02/10/24 Mount Pleasant bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, here's the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 2 October. Comments are welcome, as usual!

IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE...
Last Monday, Tracked Parcels failed big-time.
There's no way these parcels can get where they
need to go in 24 hours! And managers try to make it
our problem - "you need to work weekends, and then
this wouldn't happen" they say. The real problem, if
they want to know, is that they've cut so many jobs
during the week.

IT'S SIMPLE: SPEED=D/T (DISTANCE OVER TIME)!
The other problem, by the way, is that postal flights
(like to Scotland) have been cut. So of course northbound
tracked parcels are delayed; they're being sent
by much-slower-road! And actually, since everyone
knows they won't make it on time, we see Tracked
24s and 48s being loaded on lorries, de facto
downgrading them to 2nd class!

WHATSAPP-ENING HERE?
And then we get that voice message on WhatsApp
from the local union branch telling us that Processing
managers are offering more VRs for mates to leave
by New Year - and that this is because there is a
surplus of us! Yes, VRs while managers bring in
casuals! That speaks for itself...

A FIGHT IS NEEDED
By the way, many of our workmates have already left
- some who we were really surprised to see go! But
then, we can understand how fed-up they were!
Surely now's the time to draw a line and refuse
further redundancies point blank? For 2 (obvious)
reasons: first, because the VR lump sum was
outrageously cut to just 9 months wages; and 2nd,
because we just cannot afford any more mates
leaving: we need our fighting force intact!

MISSING THE BONUS?
Given the shortage of hands, managers are
increasingly stressed, poor things! Some of them are
doing our vacant duties, trying to clear, without any
hope of success... which means they'll most likely
lose their cherished bonuses! It's a sorry sight
indeed!

CAN'T THEY SHUT UP!?
And yes, we should be supplied with ear plugs -
because the managers' constant buzzing is
unbearable to our ears. And if ear plugs are not
supplied, we can always offer them gags...

WORRYING...
Sunday the fire alarm went off and we all had to go
out in front of the, now closed, fire station building...
Which is ironic indeed, since a place like the Mount
could do with a fire engine close-by! And by the way,
we weren't told why the fire alarm was triggered...

BLOCK CONTACT, BLOCK NUMBER!
Managers have always been very upset when we're
ill - we didn't realise they cared so much (!). But
there's this one manager who takes it too far: he
calls us up as soon as we take sick leave, and tells us
that we must come in to see him. Does he take
himself for a doctor? He may mean well, (which we
doubt), but this behaviour can only make us (even
more) unwell.

HIS USELESSNESS
The other day, Wannabe-King Etcetera greeted us on
Letters with a"Hello, useless people"... Does he feel
so useless that he has to project his inadequacy onto
us? We suggest he takes himself away, along with
his unsorted mail, and gives us a break from his
useless meddling!

SACK THIS "PROCEDURE"!
We hear from mates in other DOs in London how
managers are using the new attendance procedure to
try to get rid of people, even those with 20 or 30
years service. After that long in this job, many of us
have health issues which cause us to take time off.
But this doesn't stop managers putting us on a stage
3 and trying to sack us! In fact, Stage 3s for
attendance were a rarity before this new policy.

BRING BACK REAL PEOPLE
By the way, we should be getting physio paid for by
the company to deal with our sore bones and sore
muscles! We can request this through their app, but
we don't get a real physio to examine us and help
with our specific problem - we just get a few videos
of exercises we can try...

ROYAL PARCELS (AND OCCASIONAL MAIL)
Every delivery worker out with tracked parcels and
specials gets asked the same question - when are the
letters coming? This week, next week? When
management decides that bit of the frame must be
cleared? Who knows?
PS: However when a customer asks what's "special"
about tracked delivery, that's easy to answer: the
price! It's £7.29 for a medium (less than 2kg) parcel!

IT'S THE NEW FIRST CLASS!
And that's not the only overpriced postage service
offered by RM: the price of 1st Class stamps is going
up (again!) by 30p to £1.65 - that is a hike of more
than 20%! This can only be an attempt from parcel-maniac
bosses to kill letters off completely!