18/10/23 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi. Here's the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 18 October... Comments welcome!

CONVENIENT GLITCH
Apparently redeployment is on hold due to a
"computer glitch"... And they say it's going to take
until January for them to fix it? That's hard to
believe! More like they're afraid of what might
happen if they start to move us out of here...

...STOP THE WHOLE THING!
Of course, managers do have a problem - how
would they cope with Xmas pressure if they got
rid of everyone who they call "supernumerary"?
But in the meantime they're offering us new
contracts and hoping we'll sign. We won't!

WE "NEGOTIATE" BEST ON OUR FEET!
And the latest from the union on this
redeployment mess? It's referred the matter to
ACAS. It's the same old story, endless rounds of
negotiation until management gets what it wants.
If we allow it, of course!

REINSTATE THEM ALL!
Out of 400 of our mates who were suspended or
sacked during our strike, only half had their cases
sent for review. And now Lord Falconer, who
heads this specially-created, "independent" review
body, has come to a conclusion on just 24
"priority" cases. What does that mean for those
not reviewed, and the ones not regarded as
"priority"?! This is mad and very bad.

NO SECRETS IN OUR UNION
By the way, initially the union officials said they
couldn't tell us what was going on with our sacked
workmates, on the grounds of "confidentiality".
How many times do we have to hear this spurious
excuse? What goes on with our workmates is our
business, and nobody has the right to withhold the
facts from us!

ESCALATION NEEDED
The union officials are telling us that all individual
grievances submitted to Human Resources last
month should have been answered by now... But
they haven't. So what now? Should we submit a
collective grievance and back it up with a
collective threat?

NO WAY THESE UNSOCIAL SHIFTS!
Some of us on Distribution already start at
midnight... But now managers have told us they
want more of us to do so. In fact, they say that by
April, they want the early shift gone and to move
us on to 4am starts! Which would mean a midday
finish... Union reps are negotiating with
management over this. But as far as we're
concerned, making our shift pattern worse cannot
be up for negotiation.

WHAT'S THEIR PLAN?
And of course, in the long run pushing Distribution
later at night will push Deliveries later on in the
day... Is that the plan? And when would
Deliveries then finish? Late afternoon/early
evening? We even heard them mention a 7.30pm
finish! Does that mean no more business/PO
deliveries/collections...?

NO TO PARCELFORCE JOB CUTS!
We still don't know what's happening with our
workmates at the Camden ParcelForce depot...
Management's apparently decided to close it next
year. Some of the ParcelForce items are already
being processed here. ParcelForce drivers tell us
that self-employed drivers are losing their
contracts... But since their items are coming to the
Mount, surely all drivers should be offered jobs
here?

SEND HIM TO THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE!
How smoothly work on Letters goes when King
Etcetera is away! He's definitely more useful on
holiday than when he's on-site breathing down
our necks and trying to tell us what to do. Can
management make an exception and extend King
Etcetera's annual leave to 365 days per year?

WHAT'S GOOD FOR THEM...
The UBS bank is giving advice to potential share buyers
that Royal Mail will make tens of millions
of pounds of profits next year! And it specifically
mentions the cuts to our jobs and conditions as
the source of the profits, like "reducing sick pay"
and "further voluntary redundancies - potential
mail centre mergers". So this is what "serious
financial difficulty" looks like!

IS IT DAVE WARD?
CEO Simon Thompson has been very quiet since
he resigned last May, but he's still here! He'll be
replaced at the end of this month, but we haven't
heard who the new CEO will be. We don't know
the name, but we know the game – as The Who
song goes, he/she will be just like the old boss...!