Mount Pleasant Workers Fight bulletin 5/5/16

[anna]

Hello here is latest Mount Pleasant bulletin : On election day.... not many people seemed to be sure they would vote.

CONFERENCE ROUNDED UP
What's been going on between the top union guys and RM, behind the scenes? At the end of the CWU annual conference Beano they summed it up: after 2 sessions talking with the bosses, their 4-point plan has "set the agenda". The 4 points are: 1. Current agreements, 2. Future Design (?), 3. Pay, Hours and Leave, and 4. Pensions...
But the only concrete aim they mention is this "phased-in 35-hour week"... so, is that not only with no loss of pay, but including the big pay rise?

THIS PARTNERSHIP STINKS
Apparently we'll be having our support "won" by union officials coming round - but for what? If they represented what we need - they'd surely not have to "win" our support.
And why do trade unionists feel compelled to talk like bosses? Like "new product development" or "growing the business"? "Efficiencies"? Where are our workers' aims in all this? Eg., full-time jobs for part-timers; a commitment to enough hands at all times and better rates of pay, so that overtime becomes a thing of the past?

INSULTING
Anyway, we're finally getting some idea of what may be going on re pay, but it's a "leak" and maybe a deliberate one at that! Apparently RM did put a 0.38% "pay rise", on the table - which is a huge cut in real wages. And yes, it was meant to be self-funding, with night and driver allowances, and other legacy payments gone! Just not serious!

PS: Retail Price Index=1.6% in March, i.e., the official inflation rate is 5x as much and real inflation probably 10x! - without housing costs!

NEGOTIATION GAME
Mind you, this totally insulting offer (and the "leak", too) is probably just part of the negotiation game played by union officials and RM. In fact, the bosses' Financial Times predicts that RM will offer a one-year deal by mid-May, with a 2-3% pay rise…
So is this announcement of a self-funded 0.38% is only a figure to help us swallow a miserable 2-3%? No thanks to that and no thanks to their game-playing behind our backs.

WHAT ABOUT OUR PENSIONS
Oh yes, RM is indeed preparing to cut its contributions to our pensions… because it can't afford it? Of course not. RM is now doing everything to please shareholders, and that comes with cuts in our numbers, wages and pensions. It is us who can't afford RM and their shareholders!

HELP THEM OUT?
So managers in Unite/CMA, indeed voted by 78% to take strike action and by 93% for industrial action "short of a strike"! Should we show them the way out of the door?

NO MORE "EFFICIENCIES"!
Re: that rather hard-to-understand CWU letter on increasing the processing of Chinese parcels here: it says local managers refuse to keep their side of the bargain by helping "provide an opportunity to build an earnings package" at HMP. But this is only about adding overtime (and for whom?), using the argument that other mail centres get overtime when we don't. What have we come to, when our only fights are to get a "fair share of overtime"?

A FIGHT FOR F-T, PERMANENTLY
Yes, it's not adding the much-needed extra full duties - real ones which offer full-time to part-timers, permanently, as many of us need. Surely if we're going to fight the managers over them reneging on an agreement, we should fight for something substantial, permanent and worthwhile?

AN RM BARN IN HERTS?
Can management please tell us what the real story behind this Chinese "parcel" processing is? We heard rumours that the work is currently being done by temporary agency workers (on what Ts&Cs?) in a warehouse somewhere in Hertfordshire! Is this true? The CWU keeps telling us there are no agency, except at Xmas! So what's going on? And if true, what happens to these guys' jobs, if the work goes elsewhere?

"LOW" PRODUCTIVITY=DOING THE JOB
On these Chinese parcels: they're often tiny and with microscopic labels which are hard to read, so "3 additional arrivals of 92 Yorks of Chinese parcels per week" would certainly take a lot more time to process properly. And yes, that would obviously result in a low rate of productivity, because it's so intricate and labour intensive! Do managers understand anything at all? We just don't accept their complaints on "productivity", nor will we assist in their "efficiency" drives.

ANOTHER RUMOUR
Another rumour we hear is that story about managers wanting to change drivers' night shifts from 10pm/8am to 4am/2pm… It seems that RM has indeed decided to cause a riot!

WE'RE NOT FEELING TOPS
As for getting more hands to help on the job - engineers are under pressure too - especially when Dumbo-Jumbo gets pernickety. We're looking so forward to the giant parcels-sorter (tomorrow or in two years, RM-time!) ... which will get lots of little Chinese parcels stuck in its teeth...

UNOFFICIAL… AND SO MUCH THE BETTER
We've read that 50 postal workers in Crosby DO (north of Liverpool) went on strike for several days without being balloted, over an "internal" problem with management. These mates showed once again that there are no strings attached to any agreement which can tie up our feet!