19/02/25 Mount Pleasant bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, here's the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 19 February - comments are always welcome...

THIS USO PLAN: WE OPPOSE IT
A "Universal Service Obligation (USO) update" letter signed
by the union's Deputy GS Martin Walsh, is circulating on
WhatsApp... As far as the CWU leadership is concerned,
reducing the obligation to deliver letters 6 days/week is fine
(!), and the trial in 37 DOs will go ahead with union leaders'
full cooperation... We know the real aim is to redeploy us to
do what RM bosses really want - that is deliver parcels and
(maybe!) 90% of 1st class letters...
This isn't in our interests and neither is it in the interests
of the "public"!

THEIR HELPING HAND TO KRETINSKY
Oh, but of course, wishy-Walshy goes on to claim that he's
thought about our objections: and, for instance, made the
bosses promise to "provide a solution to fatigue"... And
maybe we'll even get a few Saturdays off? But what's in
the small print? Will the use and abuse of casuals be totally
ended or merely "reduced"? This is a total capitulation.
That said, if any of these union leaders did want to come
down to the shop floor for a reality check (unlikely!), we'd
be glad to "give it to them"..!

LEFT OUT
Walsh's letter was accompanied by an "add-on" from local
reps to tell us that the bosses promise to offer part-timers
full-time duties - but it only applies to Deliveries, not
Processing. This is news to us. It was previously
understood that this offer applied to Processing part-timers.
And anyway, how many part-timers work in Deliveries?

WHAT A FOOL HE IS
The CWU top leadership is a totally lost cause, that's
obvious. General Secretary Dave Ward was just
interviewed by the Financial Times - to his own delight and
to prove this very point. This naive idiot told them that
"We’re going to change the way that the company operates
at all levels..."! Apparently he sees himself as "influencing
the direction of Royal Mail"! Yes, Ward actually believes
that Kretinsky is following his lead! Talk about being born
yesterday...

THE MORE, THE MERRIER!
During Work Time Sleeping this week, W1 DUMs told us
that the axed USO trial is going to start in May... In a
way it's good news: it gives us more than 2 full months to
organise our resistance - obviously, we can only refuse to
go along with it. It also gives us time to coordinate a
collective response, not just amongst the 37 DOs targeted...
but with the other ~1,200 DOs and 39 MCs around the
country!

TRYING TO FOOL SOME PEOPLE?
When DUMs tell us that the reduced USO can work OK in
W1, because we have enough spare duties and because we
do less residential walks, etc., we have to laugh! As if we're
like them, thinking just about their own little world! It's a
plan to take what's left of the "service" out of the postal
service. And cut even more jobs. We're dead against it!

AN INJURY TO ONE...
On Processing Nights, during managers' latest "huddle",
they tried to explain the planned cuts in USO and promised
it wouldn't affect us. Really? They may not care what
happens to their fellow managers, but we definitely care
about what happens to our fellow workers. We don't intend
to leave our DO workmates in the lurch...

IN FACT SORTING IS AFFECTED!
But in fact this reduced USO is bound to affect us on
Processing. There'll be a priority to push parcels and First
Class through, as these will be delivered in greater numbers
(managers hope!) on the days second class letters are not
being delivered... And we will therefore quite obviously,
have a lot more work!

ADDING WORK TO WORK?!
On the PSM on Nights, we now get letters/flats and parcels
of all sizes... many of which can't go into the machine. So
the manager asks us to sort the wrong sizes out... which is a
full bloody duty on its own! What's more nights is already
dealing with more and more of the non-priority mail and
parcels... And managers still say that their changes won't
affect us?

MANAGERS ARE SUPERNUMERARIES
It's unbelievable that workmates are still called
"supernumerary" in here, when at the same time we're
asked to work overtime on a regular basis (sometimes more
than 20 hours per week!), casuals are brought in (on the
Platform, tipping, etc.) and management still can't clear
piles of unprocessed items (particularly on Mondays!).
Supernumeraries are actually super-needed, on full-time
duties! And why aren't the casuals offered permanent
jobs? Isn't this part of the CWU's "deal" with Kretinsky?

TAKING IT EASY ON THE PLATFORMS...
You'd think that after the accident on the Platform, when
one of our workmates got badly hurt, management would
have learnt a lesson. Like for instance, that the Platforms
need to be properly manned. But not a chance. After the
last set of VRs there are even fewer of us! So this means a
permanent "go slow" on the Platforms, and not just for
safety's sake!

LOSE-LOSE DUTY
We want a total overhaul of the ridiculous shift patterns
which the last realignment brought in. Starting duties on
Processing at 11.45pm/midnight and finishing
7.00am/7.30am is anti-social and anti-us! The only way to
get to work at that time is by car, but not all of us drive.
And even if we do, we're hit by the £15 congestion charge
in the morning!
PS: as for the new times for Distribution, same goes!

PUT A SOCK IN IT!
Wannabe-King Etcetera is so upset by the number of Letters
which keep turning up for sorting after 7pm (after all,
weren't they meant to be going down?) that he runs around
yapping like a dog hoping that this will speed everything
up! It won't. Maybe we should throw him a bone to keep
him quiet...

WHAT'S GOING ON?
In fact, on Letters, in the last few hours of the Late shift we
now get boxes of a mixture of missorts/RTS, plus all sorts
of other work that comes in, so it's a mad rush to sort them.
We used to get these at the beginning of the shift. What's
going on? Is it the side-effect of deprioritising all letters?

[chickenwittle]

This lot make less sense week on week.

[Londonsburning]

Always complaining about the processing side of things? What about delivery?

[Tman]

This lot make less sense week on week.

The political add-on has been that way since the start. Someone's fever dreams.