11/06/25 Mount Pleasant bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, here's the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 11 June.

CUT USO, FOREGONE CONCLUSION
RM's CEO, Emma Gilthorpe, got her hand slapped by
Ofcom, for jumping the gun and announcing that USO
changes will go live on 7 July in all DOs. This is more than
just jumping the gun, of course, because the USO pilots
show definitively that a cut-down USO is de facto the
destruction of the mail service and delivery workers' Ts&Cs!
But Ofcom was only upset that RM hadn't waited for the so-called
"pilots" to finish and announced the changes before
Ofcom did!

DEFLATED!!
The botched USO pilot in W1 Deliveries was such a mess
that DUMs now say they'll add 10 duties back in at the next
"resign", due in a couple of weeks. And we hear they might
recruit more drivers as well... We could have told them their
pilot wouldn't work, but they were too busy singing "U-S-O,
U-S-O" under golden balloons to pay any attention... As for
calling us "supernumeraries", they better drop that
nonsense immediately!

WHAT HE CAN'T DO, WE CAN!
At the beginning of this week, Kretinsky's EP Group
formally took control of RM and had their first board
meeting. For CWU's Dave Ward, apparently this new set of
bosses will be better than the previous set... He even
reckons he can "shift the entire ethos of the company", but
then adds that (unfortunately) "RM's financial situation isn't
great"… So "he" therefore cannot shift anything? But we
knew that already!

REAL PAY RISES ALL ROUND!
But what about our financial situation? Inflation = 4.5%; bills
have gone up by much more, while the bosses are offering
just 4% on pay and over how many years, they don't say.
Over 3 years, that's less than 1.4% per year! Anyway we
should only agree to one-year deals if not shorter - how else
do we ensure our wages go up whenever prices go up?

WE DON'T WANT THEIR "AGREEMENT"
Union leaders say that this pay deal will have lots of strings
attached. Yup! And they agree to some of them in
advance! Like allowing pay to be linked to profitability,
targets and USO cuts! And these joint CWU/RM
agreements always come with pages and pages of "small
print"! Not only that, they actually want a 3-year deal again.
They claim it creates "stability"! So they can lie "stably" in
their deckchairs for longer?

NOT FOR CLIMBING ON WEEKENDS!
Out of the blue, management is "offering" Scheduled
Attendance for 5-6 hours on Saturday afternoons, for the
next 3 months... Yup, that's their way to try and deal with
the mountain of unsorted items that accumulates over the
weekend (which becomes Mt Everest when there's a bank holiday!).
And they rely on us part-timers needing these
extra-hours to apply for this un-social, weekend-killer S/A!

ADMITTING WITHOUT ADMITTING
This S/A is an admission that management messed-up their
"realignment" in Processing last year, when they pushed
many of us part-timers to cut our hours. Not that they
would admit their mistake, of course. But never mind, what
we want to know now is this: when are they going to reinstate
our hours? We need more hours, during week days!

MAKING US SICKER
Management's sick leave procedure is getting on our
nerves. After 12 days off sick, we must meet them in the
office to discuss our case. When seeing their faces can only
delay our recoveries! In fact, the more we see them, the
more sick leave we need...

YET ANOTHER BOX TICKING EXERCISE...
Management's letter, entitled "ensuring we all work safety
(?) in the operation (??)" - whatever that means - says that
management "in conjunction with our trade union
colleagues(!)" are "reaffirming" safety processes. Yup, after
two serious accidents last year - including one on the
Platform here when a workmate got seriously hurt - the
bosses and union leadership "colleagues" are now
pretending that they only need to reaffirm procedures -
implying that they were there all the time...

THEY ARE THE HAZARD!
And surprise, surprise, the safety "guidelines" in that letter
are a joke. Most of it we already follow. But what's missing
is the real root of ALL hazards: that is, management trying
to rush us around and breaking safety rules themselves!
Fortunately, we ignore their rubbish and try our best to keep
ourselves safe from them...

