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

February 09, 2007

What Kind of Employer? by Jackie Engelhart

Another Bombshell!

On February 7, 2007 Dave Baskin received a call from a Palatine steward to let us know that contractors were at Palatine P&DC to take measurements in the AFSM for Automatic Induction! Well, Ron Woodall said "AI isn't off the table at Palatine" and I guess he meant it. Our steward Vera Wilkerson was told that the AI sort plan has already been added to the AFSM computers at Palatine. I had left for the day, and Dave began making phone calls, to Plant Manager Johnson, Labor Relations Manager Dellutri and District Manager Smith. All were unavailable but Carol did call Dave back. She said to the best of her knowledge we were not getting AI at Palatine. Dave complained that we just met with Plant Manager Johnson on Tuesday and he didn't say a word. She looked at an e-mail from Greg Johnson with the four deployment dates for AI at Palatine P&DC. She said she didn't know, but as Dave told her, Greg Johnson had to know, but again he did not tell us. How unfair is it for the AFSM Clerks to be working while contractors show up to measure the machine for AI, which will eliminate their jobs. Thanks again, management of the Northern Illinois District for keeping us (the APWU and our Crafts informed.) When this occurred at Carol Stream, Melvin Dean said they were sorry for not informing us of the deployment of AI. We found out from maintenance employees, as usual. It appears they like to actually get the thing in the building before they tell us, but the employees have eyes. Over the last few days, we've been told we're getting it and we don't know. ????

Thanks AFSM Clerks!

This is management's way of thanking the AFSM Clerks who have worked this physically demanding job since 2003 and who keyed the flats on the 881's before that. Remember those nice banners they put up over the AFSM, "First in the Great Lake Area to Certify!" Wow! Now were going to give your job on the AFSM to a Mail Handler. But don't worry, as District Manager Smith said "They'll be Mail Handlers". We met with some of the impacted Clerks at Carol Stream on Friday as they were given their 60 notice letters to go to the Mail Handler Craft. These Clerks will lose their bids and, ironically, some of them will probably end up working on the AFSM, as Mail Handlers.

What Kind of Employer?

What kind of Employer would have so little consideration for your years of hard work, that they move you to another craft, take your bid, take your non-scheduled days, take your start time, just so they can save a few cents per hour by giving your job to a Mail Handler? The USPS of course! The USPS at the national level has declared war on Clerks and is attempting to eliminate us, and the Northern Illinois District is 100% behind this.

Our Employer..

While Management will say they have no choice in the deployment of the Automatic Induction, I have no doubt that Senior Plant Manager Woodall is pushing for anything he can get that will give Clerk work to Mail Handlers. Clerks have lost more work in the last five years since he came here from Peoria, than in the previous 25 years. The APPS and the AI are national deployments , where USPS assigned work in automated mail processing operations to Mail Handlers instead of "Mail Processing Clerks". Locally, Mr. Woodall has found other ways to take work away from us ...

Central Dispatch (or the Low Cost Tray Sorter part III)

Non-Robot distribution of tubs and trays is performed in Central Dispatch, Multi-Line Break-Up and the Low Cost Tray Sorters. In the Palatine P&DC RI-399 Inventory negotiated by the three parties (APWU, NPMHU & USPS) Non-Robot distribution of tubs and trays was assigned to Clerks. The parties signed agreements on the LOW Cost Tray Sorter at both Palatine and Carol Stream, but when more Low Costs were brought in at both plants, Ron Woodall informed the APWU that he was assigning all work to the Mail Handlers. The work is the same in all of these operations, it is Non-Robot distribution of tubs and trays. It's very simple. The LCTS on the second floor distributes outgoing mail and the LCTS on the first floor (assigned to Mail Handlers) distributes incoming mail. Ron said LCTS #2 replaced the Sack Sorter. The Sack Sorter has been replaced by the APPS , not the Low Cost Tray Sorter.

The Central Dispatch Story

Back on 5-16-01 the three parties signed the current RI-399 Inventory for Palatine P&DC. It was agreed that all non-Robot distribution of tubs and trays in Multi-Line and Central Dispatch is assigned to Clerks. A Memorandum was signed on the same day, for the "Impact of Robots" on Clerk jobs in these units. At the time it was not known how much of the non-Robot work would remain. The Memo stated that as Clerk jobs were vacated they would be reposted as Mail Handler. What occurred after that was a reduction in the number of manual Clerk jobs in these units, and the posting of Mail Handler Robot jobs in Multi-Line and Central Dispatch. Once a sufficient reduction in manual jobs was made, and it was determined that the Robot would not perform all the work in these units, Clerk jobs were again reposted for bid. Fast forward to 12-12-06 and a phone call to me from In-Plant Support Specialist Chachana Elliot, informing me that she was reverting three Clerk jobs in Central Dispatch and reposting them as Mail Handler. I called Joe Kalisz to try to straighten it out, and found out he's the one that told her to do it. I could not believe what they were trying to pull. Joe scheduled a meeting with the APWU and the MHU and Ron Woodall. Joe asked the Mail Handler President and Ron Woodall what their intent I was when they signed these documents. Surprise! Surprise! They both said the intent was to eliminate all Clerks from Central Dispatch. The Mail Handler President (in response to my question) said Non-Robot Distribution was assigned to Clerks in the Inventory "to give Clerks somewhere to work until all the jobs were reverted!" I remember when Culling was a Clerk unit and the unit was changed to Mail Hander. Clerks were allowed to keep their bids, but the assignment of the work was changed to MH. From 5- 16-01 and previous to the new Inventory) and until 12-12-06, this work was performed by Clerks and vacated jobs were reposted for Clerks. It only takes one person to come up with a scheme to take our jobs and they go with it. Greed from both sides is taking our jobs.

RI-399, A National Problem

Next week we will be meeting with other Large Locals and some of our National Officers to ask what they're doing beyond the lawsuit, to reclaim Clerk work from the Mail Handlers. We are doing everything we can at the local level to protect our work, but USPS violates RI-399 Agreements that we sign to protect our work. I recently spoke with RI-339 Regional Advocate Roosevelt Stewart, who assisted APWU when the Palatine Inventory was negotiated. He called to tell me that the Area is not happy with all the Low Cost grievances we keep filing, and he will be setting up a meeting at Palatine. We are tired of seeing another craft doing our work. Management does not care how many Clerk's lives they disrupt, as long as they can continue to save money by assigning mail processing & distribution to Mail Handlers.

VOE & WEI

No to VOE, and we do not participate in a WEI. A Palatine Supervisor wanted to know what APWU was doing to participate in the 15 Year Anniversary of Palatine sponsored by WEI. The answer is nothing. USPS will have to wait until they excess us to MH.