01/10/25 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 01 October. We welcome your comments.

CANADIAN POSTAL WORKERS ON STRIKE!
On 25 September, 55,000 Canadian postal workers (still
public employees) went on indefinite strike, after the
government announced changes to the equivalent of
the USO... It wants to cut the number of delivery days,
close delivery offices, and increase stamp prices - and
end all door-to-door deliveries, having already cut
them: only 4m households still get mail delivered; most
punters must pick their post up from "community
letterboxes". Yes, they're dead right to fight and they
have our solidarity.... but when do we walk out?

...AND LET'S DITCH THE CWU LEADERS TOO!
Two weeks ago, union leaders put out a Letter to
Branches saying that the changes to the USO would not
be rolled-out beyond the 35 "pilot" offices - at least not
until the new year... They tell us they're still in
"negotiations"! But what is there to "negotiate"? The
"changes" in the USO have to be ditched, including in
the 35 "piloted" DOs...!

NONE SO BLIND
In fact DUMs are trying to go ahead with cuts,
regardless of any "pause" in USO changes. But anyone
with eyes, can see that their Outrageous Delivery
Madness is a total failure - just watch the pile of
undelivered mail reaching record heights!

WHAT WE NEED TO LIVE ON
So finally RM-PFS has come up with their pay offer:
£13.85/hr (£12.60 outside London), which is peanuts.
And the union officials dare to recommend this,
claiming that it gets us up to the (already out-of-date)
Real Living Wage Foundation rate? Why don't we just
demand what we need - for instance, at least another £5
on our hourly rate?

SAME PAY CUT? NO WAY!
As for RM-PFS engineers, the offer is the same below inflation,
real-pay cut 4.2% that our postal workmates
got. What do we have to lose by refusing this offer,
other than gaining a better one?

STRINGS ATTACHED
Worse, RM-PFS is attaching a string: they want us to
scan in/out. Yes, when those of us here at MP who
already have to scan in and out, are totally opposed to
it. So absolutely NO, to this odious string!

NO HEAVY LIFTING
Processing managers thought we wouldn't notice that
the maximum weight for a large parcel has gone up? It
used to be 11kg max, and now we're handling 30kg
parcels! Since IDS bosses merged the ParcelForce and
RM processing networks over the summer, we're
expected to deal with pretty much everything - but of
course we can't and won't! Our backs/arms/shoulders
come first!

ONE SOLUTION, REVOLUTION!
So, given the problem of processing these heavy
parcels, management felt they had to come up with a
"solution"... Lifting equipment? Vacuum lifters?
Stackers?? Robots?? Nope, just "ask a workmate to
help"! But they don't say where we'll find one...

OUR RINGSIDE SEATS
Indeed, there's such a shortage of workmates that
managers are each trying to move workers into their
own areas, leaving their "fellows" without enough
hands... As a result, last week four of them ended up
getting into a big "fight" over this! So we brought popcorn
and the bets were on...

IT'LL TAKE A FIGHT!
Management - and the union officials - said they'd
"reduce" the number of agency workers... But here we
are, seeing agency workmates brought in every week in
Processing. So what will it take for all casuals to get the
decent, permanent contracts they want? Because that's
the only way their numbers will be "reduced"!

WHO ARE THE REAL KIDS?
Managers are completely over the top enforcing their
bloody scanning in/out procedure. If we happen to
forget to scan both ways, we're immediately called to
the office and we get "papered" with a warning... This
is the same old story, treating us as if we're school kids.
When some of us are older than these upstart bosses.

UNPALATABLE ON PURPOSE?
This S/A that Processing managers are offering is long
hours and a Saturday killer. We know why they want
us on weekends: to reduce the workload on
Monday/Tuesday. But why should we help them, if
they don't offer shorter S/A with more options? Just to
have a good excuse to bring-in casuals?

WE'RE NOT FOOLED
The Distribution re-sign is underway and about time:
there've been 4-5 vacancies on the morning shift for a
while now. But even if new drivers are taken on,
managers still insist on using agency to fill the gaps.
They say they need "flexibility", but what they really
mean is the possibility of cutting those jobs completely.

