Floor Edition

January 24, 2011

Update by Jackie Engelhart

44 Mail Handler Residuals for 55 Clerks at Palatine...

We were previously told that most of the Clerks impacted by the 9-3-10 BPI impact will stay at Palatine and be assigned as Mail Handlers to help staff the four new FSS. The latest information from management is there are 44 residual MH jobs at Palatine for 55 currently impacted Clerks. The original number of 67 has been reduced to 55 by Clerk attrition and with the early out announced the number should be less than 55 in the end. There is no senior in lieu of when employees are excessed into another craft within their installation so these impacted Clerks cannot be bumped by seniors.

Palatine CFS Impact

On 1-19-11 we met on the Palatine CFS impact issued on 11-30-10 for 22 Clerks based on closure of the CFS unit. CFS mail from Palatine and Chicago is being consolidated to South Suburban as of 3-5-11.

41 Carol Stream Clerks Faced with Relocations

Management at Carol Stream failed to give us advance notice before they had a General Clerk hand out bid packets to 41 impacted Clerks. We received the information after they were passed and began getting calls. We immediately called Plant Manager Sciurba to request a meeting with the Clerks to talk to them and answer questions. We also asked for more time for the employees to return their selections and he agreed to extend it by one week to 1-28-11. Of the 39 jobs offered to the 41 Clerks all are out of the local commuting area and would require the employee to relocate. There are no local Carrier jobs being offered because of the current FSS impact on the Carriers. The moratorium with APWU for excessing is still in place so Clerks cannot be involuntarily moved at this time. There is another early out on the table which would reduce the impact by 1 for every Clerk who goes.

Early Out with no $$$

Since the new PMG said there would be another VERA (Voluntary Early Retirement Offer) by the end of January rumors of $25,000 and 5 years have been flying but the offer is you can go but no money. Some employees think there will be a monetary offer after the 3-31-11 deadline but if money is offered it may be for EAS. You must be at least 50 years of age with 20 years of service, or any age with 25 years of service. Those eligible for VERA will be notified by mail between 1-24-11 and 1-28-11. The last day to decide to retire is 3-4-11 and the effective date is 3-31-11. Offers will not be sent to Bulk Mail Clerks and Bulk Mail Technicians. There is no monetary incentive. With excessing going on all over the country there should continue to be VER offers as a way to reduce the number who are involuntarily excessed. The VER should reduce the number of impacted Clerks at Palatine and Carol Stream depending on how many take it.

Part-Time Regular Should be Your Last Choice...

When faced with the "choice" of moving you and your family to a new "duty station" hundreds of miles away or staying where you are as a Part-Time Regular some Clerks have decided to stay. The decision to change to PTR rather than relocate is really not much of a choice. When the last 13 Clerks from the AMP impact had to decide between relocation or staying at Palatine as a PTR, some changed to PTR. Palatine immediately assigned them to schedules of 8 hours per week and when we asked them to increase their hours due to the mail volume and the overtime being called we were told "it was their choice". The Clerks did get more hours for Christmas to work the Priority mail but now they are back to not enough hours to live on, and yes they qualify for unemployment.

CS Casuals Must Go...

We told Plant Manager Sciurba very clearly that he must separate the casuals prior to excessing the Career Clerks. His excuse for the casuals is they are not working full-time schedules because some DPS runs in tour 1 Automation are less than 8 hours. Automation on all tours has been historically staffed with full-time Clerks and if they finish their town they can move somewhere else to finish their 8 hours. Lee Thompson, the last Plant Manager actually moved tour 3 Automation Clerks to later start times so they could be used on the Flat Sorter and Manual units on tour 1. Carol Stream has not posted part-time jobs in mail processing in years if ever. The Casuals must go per Article 12 and their hours used to minimize the impact on career Clerks.

Busse Top Grievance Pay-Out in Chicago District in 2010...

Based on the SPBS grievance filed by John Johnson and won in arbitration by Doreene Motley, The APWU at Busse was tops in grievance pay-out money for the entire Chicago District in 2010. Of the $189,000 paid out for APWU grievances, $150,000 was paid at Busse with $124,000 for the SPBS case. This is in contrast to $50,000 paid at Cardiss Collins. $228,632 was paid out to all crafts in the Chicago District in 2010. This information was provided by Human Resource Manager Denise Cameron in a union briefing at the Chicago District on 1-13-11. * The SPBS grievance was worth more than $124,000 and there is a second grievance in the system filed by Vice President Baskin who spent a great deal of time to calculate the out-of-schedule pay for this grievance. The 2010 money paid out to Busse APWU members is in contrast to what it was a few years ago when very little grievance money was paid. Thank your Busse Stewards.

Busse Staffing Problems

Last November A/Plant Manager Tony Alvarado told me he asked for 24 Clerk jobs. He later told me the number had been reduced by the Area to 11 Clerks and some casuals. Busse has yet to get any additional Clerks and we have 6 to 8 O'Hare Clerks who have been on details since 8-15-10. I hear Busse did not have a good Xmas because they did not have enough people. Busse gets blamed but the blame should go to the higher-ups at the Great Lakes Area who have spent millions to move equipment and mail into Busse but refuse to properly staff the facility with craft employees and EAS support.

AO Impacts Discussed 1-19-11

Management issued impacts for Associate Offices in the Northern IL District last September and our meeting was just held on 1-19-11. The NID has a list of AO Clerk jobs to be cut based on Function 4 Complement. We were able to reduce and or eliminate impacts in several offices. Winnetka was eliminated and Glencoe was put on hold due to input from Steward Andy Ulbelt. Melrose Park was eliminated due to the input from Stewards Beasley and Porties. Mount Prospect was reduced by two due to input from Steward Delores Riley who attended the meeting in the absence of the AO Director Kathy Stokes who was out of town for a family funeral. The CS Branch impact was put on hold thanks to input from Steward Anthony Smith. Lake Forest was reduced by one and Glenview by two thanks to Stewards Younger and Dela Cruz. Management will now be able to issue 60 Day notice letters in these offices and we will continue to monitor each office where impacts exist and try to further reduce the excessing.

Election Committee Meets

The 2011 Election Committee members are Fran Cleary from Palatine, Dennis Cattenhead and Maria Porch from Carol Stream, and Bhupendra Patel from CMSH is the alternate. They met on 1-21-11 with Mark Grba from the Department of Labor who spoke on how to conduct a fair election. Mr. Grba said it is unlikely an election company would risk their business to rig an election and he said the last election was fully investigated with minor problems found. The ballots were hand counted by the DOL and the hand count did not change any results.