19/05/21 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 19 May. We appreciate your comments.

WE NEED OUR OWN HUDDLES
So this is how it's working nowadays: managers
come around on Fridays to tell us their latest
whims - to be implemented the following week -
and that's that? Well, that's not that! We aren't
okay with these changes, period. And if the union
of f i cial s don' t feel they can challenge
management, we're here to give them a hand!

THAT'D BE A START
So for instance, we're not okay with the letter
frames being cut down and crammed in a corner.
We need at least 4 more frames in here to
accommodate all our workmates on light duties.
Simple, really.

PHANTOM DUTIES, NO PHANTOM WORKERS
Where have the two duties gone, which are meant
to be on the platform during the late shift? They
were there at the last resign, but now no longer.
They've been magicked away, but just who do
managers think will do that work?

WE WON'T SIGN ANY OLD THING
In fact duties are starting to go missing all over the
shop, and the last proper re-sign was 2 years ago
and the one before that was 2012! Far too long to
wait. Yes, we need a new re-sign, but on our
terms, because we know that job cuts are in the
forefront of managers minds. And we can't carry
on with even fewer of us. The jobs are
overloaded.

WHO'S THE RABBIT?
Yes, in the bullrings, we keep being asked to jump
from one duty to the next. But we aren't meant to
be jumping like this. We have duties we're
assigned to. Seems we are going to have to tell
some of the managers where to jump.

ANSWERS NEEDED
We hear a rumour that managers want EC, W1
and WC Nights to move to Mornings? If true, this
wouldn't just affect us on Nights, it would mean a
late start for delivery walks as well (which btw,
managers have been wanting to introduce for
ages). We don't like to rely on hearsay. So we
need to know what's going on now!

LESS THAN THE MINIMUM
It's only taken one year and three months from the
start of the pandemic, for us to finally be given
regular Covid tests. In all this time, management
hasn't even thought it necessary to test our
temperatures when we arrive! And actually, the
tests we're being given are just for us to do at
home – so self-administered quick tests and
therefore hardly very accurate. Why no testing on
site?

ARE THEIR NOSES OUT OF JOINT?
It's a bit rich that managers on lates have been
coming round telling us to wear our masks
properly… But do they?! They mostly wear them
under their noses. Anyway, if we need to take
masks off to breathe, we will, outside.

NOT MADE FOR POSTING
These home lateral flow tests that are now passing
through tracked in their thousands are a real fiddle
to scan. It's slowing us down big time… and we're
very happy to slow down! Of course, that means
that we'll need more mates to help with the rest of
the work.

ONE BIG MESS
We saw this on Royal Mail Chat: "We don't have a
special area on the floor [for test kits processing],
it's just wherever there's space to set up the
bullring. We sometimes get them through with the
normal mail. Saying that, it's not unusual now to
get sleeves and yorks from other MCs that are a
complete mix of Tracked and normal, small and
large, with the occasional special thrown in." The
point made is that tracked and non-tracked should
not be mixed!!

LONG SICKNESS: LONG SICK PAY
No, our workmates who've had Covid and have
taken longer to recover should get their full pay,
period. There is something called long-covid, and
yes, it means that mates might be off sick for
months, some for a lot more than a year. That's
what the virus does. The least management can
do during this pandemic is to maintain full sick pay
until our mates are fit to come back to work!
PS: There is currently a campaign to classify
Covid as an occupational disease... if that
succeeds, there should be no question about
these payments.

[Tman]

Will this recurring violence ever stop? Well yes, when
class interests become much clearer to all populations of
the region, it will. Because then the working classes,
regardless of borders and artificial divides (like religion!) -
including the Israeli working class - will go on strike
together against the region’s imperialist proxies, of
which the corrupt capitalist,

The political leader writer of this bulletin never seems to fail delivering the same old tired and out-dated rhetoric every month. Is (s)he really so naive as to believe workers solidarity and strikes would end the problems in Palestine, or that religion is an "artificial divide"?

[SpacePhoenix]

WHO'S THE RABBIT?
Yes, in the bullrings, we keep being asked to jump
from one duty to the next. But we aren't meant to
be jumping like this. We have duties we're
assigned to. Seems we are going to have to tell
some of the managers where to jump.

On EVERYONES 318 there's a line that reads something like "or as directed" so provided that there's no specialist skills or H&Ss issues, managers can move anyone to any section at anytime

ANSWERS NEEDED
We hear a rumour that managers want EC, W1
and WC Nights to move to Mornings? If true, this
wouldn't just affect us on Nights, it would mean a
late start for delivery walks as well (which btw,
managers have been wanting to introduce for
ages). We don't like to rely on hearsay. So we
need to know what's going on now!

What are the chances that this could end up happening at every MC? If that were to happen then all deliveries would be in the afternoon, once the time required to process the inward mail at the inward MC is factored in. It would have the knock-on affect in some MCs that 2C would have to be processed in the afternoons as not every MC will have the room to have a full inward and a full outward setup in place at the same time

NOT MADE FOR POSTING
These home lateral flow tests that are now passing
through tracked in their thousands are a real fiddle
to scan. It's slowing us down big time… and we're
very happy to slow down! Of course, that means
that we'll need more mates to help with the rest of
the work.

Why are they "a real fiddle to scan"?

[Jack1960]

Ah the monthly dose of sunshine