23/05/2018 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi there, here's the bulletin of the 23rd of May. You can find attached the entire bulletin, comments welcome!

UNION "BOSSES"?
Thanks so much to the CWU for sending us "their" annual
financial results in the latest "letter to branches" - and
even thanking us for our hard work!! However, it's a bit
confusing. Are they now taking responsibility for RM's
operating profits (up 1% to £674m)? Perhaps they need
reminding that they aren't actually the company bosses,
even if they really wish they were. But that makes their
complaints of "Obscene!" against Rico Back's golden
handshake of £6m (for all his past profiteering at GLS)
sound more like envy than disgust.

LOOKING FOR EXCUSES?
Dear, oh dear, Moya Greede announced that RM missed
both 1st and 2nd class mail targets this year… And the
reasons she's given are surreal! She blames the
"challenging industrial relations" - when in fact “Terry and
Sue” even recorded a video last month to tell us how great
their relationship was!? And then, short of excuses,
Greede ends up blaming… the weather and the Australian
flu!

WHAT'S BEHIND NUMBERS?
Of course, when it comes to RM's targets, why should we
give a monkey's? While Greede over-exercises her
imagination trying to find excuses, we know that the work
isn’t flowing only because RM is cutting jobs. Quite
simple. And those managers who think they can use
missed targets to put pressure on us had better think
again.

CASH FLOW
And yes, workflow isn't flowing, but profits certainly still are
- mainly from the EU! Revenue at the European parcels
delivery business, GLS, passed the £10bn mark, up 2%,
pushing RM’s overall pre-tax profit to £212m. And the
cuts in our jobs and conditions here in Britain, offset any
reduction in letters revenue, allowing RM to break even
and shareholders to get 4% more in dividends over the
year!

WE'LL BE READY TO SAY NO...
On this subject, we know that the Big Re-sign is coming in
September or October. But we also hear managers
saying they’ll decide in just a couple of weeks, which jobs
are going to go…
So where next? The morning shift has already been
targeted, but they want to cut it down even more. And
then everything, everywhere, is going to be scrutinised for
trimming! Well, the bosses might think all is done and
dusted but as always, it's up to us on the ground to set the
agenda! So managers on Lates, Nights and in EC/WC,
our "cuts watch" against you starts now!

... AND SET A NEW AGENDA
In fact Greede said in her (final) presentation of RM’s
financial results that there’ll be greater "productivity gains"
in the coming year, thanks(!!) to the new agreement with
the CWU. That is, 2-3% increase as opposed to the 1%
achieved last year. In other words, they want three times
as many cuts as last year?!

LIGHT MEANS LIGHT!
Why is it that managers are still asking our mates on light
duties to do parcels? We don't care if it is "only" for one
hour - because then it becomes two, three, four hours,
and so on! And we don't want to hear managers' lame
excuse that some of us are "fit" to do parcels - they aren't
doctors and certainly not fit to judge who should be on
light duties and who shouldn't! This is unacceptable!

MEAN AND DEMEANING
Actually we heard that what’s behind this is that managers
are too mean to send workmates on light duties to
occupational health for fitness checks - because it costs
£300! So they just send them to work on heavy duties
regardless - as their own form of test!? In fact they regard
all unfit workers as liars and malingerers. Which is even
more unacceptable.

LIKE SARDINES IN A CAN
Of course, if they send yet more workers to Parcels on
Lates, it becomes even more over-crowded! And these
managers bloody well know we're packed in too tight here
already!

THERE IS SPACE… OUTSIDE!
It’s not only Parcels where we’re short of work-space. PPI
workers have been moved to the “lobster” area due to the
building works and here it’s even worse than it was before!
If they keep squeezing us so much, they’ll squeeze us all
out of the door!! And then we can just as well stay out!

BEING LATE AND... BEING LATE
Finally, our RM-PFS uniforms have arrived - after months
of waiting! When it comes to RM-PFS management,
being on time doesn't seem to be necessary? Something
to keep in mind next time the elephant taps his watch at
us!
PS: But we have only 4 uniform tops for 5 days? Are
they thinking of cutting our working week by one day? As
long as we get the same pay, no problem!

BIG ELEPHANT IS WATCHING YOU
What's this nonsense? In RM-PFS now everything we
use has to be carefully recorded - from a pair of gloves to
one sponge!? We knew the elephant was obsessive and
OTT, but this is getting ridiculous!

[anthonyok]

On this subject, we know that the Big Re-sign is coming in
September or October.

Whats this all about? Each office restructuring rounds /repick?

[Celgar]

This post is a blog from the Mount Pleasant MC so the resign comment likely refers to them or possibly all MCs. I doubt it refers to all DOs as well as we did one not that long ago and RM management hate resigns. There is continuous pressure all the time to cut hours of course although I think most of the slack has been taken up. Just waiting for the trend to reverse now. The high Street is being downgraded at an increasing rate and all that business will be heading in the direction of RM if they want it. I'm not entirely sure they do want it though.

[anthonyok]

Thanks

[anna]

Dear Celgar,

I was asked to explain by someone so - just to say that the post isn't a blog but a fortnightly paper bulletin which is handed out at the door by Workers Fight comrades and which we copy and past onto the RMC in case anyone wants to read it - it's an attempt to express what workers feel in the place - a voice... therefore it is not an information bulletin. Which means it "knows" as much as workers on the ground know. So not to be taken as any kind of gospel! We are just expressing opinion and commenting and as you will know yourself, unfortunately there is a lack of communication from "above". RM management locally is not in the habit of keeping the shop floor well-informed.
PS: There is a pdf which you can download to see the format of the bulletin itself etc.. and WF has a website.