Floor Edition

March 18, 2010

Update by Jackie Engelhart

No Work Available is Starting...

We were given one day notice by Health and Human Resource Manager Gilbert Lopez that Limited Duty "No Day Work" meetings would start in one of our AO's on 3-17-10. I asked what happened to the 14 days notice we are supposed to get prior to No Work Available meetings and he said that's for the Rehabs but these are Limited Duty job offers for which they do not have to give 14 days notice. He said the employee will be sent home while they continue to search for necessary work for him. This seems a back-door way to put the employees out "on a temporary basis" and later notify them they are NWA. Gilbert stated the next meetings would be on tour I at Carol Stream on 3-19-10 Thursday night but then cancelled them. He did not provide a list but did verbally give us names. He also states they will be at Palatine next week to meet with 31 Clerks.

Palatine Tour 3 Impact

The Area meeting for the AMP impact was held on 3-17-10 and management passed out a unit by unit list of bid reductions all of which are on tour 3. The impact for manual letters and nixie is 25 bid positions so this explains why they are coming to Palatine next week to withdraw job offers. Tour 3 processes the outgoing mail so the AMP will wipe out many jobs on tour 3. According to the information provided by management all tour 3 units will lose jobs due to the AMP at Palatine. AFSM will lose 4 bids Flats will lose 7 bids IPP will lose 4 bids LCTS will lose 4 bids Registry will lose 4 bids Automation will lose 26 Letters/Nixie will lose 25 Tour 3 will lose a total of 89 bids at Palatine. I'm sure management decided to move ahead on NWA at this time due to the AMP and the loss of outgoing mail. The Northern Illinois District is first in excessing and it is no surprise they are first in withdrawing job offers.

Picket at Palatine on Tuesday 3-23-10

Our picket signs arrived this week and we plan to hold an informational picket to let the public know about the AMP mail consolidation and now the NRP withdrawal of work to injured on duty postal employees. The picket will begin at 10:30 am on Tuesday 3-23-10. This is the recommended time to attract media coverage and we would like to have a large turnout at 10:30 am. We have invited the Mail Handler Union at Palatine to participate in the picket and encourage all employees to stand together in solidarity regardless of your union and/or craft. The AMP Study calls for a reduction in Maintenance staffing but there was no mention of any excessing at the Area meeting. At Carol Stream three MOS Maintenance Support Clerks were excessed into residual Custodian jobs at the facility but that is the only excessing so far. Management may not have ''come for you" yet but this picket is an opportunity for all Palatine employees to stand together.

What are the Numbers?

The Palatine Industrial Engineer in charge of staffing is Blaise Steel and he had previously told us there should he some reduction in the total number of Clerks to be excessed because the AMP mail consolidation impact will affect the BPI impact due to the overlap. At the Area meeting we asked what that reduction would be and he said 23 people. This was in addition to a reduction of six (6) due to attrition. When he said there should be a reduction of 23 due to "the overlap" Greg Johnson said he did not agree with that number. Greg does not run the staffing numbers because that is the Industrial Engineer's job so why would he disagree with him? The reason is that Greg Johnson wants as drastic a reduction as possible regardless of the actual staffing numbers given to him by the guy who is paid to do that job. As he put it he wants to come out of this with 90% BPI, not 70%. He doesn't care if this means that employees cannot use annual leave and that supervisors including himself continue to work mail at Palatine on a daily basis.

Carol Stream Letters

We thought management would rescind the Carol Stream 60 day notices issued to 26 Clerks based on the additional mail coming to CS from Palatine due to the AMP. The AMP Study calls for a reduction of 115 Clerks at Palatine and an addition of 37 Clerks at CS. Greg Johnson won't reduce the 191 impacted at Palatine and he refuses to rescind the letters at CS. Why? Because Area VP Jo Ann Feindt said they should "strive" for 90% BPI" in Automation. Mr. Johnson has made it clear he will cut his way to 90%.

Ruby Branch Leaving

CMSH Ruby Branch informed us that she will be leaving Chicago Metro Surface Hub in a few weeks for her new assignment at the NDC (formerly the BMC) in Forest Pk. We did not always agree but Ruby was never disagreeable and it was always a pleasure to talk with her. We wish her well in her new job.

Chicagoland Metro Plan

The Area VP held a meeting on 3-12-10 to announce this plan which calls for AMC O'Hare to be "vacated for future ISC use". For months we have been hearing that AMC would be taken over by the ISC and the AMC employees would be excessed. It seems unbelievable but that is the plan and this is terrible news for the AMC. The AMC mail will be divided up to IPR, the NDC and CMSH, so CMSH stays alive and gains mail. The plan shows Busse will have three (3) APPS and two (2) SBPS. Busse will get back Originating mail which means a reactivation of the Scan-Where-You-Band (SWYB) unit for those who have retreat rights. Busse will also get destinating Standard and FCM SPRS and Standard Periodicals. The future looks good for Busse. Busse may be getting some new Custodians as five residual jobs were offered to Palatine Clerks who are being excessed.

Palatine & CS Priority Going Back to Busse?

On 3-17-10 Carol Stream Plant Manager Lee Thompson informed us that the overnight Priority might be going back to Busse, and I confirmed this with Busse Plant Manager Ruby Branch who said the overnight is coming back. Palatine would also lose Priority if the mail goes back to Busse. As mail is shifted it's a win-lose.

Lawsuit Update

The members at the March meeting approved a motion to spend up to $10,000 to pay attorneys to seek an injunction for the Palatine excessing. This motion was amended to be contingent on their providing a legal opinion as to the likelihood of success of obtaining an injunction. We spoke to the attorneys on Tuesday and they said they were still working on a theory of the case so we mailed them a copy of the AMP Study and Handbook PO-408 AMP Guidelines. Some employees are convinced that the hiring of an attorney will mean an injunction will automatically be granted, etc. The attorney should have received the documents we mailed them. They will need time to review the documents before they can provide us with their legal opinion in regards to taking this to court.

"The Mad Scientist"

This refers to a tour 2 Palatine Maintenance Supervisor who has been working like a mad scientist on not allowing employees to include their non-scheduled days with their vacations. He's been passing out a copy of an old Local Line where I advised employees not to include their NS days because management was counting NS days towards the 14% leave. An arbitrator has since ruled that management cannot count NS days towards the leave percentage. There is absolutely no reason why an employee should not be able to include their NS days on their 3971 for vacations although the vacation schedule will only reflect the actual 40 hours of leave used, I don't know why this is such a big issue for Maintenance Mgmt. at Palatine but the SMO should stop working so hard on this one.