28/06/23 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, here is the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 28 June... Comments welcomed!

THE DEAL: JUST AS ROTTEN AS BEFORE
We've never seen anything like it: after Dave Ward
came up with his new add-on to RM's deal, there
haven't even been gate meetings with the union higher ups...
Local reps have been left with the job of getting
us to vote "yes" - and understandably, are anything but
enthusiastic. Because, no question, this remains a deal
we cannot accept: we can only vote NO!

NOT WORTH THE PAPER...
The full "agreement" with Ward's additional "joint
statement" is on the website… all 35 unreadable pages
of it! This is the 3rd or 4th joint statement in fact. The
only change which stands out is the £900 additional
bribe - minus tax 20-25% i.e., it would come to less than
£675...

STRIKE PAY!
Added to the previous "lump sum" this gives £1,400
before tax. After tax it's just ~£1,050. Which doesn't
even cover the 18 days of strike! And yes, we should
be demanding that RM pays for our strike days on top of
the consolidated inflation-proof pay rise they owe us. If
they continue to refuse (most likely!), our strikes have to
be back on.

PS: let's remember that RM imposed 2% for last year
and now offer just 6% for this year (RPI inflation 11.3%
in May!) and 2% for next year... It's a 6% cut in real
pay, if we use May's RPI!

IT'S A NO...
And then it comes to our Ts&Cs: first, RM offers "no
compulsory redundancies" until April 2025, when 10,000
jobs have already been cut. And that implies agreeing
to compulsory redundancies AFTER April 2025... And
how have they already managed to change our VR
terms to a 9 month package instead of 2 years!? This
can never, ever, be acceptable to us!

...AND ANOTHER NO!
But the list goes on: there are cuts in our sick pay and
changes in attendance procedures; we'll be subject to 2
hours/week "seasonal variation" (changing hours of
work according to their "needs"); and of course later
start times and later last delivery.
The agreement also opens the door to new ways to
screw us: e.g., a new "hybrid reward mechanism" for a
parcels-only delivery duty, paying a "bonus" for extra
parcels delivered... Or reducing "indoor work" and
having (even) longer walks. Do they really think we'd
vote "yes" for Amazonisation!?

AND NO AGAIN!
As for Sunday working, Ward reassures us that it's
"voluntary".... for now. But not for new starts!! And
we've seen how managers try to push us to take
Sunday-working anyway.

REINSTATE OUR MATES!
Plus, we demand to know what's happening with our
sacked workmates? We do not trust this "review
process" at all. It's another reason for us to be
organising to walk out. How else are we going to get
them reinstated?

VOTE FOR OUR STRIKES
If we vote no - and we must - it means we on the
shopfloor are taking over responsibility for the fight -
because the union leadership has already washed its
hands of it, by recommending such a rotten deal!

MUSICAL CHAIRS
The resign just kicked in this week in W1. Management
dropped their walk-merging nonsense (they call it
"reabsorption") because it could never work. But since
we haven't multiplied ourselves by magic, nor grown a
second pair of legs, the new duties are supposed to be
covered by taking us off other duties... Or by overtime...

AGAINST OVERTIME
...how can we agree to that? It just shows how short of
hands we are! Some of us remember the old days,
when we took a position against overtime on principle,
since it allows the bosses to employ fewer workers.

SELF-DESTRUCTION ACTIVATED!
Last week the PSM broke (again) and was out of
service for a day and a half. So thanks to
management's top-notch technology, we were back to
sorting by hand. In fact, it's only due to the prompt
intervention of the engineers that the machine didn't eat
itself up!

THE PSM JOKES
The stories related to ordering parts for the PSM when it
breaks down are hilarious: this time engineers ordered
the relevant parts to fix the machine. The company sent
the parts. But when they arrived, one part had missing
parts! So then they ordered some more parts which
arrived, with other missing parts... and on and on...?

WHAT'S THEIR PLAN?
On Nights, the canteen's been closed for 2 weeks
(supposedly re-opening next week). But it's been open
during the day. So why is it closed ONLY on Nights?
Let's hope when it reopens that it will be better equipped
and there will be the chef and other staff we
need for the night shift!

FOOD-LOTTERY
So on nights there's only a vending machine, for now.
And if there are sandwiches in there (and that's not
always the case), it's hard to tell what they're meant to
be: you have to open them up to examine the filling...
but (for e.g.) there's barely enough cheese to guess it's
a cheese sandwich.

[Tman]

THE PSM JOKES
The stories related to ordering parts for the PSM when it
breaks down are hilarious: this time engineers ordered
the relevant parts to fix the machine. The company sent
the parts. But when they arrived, one part had missing
parts! So then they ordered some more parts which
arrived, with other missing parts... and on and on...?

Spares order arrives incomplete.
Hold the front page!

[aiden01]

demand rm pay us for our strike days seriously.

[Superdude]

No chef in the canteen on nights!? All out now! VOTE NO!

[denhamhoop]

At least they still have a canteen we have vending machines

[ted_e_bear]

At least they still have a canteen we have vending machines

At least you have vending machines we've got a hot water boiler

[Superdude]

Hot water boiler!? Luxury. We just have a bucket under a leaky hot water pipe.

[hitman420]

A bucket! All we have are a few puddles and a straw

[clashcityrocker]

You have a straw? Only the middle class have a straw.

[eastie]

fook all in our delivery office
just a tap
Canteen whats that!!!