04/10/17 Mount Pleasant Bulletin from Anna and Jim

[jimallen]

Hi there, here's the Mount Pleasant bulletin the 4th of October... comments welcome!

GREAT NEWS! NOW, FOR “ALL OUT”!
We’re not at all surprised that 89% of us voted for strike!
Nor that 75% turned out. The vast majority of us have had
a gutful of Moya Greede and her RM Board - let alone the
managers here in HMP.
The pension fiasco and the so-called “offer” of no pay
rise and a ridiculous lump sum of £375 tied to a total
overturning of our working conditions were the last straw!
So yes, we’re ready to fight this one. It’s possible,
necessary and must the biggest collective effort so far!

TO MEET, DISCUSS AND HAVE A PLAN!
The problem we may have right away is the reluctance of
the top CWU leadership to organise this fight. They’ll be
using the high turnout and majority for strike as a
bargaining chip, expecting Greede to back away - and
above all to put their own noses back in joint, over their
“alternative pension plan”. So we need to be ready to
react - and understand that the only way we can beat this
company is by a resolute collective fight. How can we
compromise over our own futures?

LET’S GO BACK TO FINAL SALARY SCHEMES!
In fact there is something to win back - and that is a
decent final salary pension scheme for all, not a reduced
version in the form of WinRS (the union’s plan) nor a Cash
Balance scheme (Greede’s latest). Above all, that DC
scheme should be buried 6 feet under.

WE LIKE TO SEE EVERYONE TOGETHER!
We’d also be pleased if there were regular union meetings
(and not just one every now and then) to tell us what's
going on?! Some of us didn't even know about the “gate”
(car park) meeting in the first week of September! We
need to be kept informed and now it’s more important than
ever. And we also need to share our thoughts...

THE MANY AND THE FEW
We're always shocked when we hear the size of Moya
Greede's pay package: no more than 7 years of
"seniority" and she's already at nearly £2m/year! And RM
has the cheek to tell us there is no money in the pot! Well,
at least for the many of us, it is clear where we can find
the money needed… in the well-filled pockets of the few
bosses!

CLOSING DOORS
We door keepers are being squeezed like everybody else
in the Mount! Managers want to cut our numbers down to
5… But we hear from the union that is not going to
happen… Managers say one thing, the union another,
and at the end we don't know where we are standing - it
feels like going round and round in a revolving door!

THIS SOUNDS LIKE A CONTRADICTION
We did hear that we are being given back the
responsibility for the reception at our main entrance,
where the contractor has been for some years on the day
shift. But how, if management is actually cutting instead of
creating more jobs? And what about our contractor
friends? Why not take them in-house?

HOW CAN THIS BE ALLOWED?
This is not okay, managers breathing on our necks all the
time. But when it comes to upsetting a fellow worker
who's pregnant, to the point of having to call an
ambulance, that's when the red line is crossed!

HE IS IN COVENTRY
In fact this incident is the responsibility of the Bee - and we
are told he is being “investigated”. But we have always
had problems with this manager on night shift and we
want him out of our way permanently. We do not
recognise his authority anymore, if we ever did...

SHOW CASE VAN
RM was very proud to announce that they’re going green
with electric vans… But with only one! And it’s still in the
parking lot, waiting to be tested! Anyway it seems to us
that the battery is far too large and as a result the capacity
is compromised to the point where the van becomes pretty
useless...

CHAOS UPON CHAOS
By the way, with the number of DOs closing in London and
the expected distribution chaos that will result in the
Mount, they'll need more than a show case van to cope!

WHEN PIGS WILL FLY
Yes, and with the emission zone tax coming into being
NOW - not next year, not the year after, but NOW - and
RM getting rid of the big truck fleet at MP, what are
management here going to do? Of course, the day RM
plans ahead, chicken will grow teeth, as the French say…

WHEN MAKING SENSE IS NOT A GIFT
The Phoenix car park has been closed for a while and
those of us driving to work have no choice but to park at
an NCP that is quite far from HMP, two bus stops away! A
bit ridiculous, when there's an NCP just a few yards away,
in Farringdon road…

TRANSPORT COSTS EATING OUR WAGES
And now with this new emission zone tax, who's going to
pay for our extra costs coming to work? Shouldn't RM pay
for it?

WE NEED A REST AREA
Where is the drivers’ mess now that all this building in the
basement is taking place? There’s a nice gym (even if the
ventilation may leave something to be desired). But it
seems not all of us are being accommodated?

MISERLY INCOMPETENCE
The chronic shortage of cleaners is becoming acute: if
someone’s absent, there’s no-one to cover and if cover is
given, it’s one of us on 3½ hr OT... How can this be a way
to run this vital function?

[k979aaa]

Well could not have put it better myself "Moya Greede" just about sums her up.

[woody38]

From an outsider looks like they are gradually closing Mount Pleasant, first they close the car park where u work, then they sell the land where the big trucks used to park, with the zero emissions thing coming in this could be the excuse they use to close it permanently

[NWpostie]

It's a prime location, the developers would love to grab the land, the Mail Rail is under the site tho and it's now open to the public, any new developments would have take that into consideration.

I hope the Mail Rail tunnels are listed, if not. It should be.

Selling the land off would be like killing the golden goose.