30/01/2019 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of the 30th of January and the entire back and front page attached. Comments welcome!

WE KNOW WHAT’S COMING
We were expecting this: union officials and managers have
agreed on the terms of the re-sign for Processing (behind
closed doors, of course) and will be asking us to endorse
it… But should we?!
Didn’t we read last month in their “joint” letter that it was
all about completing redundancies before the end of March
to avoid… a “surplus” of workers?! What surplus? We’re
fed up with hearing about this surplus when there are
clearly not enough of us.

NEW FACES WELCOME
Here’s proof: management has brought in Angard casuals
on Processing to work one day a week, for the 4th week in
a row!! And as we keep saying, yes we need them and
they need to be offered in-house, permanent contracts!

HMP! KILLING US SLOWLY?
And yet more proof: they’ve been distributing overtime like
there was no tomorrow. Some part-time workers have
been doing 12-hour shifts, up to 3 nights in a row (maybe
more?)! So yes, maybe senior workers need to take their
retirement/VR from this dirty, hazardous building site, but
they need to be replaced by enough of us so that unsafe
hours of work are never on the agenda!!

NIGHT WORK - A REMINDER
Let’s remind management (and the union!) that night shifts
should never be longer than 8 hours. In fact they shouldn’t
be more than 6 hours - and then only for essential workers
who have to provide 24-hr cover - not us! Anyway, we
wouldn't be working overtime if we had decent full-time
jobs and decent wages. And that's something worth
fighting for!

BRAINLESS BOSSES, DRIVERLESS VANS
Yes, last week there weren’t enough delivery drivers. Just
like the week before and the week before... And it’s only
because management cut the jobs in the first place. And
now they fail to recruit. So it’s not a re-sign we need but a
re-cruit and maybe we need to cut the management?

NO LESS BUT NO MORE, EITHER...
At least the re-sign for Distribution redistributed existing
jobs rather than cutting them, this time. Because in the
past, cuts were the order of the day. But here too, it’d help
if we had extra drivers - not to mention a fleet of new
trucks...

SWITCHEROO
We are sent to start the processing job in the
Bullring/flights- and then we’re meant to move with the
work to Primary, and then back again to the beginning, in
the Bullring. Yet another way for managers to impose
flexibility and make fixed duties a thing of the past? You
move with the work - or wherever they say? Why bother to
have re-signs at all? Or is that the idea? They want to get
rid of them?

HERE COMES THE NEW AGREEMENT?
No surprise that multi-tasking and later delivery starting
times - to cope with sorted mail not arriving (again
because of not enough workers and lousy technology
everywhere down the line) - is being implemented in WC.
With plenty of do’s and don’t’s and “managers’
permissions” for drivers and the rest of us... And it's also
already "agreed"!!!

DICK-TOCK
We spotted Tick-head on Processing Lates last week,
checking his watch and taking down notes on who’d gone
home too early in his view. Pity. We thought he’d given
up such petty behaviour. Too bad for him, though
because as far as we’re concerned, it’s still job done, and
off home!

A SECOND-HAND ROLEX...
We guess King Etcetera wishes he had one… Yes, not to
be left out, he was seen eyeing the second hand on his
watch to make sure we wouldn’t be even one second late
back from our breaks! He’d do it better with a Rolex?

THEY’RE TEA LEAVES
What’s this now with the Cleaners’ night allowance - we’re
meant to wait till the end of the month? This says it all
about the change to monthly pay, (which we didn't agree
to)! PFS makes money out of it - and gets added
interest - and we actually get a de facto wage cut!? This
is our money!! Pay up now, no more delays - plus the
interest!

TWEETING AFTER THE HORSE HAS BOLTED
So, according to the CWU twitter page, CWU HQ is
campaigning yet again for the renationalisation of Royal
Mail. Dave Ward wrote: “For staff, privatisation has
meant 13,000 job losses [actually 30,000+!], increasing
pressure on workload, and the deterioration of working
conditions.”
But he adds that thanks(!!) to the CWU’s partnership
deal with RM bosses (i.e. 'Four Pillars' agreement), things
have stopped getting worse! Really? An agreement
which pushed the stable door wide open for further
casualisation, job losses and cuts to working conditions,
proceeding everywhere, right now! Cheers Dave.

TP’S SAMSON DELUSION
Oh yes, and apparently we should feel “reassured” that
new RM boss Richie Rich is committed to this “Four
Pillars” agreement (as Terry Pullinger wrote in the CWU’s
Voice). But aren’t there only 3 of his 4 wonderful 4 pillars
left?
Pensions are cut; placed in a temporary defined
contribution scheme, until the CDC scheme materialises,
if and when. And this is a DC scheme by another name,
which if RM goes bust, won’t be eligible for Pension
Protection.

THE PRICY FAMOUS FIVE
We see the prices in the canteen have gone up! From
60p to 70p for a fried egg? A 16% rise... At this rate,
we’ll soon only be able to afford the Famous One or Two!
If prices go up our wages need to go up in proportion,
surely?

[midegarelu]

Too bad for him, though
because as far as we’re concerned, it’s still job done, and
off home!

Get real. Job & finish is dead.

Work to your hours.

Every time you walk out the door early management see the opportunity to cut, cut, cut.

[SpacePhoenix]

HMP! KILLING US SLOWLY?
And yet more proof: they’ve been distributing overtime like
there was no tomorrow. Some part-time workers have
been doing 12-hour shifts, up to 3 nights in a row (maybe
more?)! So yes, maybe senior workers need to take their
retirement/VR from this dirty, hazardous building site, but
they need to be replaced by enough of us so that unsafe
hours of work are never on the agenda!!

NIGHT WORK - A REMINDER
Let’s remind management (and the union!) that night shifts
should never be longer than 8 hours. In fact they shouldn’t
be more than 6 hours - and then only for essential workers
who have to provide 24-hr cover - not us! Anyway, we
wouldn't be working overtime if we had decent full-time
jobs and decent wages. And that's something worth
fighting for!

we've had 10hr shifts on nights for years, some do 13hr shifts, in both cases as duty. Sometimes they do shifts on other days as ot. We have DO staff do ot on the latter part of the night shift

SWITCHEROO
We are sent to start the processing job in the
Bullring/flights- and then we’re meant to move with the
work to Primary, and then back again to the beginning, in
the Bullring. Yet another way for managers to impose
flexibility and make fixed duties a thing of the past? You
move with the work - or wherever they say? Why bother to
have re-signs at all? Or is that the idea? They want to get
rid of them?

Guess no one at MP has noticed on their 318s the bit that reads something like "or as directed". We been moved around different work areas to move with the work for years. If your trained on something and there's no medical reason why you can't do it, managers can have you do it, get over it