The Local Line
“A
PPA Award Winning Publication”
The Official Voice Of The
American Postal
Workers
Phone: 630-833-0088 Fax: 630-833-0248
Jackie Engelhart – President Dave Baskin – Vice President
Alan Czerwinski - News Director
March 10, 2010
Meeting with Senator Durbin Staffer
On 3-8-10 a member called us to tell us a group of about 30 Palatine Clerks met with Senator Durbin at his Chicago office and that he said he knew nothing about the AMP excessing at Palatine. Since we mailed several hundred letters to the Senator's office in D.C. in July of 2009, we had to call his office to question what the member had told us. We spoke with Dave McDermott who told us he met with the Palatine employees as the Senator was in Washington. The Senator's website shows the AMP in Quincy, IL was stopped and they asked for help from the Senator to stop the AMP at Palatine. McDermott said the Palatine AMP is much different than the Quincy AMP and he did not believe the Senator would be able to stop it. We have continued to communicate with Senator Durbin and other elected officials on the Palatine AMP.
Postal Rate Commission
Form letters addressed to the Postal Rate Commission were circulated on the workroom floor at Palatine. These letters accuse management of fraud and the union with racketeering and collusion regarding the AMP. If he/she has evidence to substantiate these accusations he/she should provide the evidence to the proper authorities at once. If he/she has evidence of fraud on the part of the Postal Service in regards to the AMP I am the first to support their effort to stop a mail consolidation based on fraud . Is this a serious attempt to stop the AMP based on proof of the alleged fraud or just a clever unsigned letter to attack the union? We have talked to several national officers knowledgeable on AMP consolidations to find out if an appeal to the PRC would be successful and were told the only way to stop AMP is to show a degradation of service due to the mail consolidation. We have heard this repeatedly.
Senior in Lieu of. ..
A Senior Clerk electing reassignment in lieu of a junior Clerk will take their seniority with them. Such reassignment will be treated as a detail for the first 180 days so that Clerks in the gaining installation have time to bid on vacancies prior to the reassigned Clerk being able to bid. Senior in lieu of Clerks do not have retreat rights and do not have saved grade.
Failure to Qualify on Carrier and SSA…
HR Manager Lingenfelser told the Palatine Clerks they will not be removed from their jobs for failure to qualify on Carrier jobs but they could be removed for failing to qualify SSA or Window Clerk jobs. The Sales and Service Associate job requires SSA training and passing a test on that training. Phyllis said she will put out a written notice that Clerks will not be removed if they fail to qualify as a Carrier. Anyone considering selecting an SSA job should know that management takes the position they can remove you for failure to pass the SSA
Carol Stream 60 Day Letters
Why did management issue 60 day notice letters to 26 Carol Stream Clerks at the same time they propose an increase of the CS Clerk complement by 37? We asked Senior Plant Manager Greg Johnson "why?" as the newly appointed CS Plant Manager was on her way back to Michigan. Greg said the Clerks should take the letters seriously and we should not tell them they will not be excessed. We asked how that could be with the AMP Study calling for an increase of 37 Clerks at Carol Stream and he said the 26 Clerks probably won't be excessed, but "it's two separate events." They call impacts issued to excess employees out of a facility an "event". Based on management's own numbers we don't see how any of the 26 Clerks who received 60 day notice letters would be excessed. I don't know whose decision it was to issue the letters but Mr. Johnson is in charge so I will assume it was his decision. Whoever made this decision, it was wrong to upset the lives of 26 Clerks when management's own numbers show they plant to increase Clerk staffing at CS. Unfortunately management at the Plant Manager level shows they must secure their own job by following orders and not showing any consideration for employees they manage. Plant Manager Lee Thompson met with some of the 26 Clerks to talk to them about the letters but did not rescind them, so they can continue to worry and wonder if they will be moved. We would have been at this meeting but were not told about it until late that afternoon and were already committed to a meeting with the impacted Palatine Clerks.
Busse Custodial Residuals
On 4-10-09 I faxed a letter to HR Manager Lingenfelser informing her of the existence of eleven (11) residual Custodian vacancies at Chicago Metro Surface Hub and stating they must be included in the job selections for the Palatine Clerks being excessed at that time. Only one of the Busse Custodian jobs was selected at that time and those jobs are still vacant today. I have again informed Phyllis that all Custodian residual vacancies at CMSH must be included with the job selections for Palatine. Chicago says there are no jobs but we represent CMSH and we know they do exist. We notified Phyllis and Central Region Coordinator Sharyn Stone that these jobs must be offered to the Palatine Clerks and included with their selections as these jobs are closer to Palatine than Zion and Evanston. Phyllis will be meeting with the Palatine Clerks again on Thursday night at 9pm (Friday for tour 1). We will be at this meeting and hope Phyllis informs us at this time that these jobs will be added and the time period for selections is extended for ten days once these jobs are added. We understand more jobs will be available soon at the JT Weeker International Service-ISC Center as Plant Manager Kubick states he will be receiving more mail from the JFK-ISC in NY. This is good news for the Clerks impacted by the AMP, and for senior Clerks who want to go in lieu of. We all thought or hoped that Palatine would get better after Woodall left but with few exceptions it has gotten worse under Greg Johnson. Palatine has hit rock bottom but his only concerns are AMP and BPI. Employees feel like rats on a sinking ship.
Chicago Metro Surface Hub
We were hesitant to push for the inclusion of the Busse jobs for the simple reason there has been a great deal of talk that Busse may be closing. While there is no guarantee that any postal facility will be open one year from today, my sources tell me that Busse will remain open with the most likely closure coming at AMC O'Hare. This is good news for Busse and for impacted Palatine Clerks who do not want to carry mail. Chicago says they have to verify these jobs with the Area which is what they told us last time but residual vacancies don't disappear. If these jobs are not included a grievance will be filed as the entire selection process would be improper due to the exclusion of these residual vacancies.
Palatine Maintenance
Once again Palatine refuses to release Maintenance Craft Director Joe Golden commensurate with his union workload. The response from Senior Plant Manager Johnson and Maintenance Ricky Hilliard is "he's needed on tour 1 and he'll get some time." We have had many meetings and discussions about the failure to release Joe based on his workload and they have agreed he will be released if he provides a written list of his workload but they renege when they have staffing problems due to routine issues such as call-ins and training. Call-ins and training do not constitute an emergency to justify denial of union time per the National Agreement. We have filed another complaint with the NLRB. Tour 1 MMO Randy Scott continues to make Joe's job difficult and with the amount of discipline being issued on tour 1 Joe needs more time.