15/11/23 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi. Here's the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 15 November... Comments welcome!

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I STAY?
We had to say goodbye to a few of our workmates who
"agreed" to be redeployed. The problem is the option of
staying here wasn't offered... And we suppose at the
end of the day it's a matter of going from one fast deteriorating
madhouse to another. But we wish them
all the best! As for the rest of us "supernumeraries" we'll
carry on insisting that we prefer the lunatic asylum we
know...

RE-REDEPLOYED…
But wait a second... after some of us "supernumeraries"
were "redeployed", the next thing we knew, we were
"back" at the Mount?! They say they had to bring us
back because they need us during Xmas pressure - and
they will re-re-redeploy us in January. Couldn't make it
up...

THIS IS WHERE WE STAND
So at least we know two things: 1) That management
needs us now more than ever and 2) that now is a good
time to get them to back down on their "supernumerary"
nonsense. We want to have the option to stay
permanently and we want our hours back!

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE!
Union officials sent us a "Letter to Branches" (LTB)
saying that out of over 400 workmates dismissed during
our strikes, a decision has been reached for... only 82!
And apparently out of these 82 cases, 2 are still accused
of "misconduct", 10 cases require a "mediation" process
and 11 are referred back to the review panel for further
investigation. So only 59 workmates have got their jobs
back, out of 400?! What happened to all the rest?

NO JUSTICE
We know of so many cases which have just been
ignored - when all of these 400 should have been taken
back without having to go through any of this ridiculous
legal and bureaucratic "review" crap. They were all
sacked out of pure vindictiveness against the strike and
the strikers.

NEWS ON SA, ASAP!
We haven't received our forms to apply for SA - and now
we're told that MP hasn't been given its allocation yet.
Obviously we need to know if we'll be able to rely on the
extra money this year, and sooner rather than later -
especially if we work part-time. We won't forget how last
year, managers refused to give us SA as a "punishment"
for going on strike!

WE CAN GIVE THEM A TRULY BLACK FRIDAY
We hear the "Xmas" casuals aren't starting yet -
apparently they're meant to start later than usual (early
December?)! Managers want to cut costs by shortening
their contracts, while hoping we can deal with the Black
Friday and Cyber Monday super-workload without
them... When the only thing they'll achieve is to pile
unsorted parcels and letters sky-high!

NO XMAS "BONUS" THIS YEAR?
No one can believe in the latest bribe scheme (aka
"conditional Xmas bonus") we are being offered. For us
part-timers, it's pro-rata without counting SA, so we get
less while doing the same work. And the bribe is
conditional on performance. But management's doing
everything in its power to prevent delivery targets from
being met, so what's the point of pretending?

MR. BLACK... MARKET
Certain managers in Processing are calling people on
their personal phones, at the drop of a hat, asking them
to stay after their shifts, to do overtime. Of course, this
is against "procedure". But what it shows us, is that it's
lunacy to call us "supernumerary", while doling out
overtime. And why should we help them by accepting it?
If we all refused, management would be in a right pickle!

IT'S BROKE, BUT THEY CAN'T FIX IT!
The re-sign on Distribution is done (and not dusted?),
and there are new duties. So, most drivers from Earlies
were moved to Nights, and many have the later start
time of 12 midnight! It's all part of RM's "plan" to get rid
of early Distribution and push Deliveries to later in the
day. Well, past management "plans" have backfired...
more than once!

NO TO A TWO-TIER WORKFORCE!
And what about the new duties created in management's
latest Distribution re-sign? We don't see new permanent
jobs to cover these, only more agency drivers!

THE SMALLEST SCORE WINS!
PSM managers stopped posting on the wall our
individual "scores" of parcels processed per shift.
They'd hoped to make us compete against each other to
increase our speed... but we didn't fall for their stupid
nonsense. It hasn't stopped them from coming to tell us
what they think about our individual "scores". They don't
even realise that these scores aren't comparable - and
depend entirely on the size and weight of the parcels we
each have to deal with!

BOSSES AND SHAREHOLDERS ARE A "LIABILITY"!
We've just heard that Ofcom fined RM £5.6m for missing
its letter delivery targets in 2022-23… and no surprise,
1st class delivered on time was at 73.7%! But Ofcom in
fact reduced this fine by 30% as "reward" for RM's
"admission of liability". Did it admit it screwed up?! No,
RM bosses are still blaming our strike - and never mind
that the Parliamentary Select Committee called them out
for their "parcels first", letters last, policy!

ONE WEEK AT PEACE
For once, we had a quiet week on the cleaners side,
since the Elephant is off. In fact, things run so much
smoother without his intrusive trunk poking around!