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 Alan Czerwinski - News Director
March 19, 2008
Nominations were taken at the March 9th Membership Meeting. The candidates for each office are listed in order of their appearance on the ballot but uncontested offices will not appear on ballot:
President:
Stanley Slupik
Mary Corner
Jackie Engelhart
Vice President:
Dave Baskin
Lindsey (Jeff) Jefferson
Secretary:
Linda Duncan-Retel
Arlene Thomas
Conny Turner
Treasurer:
Al Modi (unopposed)
600 Clerk Craft Director:
Alan J. Czerwinski “Al Z”
Carla Thomas
Jack Pyssler
601 Clerk Craft Director:
Calvin Taylor
(unopposed)
Maintenance. Craft Director
David E. Retel Sr.
Pat Thoele
Joe Golden
Tom Colato
Motor Vehicle Service Director:
John B. Cychosz "Big Cy"
Thomas M. Artinghelli
Chief Trustee:
Ray Wience
Cindy Senegal
Trustee (Non-Board):
Seok Kwon (Clerk) (unopposed)
Ed Lewis (maint)
Dan Mulligan (maint)
Michael Kelly (maint)
Election Notice
Ballots for the 2008 NWIAL Election
of officers will be mailed out to your 1st known address on March 19, 2008. In order for your ballot to be counted,
it must be received at P.O. Box 4149, Lisle, IL Post Office by April 25, 2008,
at 12 noon. If you have not
received a ballot by March 25, 2008 or spoil the ballot you do receive, you can
request a duplicate ballot by either placing the request in the designated box
at the Palatine P&DC, Carol Stream P&DC or the Busse Hub Union room, or
by writing to D'Andrea L. Harris, NWIAL Election Committee Chairperson, 194 W.
Lake St. Elmhurst, IL, 60126. The request must have your name, address, 8-digit
employee ID Number, postal
facility you work at and craft. Questions about the election can be addressed to the Election Committee
Members listed below. D'Andrea Harris, Chairperson , Palatine Tour 2 LeRoy Hein Jr. Member Carol Stream, Tour 1 Dorothy
Winfrey, Member, Carol Stream ,Tour 3 Annie
McKee, Alternate Palatine, Tour 2
Special Seminar on the National Reassessment Process on March
28th
National Human Relations Director
Sue Carney has agreed to conduct her presentation on the National Reassessment
Process by Telecom at the Union Building in Elmhurst on March 28, 2008 at 10am. She conducted a similar seminar on NRP for NWIAL Stewards on November
30, 2007 and she has agreed to speak again, to our members. If you wish to attend
you must sign up at your union office as lunch will be served. Sue's presentation provides a lot of
good information on the National Reassessment Process (NKP).
New Stewards at Busse
Yolanda Safsaf was appointed as a tour 3 Steward and Bhupendra Patel was appointed as an Alternate Steward
for the tour. We thank them both for offering their services to represent their
coworkers at Busse. Tour 3 Chief Steward Sherry Thomas is still hospitalized
and our thoughts and prayers for him and
his family are for his full recovery.
I called Operations Manager Shanteau Anderson yesterday to ask when the staffing plan would be
ready for mail changes that were to start on March 29, 2008. She responded that
they were just informed that al1 these
changes are on hold, and would not go into effect on March 29th.
Tour 2 Maintenance Supervisor Jeffrey Goggins called me to complain about
my inclusion of him in the last floor letter. I told him he was mentioned because of complaints we received
from employees at our February membership meeting. Dave and I talked to one of the employees to
hear the issues in detail. I asked
Maintenance Craft Director Olson about these complaints and he said that he has
talked to Supervisor Goggins in the past with little improvement. I agree that I should have talked to him before I printed his name in the Local Line and I said I would
correct this. I apologize for
not talking to him first. He has
said he is willing to meet with us to discuss any problems on tour 2 in maintenance
and he will call us when he can schedule this meeting . Mr. Goggins states he has always gotten along with the Union
and is a Union member.
On 3-7-08 A/Senior MDO Bracket gave
me an impact notice for Palatine for the possible excessing of 29 Clerks out of
the craft and/or installation. It is also anticipated that 4 Clerks will attrit
from this office, therefore, the total estimated reduction to the craft will be
33 employees. This impact is (allegedly) based on the relocation of the FSM
1000. We met with management on 3-17-08 to discuss this proposed impact. Present
for the Union were myself, Vice President Baskin and Tour 2 Chief Steward Al Czerwinski.
Present for management were Senior Plant Manager Woodall, A/Senior MDO Bracket, In-Plant Support Manager
Esther Smith, In-Plant Specialist Chachana Elliot, and Northern IL District Complement Coordinator Bertha
McGee. We argued that this impact was not justified as it was months after the
removal of the last FSM-1000,
and that most of the 1000 Clerks were working in other units when the machine
left. As stated in the 12-5-07
Local Line, A/Senior MDO Bracket informed us he would be posting over 30 newly
created manual flats bids in January 2008. 28 FSM Operators were abolished and
30 bids were posted so where is the impact of 33 Clerks? As usual management is
not separating Casuals as called for in Article 12 (to the extent possible)
because Ron says they don't have to. While they are proposing to separate 6 casuals and keep 15 of the current
21, the total Casual work hour reduction was 0. The total work hour reduction
did not justify the loss of 28 Clerks. Bertha referred to 43 FSM Clerks which was incorrect, and said the impact was based
on volume decline. Ron added that 5 CFS
Clerks were excessed out of CFS to the floor. Danny said, "people need to
come to work.”
After hearing our arguments and becoming
visibly irritated with his staff, Ron asked us to step out so they could
caucus. When we returned he informed us the report would be redone and that all
volume decline would be looked at. We know that means he will "fix" his report and target more Clerks.
We met with Robert Hart on 3-7-08 after I had received the impact
notice at Palatine. We informed Mr. Hart in the strongest possible terms that this
was more of the same from Palatine and that
nothing will change under current management. We also stated that we fell the
timing of this impact was suspect and that Palatine Senior Management was
(again) trying to influence the outcome of a Union election. He said the impact
was submitted 3-4 weeks prior to
the Area, was not accepted and
had to be redone. He said he is still working on Palatine and then proceeded to
talk about other things.
Employees stood in line to submit incidental leave on 2-21-08 and its all being returned as
disapproved due to the "needs of the service." NO, Mike you cannot have
leave in any month for which you followed the rules and requested advance annual.
You cannot take your kids on a trip because you work on tour 1 at Palatine and because people don't
come to work". It's the same story at Caro1 Stream with the denial of most
incidental leave. We will be filing individual grievances for each denied 3971. See your Steward.