25/09/2019 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of the 25th of September. Comments welcome as usual!

COUNTING OUR NUMBERS
So most of the CWU officials' gate meetings are
postponed to Friday, due to the pouring rain... Still
some of us did turn up to the one on Tuesday
morning where we were told (in short) that RM's
“strategy” is to screw us! We already know that.
But we also know that we can't “engage” with their
“strategy”... we need our own.

WHAT WE NEED TO DISCUSS
Indeed, if our strike is led by people who only want
to discuss with RM in order to keep their own feet
under the table, our votes will turn out to be no
more than a bargaining chip... So what we need to
be discussing is, how to lead our own strike!

ONE STRIKING FORCE
Yes, it's the same old stuff from Dave Ward... He
says he want s to join RM in “strategic
engagement”. We know that external mediators
are already involved, for both disputes, i.e. over
ParcelForce being spun off and RM's latest jobs &
conditions slaughter. But from our point of view,
these two disputes can only be fought effectively as
one, and by all of us together!

WHY WAIT?
We heard at the Tuesday morning CWU meeting
that if we go on strike it won't be before November.
But our DO workmates who've been involved in
walkouts and canteen sit-ins didn't wait for
“mediators” to talk with their feet! Their strike
already started months ago and we should join
them!

THAT'S DEMOCRACY
Look, the 4 Pillars agreement was not the best
thing since sliced bread. There was a lot wrong
with it and if we're going to strike, maybe we need
to go back to basics and discuss new demands.
Like 10 hrs(!) off the week with no loss of pay, no
overtime, no temps, back to a final salary pension
for all, etc., etc. But let us decide!

ALL TOGETHER!!
We can't understand why at RM-PFS we're not
balloted for strike like everybody else?!
Casualisation is also our problem, we're also short
of hands, our wages are peanuts (RM-PFS bosses
promised to pay the Living Wage Foundation's rate
by... 2022!). The union rightly tells our postal
workmates that we have to fight RM bosses'
attempt to breakup RM into bits. So let's join ranks
and fight all these attacks together!

WHENEVER PIGS FLY
So we hear that the 6,000 RM managers have
rejected their 2.6% pay offer... Have they found the
courage to disagree with RM after seeing it's in a
pickle with the 110,000 of us? We can't wait to see
a managers' picket-line...

TAKING THE BULL BY THE HORNS
Of course, after cutting jobs in the bullring on lates,
managers now tell us they have no choice but to
bring in casuals to sort alongside us. No other
choice?! And what about recruiting them as
permanents once and for all?

WE'RE NOT AMAZON YET...
Yes, casuals have to jump from one job to the
other, be on-call, sometimes to be told where they'll
be next, just 24hrs before the job starts... and no
sick pay, low wages. Yes, they could do with
permanent contracts! Another one for our list of
demands?

WHO'S IN SURPLUS?
It is the same everywhere in MP, casuals are
covering for those duties that were cut during the
managers' bloody re-sign. We were told there was
a “surplus of staff” then... and now? We still can't
see the “surplus”, unless they mean managers?

THIEVES' KITCHEN
According to news reports, RM's ParcelForce
cheated costumers by colluding with a small
company called SaleGroup to charge higher prices.
This is not the first time RM's been slapped on the
wrist for breaking the law. And this is the same
company that sacks us if we deliver a letter one
minute late?

LULLABY
Working Time Sleeping last week was a real
snooze, with RM TV propaganda explaining how
much we'd damage the business if we go on
strike... RM's leaflet repeats the same arguments
(yawn...) to conclude by saying that the bosses
don't even know what the dispute is about! No
problem, we know what it's about and that's enough
for us.

CDC PENSION STILL POSSIBLE?
We read on Royal Mail Chat that union officials and
RM are holding round table talks to coincide with
Labour and Tory conferences, to gather support for
their lousy scheme from MPs. So apparently the CDC
pension was not yet "lost in prorogation", after all...