20/09/17 Mount Pleasant Bulletin from Anna and Jim

[jimallen]

Hi there, the Mount Pleasant bulletin is back. See below the bulletin of the 20th of September... comments welcome!

OUR SAY
We were happy to see the 725 “yes” vote in the London
consultative ballot with only 18 voting “no”... Yes, RM's
"reviewed" offer was not just insulting - it is a declaration of
war on everything we've won in the past, with our own
blood, sweat and tears! This was just the first opportunity
to express our anger and those who voted did! But of
course, we know it’s not words, but deeds, that will count
towards winning this fight...

DEAR BOSS, I'M NOT YOUR “COLLEAGUE”
We even had the pleasure of receiving Moya Greede's
letter, addressing us as "dear colleague"… How nice!
Unfortunately, that was followed by a list of more wellworded
insults: "greater flexibility for existing colleagues",
"new shift patterns for new starters", "new Defined Benefit
scheme", "giving up contractual legacy payments on a
voluntary basis", "attendance policies fair for all" - in other
words, cuts in working conditions, precarious jobs for new
starters, cuts in pensions, blackmailing over legacy
payments, cut in sick leave…etc.

RM’S UNDEFINED THEFT
As to this new RM “defined benefit pension scheme” -
that’s a distortion of the truth if ever there was one. All it
really defines is a cash lump sum at retirement! As a
Financial Times “advisor” wrote: “In my experience it is
notoriously difficult to explain cash balance defined benefit
type arrangements to scheme members as they are quite
complex”. So she hopes the three unions will be able to do
so! Adding that, "[those in the DC scheme] are bound to
continue to feel like second class pension citizens." Yes.
And no way will we accept that!

AN EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW: IN FACT, JOIN US!
To add injury to insult, on wages, RM offers a pay cut - and
we’re meant to sell our souls for… a lump sum of £375?!
They must be joking! But no, they seriously justify this and
say we’ll get a 1.5% pay “rise” (RPI=3.9%!) and that we’re
lucky when compared to workers in other mail
companies… Well, we can certainly show those workers
how to fight the bosses for better wages - right alongside
us!

TAKING MATTERS INTO OUR OWN HANDS
So the strike ballot is happening now (result 3 October).
Our chance to show what we think about RM's "Great
Offer”. But it’s 4 years since the last strike ballot and what
happened then? RM was privatised without a fight, and we
were given a sham "ground breaking agreement", which is
what got us into the present mess! So yes, we have to
prepare to go over the heads of the union officials to fight
RM this time!

PLEASE STOP THE NONSENSE
Now at HMP, RM is ear-bashing us daily, with "please vote
NO" or even "please don't vote"! We’re supposed to "think
about the future of our great company" and about our
shares that have fallen since "the CWU started talking
about strikes"! (they’ve never fallen to less than 50-60p
above the float price!) Of course, RM would rather have us
thinking about their shares and their company, instead of
our wages and pensions and our own distinct and
opposing interests...

THEIR LONG SHOT
Yes, some managers told workers in Work Time Sleeping
that they shouldn’t bother to vote at all. They think they
can use Cameron's anti-union law - which says that if turnout
is lower than 50% the ballot is invalid. Unlikely, in our
case. Even London's consultative ballot's low turnout was
over the threshold - at 56%!

EARLY FORCED RETIREMENTS
We've had enough of managers using dirty tricks to push
us out of HMP, making a big fuss out of anything and
everything! So, while some of us feel so under pressure
that we'd prefer not to set foot in HMP again - we will
nevertheless be turning up... to put these lousy bosses
under pressure.

WHEN H&S COMES LAST
We were very worried after we heard a heavy sack had hit
one of our workmates - who's fortunately back in good
health. But why were the 1st Aiders not allowed to
accompany our injured workmate to hospital, as used to
happen? This time the boss refused to allow them to leave
the Mount! Apparently the argument was that 1st Aiders
were needed here, on their jobs!! Is this due to a shortage
of hands or a shortage of compassion?

RECORD EVERY INCIDENT!
We think there’s a serious issue over health and safety.
The naturally hazardous nature of the work environment is
being made worse by the fact that we’re so short-handed
and are told to rush around by management with one
person doing a job usually done by two, thus increasing
risk! On top of it all, managers are trying to avoid
recording accidents to play down the situation, because if
the truth were told, they’d be in big trouble!

WE ARE PART OF THE UNION!
Why are cleaners not involved in the strike ballot? All
these issues affect us and if union officials want a “legal
cover” to include us, they would just have to declare a
dispute which was co-ordinated with our postal worker
brothers and sisters! Don’t we have plenty to fight over?
What’s more, we’re in 3 different pension schemes,
including the RM scheme, so some of us are directly
affected by RM’s decision to close it!

THE DA VINCE CODE
We've hear that RM managed to sell 6 acres of the MP site
for £193.5m when in fact, during RM privatisation, this was
valued at £29m, on the watch of former biz minister (PM in
waiting, according to himself) Vince Cable! That's a juicy
567% return for RM's big shareholders… Are they sharing
the champagne with Vince?

[jetblack]

We've hear that RM managed to sell 6 acres of the MP site
for £193.5m when in fact, during RM privatisation, this was
valued at £29m

Whoever was responsible for the valuation prior to privatisation was in breach of their fiduciary duty to the then owners ie. you, I and the nation.
Goldman Sachs ?

Here, they weren't connected to any of the 'priority' shareholders were they ? You know, those institutions that were granted large tranches of shares prior to the official IPO.

No, course they weren't. How cynical of me to suggest it

Anyone who still believes in the primacy of the deregulated free market, with the downright corruption that this company alone has been subject to, needs their heads looking at TBH.