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

April 04, 2006

Local Update by Jackie Engelhart

More Custodians for Busse (CMSH)

Plant Manager Melvin J. Anderson called me on 3-27-06 to inform me that he has received approval to increase the custodial complement at Chicago Metro Surface Hub from the current 15 or 20 to 34 custodians. This is good news as we will have more custodial bids and a cleaner building. Any clerk interested in reassignment to the custodial maintenance craft should write a letter to Plant Manager Anderson.

Clerk Bids at Busse

Clerk bids will be posted in April but Melvin has not given the exact posting date. As stated in the last Local Line, 32 newly created Rack/Flats bids will be posted with a 1930 start time. we asked in some of these bids could be posted with an earlier start time, and Melvin stated that he intends to post a few bids with an earlier start time, but will not post these bids until the need for the remaining SPBS operation is eliminated.

Maintenance Settlements & Complaints

A few complaints have been received concerning the employees listed to be paid in the Busse Custodial Staffing grievance. Dave and I will be sitting down with the Maintenance Craft Director to review the settlement and investigate any complaints. We will attempt to correct mistakes, if any were made. Carol Stream Key Handling Settlement. Maintenance Craft Director Olson has been working on the final settlement of the employees to be paid, to be completed by the end of March. He has been off for a few days, but the finalization of this settlement will be priority upon his return.

Maintenance Stewards

Gary Nolet is back on Duty on tour 1 at CS for the maintenance craft. We have another vacancy on tour 1, which we are waiting to fill, pending the possible transfer of tour 1 clerk steward Bill Murphy to maintenance. Maintenance stewards will be given the authority to discuss step 2's.

RI-399

An RI-399 meeting was held on March 31, 2006 at Busse, at the request of APWU. Jack Pyssler and I met with Melvin Anderson and President James Ballard of the National Postal Mailhandlers Union at Busse. We discussed the fact that Busse has no Local Inventory, listing craft jurisdiction for mail processing operations. We requested that the three parties agree to meet for the purpose of negotiating an Inventory. APWU has grievances at step 2 for mailhandlers working in the Segments distributing both Priority mail and outgoing tubs and trays. We also asked that the parties agree to hold our APPS dispute, pending the outcome of the national level grievance.

Carol Stream RI-399

"The Local Dispute Resolution Committee (LDRC) will have thirty (30) calendar days after the receipt of a properly filed dispute to attempt to resolve the dispute." APWU filed a dispute on March 7, 2006 for the Low Cost Tray Sorters 2-4 at Carol Stream. No meeting yet.

Palatine RI-399

We are happy to report that the Local Dispute Resolution Committee met on March 28, 2006, and reached agreement on several issues. The meeting was called by Senior Labor Specialist Carey Thompson Sr., at the request of both Unions. Present for the APWU were myself, Dave Baskin, and Al Czerwinski. Present for the Mailhandlers were President Yulande Robinson, Mauella Clay, and Jennifer Brown. All submitted issues were discussed and agreement was reached on most of them.

Changes in Jurisdiction

The parties agreed to amend the functions in IPP to include a dumper, which was agreed to be MH work. In 2001 when the changes were last negotiated, the IPP operation did not include a belt, and the employees walked mail to BMC'S. The operation was changed after the Inventory was agreed to, but no dumper function was included, so clerks continue to dump. The parties in turn to agreed to change the jurisdiction of the 3 digit mail in the second floor Low Cost Tray Sorter to clerk. Manhandlers had been filing grievance because management had failed to staff a MH on the second floor except to load. The parties agree that all work on the second floor Low Cost is clerk work, with the exception of loading, which is assigned to the MH craft. (Loading is being disputed by APWU). The parties also agree to hold the APPS dispute at the local level pending the outcome of the national level grievance filed by APWU. We could not reach tripartite agreement on old 181 trays unit. APWU will re-appeal 181 grievances to Step 3.

Bulk Mail Meeting

A meeting was held on March 22, 2006 to discuss staffing problems in the Bulk Mail Unit at both Palatine and Carol Stream. Manager Leo Reese stated he is always understaffed because of the wait time for training in Oklahoma and the fact that employees bid in and out. We advised him to post more bids, and to use the ODL. We did not agree to the use of non-bid clerks to work in bulk mail. We did suggest, that if the ODL had been maximized and they needed to detail a non-bid clerk on a temporary basis, they should offer the detail to a clerk holding a bid pending qualification, instead of an employee off the floor. We will continue to file grievances when management works a non-bid clerk in bulk mail. Nothing has changed.

CS Clerk Bids to be Posted.

Approximately 80 bids will be posted at Carol Stream on April 18, 2006, in anticipation of the abolishment of SPBS bids. These newly created bids will be on tour 1 and tour 3 in automation and AFSM. Clerk Craft Director Calvin Taylor has been meeting with In-Plant Support Manager John Colao, and he reports there will be some weekend bids posted. Paper bidding was discussed, but the latest word is that bidding will be done by phone and on the kiosk. CCD Taylor advises all prospective bidders to make sure you have your bidding pin number. The awards will be posted on May 8, 2006 with the effective date of May 13, 2006.

Palatine Medical Unit to Close?

Representatives of both Unions will meet this week with Human Resources to discuss the possible closure of the Palatine medical unit. More information as we receive it.

Linda Turney on Excessing

Linda Turney is the President of the Illinois Postal Workers Union, and of the Schaumburg Local. Her office has been impacted by the recent clerk excessing mandated by the leadership of the Northern Illinois District, and she shares her views: "At the time lam writing this I have been told that excessing has been put on "hold". I have looked at Article 12 and I see no provision that allows for them to put us in a "holding pattern" for excessing. We are either being excessed or it is lifted. Article 12 dose require that overtime and PTF hours are required to be reduced prior to excessing. They obviously forgot that. Now they have decided to put us on "hold" until they cut overtime and PTF hours ... In my opinion, "hold" is something you do when talking to someone on the phone. It is not something you do to people's lives when they await a new job or a new office." Linda is right.

Park Ridge Merger Vote Sunday

A secret ballot vote will be held at the Union meeting on Sunday, April 9, 2006 on whether to accept Park Ridges with it's 17 members into the NWIAL. The members at Park Ridge voted on March 27, 2006 to merge with our Local. We support the merger with Park Ridge.

COPA Candy Sold Out!

Thanks to the Legislative Committee and Director Nancy Horan, as well as all the stewards who helped to sell chocolate bars for COPA. The effort was a success thanks to all of you, and to all the members who supported COPA by buying candy. Congratulations on a jobs well done, and we will continue to improve this Local’s support for COPA.

Condolences to National Business Agent John Clark on the recent passing of his mother.