05/07/17 Mount Pleasant Bulletin from Anna and Jim

[jimallen]

Hi, here's the Mount Pleasant bulletin of the 5th of July.

IS RM A REAL ESTATE BUSINESS?
We couldn't believe our eyes when reading RM's short
statement saying it was "in discussions regarding the
possible sale of part of its Mount Pleasant site"! And then,
a news report somehow linked this to the "cost" of keeping
our DB pension scheme open… Is this blackmail? Or just
a way of keeping share prices up?

Q&A NEEDED!
But then managers already swore in last week's WTS that it
is the Calthorpe Street parking site that is for sale...
However, questions were left unanswered. Like for
instance, where is the heavy truck fleet (and middle size
van fleet) going to be transferred? And if RM is
reconfiguring the basement for vans, what's the impact
going to be on our jobs? We demand that managers come
clean and tell us exactly what's going on and when!

CARROT AND STICK WON'T DO
So RM is still planning to cut our wages by freezing our pay
this year? When at the same time, profits are up and RM
bosses are awarding themselves indecent salary rises?
Clearly they’ve lost touch with reality! And they intend to
offer a pathetic £250 lump sum, thinking that will do the
trick! They’d better think again!

THIS ISN'T ENOUGH
So RM’s meant to have improved its pension offer? By
closing the DB sections B & C? No, this new proposal is
only better than their last terrible one. But it’s still terrible.
They say that "the most recent financial review" predicts
that RM’s contributions “could more than double to over
£1bn”, if our pensions continue to accrue benefits as they
do now. But this is nonsense!
Quite simply, the review’s figures are based on
extrapolations long into the future and are a gross
exaggeration - precisely to give RM the excuse to cut our
pensions! We should call their bluff!

IT’S A LOSS-MAKER FOR US
As for RM’s proposed "Defined Benefit cash balance
scheme", it’s a deceitful misnomer: it only defines a
minimum cash lump sum. Nothing else! Any increases
would be dependent on the ups and downs of the market;
our contributions will increase, while monthly pensions
won’t be defined either.
No wonder RM’s “example illustrations” only
compare their new proposal with their old proposal, rather
than with our current DB scheme. They don’t want us to
see how much we still stand to lose!

WE WANT A DB SCHEME FOR ALL!
As for the many of us in the DC scheme, RM's "concession"
was to increase its contribution by a tiny 1% for each tier, to
a grand maximum of 10%! Needless to say, we aren’t
impressed.

NOT WORTH THE PAPER...
Not only does this pension not meet our expectations, but
RM is now threatening us that in case of industrial action
"the proposal we are discussing would have to be taken off
the table", adding that "times have changed", and banking
on the fact that the union won’t dare to throw these
proposals in the bin!
But no, times haven't changed, RM bosses are
trying to get away with murder as usual… And we know
where to throw these proposals if the union officials don’t...!

VOLUNTEER MY A**E!
After the drivers' re-sign, we may be able to just about
cover the duties, but the new late-night shift isn't okay.
Perhaps some of us find it convenient to start at midnight
and finish at 8am, and yes, managers have said this shift
would be covered on a "voluntary" basis, but who can
believe them?

THE NEW WAY IS OUR WAY
And by the way, drivers working later at night goes hand-in-hand
with RM cutting collections to only one per day and
pushing Processing to later and later in the evening. The
“new way of working” may suit RM's managers and please
RM shareholders, because it allows them to cut jobs and
other costs, but how can this possibly suit us?

COMPASSION IN WORDS… NEVER IN DEEDS
This is outrageous. After the Grenfell Tower disaster,
managers announced they were prepared to free some of
us on night shifts in order to allow us to volunteer to help
the residents of Grenfell Tower during the day. Then they
decided they’d only cancel one night shift instead of
several. And finally, they cancelled the plan altogether!
Yes, they show compassion - but only as long as their
bonuses aren't at risk!

NIGHT-SHIFT SPORTS
Yes, we're like ping pong balls on night shift, being asked to
cover a job here, and another there, and if we are done with
work, there’s always a "new" job to cover… Makes us feel
like taking up boxing!

WE'RE PART OF THE ROYAL FAMILY NOW
So we threw our old Romec ID cards into the bin and got
the new ones last week - with the RM logo and no mention
of being subcontracted any more. But how can we feel
“Royal” with the old uniforms on… and on our low pay
rate?

SORTING MISHAPS
Surprise, surprise! We hear that the new packet-sorting
machine tested by our mates in Swindon isn't working as
managers expected: it sorts fewer packets/hr, won't accept
packets that are too small or too big and… could damage
packets of the wrong size! Our mates in Jubilee and
Greenford are expected to try the "marvel" this summer…
We can't wait to hear back from them - funny stories
please!

WON'T MIND A FREE RIDE
Wonderful! The new museum with its underground mail
railway will open on the 28th of July. They've even built an
access to the railway from the museum itself! When are we
getting our free passes?

[rainbowwarrior72]

Hiya guys the word for us at JMC is PSM now penned in for 2018 now and we've heard the same re the problems. I think Greenford is getting their as scheduled and HCN have theirs. The worrying thing is that our engineers know not a lot either about the PSM.
I did read in The Courier that our freebie pass for the museum will be given out sometime in September but date to be confirmed.
Also a big national reorganisation of senior managers going on too I do believe that both the SW DSMs have got EVRs but I did hear that a former senior RM manager who took EVR some years back has come back and is now restarted her RM managerial career as a Cover Manager. So its true that whatever your level in RM shes still seductive in getting you back in even as a Christmas casual.