06/09/22 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi! This is the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 06 September, mostly about the strikes! Comments are welcomed, as usual.

WE NEED TO CUT THEIR CRAP!
Obviously RM bosses just don’t get how angry they’ve
made us. Not only because of the 8%+ (and rising) pay
cut, after they imposed a 2% “rise”, but because they’ve
put forward de facto pay cuts; yes they want to get rid of
all the conditions which still remain after all their previous
rounds of butchery. To coin a phrase: enough is enough!

RARE SIGHTING ON THE PICKET LINE
So our strike stays solid! And despite the fact that
management is trying to keep things going with agency
workers, they’re not really getting anywhere. In fact the
odd manager has even popped down to the picket line to
lend us support. And no wonder. Many management
heads – and conditions – have been and will be chopped.

PICKET PICNICS
And talking of the picket line, we cannot leave it to the
union reps to take the responsibility of manning (or
womanning!) it all day! So as many of us as possible
should be there – there’s plenty of space for all of us to
bring camping chairs and tables, set them up and have a
rota for round the clock picnics.
PS: The legal restriction of 6 applies only to the front
door, the back door and the side door, after all!

HARD AND FAST
If we went in hard and fast and said we’re going on strike
until they took their hands off our conditions and gave us
the pay rise we need, then there wouldn’t be a need to
notify of each new strike day 2 weeks in advance. The
way it’s being done at the moment, means the strike
could possibly drag on for months. Surely not a good
strategy...

DO WE NEED TO WAIT?
So finally we hear some news from our union about our
strike at RM-PFS - we should receive our ballots by post
and have until the 27 September to send them back -
which is almost another month's wait to get the ballot
results?! It’s taking far too long to join our postal
workmates at the pickets.

£200 MORE PER WEEK?
Anyway, the RM-PFS ballot result is a foregone
conclusion, we know what we’re voting for – and what
we’re voting against.
Management's been messing with our pay big time!
We want the London Weighting Allowance to be
reinstated immediately. And we want a decent pay rise,
our bills can't wait!

DELAYING TACTICS
We found out that some agency workers were not told at
all about the strike... So they were turning up for work a
bit bemused at what we were all doing outside! We don't
mind one bit delaying them before they get into work and
explaining everything, and encouraging them to join the
union.

NOW YOU SEE US...
Us agency workers who did make it into work during the
strike didn't exactly find management grateful – far from
it! Especially on the PSM, where a few (not enough!)
workers were covering, the manager gave us an earful,
trying to make us do the impossible! Certainly makes us
think twice about coming in for the strike days this week!

MR. WITLESS’ SKILLS
What a mess, Mr. Witless has created in PSA! After we
were back from bank-holiday (and Friday's strike day) last
week, the workload was just ugly. But it wasn't of our
making, so not our problem – simple.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE...
Oh dear, the PSM is now showing it's real face. On a
lucky day, it spits out ~25% rejects on tracked and
~15% on 2nd Class. And we don't even know how many
tracked parcels are missed, which will probably make
some customers very happy... Managers said they need
10 of us at the machine? It’ll be more like 15 - without
counting the engineers needed!

SHOOTING THEIR OWN FEET
So what's management planning to do? Cut more jobs, of
course! On top of the 40 gone already, we hear they
want 20 more! Without job cuts, the PSM could’ve made
everybody's duties lighter, but managers just think
"savings" and close their eyes to the mayhem they create.

WALKS TO THE BOTTOM?
We're in the same boat on Deliveries, with DUMs planning
their next resign (when?) and promising to make all of our
different walks more "equal". But we know they mean
making all our walks equally crap! This ain’t happening!

DUMP THE SYSTEM
The longer the scan in/scan out system is around, the
more we see how useless it is. But not for managers,
who’re loving it because it gives them a chance to come
and have a go at us. When of course it's actually their
system’s screw-up.

HOUSTON, WE'VE GOT A PROBLEM
We can't believe the sort of non-sense distribution
managers can come up with. On Nights we heard one of
these bright sparks suggesting we collect at the PRDC, all
the way North-West of London and bring it to the North
East. And what next? Special distributions to Mars?
These managers definitely come from another planet!

LOOKING FORWARD TO MISSING HIM!
We thought the Elephant at RM-PFS was retiring this
year... But apparently his trunk will be breathing down
our necks for some time still. It's a shame, we were
already preparing a big party to celebrate his retirement.