15/07/2020 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of the 15th of July - the back and front pages are attached. Comments welcome!
PS: This is the last bulletin before our usual summer break, so see you again in September!

NEW SKINS, OLD WINE
Did RM bosses think we’ll be hoodwinked by their rehashed
promises in that "joint statement"? They say the
company is “committed” to the “principle” of a 35 hour
week. Well yes, all it’s been so far, is a “principle”! We've
been waiting far to long already for a significant reduction in
our hours of work! And so this time we’re meant to believe
their “commitment”? Pull the other one!
PS: By the way, we remember how, when they cut the first
hour off the working week, they tried to claim that
constituted a pay rise! Well no, we want a 35 hour week
without loss of pay AND a decent pay rise... which is long
overdue.

EYES BIGGER THAN THEIR STOMACHS?
But there’s some good news in all this... RM won't TUPE
our workmates in ParcelForce. So for the time being,
ParcelForce won't be spilt off. RM bosses probably thought
that taking on both ParcelForce and us at the same time
was biting off more than they could chew. So now we
know... if they go for one, we'll go for all!

AFTER YEARS OF TALKS... MORE TALKS
To be honest, we're not impressed (to say the least) that
the union HQ lent its name to that joint statement. They
talk about “developing a joint strategy”... And are they
serious? "Rebuild trust”? With RM bosses? And worse,
we're left with nothing concrete regarding the ongoing
dispute...

THEY NEED A FIST!
So what exactly is going on behind those closed doors?
Have union leaders agreed to be sworn to secrecy yet
again? Local reps (as usual left out of the loop) are left
having to answer for a leadership which acts like an excuse
for management... What's the answer to this? We break
open the doors with collective force?

WHILE THE IRON IS HOT?
Another thing: what about our strike ballot? As far as we
can tell, it’s still alive, but not kicking... So since there's
been no progress, it seems the workforce will have to take
the initiative, by downing PDAs, sacks, etc... It's the only
way to be taken seriously.

WHERE ARE THE NEW HANDS?
Are we supposed to be satisfied with “no compulsory
redundancies” yet again? We keep seeing workmates
leaving on EVR every day. So the bosses are getting away
with cutting jobs... We'll keep repeating this: more duties
on our shoulders = piling up workload. More workers
makes “light work” and a shorter working day. We want all
“leavers” replaced! Simple really!
PS: And not on a lousy, worse contract!

...BUT SHOULDN'T WE BE FIGHTING?
Talking about new mates, there's a rumour that Romford
workers will be joining us soon. It'll be good to see them
and it will help fill some of the gaps here! But why is
Romford's workforce not being rehoused? We've heard
that lease cock-up excuse already, but this amounts to a
closure being sneaked in - and it's one which we need to
fight!

DANGEROUSLY INEFFECTIVE
So much for the self-satisfied refrain that RM takes “the
health and safety of its colleagues, its customers and the
local communities very seriously”. A couple of weeks ago,
7 workmates tested positive for Covid-19 in Chester DO. A
week before, 6 tested positive in Barnsley DO! And in
Barnsley, it took 2 days before management finally decided
to close the premises for a deep clean. We don't trust
these managers as far as we can spit (and we're not doing
any spitting right now due to the virus).

DEBUNKING MYTHS
We still have those posters up here about 2 metre
distancing, when we can't even do 1 metre plus - and many
other offices are in the same situation. So why does RM
STILL refuse to make face masks mandatory? It's the only
barrier against infection if we are close-up! If managers
need a crash course on why face masks help stop viruses
spread, no problem, we can take the time to explain...
PS: And in many indoor workplaces like the car industry,
temperature checks at the entrance are mandatory as well,
so why not here?

WHY WE'RE LATE
RM's excuse for missing 1st class delivery targets for
2018/19 was... roadworks. And for once, we say yes, we
totally agree! Roadworks which keep multiplying, there are
new closures, one-ways and traffic jams due to bike-lanes -
it's enough to drive drivers insane - and make us very late!
This wasn’t a “satisfactory explanation” for Ofcom, though,
who fined RM £1.5m. Some of the managers in this place
don't get it either.

A “DELIBERATE” MISTAKE...
We see that Royal Mail now admits it was a mistake to
increase the price of 2nd class stamps, just a week before
the cap was lifted. Of course it does: it had to pay a fine of
£100,000 for this low-down trick. But it now costs 61p to
send a second class letter... It would have been a better
penalty all round if they'd been forced to cut the price of
these stamps to half.

... OR INTENTIONALLY MISLEADING?
...And they say that their letter volumes are down? Even
though RM overcharged people by £60,000 in those 7 days,
meaning that 6 million stamps were sold. That’s still a lot of
letters to sort! But frankly, we're surprised anybody can
afford to send a letter these days.

[nataddick]

Romford joining you soon ?

Romford Mail Centre – Property Update

Further to LTB 370/19 issued on the 14th June 2019 and the update published in LTB 715/19 on the 19th December 2019, Branches will recall that the lease on the current Romford Mail Centre site was extended until March 2023 as the final tenancy arrangement with the site reverting to the landlord from that date.