07/11/2018 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of the 7th of November (and the entire back and front page attached). The last story comes with a cartoon that you can see on the pdf version of the bulletin attached. Comments are welcome, as usual!

SOLIDARITY WITH THE TUBE DRIVERS!
How dare Tube bosses tell Tube workers what’s safe and
what isn’t? They hypocritically sacked a driver for opening
the doors of a defective train, when he was in full control
and didn’t risk anyone’s life. These bosses are the ones
who impose unsafe conditions, putting savings and profits
first, every time! Years ago, they took guards off the trains
just like the Rail bosses are doing today. Recently they
closed ticket offices. How can any of that be “safe”? We
should all be on strike over it!

TRYING TO DO IT ON THE CHEAP...
We now hear that Xmas casuals will only be joining us on
Nights, and very few this year - only 130. Of course,
there’s the issue of not enough space, but how will this be
enough, even if 2nd class parcels go to Greenford?
Of course, for RM, it’s a case of having super-cheap
night workers - because as usual Xmas casuals will be on
a pittance and won't get the full Night Premium! But worse,
it seems this year all of the rest of us - whether on Earlies,
Lates or Nights - will be expected to make up for the
absolute shortage of workers! Managers definitely have
another "think" coming!

... WHILE CHANGING THE GOALPOSTS!
Yes, on nights we’re already fuming! When we signed for
SA, we expected we’d be starting at 6.12pm. But instead,
managers now say they want us to start 30 minutes later,
at 6.42pm! Which means we'd have no breathing space
after the 1st 4 hours - even though we need it! So, no
way!! Either we come in as we expected, at 6.12, or not at
all!

AND THEY’LL ALSO NEED MORE HANDS!
And what about the cleaning and canteen staff? Especially
on nights? PFS cleaners already have to cope with
keeping the reduced number of over-used toilets clean! As
for the Quadrant staff, we’ve all noticed how they’re rushed
off their feet while we wait in the queue... and that’s without
them having 130 extra hungry mouths to feed! Surely it’s
urgent that additional cleaning and canteen workers are
recruited now, on all shifts? And not just for Xmas!

HUGE SCOPE FOR IMPROVEMENT!
Yes the construction work continues and will continue for
years to come, apparently! But this means that there’s
also a permanent need for more cleaners (toilets being
closed and flooded periodically!) And more (and better!)
canteen facilities for all - including the additional building
workers on the site! And why can’t we use the 185
entrance to get to our locker-room instead of having to
walk down a long "black tunnel"?

STILL NOT ON A LIVING WAGE
Are us part-timers meant to be satisfied with getting a halfdecent
wage for just 3 weeks every year, at Xmas time?
This is a disgrace! Just when will our demand to be made
full-time be heard? We’re going to have to shout much
louder! But at the end of the day, we know it will mean
taking action - because we’ve been talking about it for
years, and so far, it’s got us nowhere...

ADOPTING RM’s BUSINESS-SPEAK
We see that the CWU had its so-called “Redesign
Conference” in Bournemouth, to which some ordinary reps
were invited. We understand the idea is to adapt the union
for this “tech” age, and “invest” its “assets” better...!?? We
think they mean save money, actually. In fact it sounds
like the officials have turned into businessmen/women,
with their ’14 measures of success’, when their “4 pillars”
was already bad enough. Well, they spend more time with
the RM bosses than with us. It had to rub off on them
eventually...

DEMOCRATIC... WITHOUT US?
OK, we admit it’s true that the union leaders also said
something about making the union “more democratic”...
But how can they do that over our heads and behind our
backs? Or have we misunderstood the meaning of the
word, “democracy”? How many of us “ordinary” members
on the ground even knew about this conference?

THE VERY OTT TP
Oh, and for whoever wants to know what’s going on with
our pensions: DGS Terry Pullinger has just announced
that the government’s given the CDC pension the “green
light” - but actually, it’s a green light for another
consultation! We didn’t accept their non-defined, reduced
pension in the first place - and now it’s delayed further.
But never mind, TP tells us that it’s a “very important
development in social history”!!

AND WHAT IF WE BECOME INDECENT?
Yes, to add to that: he said it would “introduce a tangible
solution for 141,000 decent working people,” (why
“decent”?) providing “genuine hope for an occupational
wage in retirement pension running alongside their state
pension”. The operative word being “hope”...

SHOWING THE WAY
We hear that workmates at Bristol Mead Street DO walked
out on the 29th of October after one of their number was
sacked. Indeed, DUMs still seem to think they can get
away with murder. Bristol Mead St showed them that they
can’t!

DISAPPEARING MANAGERS
We guess that most people here have seen that RM video
ad for “Harry Potter” stamps... A postal worker says
“Wingardium leviosa”, and her workmates start levitating
up into the air...
Here's our version: “Off you go, to Platform 9 ¾!”

[SpacePhoenix]

... WHILE CHANGING THE GOALPOSTS!
Yes, on nights we’re already fuming! When we signed for
SA, we expected we’d be starting at 6.12pm. But instead,
managers now say they want us to start 30 minutes later,
at 6.42pm! Which means we'd have no breathing space
after the 1st 4 hours - even though we need it! So, no
way!! Either we come in as we expected, at 6.12, or not at
all!

Quite possibly the times are being changed to have nights finish later to cover the arrival and processing of the LAT traffic

[rubberbond]

What about indecent people, or half decent people , don't they deserve something tangible too? In this great age of equality I believe it's only right and proper.