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
April 21, 2006
Local Update by Jackie Engelhart
Thanks
John Clark!
On April 17,2006 our National Business Agent, John Clark
settled two major Palatine leave class actions grievances that were scheduled for
arbitration the following day. John had been in regular communication with us
and he had his witnesses lined up. The day before the hearing John was
contacted by his management counterpart with a settlement offer.
Two Major Leave Issues Settled for Palatine P&DC
The first
issue resolved concerns what we refer to as the "Tovey-Coleman
Agreement". This agreement was signed at Palatine P&DC on November30, 1992
by Plant Manager Mark Tovey and Tour 2 Chief Steward Gwen Coleman (Riley). This
agreement states "It is mutually
agreed that if an employee calls in
for leave of 16 hours or more,
the first eight (8)shall be
unscheduled and the remainder shall be considered as scheduled leave."
Thanks to
Gwen Riley!
Gwen
Coleman-Riley was the author of this agreement, and she deserves credit for
being able to negotiate this leave policy in 1992.
Faxed
Medicals
The second
issue settled by John Clark concerns faxed medicals. The settlement states "Furthemore,
consistent with past practice, in those instances where an employee provides
acceptable medical documentation for an absence at least one (1) hour prior to
the employee's scheduled starting time, the absence will be recorded as
scheduled leave. Consistent with past practice and the national level decisions
in Case# HIC-3T-C 40742 and case H4C-3A-C-6934, faxed medicals are acceptable subject
to verification on a case-by-case basis."
Plant
Manager Woodall Refused to Honor these Agreements.
When Ron
Woodall became Plant Manager at Palatine he informed the Union management would
no longer honor either of these agreements. The Union did not accept this
unilateral action, and we continued to file individual grievances for each affected
employee. Most of these grievances were sustained at either step 2 or step 3
of the grievance procedure. In spite of this, management continued to
unschedule leave when employees faxed in medicals prior to the start of their
tour for a sick leave cal1 in, and continued to take the position that the
agreements were no longer in effect.
Thanks Al Czerwinski!
When John
Clark called me with the good news, I thanked him and stated management is
aware of his excellent reputation as an arbitration advocate. He responded that Al Czerwinski deserves a lot
of credit because he managed to include both issues in his class action grievance.
"AL Z" filed a well-written and well documented
grievance that covered both issues. The combined Union experience of John, Al,
and Gwen will benefit employees at the Palatine P&DC for years to come.
Arbitrator
Rules Against Upgrade of Registry Clerk+
On April 16, 2006
Arbitrator John Fletcher ruled in favor of management in a grievance filed at
the Palatine P&DC for upgrade of the Registry Clerk position from level 5
to level 6. The hearing was held on March 29, 2006. The award summary states "The grievance filed in this matter is denied.
The Union has not established that any Distribution Clerk assigned to the Registry
Unit in the Palatine, Illinois Processing and Distribution Center has charge of
a mail processing activity and works without regular administrative and
functional supervision - key
ingredients for the classification of a Special Postal Clerk, Level 6."
Our own National Advocate Doreene Motley made an excellent presentation at the
hearing (which lasted most of the day) but the arbitrator did not agree with
the Union's grievance. Thanks to Doreene for her hard work as a National Arbitration Advocate.
Carol
Stream Bids Posted
A large group
of bids was posted at Carol Stream on April 18th, to create bids where needed, and to create
bids for abolished SPBS and CFS clerks. Once al1 bids are filled there should
be no more clerk casuals at Carol Stream. We will continue discussions with management
in regards to posting bids where needed, including on tour 2. There remain six
custodial vacancies, three on tour 2. Any one interested should send at letter to
the plant manager, or these positions will be filled by clerks excessed from
other offices. These custodial vacancies will be filled soon, and this will
eliminate the use of casuals in the custodial maintenance craft at Carol
Stream.
Zero
Tolerance!
For whatever
reason, there have been several “incidents” at Palatine P&DC recently,
resulting in both involved employees being placed in an off duty status without
pay. In most of these incidents, the only evidence management has are the statements
of the involved employees. Quite often there are either no witnesses, or the
witnesses do not want to write a statement for management because they do not
want to see a co-worker get fired as a result of their statement. We al1agree
that, violence should not be tolerated and that al1 employees have a right to a
safe work place. The Union has written about this subject many times, in hopes
that employees will think before they act, and not allow themselves to become
involved in an altercation at work. For whatever reasons, this message has not
gotten through to everyone, as we have employees out right now, who are
awaiting management's decision on whether they will be coming back to work or
not. In most of these cases, it is the
word of one employee against another. Management conducts an investigation, but
in most cases this is al1 they have, the statements of the involved employees.
Once an employee reports an "incident" to management, chances are
very good that both employees will be called into the MDO's office and shortly
thereafter walked out of the building. After that they will be out of work
without pay until management conducts their investigation. Once an employee is
put out, management is not too concerned with how long these employees are out.
Do not put
yourself in this position! Think
before you act & if provoked, walk away!
Why is
this Happening?
No one reason can explain the rash of incidents at Palatine recently, but the Union contends that management's ever-escalating and unrelenting focus on numbers and the resulting pressure to obtain them, has played a part in the increasing stress in the USPS work environment. This fact is not exclusive to Palatine but it may be more severe there. I firmly believe that management needs to sit down with the Unions to discuss some of the problems on the work room floor that may be contributing to these incidents. The Unions are constantly coming to management with complaints in regards to the conduct of certain supervisors. We continue to complain about the same things over and over, because management continues to allow it. Management is caught between two contradictory goals, first and foremost is to move the mail and continue to improve productivity, and second is to maintain a work place of “dignity and respect”. These two have a hard time co-existing, and usually the pressure to “get the mail out” and “get numbers” wins out. The concept of “a fair day's work for a fair day's pay” has become a continua1 expectation to increase the amount of work performed by each employee, with no end in sight. This pressure to increase productivity falls most heavily on the unit supervisor. It is interesting to note that two of the recent incidents involved disagreements between 204-B supervisors.
“Roundtable
at CMSH"
On 4-14-06 a "Roundtable" was held at Chicago Metro Surface Hub to discuss ongoing complaints from employees of both crafts in regards to treatment by MDO's and supervisors. Both Unions will meet with Plant Manager Anderson again.