13/07/22 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi! This is the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 13 July. The bulletin will be back in September!

AND WHERE IS OUR STRIKE?
Unite/CMA, which represents 2,400 RM managers,
announced a work to rule between 15 and 19 July,
followed by strike action between 20 and 22 July. RM is
planning to cut 900 of their jobs, and slash their pay by up
to £7,000... In the meantime we're still waiting for our
results! It'd be in our interests to walk out with them,
regardless of what our feelings might be about managers!

WE HAVE TO BE INCLUDED!
In fact, all of us who work for RMPFS (cleaners, engineers,
admin) weren't included in the current CWU strike ballot.
Engineers were offered the same measly 2% as postal
workers, but cleaners were offered nothing! Last week,
the CWU hosted a national briefing, at which a strike ballot
for us was discussed, but where is it?

THEY ARE DISHONEST LIARS
On top of it all, RM-PFS bosses are doing a "Boris
Johnson" on us! They pretend that the London allowance
part of our wage represents a pay increase. Obviously it
doesn't. They also claim to be paying the London Living
Wage/Real Living Wage (which is £11.05/hr) and therefore
refuse us a pay increase. In fact those rates were set back
in November before inflation sky-rocketed. But anyway,
it's a minimum wage, and nobody can live on it today.

MATHS LESSONS NEEDED?
As for the amount missing from our wages for extra hours,
this has been an issue for years and we're getting fed-up.
The elephant and payroll company keep coming up with
excuses for their obvious incompetence. If they can't do
the maths, we can do it for them!
PS: We look forward to the day when overtime is a thing
of the past... that'll be after we've won our strike.

IT WASN'T ME
Of course, we're angry at RM-PFS! And we did let the
Elephant know at that meeting organised a couple of weeks
ago. And it was not just about our pay, it was about his
totally unacceptable attitude. And what was the excuse he
came up with? That he was just doing his job... And yes,
we did laugh at that one.

THEIR FIGHT IS OURS - AND VICE VERSA!
Why on earth are our workmates from the Crown offices
(yes, just at the corner of Mount!) left to strike on their
own? They were on strike again on Monday and Thursday
this week! The 1,500 of them would obviously benefit
from having 115,000+ of us fighting side-by-side with
them!

WHAT DID YOU SAY?
So the Parcel Sorting Machine was turned on to test it...
and what we heard was like a freight train going through
the middle of the shop floor. Yes, it's noisy, which is going
to be a problem when the thing starts running 24/7...
What we need is decent noise-cancelling earphones, only
we can't afford the real good ones - but RM can!

WTF?
That was a proper nap, the one we took on Tuesday during
WTS... This time, the video-lullaby was provided by then
(now ex) NI Secretary of State, Brandon Lewis, who told
us all how good the new Parcel Sorting Machine in
Newtownabbey was. So how much did RM pay this
high-up government official for his services?

NOT US, BUT THEM
This second-hand car-salesman said in that video that the
PSM puts "us" in a good position to compete against other
delivery companies. But of course, he didn't say how
many jobs were cut in Newtownabbey thanks to it... The
competition between delivery companies is of course a race
to the bottom (a bit like the Tory leadership "competition")!

TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE
The re-sign in processing was meant to be this month…
we hear it's now postponed until the dispute is "solved".
In the meantime, we're shoved all over the place, because
there are not enough of us. But let's "solve" the dispute
and the re-sign by demanding the many more workmates
that we need!

MASKS ARE A GOOD IDEA
In Letters last week on Lates, we were left with just three
of us due to sickness. What's more, Covid is definitely
back among us. This surely means we should be taking
precautions again.

CAN THEY ALWAYS BE OUT ON TRAINING?
It was good to hear that every manager is having training
in Romford (sorry for our mates there)! Great to get them
out of our hair for a while. Their constant buzzing in our
ears is so annoying!

SAY WHAT YOU LIKE...
The training is to do with the PSM we hear. We don't
think it really matters what RM tells its managers: once the
PSM gets going, it's going to be a mess! And nobody is
going to want to work anywhere near this horrible, noisy,
poorly-designed machine.

SUNSHINE AND LOLLIPOPS
On Deliveries we're suffering in this hot weather. It's really
hard to keep cool in this (record-breaking?) hot weather!
It's also pretty bad if you're driving around in London,
despite the AC (if it's working). So management needs to
provide bottles of ice-cold water, and an ice-box!

[SpacePhoenix]

THEIR FIGHT IS OURS - AND VICE VERSA!
Why on earth are our workmates from the Crown offices
(yes, just at the corner of Mount!) left to strike on their
own? They were on strike again on Monday and Thursday
this week! The 1,500 of them would obviously benefit
from having 115,000+ of us fighting side-by-side with
them!

It would almost certainly be illegal as they're employed by a completely separate company. The Post Office left the RM group a few years ago

TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE
The re-sign in processing was meant to be this month…
we hear it's now postponed until the dispute is "solved".
In the meantime, we're shoved all over the place, because
there are not enough of us. But let's "solve" the dispute
and the re-sign by demanding the many more workmates
that we need!

Even if you have a re-sign you can still be moved to any section that you're trained for at anytime