16/11/22 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, here is the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 16 November... Comments welcomed!

PUSHING THEIR LUCK
Some of us got to see that sheet of paper distributed by
management during WTS, which listed all the changes
(read attacks) that RM wants, and there were a helluva lot
that we didn’t even know about! Yes, while the union
leadership and the bosses are supposed to be in the
middle of "intensive talks"! And then we were told we
couldn't keep a copy of it?

DON'T TOUCH OUR WEEKENDS!
For instance, they want us to work Saturdays and
Sundays (on processing, this is still optional). And of
course, managers said this would be on a voluntary basis,
but if they don't find the people, they'll put us on a
weekend rota. We know they won’t find anyone. But they
better know now, that we’re not having that rota!

BACK TO WHICH CENTURY?
Then they came up with all sorts of excuses for wanting
to cut our sick leave, saying that a minority of us abuse
the system. So let's talk about abusing the system: bigwig
CEOs and shareholders sitting on their hands,
cashing in entirely on our work and then telling us that we
abuse the system... So now they want to turn the screw
further on our sickness absence!

THIS IS A PAY CUT!
Managers have a plan ready for cutting our allowances: in
the next two years, they'll pay them at 6-month intervals
and then the allowances are gone. But the entire thing
was so muddled-up that they didn't even understand how
this would work, really. The issue for us is the same
though: no way are we going to allow them to touch
allowances, full stop!

INTENSIVE FIGHT!
The list of attacks on our Ts&Cs was actually too long to
remember! So what is Dave Ward’s update? That the
union leaders are facing "the most complex and difficult
set of negotiations". But it should be simple: we don't
accept any of their attacks, period.

STRIKE MEDIATOR ON STRIKE!
ACAS workers are among those 150,000 civil service
workers who voted for strike in the recent PCS ballot! So
when they go on strike, will the “intensive talks” be
suspended? And doesn’t that disqualify ACAS from being
a RM/CWU strike “mediator” since it’s caused a strike
among its own workforce? Anyway it’s fine – we can
strike with them!

ANTI-SURVEY
A little pathetic to see managers pretending they care
about our opinions. They probably had so few of us
answering the "employees survey", when it was done
online, that this time they asked us during Working Time
Sleeping to pick up PDAs and tick a couple of boxes:
“Would you recommend a friend to work here?”
Meaning, as a casual...? Do they really need to ask?

THANKS FOR THE MESSAGE!
Management's really pushing their luck, bringing in
casuals to work the overtime we usually do during this
period of the year. We've even been told that us parttimers
won't be made up to full-time this year! Well, the
only thing they've managed to do is increase our resolve
to get that decent pay rise we need - so that we don't
need their bloody overtime ever again!

SHOOTING THEIR OWN FEET
And of course, casuals get a half-a-minute training, so
there are lots of mis-sorts. This isn't their fault though,
there are not enough of us to provide the training and
advice we used to! Apparently managers have realised
the amount of mis-sorts is getting out of hand, so they
told us we should help casuals to get it right.
PS: And one manager had the cheek to say we had to
help them “since they worked while we were on
holidays,” (meaning strike!). In that case, why would we
need to help them, they know how to sort. In fact he was
just being an ***hole!

THIS CANNOT BE ALLOWED!
We're permanently short of hands on distribution; they
use agency workers and only offered one of them a
permanent job. Which is hardly going to make a
difference. And now to fill the gaps, on nights we’re
being asked to do 5 hours of overtime, 5-10pm, on top of
our normal hours, which would take us to a 13-hour shift!
It’s unheard of.

DISCO NIGHTS (AND DAYS)
Last Monday, on the ground floor there was a partial
power failure and we found ourselves more in the dark
than usual! And even though the power remained off for
three days, we were expected to sort by hand, using these
dim, portable neon lights - which meant we couldn’t read
the labels. They worked far better as disco lights!

A BIT OF A DRAG!
It caused us a few problems on the platform, because
while the lights were being fixed, the lorries had to come
in at the other end of the building, leaving us to haul the
yorks back by hand!

SIGN OF THE TIMES?
Why did it take so long for the lights to come back on?
Was it really because they had to go and get a part from
Germany? Or was management trying to save
themselves a few quid off the energy bill?

CAN YOU FEEL THE POVER-TEA?
We've noticed the price of a tea from the machine has
gone up from 30p to 35p! A 16.66% rise. So that's what
we need just to keep up with the cost of tea-drinking,
never mind the cost of living!

ROWING?
Oh dear, the canteen has gone all "environment-friendly"
again, now introducing new wooden cutlery. Only they
are so cheap, the wooden spoons become flat as a
pancake when they get wet. And then, what can we do
with a flat spoon...?

[RHONE]

flat spooned

[Slim2none]

STRIKE MEDIATOR ON STRIKE!
"ACAS workers are among those 150,000 civil service
workers who voted for strike in the recent PCS ballot!"

Brilliant!