Floor Edition

April 12, 2010

Update by Jackie Engelhart

Exploiting Palatine

Whenever there is a natural disaster there are always unethical people who try to profit from other people's misery. At Palatine someone is attempting to exploit angry Clerks rightfully upset because of what management is doing. Greg Johnson and Ron Woodall have gutted Palatine and the employees are being told the Union can stop this. That it not true but this person is using the AMP to discredit the Union. She does not attack management but relentlessly attacks the Union. She passed out petitions at Palatine to be mailed to the PRC "demanding" an investigation of fraud regarding the AMP. She did not pass them out at Carol Stream because the petitions said Carol Stream should lose the mail instead of Palatine. Some employees signed them but those petitions had no effect on the AMP. The main reason they were circulated was to slander the Union.

Laughed out of Court

The same person has Clerks at Palatine convinced the Union should hire a lawyer to stop the AMP and save their jobs. This person knows the Palatine Clerks are desperate so this is a perfect way to look like she is doing something while we are not. The truth is we spoke to several lawyers including the one she recommended. His name is Adnan Shams and she promised he could go to court and get an injunction to stop the movement of employees out of Palatine. We sent him the information he requested and he called us back with his legal opinion. He and a second attorney both agreed he "would be laughed out of court" They said Mr. Shams will have to go before this judge for years and going forward with this case would damage his reputation and his credibility. We also spoke to Attorney Michael Slutksy who said we have no case. These lawyers gave their legal opinion based on facts.

The Facts About AMP

The reason these lawyers would not take the AMP to court is because Article 12 of the National Agreement and the PO-408 Handbook Guidelines for Conducting an AMP Study, give USPS the legal right to consolidate this mail. USPS-AMP lists in 2006 show Palatine as the gaining site for mail from Rockford and Carol Stream. When Woodall tried to AMP Rockford into Palatine he met stiff resistance from APWU, the local community and Congressman Manzullo. They were up in arms as they did not want their mail to be shipped 90 mails away to a "less efficient plant" so the USPS backed down. We tried to get the local community involved in the fight to keep mail in Palatine by taking out ads in the Daily Herald, and by meeting Congresswoman Melissa Bean whose represents Palatine but she said there was nothing she could do for us, as did Senator Durbin's office. The only . way the Palatine AMP will be stopped is if they can't get the mail out.

Palatine Clerks Leave, Management Works the Mail…

Palatine Supervisors were busy on the first night after some of the 61 Clerks left. Most of them were working in Automation with the help of a few Mail Handlers who were required to cross crafts. Not all of the 61 Clerks have left and they couldn't get the mail out without Supervisors and Mail. Handlers staffing Automation. Maybe they should call the Senior Plant Manager in for overtime. Mr. Johnson said the 61 Clerks had to go to raise the BPI in Automation to 90%, but he didn't say that meant using Supervisors and Mail Handlers. Management is confident their plan will work but they haven't even lost all of the 61 Clerks "on this round" and they're already having trouble. At Carol Stream they continue to call overtime while trying to absorb 30 percent of Palatine's mail. They call overtime in manual flats and letters but the employees who normally work in these units were walked out of the building because they are injured. Their game plan is to get rid of employees. Greg Johnson says the AMP will work and customers will see no change in service. We disagree as we are tracking delayed mail with only 30 percent of the Palatine mail going to CS.

Rescind the 26 CS Letters!

The AMP staffing adds 37 Clerk

jobs at CS but instead management issued 60 day notice letters to excess 26 Clerks. The letters should have never been issued as management knew they were planning on taking Palatine mail. They knew they would not be excessing out of CS but they let the Clerks think they might be moved. Rescind the 26 letters at CS!

CS Clerks in MH Craft

There are still 14 Clerks excessed to the Mail Handler Craft at CS and they don't want to come back to the Clerk Craft but the contract says "The employee shall be returned at the first opportunity to the craft from which reassigned."They do not want to come back to the Clerk Craft because they will be junior and they know the havoc that has been played with lives of Clerks in the Northern Illinois District. They also know they will most likely be working in Automation as opposed to the non-automated units they now work. With the shortage of Clerks at CS and the AMP completion July 1st deadline it would make sense to return all 14 Clerks from the MH Craft at CS, but management may return only six Clerks to raise their BPI. They will continue to under-staff until they can't get their mail out.

Palatine T3 Vacation Grievance

600 CCD Marcia Lloyd reports that grievances have been filed for Palatine's violation of the LMOU for management's blatant refusal to approve 14% leave for vacations for tour 3 Clerks due to the AMP. Their actions clearly violate the contract and the LMOU and they lost this issue before on tour 1. Mr. Ramion thinks he can deny vacations because Palatine is excessing and Mr. Johnson must agree because he did not stop it. The denial of leave may get worse .at both plants as management tries to get out the mail with fewer and fewer employees.

12-Page Step 2 Appeal for NRP

NRP grievances at Palatine have been denied at Step 1 and sent to Step 2. The NWIAL Step 2 Appeal is 12 pages to cover all legal and contract violations.

CMSH Staffing News

The Chicago-land Metro Plan is the name of the plan to split up AMC O'Hare mail to IPR, NDC, and CMSH, due to the plan to relocate the ISC into the O'Hare building and then excess most of the 350 employees out of their own building. CMSH will lose all their first-class mail to the NDC but management has not finalized their new staffing plan so they have not shared it with the Union. The don't have much time because the date for the changes is supposed to be May 15th.

NWIAL Stewards Leaving

Two Stewards are leaving Palatine as a result of the excessing. Tour 1 Steward Mark Johnson went in lieu of to the ISC and Chris James opted to waive his Steward superseniority and go to an AO. Both of these Stewards will be missed as will all the Clerks who are now leaving Palatine. All of the 61 wound up going senior in lieu of, and some of them are happy to get out of Palatine and into day jobs so they can lead a normal life. CMSH tour 1 Steward Raymond Stripling has stepped down as of March 31 st, and we hope he will change his mind in the near future. All of these Stewards did a good job and we thank them for their service to the membership.

Dave Baskin Running for NBA

Vice President Dave Baskin has recently made the decision to run for the National Business Agent vacancy created by the retirement of our own John Clark at the end of his term. National elections will be in the fall and the only other candidate for this NBA job so far is Mike O'Hearn who is the President of the Kankakee Local. Both candidates are experienced arbitration advocates.