11/03/2020 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi all, find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of the 11th of March... comments welcome as usual!

HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?
We weren't particularly inspired by the gate meetings
last week. Palfrey, from the London Division, apparently
“doesn't want a dispute”, by which he means, the union
doesn't actually want a strike. Yes, after everything
that's happened, court injunction, the lot! How far do
these guys intend to go in their imitation of a doormat?

CHANGE FORCED BY US!
Actually we were quite shocked that he even went so far
to say that the CWU leadership intends to describe our
vote for a strike as a “referendum” on how the company
is going about change!
If there are fewer letters, but more parcels, sure,
more of us will work on parcels, and if there's less work
overall, then more of us can work fewer hours. In other
words, not one job cut is acceptable. It should be that
simple when you're representing the interests of
workers. But you'd also be naïve to think that you can
force the bosses to agree to that, without an all-out fight.

NO TO OT, NOW AND FOREVER
And BTW, if there's a dispute, why are we agreeing to
do any overtime? It's true that for some of us, it helps to
make ends meet. But that's no solution for us – we
want money enough, AND time enough to live!
However, right now when RM's cutting jobs there should
be no question of overtime at all.

THIS ISN'T RIGHT
So we've received a letter from the union telling us RMPFS
workers that this strike doesn't directly concern us!
But of course it does. We all know that we're as much
the target of RM's attacks against Ts&Cs as everyone
else - plus we ALL would be stronger fighting together!
So why should we wait for anyone to give us permission
– why shouldn't we use our feet whenever we see fit?

IT'S A YES, AGAIN!
Are we even allowed to say here how we're voting in the
ballot? What if we spark another injunction?! Seriously
though, we've got the ballot paper, and we need a
strike.

RE-NATIONALISATION OUR WAY
And by the way, some of us are getting fed up hearing
about the ups and (mainly) downs of RM's shares. Do
we care? Our list of demands still includes getting rid of
shares, shareholders and the bosses altogether! So
yes, RM needs to be re-nationalised and with no
compensation for Rico Back&Co!

CREATORS OF MAYHEM
We can't believe managers are even thinking of bypassing
seniority to decide who's getting EVRs or not.
Yup, these bright idiots. They had so many of us on
nights willing to leave HMP that they're thinking of
cherry picking who's going and from which shift... Their
re-sign was a mess, and with all these EVRs, they're
making it an even worse mess. So forget about it,
seniority is a red line they better not cross!

ARE THEY TAKING THE MICKEY...?
And by the way, how many of us are going with the next
wave of EVRs? Are they going to leave only managers
and the mice in the basement sorting in HMP? The
work's as bad as ever, and unless RM brings in new
hands, they'll run out of options for clearing the
workload!

THE PROBLEM ISN'T JUST 4 PILLARS...
Should we open a sweepstake on the arrival of this
PSM? Managers now tell us during WTS it will be here
in two years, but who can be sure with Royal Fail?
Apparently, the reason why it's still two years away, is
the problem of getting it to fit into MP, trying to squeeze
it between all these pillars...

AUTOMATION WITH NO LOSS OF JOBS
We know the bosses' plan for this PSM includes cutting
jobs and making us work harder. If machines help us
get the work done quicker, with less effort, the same
number of us (or even more) can leave even earlier!
Forward to the 30-hour week, on full pay!

THEIR MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM?
We seem to be bumping into too many JV6 ½ -s on the
shop floor nowadays... All these acting up workers,
makes us feel as if we're in a theatrical production... but
unfortunately it's amateur dramatics that we can do
without!

DOWN HERE IN THE INFERNO...
Oh yes, new tech PDAs are coming to PSA, or so we're
told at Working Time Sleeping. We thought we weren't
part of RM's World Class, but rather their Underworld
Class... So does this mean we can bin these old, heavy
scanners now? That's where they're going anyway!

NO PROBLEM
So RM must be taking the coronavirus seriously, since
they've provided anti-bac wipes to clean our PDAs, work
surfaces and steering wheels. They've even put up
posters and shown a video to tell us to wash our hands
often, not touch our faces, etc. So we're going to have
to take a lot of extra breaks to comply...

NO MORE STAGE 1s, 2s...?
But of course, RM's been slow to say loud and clear that
if we feel sick, we should stay home! Managers usually
just threaten us with stage 1.

VIRUSES DON'T CARE ABOUT Ts&Cs
And by the way, what are casuals supposed to do in
case they feel sick? Because so far, Angard's sick pay
is peanuts! So is RM going to top up their sick pay...
permanently?