06/06/2018 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi there, here's the bulletin of the 6th of June. You can find attached the entire bulletin, comments welcome!

THIS SHOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED!
We’re all very upset by the news of the suicide of one of our
workmates and are deeply sorry. We can’t help wondering
if this could have been prevented. Of course, RM knew of
his history. But for RM, like all employers these days,
“tackling mental health issues” seems to involve making
pledges and promises about “raising the issue” or “talking
about it”, but not about the practical, concrete changes in
the workplace and in (ever-worsening!!) working conditions
- which could make a difference.

WHO IS TO BLAME?
If RM really wanted to improve our mental and physical
health, it’d stop the mad pressure to get the job done (anyold-
how!) with too few workers and often overseen by crude
and rude managers. And it’d re-institute the regular, longer,
COLLECTIVE breaks we need and agree our requests for
necessary time off and holidays instead of constantly
refusing - even when these are earned service days we are
entitled to.

WE CAN ONLY TRUST OURSELVES
So no, we don’t trust RM to “tackle mental health issues”
when it’s only really interested in tackling “shareholder
issues”.
But by sitting down with our workmates during decentlength
breaks, we could at least know each other a lot
better - something that’s got completely lost over recent
years, but used to happen. It’d not only give us the rest we
require, but we’d also be more likely to find out when a
workmate isn’t well. Because we, fellow-workers, are the
only ones who care enough to do this.

NHS MELTING DOWN
Its a big problem, however, that NHS mental health services
are so severely cut and underfunded that it’s the luck of the
draw if you actually get appropriate help, when it’s needed.
Especially here in London.

ALARMING FIRE ALARM
So finally RM organised a fire drill a couple of weeks ago. It
took management a long time, though - probably because
they can't bear the sight of us walking out?

HEADLESS BEES
We may have been shown evacuation routes for fire and
other emergencies during WTL. But with HMP turning into
multiple building sites, things have really changed around
here! So no surprise that during the fire drill some of us
couldn't find the right way out. It was minor chaos! And
since the evacuation took longer than expected, some
managers were losing their heads… because work was at
a stand still? Yes, that's their worst nightmare but certainly
not ours… so we took our time!

WE'RE ALL CONSTRUCTION WORKERS!
But given the on-going construction work - surely those of
us who have to walk through the sites should all be wearing
safety shoes, headgear, the lot? And surely, too, this is
something that should be organised properly by
management - in fact as a priority?

MODERNISING RM?
So the space made in PPI two weeks ago was to install 2
conveyor belts for packets. We hear these ones are semiautomatic
- no need to push the packets down the belt, we
just need to push a button. So far so good. But as usual,
instead of shortening the working day, increasing our
breaks and time off, managers will no doubt use this
"modernisation" as an excuse to cut yet more jobs. That
said, they had better think twice and hard before they even
try…

THE DOMINO EFFECT WE NEED
Oh dear, it's getting worse and worse in HMP… Every time
there are 2 bank holiday Mondays in a row, like the month
just gone, the heavy workload ends up overflowing into
Tuesday, Wednesday and even Thursday… It is a shock to
our systems to restart work in this brutal way after a
relaxing weekend! But why should we try to catch up with
the work when we’re so short of hands? Much better to let
our relaxed mood overflow into Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday…

MAYBE WE SHOULD NEVER WORK OT
Actually because RM managers rely on overtime to cover
the missing hands, things are even worse right now
because workmates fasting for Ramadan don’t do the OT.
So management is left with piles of unsorted mail...

IT'S GETTING HOT IN HERE…
It was hell during the heat wave last week, specially for us
working on the machines. In fact it was like a super-humid
sauna - on Lates, we had to ask for the Air Conditioning to
be turned on ... only to be told that the reason it was off was
because it wasn't working properly! And that was that?!

…SO TAKE OFF ALL THE DOORS
On nights we opened the platform doors to let cooler air
come in. But it would have been even more refreshing if we
had gone outside...

FORGET GOLD STANDARD!
It was nice to see 2 new faces in PFS cleaning but we’re so
short that we’d need many more - and there should be no
question of “casual”, they should all be made permanent
immediately! We’re barely managing to do even the most
basic cleaning!

THEY CAN’T DO ANYTHING RIGHT
By the way, our pleasure at the new PFS uniforms was
premature: the sizing is all over the place and some got 3
sets, some 4, some 5, etc. Maybe we should just dig out
the old Romec uniform and cover the logo with an RM
badge.