A CONSTANT UNNECESSARY HAZARD!
These white sleeves for the yorks, and their sharp edges, are
still causing us bloody and painful injuries on a regular
basis! It's obvious they're not fit for purpose. So why
hasn't management accepted they were a mistake, chucked
them in the bin - and replaced them? Until then, we'll work
extra-slowly and carefully...

THEY'VE ALREADY GOT THE RED UNIFORM...
We know the foxes do have a den on site where they've
even raised some cubs! Perhaps this is a solution to the
shortage of workers at MP? Can we give the foxes (and
squirrels) hi-vis so that they can give us a furry "hand"?

[SkiSunday]

All well and good to be representing the most important, London, well preserved RM sites. What about the rest of us?

[hans solo]

Dave and martin dont give a flying f**k about us
As long as they are ok
Everyone equal but some are more equal than others
Snouts in the trough
Bastards

[SpacePhoenix]

A CONSTANT UNNECESSARY HAZARD!
These white sleeves for the yorks, and their sharp edges, are
still causing us bloody and painful injuries on a regular
basis! It's obvious they're not fit for purpose. So why
hasn't management accepted they were a mistake, chucked
them in the bin - and replaced them? Until then, we'll work
extra-slowly and carefully...

If they end up on manual letters, flats or the mech we often rip the doors off so that we can get the trays into them. There needs to be more yorks in the system that don't have them.

To replace them with sleeves like we used to have would take months, by the time RM goes through the procurement process

[TopperGas]

A CONSTANT UNNECESSARY HAZARD!
These white sleeves for the yorks, and their sharp edges, are
still causing us bloody and painful injuries on a regular
basis! It's obvious they're not fit for purpose. So why
hasn't management accepted they were a mistake, chucked
them in the bin - and replaced them? Until then, we'll work
extra-slowly and carefully...

If they end up on manual letters, flats or the mech we often rip the doors off so that we can get the trays into them. There needs to be more yorks in the system that don't have them.

To replace them with sleeves like we used to have would take months, by the time RM goes through the procurement process

Why not just fold them back so you can fit the trays in like all the rest of us do? It doesn't take much to work out there's a massive costs saving v the old sleeves, so we'll never go back them if they could get them to work with the new sorting machines.

[SpacePhoenix]

A CONSTANT UNNECESSARY HAZARD!
These white sleeves for the yorks, and their sharp edges, are
still causing us bloody and painful injuries on a regular
basis! It's obvious they're not fit for purpose. So why
hasn't management accepted they were a mistake, chucked
them in the bin - and replaced them? Until then, we'll work
extra-slowly and carefully...

If they end up on manual letters, flats or the mech we often rip the doors off so that we can get the trays into them. There needs to be more yorks in the system that don't have them.

To replace them with sleeves like we used to have would take months, by the time RM goes through the procurement process

Why not just fold them back so you can fit the trays in like all the rest of us do? It doesn't take much to work out there's a massive costs saving v the old sleeves, so we'll never go back them if they could get them to work with the new sorting machines.

Folding them back is what causes the problem. The doors of them get in the way no matter where they get folded.

[Allmodcons17]

Issues raised by Jimallen absolutly spot on as regards to major broken structure in w1 deliveries ,this could of been avoided ,it is and was just a case of management having not much of an idea what we actually did for a days work to get completed and a clear office ,but now trying to get a round peg in a square hole ,such a shame going forward ,

[2chorizon]

You dont have to come in to “meet management face to face” after 12 days off sick,

They can come to your home.

I would advise anyone not to go in to site as they will say “well you have gotten yourself here, and walked to the office, so you can attend and sit and sort letters which should not be a problem?”

Once you go in, they’ve got you.

[Tman]

Incited by the "Unionist Far Right".
Ignore the causes and focus on the symptoms to attempt to score political points.