24/10/2018 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of the 24th of October (and the entire back and front page attached). Comments welcome!

OUR HEALTH FIRST!
We've heard that financial compensation for working in
this dusty, dangerous building site has been agreed and
rumour has it that they'll give us... £200? As if money
(little or lots, no difference) can cure the harm to our
health. They're not even issuing us all with dust masks.
In fact we could probably do with bottles of oxygen
down here!

XMAS SLAVERY
And talking about health, managers seemed to think the
last Work Time Sleeping was a good opportunity to get
us to sign the waiver to release us to work Xmas OT.
We might need the extra money, but we're definitely
thinking twice about rescuing them from the (even
worse) mess they're bound to create this year. After all,
their Xmas "pressure" is aptly-named... and who needs
more pressure?

MORE EVRs – MORE CHAOS
We couldn’t believe our ears when we heard that the
reason for offering more EVRs is that "there isn’t
enough work in here"! What planet are these managers
living on? But we can’t and won’t take the extra
workload. And if there's less work - and that's a big "if" -
then fine, chop whole hours off the working day and give
us longer breaks!

DRIVING US ROUND THE BEND
As for us drivers, managers won’t allow us to take
EVR… of course they won’t! We’re so short of hands in
EC, WC, W1… and what about our mates in N1? What
we need in here is new blood (and to go back to 2
drivers in the cab) or RM better find itself self-driving
vans!

... AND US, TOO
Yeah, and on the subject of vans, when are the new 7.5
tonners coming? We need a brand new fleet to replace
these clapped-out (and dangerous) vehicles which are
in the final stages of falling apart.

SPANNER IN THE WORKS
What a joke. So while managers claim there isn’t
enough work in HMP, we’re so short of hands on nights
that managers have been doing sorting! Fortunately we
got them out of our way. But we still see the odd
manager wading in and getting his/her manicured hands
dirty... Yes, they cut jobs, but still want their bonuses!

THE SOUND OF OUR FEET
We don’t like the way RM is implementing the SWW in
HMP and we don’t like the way the top union officials
have been deaf to our views on this. (So much for
them "putting the "C" back into CWU!) Obviously we
need to help our local reps get the message across.
Can we meet here on the shopfloor to discuss this
together?

ZERO-HOURS-CONTRACTS - NO WAY!
Now we hear that part of the Xmas workload which
would have come to HMP will go instead to warehouses
in Birmingham and Manchester? Well no real surprise
there, given HMP's a building site. But we also hear
that casuals in these warehouses will be on 0-hrs
contracts? How can this be true… the union would
never allow this to happen, surely?

COMPASSIONATE LEAVE: OUR RIGHT
When misfortune strikes anyone here, managers
included, we feel bad for them. But some managers are
incapable of feeling any compassion towards us,
making difficult times worse, refusing flexible working or
paid leave when we need it. It's time we got together
and did something about them.

BB AND CCC
In Work Time Sleeping last week Buzzy Bee told us he
was reviving the 3Cs: Coach, Counsel and Conduct, in
case you didn't know - we didn't!! Yes, seriously, B the
B telling us about coaching, counselling and codes of
conduct? Perhaps he could begin by learning the ABC
of CCC, himself..?

C FOR CLOWN
But of course, before we were even reminded of the
3Cs nonsense, the manager was going around the shop
floor telling us that we were already breaking 1 C here
and another C there - and we hadn't a clue what he was
talking about - maybe 1st C-lass?! What we did know
was that he was breaking our Bs!

WHERE’S OUR REP?
RM-PFS cleaners are now without a union rep! We
suspect the elephant has deliberately stomped on him
because he was standing up for our rights! We want
him back!

POSITIVE BARRICADING
This is frustrating... us PFS workers found the changing
room closed off from every side by building works the
other day… we actually had to jump over a barricade to
get in! Now, if the barricades could be erected round
managers' offices, with them inside, that would make
our day!

WIGAN WALKOUT
Workers in Wigan DO walked out Monday morning after
they found out that a workmate got the sack during the
weekend. Of course, RM was very upset about the
“unconstitutional action”… But we're pleased to hear
about this quick response - it's the only way to react in
order to get results.

[SpacePhoenix]

And if there's less work - and that's a big "if" -
then fine, chop whole hours off the working day and give
us longer breaks!

Depending on how many hours a day you'd then be on you'd get shorter breaks not longer breaks

But we also hear
that casuals in these warehouses will be on 0-hrs
contracts? How can this be true… the union would
never allow this to happen, surely?

Casuals and agency have always been on zero hours contracts