30/06/21 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 30 June. We appreciate your comments!

SWEET TALK AND LOTS OF HOT AIR
So what was the purpose of those meetings with
management last week... for the new upstart HMP
manager to introduce himself? To tell us about the
results of the survey? Or to reassure us that the
attacks coming aren't going to hurt? All three at the
same time, apparently. Sorry, but we weren't born
yesterday...
PS: BTW - why were cleaners not even included in
these briefings and given the chance to ask questions
as to how this will affect us? Because it will.
Obviously!

SO THAT'S REALIGNMENT...
We hear that management is planning redundancies
because the Parcel Sorting Machine is meant to
replace human hands... Rumour has it, it can do the
job of up to 80 of us.
So redundancies i.e., job cuts are on the agenda.
Of course we already know this machine is not up to
the job of neat parcel-sorting. When trialled, it made a
big mess of things. As usual RM bosses are choosing
rubbish technology (like the notorious Horizon
system!). So come next April they are going to land
themselves in the s**t.

COMES WITH OPG WAGES?
If there was any proof needed that there aren't enough
hands on deck: managers are working side-by-side
with us, doing our jobs - and that's been going for
some time now! Sorry, but no thanks. Why should we
put up with managers getting in our way, only because
they don't want to accept that they need more
workers? Or are they going to "realign" themselves
onto OPG grades now?

BORN YESTERDAY?
Another thing we heard from the Upstart was that
clock-in/out is coming our way. Of course, we were
also told not to worry - that if we clock-in late we won't
be penalised, that we'll only lose out if we are late for
overtime, etc., etc., etc. But we suspect this is
Upstart's way of "easing" the system in. And down the
road from here the managers will start counting our
late minutes and deducting money from our wages...

YES, BUT THEY'RE SPY-DERS
What worries us even more is the surveillance aspect
of this system - it literally allows the management to
spy on us through the whole of our working day.
Should accept this? Surely there's no question about
it: we can't.

NO CHANCE, WE'RE DROWNING!
Yup, the packets wave isn't receding - we were up to
our necks on Monday on Lates and frankly, this isn't
the way we want to start our week. Good thing that we
can easily find dry land outside...

VERY STRAIGHTFORWARD
Why can't all the agency drivers which RM uses in
Distribution, be taken on permanently? Instead of this
"musical chairs" which is proposed, with drivers being
moved between earlies, lates and nights.

ROLLING OVER
We know Distribution managers have also wanted to
get rid of the early shift for a while, and that really
wouldn't suit us. But anything could happen between
now and April... so why are union officials already
saying that yes, indeed, the early shift will go?! They
say that only HMP has an early shift, and nowhere
else! Is that even true? Whatever happens, a "night"
shift starting at midnight is out of the question.

BRING MATTRESSES AND BED SHEETS
This is taking the biscuit! On Deliveries, we're asked
to wait until 8.45am to start - just because managers
are worried we'd finish too early! Fine, we can find
ways of using those 2 extra hours in the morning, like
getting an extra snooze... although we'd rather be in
our beds than in HMP.

RM'S STYLE
Yes, we find ourselves again in the situation where
some of us have slightly less work and others are
barely coping. So while on EC, WC and W1
deliveries we have a temporary respite due to office
closures, we hear that mates in N1 have lots of work.
The irony is that N1 - Old Street used be our shared
patch..

WE WANT TO BE FREEWHEELIN'...
Us on primary packets have a problem with the mess
this job creates - in particular the cable ties falling on
the floor - which get stuck in the wheels of the Yorks.
Yes bloody plastic waste, making more work for us,
and polluting the place. Why can't there be cloth
sacks with stitched on ties like in the old days?

...OR SUNBATHING ON THE ROOF?
Frustrating coincidence that it's most humid on the
ground floor, where we get the hottest from moving
packets all shift! The doors are kept open, letting the
humid air in... and the ventilation system is
pathetically ineffective at cooling us down. But we
know where we can catch a cool breeze – outside!

IN-SOURCE THE OUT-SOURCED!
What will happen to door duties with their so-called
"re-alignment"? We've already seen proper
doorkeeper jobs disappear. For some time now
private contractors have been doing door duties here
and of course at 185. Some do 5X12-hour shifts a
week. RM bosses are degrading our jobs in front of
our eyes. These jobs should be in-house.

[yellowbelly]

..........

YES, BUT THEY'RE SPY-DERS
What worries us even more is the surveillance aspect
of this system - it literally allows the management to
spy on us through the whole of our working day.
Should accept this? Surely there's no question about
it: we can't.

.....

Not what is says in the LTB 285/21:

The automated solution across all Mail Centres and RDCs is consoles. However, there may be some large Parcel Sort Centres and Hubs (NDC and future hubs) where, due to the number of people and site layout, Speedstiles may be installed. National Joint Working Group will agree the list of all units with their unit specific automated solution i.e. Consoles or Speedstiles. This list will form part of this TOR as an Annexe A.

The location of consoles and Speedstiles will be agreed locally, by the CWU and RM, before the design is finalised and signed off by the Plant Manager.

The use of Speedstiles at any site will be for the express purpose of signing in at the start of the duty and signing out at the end of the duty and where possible, will be located close to the unit’s primary entry/exit point.

Speedstiles will not act as a barrier or be used to record or control the movement of employees within the confines of the building during their shift.

Only start and finish scans will be displayed on the dashboard to support resourcing arrangements. In-between scans will be discarded. No local manager will have access to any data other than individual’s start and finish time.

Movement between work areas and time on / off the operational floor will not be monitored / captured via SISO and manual processes will continue as current.

[baldrick]

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I don't know when there were 'sacks' with 'stitched on ties'. Bags used to be secured with string ties, which then had a metal seal clipped on.
If RM was serious about cutting single use plastic waste these should be reintroduced.