23/10/2019 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of the 23rd of October... comments welcome!

UNMISTAKABLE VOTE...
So the 97.1% of us in RM and the 95% of us in
ParcelForce are pretty clear that we want to fight RM
bosses' attacks! The high turnout proves it. The problem
now, is what next?

...BUT NOT FOR TP'S ABUSE
Yes, but as usual the message from TeePee (DGSP
Pullinger) is: “thanks, now we'll use your amazing support
to get our bums back on those seats (which we love so
much) at the bosses' negotiating table”... once the
mediator's report has been “considered”. But who'll be
considering this – and behind which doors – is not quite
clear...

AND WE SHOULD DEFEND THIS AGREEMENT?
In fact, the whole process leaves us twiddling our thumbs
until the 22nd of November? And all because their
wonderful 4-Pillars agreement, which they're trying to
defend with all of our might, stipulates this ridiculous
dispute procedure! You couldn't make this up.

DIRTY GAME
Unbelievably, RM has pre-empted the participation of
Angard temps in a strike situation, by telling them that the
law preventing temps from being used as strike-breakers
does not apply. They're using a convenient loop-hole to
say they'd be expected to come in, and add that: “we will
have managers at the picket line to support both Angard
[...] and Royal Mail employees who wish to work”!
They can try to pre-empt all they like, but we know the
solidarity among workers always comes first. And any
manager on a picket line, unless he or she is fighting for
their own job, better watch out.

THEY COULD VOTE NO
Sorry for those managers who might want to join us
against RM (are there any?). But we hear that
CMA/Unite is recommending a 5.37% pay rise over 2
years, plus £1000 lump sum for junior and middle
managers. Plus a lot of job cuts for them too...

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH
So Boris Johnson put the CDC pension in his Queen's
Speech, and now the Financial Times is recommending
this as a good pension alternative for the bosses, since
their contributions are backed up by workers' collective
risk. These two points help expose this CDC pension for
what it is...

RUMOUR MILL GRINDING
This can't be possible, surely? We've heard RM
management is rehashing the old idea of asking us to
maintain our vehicles in distribution and collections. And
what next – buying our own vans? No, we've always
refused to become amateur mechanics, let alone “red
van men or women”!

OFF THE WALL
Apparently Rico Back has experience in employing
people on bogus “self-employed” contracts. The German
documentary, by a journalist called Wallraff, at the time
when Rico Back was GLS boss – showed how GLS is
already the twin brother of Amazon! And clearly shows
his intentions for the rest of us.

DISSING THE BOSSES
In Diss (in case you didn't know IP21, IP22, in East
Anglia) workers walked out over flooding in the
basement, and a sewage leak, a couple of weeks ago –
after RM claimed that they cleaned it up, but they hadn't.
Here in this construction site we know very well what RM
considers to be a 'clean and safe' working environment...

LET'S KEEP THEM ON THEIR TOES
Yes, walking out might have been a quicker solution to
our own health and safety problems here too!
Eventually, after many of us taking pictures of the leaks,
puddles, sparks raining down on our heads (and letters)
etc., managers finally decided to move their backsides
and do something about some of our complaints (but not
all). Perhaps they realised that had any accident
happened, they'd be blamed for their neglect in the face
of all that evidence.

XMAS OR HALLOWEEN?
Oh dear, Xmas spirit is already among us – but
unfortunately it has appeared in the form of several
JV6½s gliding across the shop floor. Yep, the long
noses have been made up early this year... in time for
Halloween?

EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE...
Are RM-PFS managers trying to justify their pay
increase? The Pachyderm and Little Elephant have to
find something to do, so now they're following us around,
sticking their trunks into every little corner. It's so
annoying...

MULTIPLYING ZEROS
We thought we'd have peace while the PSA manager on
lates was on leave, only to find that he was replaced by
not one... but 3! The only kind of miracle that RM can
come up with is multiplying managers? What we want is
the multiplication of workers!

COUGH UP
It's a bit of joke that managers encourage us to cycle to
work. It's certainly not because they're concerned about
the environment or our health, but because there isn't a
proper car park anymore, and they're not prepared to pay
our congestion charge. And now when our bikes get
stolen from inside MP, they don't even want to pay up,
out of their insurance. But it's their premises so it should
be their responsibility.

BAD TIMING
Of course we know RM wants to show off its phony green
credentials... but ironically they launched their new
electric vans the same day Extinction Rebellion was
blocking the roads! So nobody noticed.