support the union"!

PREPARE FOR BATTLE, OURSELVES
Ok they say a bit more, it's true - for instance that we "need to attend union meetings". But one problem that we've always had, is that the CWU has not held regular meetings for ordinary members, and we even end up having to voice our concerns in Work Time Learning! Yet to build up the efforts needed to wage this fight against RM, we surely need weekly (at least) meetings, open to all - inviting all those who’ve lost faith in the CWU top leadership, because of its previous soft attitude to the bosses!!

DELAYING TACTICS?
As for this feeble 4 pillars petition which they now want to use as a kind of referendum gauging our "support" - it's again opening an open door, asking us if we agree to things that any union (which acts like one), can surely take for granted! (And they'd know this if they kept direct links with the shop floor!). The next stage would surely have been to start organising the fight and not waste any more time?! This is yet more proof that we need to start doing this ourselves.

WE WON'T PAY
What is this rumour we hear on night shift? That delivery mail will be prepared from midnight to 8am? If so, this change would have to come with a helluva lot more time off, on top of an increased night premium, just for starters... plus we'll need RM to pay our Congestion Charge. Nothing less.

GHOST WORKERS
We've heard there is to be a Processing fit-up to fill the jobs left empty by the EVRs, after so many of our very good mates left. Yes, managers are only just realising that they actually can't do without covering them... But what they don't “get” yet is that we won't allow any extra duties to pile up on our shoulders. So they'd better
recruit new hands in here asap, because merely reorganising our same cut numbers into a different pattern will obviously make not the slightest difference!

MIND THE GAP
And the same applies for us cleaners - we hear a fit-up is due soon. But how can managers have a fit-up with so few of us? There is a huge gap between managers' wishes and what we're prepared to do, if our numbers don't increase!

PERMANENT IS WHAT WE WANT!
And by the way, we couldn't believe it when managers announced (in an un-announced meeting!) on Tues that they were recruiting... just 1 cleaning casual! Not only does this fall ridiculously short of what's needed - but our new mate won't even be made permanent?!

HOLIDAYS WHEN WE WANT THEM?
Yes, in this same un-announced meeting, the Elephant seemed to be totally overwhelmed. He told us that now RM would be checking holidays and making all sorts of changes. But the main change that seems to worry him is that central office is taking over some of the things that he controls at present...

NOT THAT KIND OF PARK
This must be a bad joke! We hear that those of us who lose our parking spaces due to the new housing development will be given an NCP permit to park in... Bloomsbury square??! We know that walking is good for our health... but we'd rather have our walks when we're off-work and in a natural park!

MIND THE TIME
Are we cleaners training for the next 2018 Olympic games in Tokyo? Because this management idea that we need to start our shifts not one minute late sounds as if we are lining up for a race... maybe the marathon? Since our work certainly makes us feel like we we've already run one, twice over...

WORTH 80 OF US... HARDLY!
We read that Moya Greede's pay package last year was nearly £1.88m... And then we're told RM can't find the money to pay our pensions and proper wages? Well, they can start with Greede's pay package and then look in their big shareholders' pockets...