The Local Line

“A PPA Award Winning Publication”

The Official Voice Of The Northwest Illinois Area Local

American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO

194 W. Lake Street Elmhurst IL 60126

Phone: 630-833-0088 Fax: 630-833-0248

Jackie Engelhart – President Alan Czerwinski - News Director

Floor Edition

January 02, 2007

Local Update by Jackie Engelhart

Contract Ballots Due on January 9, 2007

If you have not yet mailed your ballot for the ratification of the proposed contract, you are running out of time. The ballots were mailed on December 18, and must be received by 9am on January 9 at the offices of the American Arbitration Association. If you have not received a ballot call them at 800-529-5218.

Postal Rate Commission Criticizes USPS Consolidation Plan

In a December 19, 2006 report, the independent panel said, "The Commission advises postal management to address and remedy questionable data choices and assumptions before proceeding to completion of the design of the new mail processing network. "The report repeatedly quoted the APWU which intervened in the review process because of the negative impact propose consolidations would have on service. The APWU was the only union to participate.

National Day of Mourning for President Ford

All post offices are closed and there is no mail delivery today, in honor of our 38th President Gerald R. Ford. The common theme of the man and his presidency is the healing effect a man of great decency had on the nation at a critical time in history. All federal employees, including postal employees will be given a day of administrative leave due to the death of President Ford. Most if not all employees in post offices will be off on the actual day of mourning, January 2nd. Per the national Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2000, the leave must be used within 6 months. The day of mourning for President Ford allowed management to remove some of the drafted employees from the New Year's Holiday schedule at the plants. It's a shame, but the only reason that some employees were allowed to have their holiday (or non-scheduled) day for New Year's, was due to the day of mourning.

2007 New Leave Year

The 2007 Leave Year begins with Pay Period 02-2007, Saturday, January 6. Newly adjusted Annual Leave balances will be reflected in pay checks dated January 26, 2007. New FEHB premiums will also be reflected in paychecks dated January 26.

Incidental Leave Outside the Choice Vacation Period.

Due to changes in the LMOU made in 2005, employees at Palatine and Carol Stream can submit these requests 45 days in advance, up from 30 days in the past. There is no limit in item 12 of the LMOU at Chicago Metro Surface Hub regarding when a 3971 for leave during the non-choice period can be submitted.

Vacations at Busse

Item 4 of the Busse LMOU states "The vacation scheduled will be posted no later than February 15th. Management has been approving vacations "pending sufficient leave" and that is wrong. Vacation 3971's must be returned by February 15 and must be approved or disapproved, period.

Vacation Submissions

Its time for vacation submissions as they must be submitted in the plants by January 31, 2007. The choice vacation period at Palatine and Carol Stream is from March 1 thru November 30 and from December 25 thru January 2. The choice vacation period at CMSH is from February 18th November 30. Submissions for vacations are done on PS 3971's and PS Form 1547, in triplicate. Upon submission your requests must be immediately timestamped with the third copy returned to you. Management must post the vacation schedule and return all approved vacation 3971's by February 15 at CMSH and by February 21 at both Palatine and Carol Stream.

Selection Options

Most if not all current employees have 3 or more years of service and earn 20 or 26 days of annual

leave. If you are in this category you have 3 options:

Option A: 2 selection-one of 5working days and one of 10 working days.

Option B: 2 Selections of 5 working days each (1 work week).

Option C: One selection of up to15 working days (3 consecutive weeks).

Employees with less than 3 years of service have 2 options:

Option A: a single option of up to10 working days or 2 consecutive weeks.

Option B: 2 selections of 5 days each or 2 separate weeks.

Associate Office Vacations.

Each office has their own LMOU language and employees having questions should consult their steward. If no steward is available, you can contact Dave Baskin or I at the Elmhurst office.

Impact Statement for Carol Stream AI Deployment

We received the impact notice from Regional Coordinator Sharyn Stone's office on December 26.The impact notice is from the office of In-Plant Support Manager John Colao and it states

"The Carol Stream, Illinois Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC) is a deployment site for the AFSM 100 Automatic Induction (AI). The anticipated deployment date is February 2007. Postal Service headquarters has indicated that the primary craft on this operations mail handlers. It is anticipated that six (6) full-time clerks may attrited from the facility and that it may be necessary to excess twenty-six(26) full-time clerks outside the craft/inside the installation to properly staff this equipment. "

Senior management has not seen fit to notify us of the impending impact they are preparing to impose on the clerk craft at Carol Stream. Their excuse is that it wasn't approved yet by the "Area". Approval by the Area for excessing clerks is a mere formality. No one in management will inform us of anything to do with AI until they absolutely have to. They keep us in the dark as long as possible and as the new equipment is being setup they may schedule a meeting with us to discuss the impact. Automatic Induction of the AFSM but without the Automatic TrayHandling System means the clerk staffing will be reduced by 2 clerks per crew, from 5 to 3. AI also means the labor intensive (MailHandler) Flat Prep Unit should disappear. How then, can management justify reducing the clerk complement by 32 and increasing the MH by 26?! Even with management assigning work on the AFSM to Mail Handlers, the elimination of the Prep Unit should provide sufficient Mail Handlers to staff the positions management has assigned to them on AI. Plant Manager Woodall and Senior MDO Dean both told me weeks ago that any impact on Clerks due to AI would be minimal due to the number of light/limited duty holding bids in the AFSM. I guess that changed somehow. I requested information from John Colao on December 22nd on this impact but have yet to receive it. We assume that the reference to 6 attrited means that the impact was reduced by 6 due to retirements.

The 39 (MH) Clerks at Palatine

40 Clerks were excessed to MH at Palatine in June of 2005 due to APPS and the Labor Scheduler. One veteran was returned to the clerk craft, but not one has returned as a result of the continuing attrition within the craft at the facility. Approximately 47 clerks have attrited out but management firmly refuses to return a single clerk back to the craft. Dave Baskin has reviewed the data for the grievances he filed on this excessing and he reports the data does not support excessing any of the 40 clerks. These grievances are now awaiting arbitration. We asked to meet with the (then) new Plant Manager Greg Johnson to discuss the excessed clerks and the subsequent hiring of casuals at Palatine. He has scheduled and cancelled meetings with us, but we have another one scheduled for January 10. It is obvious that once management excesses a clerk to MH they will not (voluntarily) bring that clerk back, no matter how many clerks retire. Instead of returning the clerks they hire casuals to take their place. Management says they want to do the right thing but they don't.