17/04/24 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, here's the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 17 April. Comments are always welcome!

SEEING RED!
Nobody in Distribution wants the 12-12.30am start - it
would be inconvenient on so many levels, we don't
even know where to begin! And what makes us even
angrier, is the attitude of union leaders, who say that
this shift change was agreed a while ago... totally
behind our backs!
PS: Managers said they'd offer a two-hour overtime
extension in case we're stuck in traffic at the end of
the shift... In other words, they admit that this is
unworkable. So, shelve it!

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
Every time one of these cuts or changes is thrust
upon us, some union official (not even a boss!)
comes along and tells us "you're lucky to have a job"!
How can anyone like that have a union card?

IN TWO MINDS...
And by the way, the changes in the Network are
about cost cutting for the bosses, period. Apparently
ending Stansted mail flights has saved RM £75m.
And that's only one of the 4 airports they plan to stop
using. So when union officials tell us with a straight
face that this is about saving the environment, we
don't know if we should laugh or try to knock some
sense into them...

RE-SIGN UP TO OUR OLD JOBS!
We hear there's a re-sign in the pipeline. Will it put a
stop to this "supernumerary" nonsense? Because
that's what we need, because yes, we want to sign up
to our original hours! And how dare managers say
that we "chose" to loose these hours! No, we were
blackmailed into "agreeing", under threat of being
moved who knows where! And the so-called
compensation for this dirty trick only covers 9 months'
losses...

A SOLUTION NOW!
Most of us now have to rely on overtime to make
ends meet. That's bad enough, but on top of it all,
management tells us that the extra hours we do won't
be paid until the week after we've worked them? We
already live hand-to-mouth, so we cannot wait until
the payroll "glitch" is fixed (which managers claim is
responsible for this).
PS: In this context, that 2% pro-rata pay "rise" we
were given is nothing but an insult.

WHAT'S 'APPENING?
On Nights we feel out of the loop. We never hear
directly from union officials about what's happening -
we just get all their "WhatsApp-ing". And if you're not
in the WhatsApp group, forget it. We'd do better to
organise face-to-face meetings again, where we can
sit down and actually talk to each other!

A WALK OF FICTION
Who do RM bosses think they're kidding with their
USO proposal? They say they'll keep us delivering
1st class same as usual - i.e. failing 25% of the time.
And they have the cheek to claim that cutting 2nd
class to every-other-day delivery during the week will
"shorten" our walks and we'd work fewer Saturdays.
When their real aim is to "shorten" the workforce by
1,000 of us!

WHICH ONE'S THE BOSS?
And what do the union leaders say? "It is now time
for the union to recognise that the current six-day
USO model is not financially sustainable in the longterm…"
Really! Why would we care what's in the
financial interests of RM's shareholders? These
officials have apparently helpfully told RM bosses
their "business plan is seriously flawed", and are back
in negotiations, again… helping them fix it?

THE ELEPHANT CLOWN
On the cleaners' side, we've finally started our new
duties... the Elephant had to do some serious
juggling with the duty allocations, so that he could get
around properly observing the rules on seniority. And
it only took him 4 months to learn the trick!

A MOUNT OF DIRT?
That said, the new cleaners' duties are heavy, to say
the least! And yes, we are very happy to welcome a
new cleaner! But the bosses will have to make a
much bigger recruitment effort if they want a clean
Mount...

TO A DESERT ISLAND?
Last week we noticed something was different across
Processing. It was strange. Everyone was calm and
the work was flowing nicely. Then we realised, we
weren't bumping into managers everywhere!
Perhaps they can all take a permanent holiday
together?

[yellowbelly]

................ but on top of it all,
management tells us that the extra hours we do won't
be paid until the week after we've worked them? ..............

Well that's what happens currently in our office - isn't that the case everywhere? Unless you're on the
new monthly pay contracts of course.

[SpacePhoenix]

Deluded if you think that anyone will avoid a change in hours. Unless there's the scope to swap swap work between shifts to allow your early shift to process the late work, you WILL have your hours changed. Distribution WILL have their hours changed anyway

[Sean06]

................ but on top of it all,
management tells us that the extra hours we do won't
be paid until the week after we've worked them? ..............

Well that's what happens currently in our office - isn't that the case everywhere? Unless you're on the
new monthly pay contracts of course.

Always been paid the week after..strange comment.