RESIGNED TO CHAOS
And what can we expect from this Distribution re-sign,
anyway? Last time round, managers made such a
mess that, for instance, drivers going to the same office
- which they needed to open - were rostered for duties
starting at different times!

[SpacePhoenix]

CANADIAN POSTAL WORKERS ON STRIKE!
On 25 September, 55,000 Canadian postal workers (still
public employees) went on indefinite strike, after the
government announced changes to the equivalent of
the USO... It wants to cut the number of delivery days,
close delivery offices, and increase stamp prices - and
end all door-to-door deliveries, having already cut
them: only 4m households still get mail delivered; most
punters must pick their post up from "community
letterboxes". Yes, they're dead right to fight and they
have our solidarity.... but when do we walk out?

Community letterboxes I think will eventually come in the UK.

NO HEAVY LIFTING
Processing managers thought we wouldn't notice that
the maximum weight for a large parcel has gone up? It
used to be 11kg max, and now we're handling 30kg
parcels! Since IDS bosses merged the ParcelForce and
RM processing networks over the summer, we're
expected to deal with pretty much everything - but of
course we can't and won't! Our backs/arms/shoulders
come first!

News flash, it's been 30Kg for a long time. 20Kg for most parcels, some firms are able to send up to 30Kg. Do keep up.

ONE SOLUTION, REVOLUTION!
So, given the problem of processing these heavy
parcels, management felt they had to come up with a
"solution"... Lifting equipment? Vacuum lifters?
Stackers?? Robots?? Nope, just "ask a workmate to
help"! But they don't say where we'll find one...

You have to lift the item out of the york before someone can help due to the Correx sleeves.

IT'LL TAKE A FIGHT!
Management - and the union officials - said they'd
"reduce" the number of agency workers... But here we
are, seeing agency workmates brought in every week in
Processing. So what will it take for all casuals to get the
decent, permanent contracts they want? Because that's
the only way their numbers will be "reduced"!

Think we're just about on the verge of being outnumbered by casuals some nights. Some shifts are virtually all casuals.

[Tman]

If we happen to
forget to scan both ways, we're immediately called to
the office and we get "papered" with a warning... This
is the same old story, treating us as if we're school kids.

Laughably naive.
{Although not as naive as the WSWSWS attachment..which is the usual juvenile pie-in-the-sky drivel}

[SkiSunday]

Think we're just about on the verge of being outnumbered by casuals some nights. Some shifts are virtually all casuals.

Get yourself a transfer onto delivery, I'm sure there are plenty DOs close enough to you... Zero casuals stealing your "job" either lol. You will get an easy move to any DO just ask...

At least you won't be stuck on nightshift for the rest of your RM life then?

[SkiSunday]

You have to lift the item out of the york before someone can help due to the Correx sleeves.

Where are all your colleague SNOW SHOVELS? for exactly this??

[SpacePhoenix]

You have to lift the item out of the york before someone can help due to the Correx sleeves.

Where are all your colleague SNOW SHOVELS? for exactly this??

What good is a snow shovel for a 30Kg item?

[Sean06]

You have to lift the item out of the york before someone can help due to the Correx sleeves.

Where are all your colleague SNOW SHOVELS? for exactly this??

What good is a snow shovel for a 30Kg item?

Thought you had him on ignore list if not please do it hes just a troll

[SkiSunday]

You have to lift the item out of the york before someone can help due to the Correx sleeves.

Where are all your colleague SNOW SHOVELS? for exactly this??

What good is a snow shovel for a 30Kg item?

What good is a snow shovel for a correx sleeve?

[lincolnshirepostie]

The correx sleeves shouldn't be a thing due to health and safety. What was wrong with the old ALP sleeves?

[SpacePhoenix]

The correx sleeves shouldn't be a thing due to health and safety. What was wrong with the old ALP sleeves?

It was down to items getting stuck in them when they get tipped on packet sorting machines. There seem to be so few plain yorks atm that some are now being used for mech and manual letters and flats.

[Sean06]

The correx sleeves shouldn't be a thing due to health and safety. What was wrong with the old ALP sleeves?

It was down to items getting stuck in them when they get tipped on packet sorting machines. There seem to be so few plain yorks atm that some are now being used for mech and manual letters and flats.

Still find parcels stuck in correx sleeves esp small ones.