24/02/21 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 24 February and attached the complete bulletin (with the front page editorial). Comments are welcome!

HALF-A-BILLION PARCELS IN 3 MONTHS
We don't need management to tell us that parcel
volumes have gone through the roof... we've seen it first
hand. And we also know that every single delivery
company has made a killing out of the pandemic! Yes,
RM's taken a big share of the cake - the pandemic has
delivered them revenue on a platter... A hefty 20%
increase to £9.3bn!

WHERE'S THE CAVIAR?
And of course, shares have gone up, big shareholders
are opening the champagne and on our side? They've
chucked us a few pennies - 1% in our pay-packets...
Just about enough to crack open a bottle of Coca-Cola.

THE MAKING OF TIER 2?
But then we hear RM's chairman Keith Williams saying
that thanks to these 3rd Quarter results, management will
keep 10,000 out of the 30,000 temporary staff hired over
Xmas... But the big question is, will they have
permanent full-time contracts with the same Ts&Cs like
the rest of us?

ANTI-SOCIAL OFFER
We’re not impressed with management’s “offer” to
increase part-time hours to 35/week with nine-and-a-half
hour night shifts (never acceptable!) plus Saturday
afternoons, during Arsenal matches... And their plan
wouldn’t even guarantee us 3 days off in a row! So most
of us are saying, very politely of course, "No thank you".

HOURS AND WAGES ALL CAN LIVE ON
And will managers ask casuals to do these extra hours if
we don't? Well, we've got a big problem with that! Of
course, we need more mates in here, we can’t stress
that enough, but on proper contracts. So, on this issue
we'd like to know what the current "Union position" is?
Employing casuals outside of Xmas used to be against
the rules.

AGAINST THE CLOCK
So managers still are on about introducing clockin/
clock-out here? In fact it was one of the strings
attached to the new agreement (even if it's such an old
story)... But bringing back the clock is turning it
backwards! It belongs in the "Museum of Antiquity"!

PROTECTING THEIR PURSE, FIRST
So we're told that managers and the union will have
weekly meetings to "re-assess" Covid-safety in MCs..?
And why now, a whole year into the pandemic? Maybe
because so many of us have been catching or getting
into contact with the virus here at work? Yes, this place
has been Covid-insecure from the beginning. When a
workplace of several hundred workers has as many as
50 off with Covid, as was the case 3 weeks ago, it
should be shut down.

RHETORICAL QUESTION
Which brings a question to mind: why has RM not asked
the government to supply each workplace with rapid
tests? Any workplace with more than 50 workers can go
collect them! Yeah of course we know why: that would
mean more of us would be diagnosed with the virus, and
so more of us (if not all of us!) would have to be at home,
self-isolating...

HE'S VICIOUS
When us cleaners do the right thing, like self-isolating if
we've been asked to do so, the Elephant tries his best to
do the wrong (and frankly criminal) thing! Yes,
discouraging us from staying off work to protect others,
in the middle of a pandemic, is dangerous. He'll be
forced to understand that sooner or later...

WHY NOW?
So we've seen the new safety collection measures to
collect these damn used test kits... Which again makes
us wonder: why are managers suddenly telling us how to
handle them? Are there new reasons for concern?
We've voiced our concern from the beginning! These
test kits should be dealt with by specialised staff!

NOT SAFE!
With the one-man/one-van issue, managers have given
us distribution drivers in the morning lots of overtime.
Which means that some of us end up doing 12 hour
night shifts, 4 times a week! Of course, it adds to our
insufficient pay - but this is probably the worst way to
add the £s we need.. Having to be awake/driving for so
many hours isn't safe.

NOT ON OUR WATCH
We hear RM is still going ahead with trying to close the
Kiddycare nursery. This is one of the few workplace
nurseries left, which doesn’t just look after our kids, but
also kids of those who work in the area. We don’t have
much confidence in the intervention of Emily Thornberry
either, the MP in the area, who wrote to RM for an
“explanation”… We know it’s only us who’ll be able to
keep this place open.

NOT SO “KEY” THEN?
We made a mistake… We thought, since we are “key
workers”, we'd qualify for a congestion charge
exemption. But no, it was a parking charge exemption
that we qualified for! But the big question is - why are
we still expected to pay this ever-rising congestion
charge? Why at all?

LOVE OR HATE
Since lockdown laws prevent people who don’t live
together (or who are in a support bubble) from meeting
up, perhaps it’s not surprising Valentine’s Day was
hectic in here. We’re reminded of previous RM
Valentine’s Day adverts over the years "delivering love",
but we must say, this year, we hated every moment of it.

[Deadly]

NOT SAFE!
With the one-man/one-van issue, managers have given
us distribution drivers in the morning lots of overtime.
Which means that some of us end up doing 12 hour
night shifts, 4 times a week! Of course, it adds to our
insufficient pay - but this is probably the worst way to
add the £s we need.. Having to be awake/driving for so
many hours isn't safe.

Insufficient pay, I hope you're having a laugh! Royal Mail distribution drivers are on some of the best wages in the transport business.