12/07/23 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, here is the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 12 July... Comments welcome!

NOT AN ENDORSEMENT
We thought the vote on this rotten, sell-out deal would be
closer - not the 75.8% "for" it which was announced on
Tuesday. But how can the union officials say with a
straight face that 67% is an "unprecedented turnout" and
that the deal was "overwhelmingly endorsed"? As many
as a third of us did not vote. So of all eligible voters, only
50.8% voted "yes"! Of course Ward and Furey et al aren't
going to admit that.

WARD FOR CEO?
The (less rude, quotable) comments accompanying the
Twitter-feed during Ward's Youtube piece at least reflected
what most of us think. From Deliveries: "we've been
thrown under a bus"; "callers thrown to the dogs"; and
sarcastically, "Ward for a Knighthood!"... And then,
"everybody out!" And many asked "what has happened to
our sacked workmates"?

LOTTA CONTINUA!
We noticed that quite a few mates said they'd dump their
union membership. Yes, it's a betrayal of our fight. The
leadership pushed us to vote "yes", as if there was no
alternative. But in or out of the union - the battle is still on,
on the shopfloor... against realignments/shift changes/cuts/
overworking/overtime/Sundays/etc., etc., … all these
changes which management still has to implement - and
that fight is only just starting!

CUT OUT THIS APPENDIX - AND THE REST!
Apparently the Fleet mechanics (there are around 1,000 of
them) rejected "appendix 4" of the deal which applied only
to them - so Furey said it will have to be renegotiated. It
would have brought in new Ts&Cs for new starts - who
would've had to bring in their own tools - and it meant
agreeing to further outsourcing. So at least one set of
votes didn't go the bosses' way...

WE ARE PAYING FOR IT!
We're told that the extra £900 bribe that's included in the
deal is meant to come out of the £192m which RM put
aside to fund the transition from the old to the new pension
scheme. In fact this new hybrid "Collective Defined
Contribution" scheme is not even launched yet. But one
way or another, that lump sum is being paid with our own
pension money!

ASKING FOR A WALKOUT?
Managers are still trying to pressurise us part-timers in
Processing (considered "supernumerary") to apply for the
25-hour duties. We all have actual contracts for 25 +1, +5,
+8 hours. Why would we apply for an hours' - and pay -
cut?

WE'VE SAID IT ONCE...
Of course, what RM wants, is to save on labour costs.
Cutting our hours would mean some of us losing £70-140 a
week - and RM gaining accordingly. But we can
collectively refuse any "realignment", just like we did earlier
this year!

AND THERE IS THE VR PACKAGE...
And by the way, any official cut in our hours now, would
mean that we'd get a smaller redundancy package in the
future. Management's already cut redundancy pay-outs to
9-months' wages. Another reason to refuse point-blank.

LET'S PUT THE PRESSURE ON THEM!
Those 1-to-1 meetings that managers summoned
"supernumerary" part-time Processing workers to, are
meant to be this week. Managers want to "discuss our
options", i.e. try to twist our arms to take their bloody 25-
hour duties... So let's surprise them and turn up 100-to-1!

SORT OUT THIS MESS!
And another thing: the previous Processing realignment
was carried out with total disregard for seniority rules. It
left some of our most senior workmates with impossible
duties. We were told this would be sorted out. Why hasn't
it been?

WORSE FOR CUSTOMERS, WORSE FOR US!
RM has shortened the opening hours of customer service
points for around 1,500 DOs, so now they're open for only
2 hours/day. Bosses claim that since there are more
"doorstep" services now (like automatic redelivery and
collection) these offices aren't needed. But that's bullshit!
And anyway they don't have enough parcels delivery
workers in the first place, for their "doorstepping"...

LET'S JOIN THE PROTEST
The PSM was making painful noises again last week... So
we had our (now usual) 1 to 2 hours manual sorting. And
this week, we've had countless jams. It seems to be
protesting against the 24/7 regime management is
imposing on it!

IF IT'S BROKE...
The plastic sleeves RM began using earlier this year on
the yorks are really terrible. We thought they were
temporary, but it seems they're here to stay… At least
when the old cardboard ones broke, they didn't have sharp
edges which cut us..!

THEY CAN SHOVEL IT!
And we also have to bend to reach the last parcels at the
bottom of the yorks! Managers' solution? No, not to get rid
of these useless sleeves… They say we can get a
"shovel" (really?) from the commons centre to scoop out
the parcels from the bottom of the york!

The bulletin's taking its usual summer break. Next one is 7th of September!

[aiden01]

Can't wait till 7thsept

[baldrick]

the commons centre

I think you mean the comms centre.