12/02/2020 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi all, find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of the 12th of February. Comments welcome as usual.

STOP THE AXE-MAN!
How many of our workmates' jobs are facing the axe
now? RM has already announced closures of some
Mail Processing Units within a month, so many mates
don't know if they'll have a job then, or, if they do,
where it will even be! Of course this isn't new (ask
those of us from Nine Elms, Paddington, etc.), but that
doesn't make it any more acceptable!

STANDING TOGETHER
It's not just 15 offices which are affected, but now it's
30 offices where these revisions, cuts and closures
are meant to be taking place. Including Camden
NW1, just up the road from us, within hand-shaking
distance! We should be, and are, ready to stand with
them against this attempt to close their office.

ALREADY WAITED TOO LONG
We see union HQ has given RM notice of a new strike
ballot for 25th February, with the ballot papers to be
sent out on 3rd March and the results announced only
on 17th March... But the attacks against us have
already started. We're going to have to fight back now
– without waiting any longer!

WAS THE MESSAGE LOST IN THE POST?
And by the way, when CWU HQ decided to re-ballot,
we only heard about it a week later. And our reps
were again left out of the loop... Surely we need to reestablish
proper channels of communication between
us – here at MP, as well as with the rest of the
country?
PS: While we understand the union's need to check
and double-check our details to avoid the vote being
declared illegal yet again, all this is taking far too long!
And it just plays into RM's hands! They can't “call” a
wildcat strike. But on the ground, we can.

THE MORE, THE BETTER
And by the way, what about including us cleaners and
engineers in strike action as well?! There's no reason
why we shouldn't strike, since we're part of the same
workforce, under the same bosses and, therefore,
under the same bloody attacks! And it will make the
strike much more effective if there's nobody to tend the
machines etc., and if the dust and dirt piles up.

THEIR CRYSTAL BALL
This is rich (or maybe we should say “poor”?)! RM's
latest financial results and plummeting shares were
blamed on falling letter volumes (not mentioning that
they've been falling for years, and that packet volumes
have been skyrocketing!) and... on “trade union
disputes”! Which trade union disputes? Well, there
wasn't one yet, so apparently they're already
anticipating the huge impact of the national strike to
come!

AUTOMATION CAN BE GOOD
Were the managers actually talking about bringing a
PSM in here at last? We've been hearing this for more
than a year, but now it was in WTS. Still, we'll believe
it when we see it, because so far, we've heard lots, but
seen nothing. A PSM would certainly make our lives
easier... but only provided our numbers are not cut!

THEY ONLY SERVE THEMSELVES
It's really the height of hypocrisy when we hear this old
story about “quality of service” in WTS. There's only
3rd class mail, whether parcels or letters, so their
targets are a joke.
But they're only worried about their bonuses, and
the worst service they can get away with! That's why
there's a chronic lack of hands, and why we struggle to
clear the work. Not the best “quality of service”... nor
the best “quality of life” for us either!

FREEDOM FORM
Who wouldn't want to be freed from HMP if the
retirement/VR terms were OK? Apparently managers
have (again! ) sent round EVR forms for us to register
our willingness to take early retirement... But how do
they think they'll cover for the many vacancies we see
in every area already – let alone if more of us are
taking EVR?

DECENT CONTRACTS FOR ALL!
And by the way, we hear that 38 of our more “senior”
workmates are already leaving in March. We wish
them all the best, far, far, away from the Mount
(although they can come back to visit us now and
then!). Does this mean that managers are giving the
casuals on processing the permanent, decent
contracts they need? It's the only way to cover the
(essential) jobs of those who leave.

KEEP AWAY TO KEEP US SANE
We saw that “time to talk” poster about mental health.
It's even suggested that if we're depressed, we should
go talk to a manager! Which would definitely make us
even more mentally unhealthy...

4 PILLOCKS...
This whole idea of us workers having a stake in the
shares of RM, and worrying about whether the price
goes up or down, is really toxic. How badly this has
distorted some union officials' outlook, is shown by in a
leaflet “Defending the 4 Pillars Agreement: The
Destruction of the Royal Mail Share Price”.
It advises Rico Back to keep his mouth shut,
because every time he opens it, the share price falls!
As if we should care! Those of us with our heads
screwed on got rid of these shares as soon as we
could.

[SpacePhoenix]

STOP THE AXE-MAN!
How many of our workmates' jobs are facing the axe
now? RM has already announced closures of some
Mail Processing Units within a month, so many mates
don't know if they'll have a job then, or, if they do,
where it will even be! Of course this isn't new (ask
those of us from Nine Elms, Paddington, etc.), but that
doesn't make it any more acceptable!

Unlikely that the whole office would close. More likely is once the CSS machines have been removed, the operators will go back on deliveries and RM will look to see if they could move another DO into the space that was taken up by the CSS machines