30/10/24 Mount Pleasant bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, here's the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 30 October. Comments are welcome, as usual!

CO-ORDINATED RESPONSE NEEDED?
Casuals were brought in last week - and also this week.
Management has the cheek to tell us this is because
workmates are on leave due to half-term... and because
we aren't doing enough overtime!! They just can't admit
that there aren't enough of us - and worse, they keep
going on with their supernumerary nonsense - which,
by the way, we hear is happening in mail centres all
around the country...

THIS IS A COLLECTIVE ISSUE!
That tiny compensation that management promised
part-timers who were forced into cutting their shift hours
and/or shift allowances earlier this year hasn't been
paid fully to all of us yet! So now there is a grievance
form going around, which we're supposed to fill-in
individually. But this is a collective grievance! So
shouldn't we demand payment collectively?

PS: In fact what we all want is for the bosses to
reinstate our previously contracted hours and
allowances! We never agreed for these to be cut!

NO TO THESE TESTS!
We can’t believe management's latest: they want to
introduce random alcohol and drug tests! And
managers have the cheek to tell us that this is because
they "care" about our health?! We would laugh, if we
weren’t so angry! We know perfectly well that they will
use this to lie and sack us - that's what they do. We will
not agree to these tests, full stop.

NO ANSWER TO THE REAL PROBLEMS
Of course management couldn't give a monkey's when
it comes to our health. We are all sustaining injuries to
our joints, backs, and muscles from the bloody
repetitive movements we do in processing, and the
heavier and heavier parcels we have to deal with! Yet
all that's on offer from RM in response to the damage
they do to us, are physio videos which are not just
useless, but in some cases could make things much
worse!

RECRUITING IN-HOUSE?
Going back to the supernumerary nonsense: another
18 of our workmates are expected to leave in January...
So will management bring in even more casuals? We
wonder who they expect to process the workload? The
mice in the basement?

SAY CHEESE!
Talking about mice, they are not only supernumerary in
the basement! We've also seen them riding on yorks
on the upper floors… And with the rate of "Voluntary"
Redundancies round here, there will soon be more
mice than workers!

WE NEED TO TAKE A LOAD OFF
Black Friday is still nearly a month away, and Xmas two
months away, but already drivers are feeling the
pressure in the Network. There aren't enough of us to
move everything that managers want moved. Each
year they get agency workers to help out with the Xmas
load, but of course they delay as long as they can, and
in the meantime, the rest of us are meant to "absorb" it!

COULDN'T PLAN A XMAS PARTY IN LAPLAND
Speaking of Xmas, in Processing we were already
asked a couple of months ago to fill in the SA form. But
we've heard nothing back from that. We guess it's too
much to expect from managers that they let us know in
advance when we'll be working over Xmas - since
they're incapable of planning or anticipating anything,
even the arrival of Santa Claus.

KEEP CALM - AND LEAVE THE SHOP-FLOOR
What’s going on with managers of late? We see them
panic, stress, worry… Are they only now realising the
consequences of cutting jobs? Maybe they can find
yoga sessions on the RM app - to practice some zen,
but as far as possible from the shop-floor, please!

TAXMAN'S ON OUR HEELS
Many of us have received letters saying that we owe
the taxman roughly £50-worth of taxes. As if we could
afford to lose more money at the moment. But since
this was surely a pay-roll cock-up, why shouldn't RM
pay the bill? They can certainly afford it, whereas we
can't!

MINIMUM WORKING TEMPERATURE
As the weather gets colder, Distribution drivers feel the
lack of a heater in our 7.5s when we have to switch off
the engines! There are times during our shifts when we
might have to sit and wait in our vans for several hours
– and yet managers monitor the amount of petrol we've
used and try to discipline us if we've used too much.
The big "artics" have an independent heating system.
This is what we need too.

WHO OWNS "US"?
Since the government is boasting how "pro-business" it
is, and how anxious they are to please millionaires and
billionaires, why is it that it hasn't yet finished
"scrutinising" Kretinsky's credentials? Nobody has
heard anything about this since August.

NO TO THEIR BARGAINING!
The union leaders apparently feel obliged to say they
don't agree with the contracts for new starters. But they
signed up to them, didn't they?! We hear they're trying
to make some kind of a bargain which involves them
agreeing to give up the USO as a six day obligation.
Obviously they don't want a fight, but it's only by fighting
that we can ensure that we maintain the same Ts&Cs
for all - let alone the USO!