21/11/2018 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of the 21st of November (and the entire back and front page attached). Comments are welcome, as usual!

"BLACK TUESDAY"?
We're wondering when the packets flood will start? This
week so far, it's not been so bad. But with retail's black
Friday turning into a whole black week maybe the
tsunami's still on its way. And we know we definitely
won't have enough hands on deck...

Q & NO ANSWER 1
Well that home-made MP video which we were shown in
Work Time Sleeping was a bit of an anti-climax! It was
mean to answer pressing questions on our pensions etc.,
but was too well-scripted! Volunteers for the Q&A had
been told "if you don't have a question, we'll give you
one"! So in the end we just got the usual official blabber
from Terry Pullinger/RM that leads us nowhere… No
hard questions. No upsets. Of course, TP wouldn’t get it
so easy if he had to face us on the shop floor, away from
the camera.

Q & NO ANSWER 2
In fact, TP and RM were in “campaign mode” to make us
swallow the bitter pension pill… They also had a
Facebook Q&A on the 6th - where they said the
government’s consultation Mark2 on CDC schemes was
a “massive achievement”!
But even if legislation is passed to allow CDC
pensions, we'll be left with these lower, unprotected
pensions subject to the share market, which CWU
leaders pushed us into. So no, it's only by reversing this
disastrous sell-out that we'd achieve anything "massive"!

ALL TOGETHER
Yes, and that goes for all "new starts" since 2008, placed
into DC schemes. They need to be in a DB scheme too.
Even if it takes a concerted working class effort across all
sections, to get back decent pensions for all - which is
what it will, indeed, take...

A FAILED PROFIT MANAGER
By the way, top manager Sue Whalley couldn’t attend the
Q&A with TP… because she’d just been sacked that
week! And why? Well, she’s blamed for the fact that
RM's profits have fallen by more than half in the first 6
months of this year…

RICO ON OUR BACKS
Of course, she might have been “sacked”. But we're the
ones who really pay. In fact, new boss Rico Rich is
already breathing down our necks. Apparently he wants
an increase in productivity – which means what exactly?
Sacking himself? Surely that’s the best way, getting rid
of “unproductive” parasites like him who pull productivity
down!

WE WANT MATES, NOT MANAGERS
Oh dear, we're still seeing soft and useless hands on
processing on nights! Managers might be okay to sweat
into their nice shirts trying to clear work, but we'd rather
not have them around! How many times do we have to
say this?!

SQUASH-BOX
And how on earth do they expect us to work in this space
they're now using on the ground floor for foreign packets
(a huge T-frame) but with added Japan, Hong Kong,
South Africa ... and what next? And they've also
squeezed in tracked Intra-London! No space for yorkies
(and mini-yorks have a habit of vanishing) let alone
enough of us!

HAVING TROUBLE BREATHING?!
Yes, we'd have thought this latest exercise in how many
postal workers you can fit in a phone box would break all
the rules in the H&S rulebook... Regulation 10 of the
Workplace, (Health Safety and Welfare) Regulations
1992: "Every room where persons work shall have
sufficient floor area, height and unoccupied space for
purposes of health, safety and welfare... enough free
space to allow people to get to and from workstations
and to move within the room, with ease." Guidelines say
there must be a minimum of 11 cubic metres or 40 cubic
feet per person... so, let's get out that measuring tape!

DISAPPEARING SAUSAGES?
We keep getting complaints about items going missing
off the restaurant menu … Yet we could make really
good meals here in the canteen, if only we had the right
ingredients! If Quadrant bosses have trouble obtaining
certain foods, they could find alternatives. (We can make
some suggestions: what about oysters & champagne, for
instance?). But instead, they just leave canteen staff to
take the flak!

...AND DISAPPEARING SANDWICHES
While we're on the subject of food, we've noticed that the
sandwiches in the canteen run out in the afternoons,
especially on Fridays ... Especially now that more of us
are on Lates and Nights, when shops are closed, we
surely need extra sarnies to keep us going!?

SOLIDARITY WITH OUR MATES
According to Royal Mail Chat, several DOs have walked
out in the past few weeks. It's a sorry state of affairs that
we have to find this out from RMC! Anyway, workers in
Blaydon (NE) walked out in protest against their
manager. In Tarporley (L/SK) they walked out in support
of one of their mates… and at Hamilton DO they walked
out for 4 days for a similar reason. We know managers
are turning the screw everywhere - and here too! Time
for some co-ordination of action!

[crimson king]

SOLIDARITY WITH OUR MATES
According to Royal Mail Chat, several DOs have walked
out in the past few weeks. It's a sorry state of affairs that
we have to find this out from RMC! Anyway, workers in
Blaydon (NE) walked out in protest against their
manager. In Tarporley (L/SK) they walked out in support
of one of their mates… and at Hamilton DO they walked
out for 4 days for a similar reason. We know managers
are turning the screw everywhere - and here too! Time
for some co-ordination of action!

Exactly! Most of the posties I've chatted to in our DO over the past few weeks are blissfully unaware that any of these walkouts are happening up and down the country. You'd think the Union would be yelling about it from the rooftops, especially seeing as the Culture thing was part of the agreement.

Maybe those above local level are burying their heads in the sand.

[Celgar]

Only posties who live or work in those towns/cities affected and the relative few or read or post on RMC will know about those strikes. I don't think even the DOMs get told it is happening so unless they read this forum or we tell them they are in the dark as well. You can draw your own conclusions from that.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Bouygues wins £100m London Royal Mail scheme

http://www.constructionenquirer.com/201 ... il-scheme/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

House builder Taylor Wimpey has awarded Bouygues a £100m-plus contract to deliver the first phase of its redevelopment on an old Royal Mail and Post Office site in London.


The “Postmark” site is located at Mout Pleasant near the capital’s Clerkenwell and Farringdon districts, close to one of the central London Crossrail stations.

Taylor Wimpey snapped up the 6.5-acre swathe of land last year in a deal worth nearly £194m, which was hailed as indicating renewed confidence in the capital’s housing market

It has consent for a mixed-use scheme of 681 homes, alongside retail and offices.



Fabienne Viala, chair of Bouygues UK, said: “We are excited about our new collaboration with the teams of Taylor Wimpey Central London on this residential project.

“In the past, Taylor Wimpey and Bouygues UK have collectively demonstrated the quality of our expertise, our partnership approach and our combined capacity for innovation on such residential schemes as North Wharf Gardens and Greenwich Millennium Village. We are looking forward to building the first phase of the Postmark project.”

West Central 1 is the first phase of a four-phase masterplan.

It consists of 214 homes, ranging from studios to three-bedroom apartments, in a building ranging in height from six to 15 storeys.

The scheme has been designed to reach a BREEAM “Excellent” rating. Residents will benefit from shared spaces including a concierge service, a rooftop terrace, a cinema and a gym. The exterior development will combine resident and public spaces, including a courtyard, a shaded terrace, as well as shops and open landscaped spaces.

Work has now commenced on site, with first completions expected in 2020 and final completion in 2021.

Up to 400 workers will be on site at peak periods.