29/05/24 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, here's the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 29 May. Comments are always welcome!

DISCRIMINATORY CHARTER
What's this about "re-aligned" duties being re-advertised
if they change "30% of their content" (and what the hell
does that mean?!) - or, re-advertised if start or finish
times are changed by an hour or more? Nobody could
agree to that! Managers are making up rules as they go
along, just so that they can choose who must re-apply
and who doesn't have to - i.e., whose job "flows-through"
(as they call it). And seniority is also out the window!

WE CAN ALSO BREAK THE RULES
True to form though, they're breaking their own "new"
made-up rules! We see some duties re-advertised which
haven't changed at all! It's so obvious what this is about
- they are literally trying to select those of us they want to
get rid of! Nothing to do with "content" nor "time".
PS: Kretinsky's £5bn bid for RM just won. He says he'll
"retain existing rights of existing employees" - but by the
time he takes over, the realigning of our Ts&Cs with UPS,
DHL, Amazon etc., will be complete - so what'll be left to
retain? We need to stop the bosses right now, before
they go any further!

...AND INTO HYPERSPACE!
We've received our duty lists and application forms, but
who can tell what we're signing for? There is no
description of duties, nothing, nada... As for the yellowhighlighted
duties, we don't understand the
gobbledegook which explains what this means... So how
can we sign for the unknown? We're told the 3.1.8s are
long gone - but this is one reason why we need them
back!

NEED WE SAY IT AGAIN?
And why do we see so many 15, 16, 18 or 20 hour/week
duties on the list? The pittance we part-timers earn on 25
hours barely pays for our transport fares, let alone allows
us to pay our living costs! This entire re-alignment is
only good for the dustbin!

NO CUTS TO HOURS!
Managers are trying it on again! Part-timers who work
more than 25 hours are being forced to apply for a cut in
our hours, otherwise we're made "supernumerary". But
these longer shifts are in our contracts! Which means
that managers CANNOT change them unless we agree...
And we don't! So if there are no duties for more than 25
hours, we're staying put, right where we are!

THEN WE'LL LET OUR FEET DO THE TALKING...
MP's top managers say that our local union reps can't
talk to them about this "re-alignment" because it was
agreed "at a national level", not local branch level. But if
they want to make it a national issue, then let us make it
a national issue! Because we know management is
trying the same attacks everywhere!

IT CAN'T BE ALLOWED
Actually, we knew management was going to mess
around with start/finish times in this "re-alignment". So
now, for example, there'll be duties on Nights, from
11.45pm to 7.15am, or midnight to 7.15am. Who can
start work in the middle of the night? Where's the (safe)
transport? Night buses and one-hour waits at a dark bus
stop? And no one wants to leave in time to hit rush hour!

SIMPLE EQUATION
Even Mr Witless thinks that the new 4.30pm shift start
times in PSA are no good... Of course, they'll affect his
processing... He's already warned us that it'd mean
having to set up the work area, which we don't usually
do. But we noticed there are only 3 full-time jobs on
Lates in PSA... So the solution is simple really: just
create more full-time duties, or un-processed items pile
up.
PS: BTW, we're not staying behind to help clear up with
this mess of their own making!

A WAGE CUT? NO WAY!
As for the Late shift 9.30pm finish time... why should we
lose 30 mins of shift allowance? It might not seem to
amount to much, but our wages are mean enough as it
is!

STUCK IN A RUT
Platform managers said the job cuts were temporary, but
in this re-alignment they're not reinstating any of the cut
workers. Presumably, they're happy with Yorks piling
up? Because they can forget about us trying to make up
for the extra hands they insisted on getting rid of.

IN NEED OF A PUNCTURE!
Some arrogant managers have become so big-headed,
they think they can dictate to us what duties to sign for!
Like that shift manager's minion Mi-a-stake, who thinks
he can threaten us into following the re-sign plans he's
made in his over-grown head? He needs urgent
deflating!

NARCISSIST NEEDS A MIRROR
Talking about deflating, wannabe-shift-manager King
Etcetera can't hold his horses when he "replaces" the
actual shift manager when on leave - he struts around as
if he was RM's CEO! It must be difficult for him to be
stuck in a second-rate managerial job...

WHAT'S THE OFFER?
There's been this incredibly long message sent to
cleaners and maintenance about our 2024 pay claim. It's
from a union official, and it says absolutely nothing about
the content of an offer RMPFSL bosses have made.
Why? He says it's a "closed" offer, i.e. it's a secret
between him and them. This is disgusting in itself. How
can there be any secrets that the union has to keep from
us?

PAY UP!
One thing he complains about, is how "bitter" he feels on
our behalf because the bosses refused to pay a bonus
they agreed, claiming that we didn't achieve a "recycling
target". What utter bullsh*t. How can we take this
seriously? And neither from the bosses, nor the CWU.

[CornishCracker]

I find these hilarious, you'd think with all the moaning that MP does they'd move on to a job where they get some satisfaction.