02/12/2020 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 2 December, as well as the complete bulletin attached (with front page editorial).
Comments are always welcome!

HAVE WE ALL OPTED OUT, THEN?
Hard to believe some of the things we see these
days... but we nearly fell off our chairs (if we had one)
when we saw the following in that letter about Xmas
overtime: "please remember when volunteering that
you still need a 10-hour gap but you can do up to 14
hours a day". We understood that the minimum
requirement was an 11-hour gap. Is this a mistake?
Or do they assume we've all signed opt-outs from the
Working Time Directive? Even then... 11 hours is too
short.

WHAT THE HUMAN BODY NEEDS
On the subject of working hours, how can we be
expected to do three 13-hour night shifts during the
week (39 hours), plus 12hrs on Saturday = 51 hours?
This is what's on offer to part-timers in need of full time
jobs! Of course, it also means opting out of the 48-
hour week. But let's remember: 200 years ago when
the unions fought for the 8-hour day, the demand was
for 8 hours work, 8 hours play, 8 hours sleep = 24
hours. Because that's the minimum the human body
needs.

KNOWING HOW BAD IT IS
We were grateful to get that What's App message this
week informing us that there are 12 live Covid-19
cases and 21 workmates self-isolating. But we
assume that's just in Processing? Because we know
that upstairs in WC alone, there are 17 or 18
workmates self-isolating... So can we please have an
update on the situation in the entire building? We
know HMP isn't Covid-safe, but we want to know how
unsafe it is.

ENJOY THE WALK!
Yes, many WC workmates are off self-isolating - and
so who do we see going out on deliveries? Managers,
who have no choice but to put on a good pair of shoes
and brave the weather. What can we say? We
usually don't agree to role-swopping, but in this case
we're happy to make an exception.

REAL HANDS NEEDED
It's not so funny on Processing though, where we've
had to tolerate managers mishandling packets for up
to 9 months! So please, don't tell us that we have got
enough workmates here. We just haven't.
PS: And by the way, we don't have enough "furniture"
to work with either - not enough yorkies, mini-yorks,
sleeves... And no, we won't be running around trying
to find what's needed. Not enough furniture? Well,
that's more breaks for us.

N1 IN A CRISIS
Sounds like a real mess in N1 DO, to be honest. So
many workmates there are off sick or self-isolating that
they've asked us on W1 to cover for their deliveries on
overtime... when we don't even know what their walks
look like. And you'd think managers would at least
give us some training? Nope, that would mean proper
planning and we know that's far too much to expect
from them...

HEALTH BEFORE WEALTH
To all the casuals who've just started: welcome to the
mad-house - and we appreciate the extra-hands!
However managers are taking advantage (so what's
new?) and aren't respecting social distancing -
especially upstairs... When the only way to have
enough space between workers is to restrict the extra
work to the basement area. But they know this!

NO MORE PRECARIOUS CONTRACTS!
We also say welcome to 3 cleaners on the morning
shift! But can someone tell us why is it that they've not
been taken on, on permanent contracts? We are fed
up with this nonsense of leaving our workmates on
precarious terms and conditions!

NO SANTA’S ELVES HERE!
Do managers think the work does itself? There’s an
increase in PSA volumes, but no one extra to actually
do it. Last week, predictably, PSA did not get cleared
at night, even though the work was meant to be going
out that morning… RM’s going to have some angry
customers!

THEIR CHAOS
Black Friday might have been busy, but in fact there
has been a big backlog in here since the summer so
piles of mail are nothing new! And now we’re already
getting work sent from other places like Fulham and
Battersea. This is going to be a harsh Xmas for
managers... because we won't be helping to put order
into the chaos they've created.

PAY RISE COMING?
So finally we hear something from TeePee's HQ.
Apparently CWU leaders are to make a big
announcement at the end of this week. And they
already said they want to conclude a pay deal “in time
to see the benefit before Christmas.” Well, it might
conclude before Xmas, but it's certainly not in time for
anything, since we've been waiting for it for 8 months.