22/02/23 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, here is the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 22 February. Comments are welcomed, as usual.

ALL-OUT!
Our re-ballot result was an overwhelming "yes" for "restrike":
95.9% with a 77.3% turn-out! And this time it's
an all-in-one ballot instead of the two we had last year!
So no confusion (or challenge?) possible. And of
course, we are ready to fight!

VOTE FOR A STRIKE = VOTE FOR A FIGHT!
We are a bit surprised at how the CWU top leadership
"interprets" our votes. So for instance, Dave Ward
called this result "staggering", adding "after all that's
happened, our members haven't shifted an inch in their
support for this union". Well, we haven't "shifted an
inch" in our opposition to the bosses' drastic cuts and
their way-below-inflation pay offer. Of course we
haven't. But we, the workers, are the union, surely? It's
not a question of "support" for something outside of
us...

BUT THOMPSON DOESN'T EAT CHIPS!
That said, it's been almost a week since the result, and
still no strike date has been announced. Instead, we
hear news of new talks!? Dave Ward has said that "This
result is a platform to resolve this dispute and get an
agreement that our members can support" . So does
this mean that we are going back to our strike vote
being used purely as a "bargaining chip" on the
negotiating table?

SHOULDN'T WE CALL THE TUNE?
The problem is that the channels do not exist for us to
have a say on whether we strike, when we strike, or for
how long we strike. Nor whether we strike alongside
our own fellow CWU members among the cleaners and
engineers, let alone the ambulance workers, nurses,
train drivers, civil servants, teachers, etc., etc.!

SIDESHOW
Thompson's meant to be grilled by the Select
Committee again this week - at the time of writing, he
hasn't appeared yet. But we don't set much store by
this. We've said it before and we'll say it again: it's our
fight on the ground against all the cuts that he's
implementing which is the only way to beat him and the
RM board.

FACILITATING WHAT?
We hear that "Sir" Brendan Barber, ex-TUC leader, has
been brought in to "assist in facilitating contact" with the
Royal Mail bosses. We looked up his CV: apparently
this man has been a full-time, paid, union bureaucrat
ever since he was a wet-behind-the-ears university
student. Who invited him?

SO WHAT'S THE OFFER??
Us cleaners are still in the dark as to what's happening
with our pay... In a meeting with the two Elephants on
Monday, we were told (by management!) that an
agreement on "pay and associated issues" had been
reached and that the details will be "disclosed to us"
only next week! This has all happened behind our
backs. How can that be?

WE CAN'T WAIT
And unfortunately we read the same thing in a joint
CWU/RM letter, that some of us got on WhatsApp... The
bosses and union officials jointly write that "we are
pleased to announce we have reached a negotiators
agreement", that the agreement has been "endorsed by
the CWU postal executive" and that they will "provide
full details of the agreement in due course" . Well, "due
course" is now!

YES, WE NEED TO FIGHT THIS!
In Work Time Sleeping this week, managers went
through so many of the changes (meaning cuts!) they
want to implement, that it was impossible to follow (let
alone sleep)! If they'd really wanted us to know,
however, they'd have given us the main points written
down on paper. Maybe they are afraid to put them
down in black and white, because nobody's agreed to
them. And nobody would!

THEIR HOT AIR
Managers are still talking about the "realignment" in
Processing - but when we ask what exactly is
happening, they're clueless! That doesn't stop them
spreading their rumours, e.g., that it's coming in next
week... Anyway, we're very clear: we can accept no job
cuts whatsoever!

WE WILL NOT BE MOVED
It hasn't escaped our notice that work has been moved
away from the Mount. Is that how managers think
they'll be able to push through cuts? As far as we're
concerned, if there's less work, we can all work less, and
for fewer hours, on the same pay.

HOW TO PLUG A PIPE
Strangely enough, we've been busy on letters... Due to
already-implemented cuts, we're even less able to clear
the workload now, so other workmates have to come
over to give a hand. Yes, after they told us that letter
volumes were going down and after using that to justify
cutting jobs, they've now created a letters backlog...

DECENT FOOD NEEDED!
The canteen on Nights is still not adequately staffed nor
stocked with decent food. This week we found
ourselves with the choice of an unappetising
"vegetarian option" and... that's it; there were not even
sandwiches in the fridge! We'd like to see Thompson et
al. from 185 trying to eat this "food"!

[woody38]

Seems to be happening all over RM, ours is losing 200 jobs through VR, cancelling SA & overtime, They did that with our canteen stopped serving decent food, then they said nobody was using it & it was not cost effective to keep it open, now they are going to close a delivery office & but them in the canteen.