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
April 14, 2008
We had our monthly meeting with
Northern IL District Manager Robert Hart on 4-11-08. We usually meet with Mr. Hart,
the Human Resource Manager and the Labor Relations Manager, but this time he
included Senior Plant Manager Woodall, Carol Stream Plant Manager Johnson and
Palatine Senior MDO Bracket.
Mr. Hart told us that mail volume
is down for first class and periodicals, and overall volume levels are close to
the post-anthrax scare numbers, when people were afraid to send mail. He said
after the May 12th rate increase we can expect the volume to go lower and Ron
predicted a dismal summer. Standard mail is the only category to increase in volume from 101 billion in 2006
to 104 billion in 2007. Continuing mail volume decline is driving management
plans for Clerk excessing, sending light duty employees home and the National Reassessment
Process.
I was encouraged that the Plant
Managers were present at this meeting because they're the ones we need to talk
to. Light duty Clerks being sent home, employees unable to get incidental
leave, and Clerk excessing are subjects that should be discussed with the
Union. Ron said they are working on impact statements for both Palatine and Carol
Stream, but the Palatine impact statement we discussed weeks ago is dead. That
impact statement was based on the removal of the FSM-1000. When we met on that
proposed impact our input was that the 30 newly created Manual Flats jobs more
than made up for the loss of 28 FSM l000 jobs. We also noted that management did
not reduce the casual work hours at all, while the contract requires them to
reduce casuals to the extent possible prior to excessing. Ron had warned us
that the next impact statement would include declining mail volumes.
Mr. Hart to Meet with Palatine
Tour 1 Upper Automation on May 6th
Tour 1 Upper Automation Clerks
have asked us to request a meeting for them with Bob Hart and he informed us
that he will meet with them on May 6th, and he asked Ron Woodall and Danny Bracket
to be present. We consistently have more problems and complaints in this unit
than any other. We look forward to these Clerks being able to voice their
concerns directly to the District Manager and Senior Plant Manager.
I wrote a letter to Senior Plant
Manager Ron Woodall on April 9th, informing him that Clerks were being denied
reassignment to the Custodial Craft by Carol Stream Maintenance Manager Ken
Pellech while management was approving requests for employees outside of the
district. I did not think Ron would agree with this policy and I was correct as
he said this will be fixed.
USPS employment statistics showed
a continuing decline in the career workforce at the end of 2007, ending the
year with 681, 013 career employees down 1.9% from 2006. The decrease of 13,329
career jobs was more than made up for by 21,537 added casual workers and 11,801
transitional employees.
We will be meeting with the new Plant
Manager Ruby Branch on 4-18-08 to discuss labor management issues and to get
the updated mail changes. We will be asking what management has been telling
employees on the floor about these changes prior to discussing them with the
Union.
We will also be discussing
another in a long line of incidents of a certain A/MDO screaming in an employee's face as a method of communication. Management is aware of this
latest incident which occurred a week ago and they have given no response to
the Union in regards to the incident report sent to the Plant Manager and Operations
Manager by me. Similar incidents have been discussed with Plant Managers Melvin
Anderson and Brian Stewart, as
well as current Operations Manager Shanteau Anderson. Their response was
"we're working with him" and "he gets the mail out". We
have talked to the Mail Handler Union and they have similar complaints about
this A/MDO. This manager has shown he is unable to control his anger when
speaking to employees and he is creating a hostile work environment with his
repeated outbursts and yelling in the face of the subject employee.
According to Postal Reporter. com
Postmaster General Jack Potter and members of Headquarters staff made conference
calls to each District Manager with direct instructions to reduce supervisory
positions within each district. Each district has been, given a target number of supervisory positions that must be
eliminated ranging from 26 to 47 positions per district. The editor expects
increased used of temporary supervisors to fill local office requirements as
needed. The plan is similar to using casuals in place of full time employees.
The APWU has filed a
national-level dispute over the Postal Service's practice of requiring
employees to automatically provide new medical certification for a serious
health condition with the first absence in a new leave year, simply because the
old leave year has ended and a new leave year has begun. It is the APWU
position that once an employee has provided the Postal Service with an FMLA medical certification, it
is improper for them to automatically require recertification simply because a new
leave years has begun.
The 2006 Postal Accountability
and Enhancement Act includes a mandate that the USPS comply with the Securities
and Exchange Commission rules that implement the Sarbanes-Oxley Act by fiscal
2010. The act was passed after Enron, and requires corporations to report on
the effectiveness of their interna1 controls, with the goal being to ensure the
accuracy of financial reporting. The USPS is the first federal agency mandated to
comply with the act and thus faces unique challenges. USPS must give a
liability estimate for every grievance we file.
This is a constant refrain I hear from Danny Bracket and he wants to know why I don't put it in the Local Line. We have put it out and we will put it out again, because we do not want employees to jeopardize their jobs unnecessarily. We also don't want to see employees punished for being sick and unable to work. If you are abusing your leave consistently you are putting your job in jeopardy because management is serious about getting rid of people who don't come to work. If you have legitimate reasons for your absences your case is different from some one who is abusing their leave and the facts will prove or disprove your case.
If Everybody Came to Work..
During our 4-11-08 meeting, the question
was asked "what would happen if everybody came to work?" There was a
pause, and I said, "management would excess more clerks." Mr. Hart
said that was what he was going to say, but he didn't think he should say that.
Danny and Ron were saying that if more people came to work they wouldn't be closing
the leave books and could give people a day off. We know how management thinks,
and they have said "if everyone showed up to work one day we would have
too many people. “If we all came to work management would keep the leave books
closed, excess more Clerks and replace them with casuals. The 14% issue will be
arbitrated at Palatine on 4-16-08 by Vice President Baskin with assistance from
Tour 2 Chief Steward Al Czerwinski.