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

May 06, 2007

Local Update by Jackie Engelhart

What We Are Doing.

In the last Local Line dated May 6,2007, I put out information on two removals issued at Palatine, and ended it by saying "Palatine P&DC is sending a message with this action. Be warned." On May 1 1,2007 we met with tour 1 Automation Clerks at Palatine to hear their concerns. Some of them said the comment "Be warned" was viewed as helping management to intimidate the employees. My intent was not to add to management's intimidation efforts, but to warn employees of how senior management thinks these days. The employees say they read the floor letters and they know what the problems are, but they want what we are doing. We are filing disputes and grievances on all crossing craft violations, including the unilateral transfer of Clerk work in the AFSM to Mail Handlers, the reversion of Clerk bids in Central Dispatch and Multi-Line in violation of the inventory, and any distribution work assigned to Mail Handlers.

Filing and/or Talking

We continue to file disputes and grievances for all contractual violations. We continue to talk to Managers, Postmasters, and Labor Relations on a regular basis. We have tried talking to senior management over the last two years, but have little positive results to show for our efforts. Palatine continues to deteriorate, and the same problems continue at Busse. We have reached an impasse with Ron Woodall and Lynn Smith., as the hardline approach seems to have won. Lynn has said he wants to work with us, but even his managers say he has changed. Ron Woodall appears only concerned about Mail Handlers, and continues to revert Clerk jobs and give our work away. We remain willing to talk on any issue any time, but there is no interest on their part. We felt it was time to take our problems to the Area, and met with Area Labor Relations to brief them on Palatine. We hope they take our concerns seriously.

Chicago Metro Hub

Where are the Clerk bids? Why is overtime in Scan called only for the Mail Handlers? Why are Clerks in long-term details but no jobs are ever posted for these details? Why are no bids posted for the SPBS, which continues to run one year after all bids were abolished? Some employees are being accommodated with seated work, but there are also able-bodied Clerks being assigned to SPBS daily. Why have they stopped running the FSM-1000, which was brought in a few months ago? Plant Manager Melvin Anderson stated bids would be posted for SPBS and FSM, and then he said bids would not be posted. We requested a meeting with Melvin to discuss bids and frustration on the lack of Clerk bids being posted. Clerks who have requested reassignment to the custodial craft should be called soon, as the Area has finally given approval to fill the 19 vacancies at Busse. We continue to see problems with LWOP and FMLA. See your steward.

AFSM-AI Issues

Carol Stream continues to work with 601 Clerk Craft Director Calvin Taylor to minimize the impact of AI on the affected Clerks. Calvin has been hacking all Clerks leaving the craft, resulting in a reduction in the number excessed to Mail Handler from 26 to 17. Calvin has been working closely with Complement Coordinator Bertha McGee, Tour 1 MDO Mary Alexander, and In-Plant Support Manager John Colao to minimize the adverse impact on the employees. At Palatine we have a greater impact and more Clerks being impacted, and we see most Clerk bids being reverted at this time. This will ensure that most of the abolished FSM Clerks are forced to the tour 1 pressure-cooker known as Lower Automation. We met with A/Senior MDO Danny Bracket and In-Plant Support Specialist Chachana Elliot on March 28, 2007 to give our input on where bids should be posted. The result was a "sea of blue paper," with almost all Clerk vacancies being reverted at Palatine. The only positive news is that the tour 2 abolished FSM Clerks are being assigned to tour 2 automation for now. This was not something we discussed with management and came as a surprise to us. Management states they are trying to work more mail on tour 2, and if they are successful, they will post more bids in automation. We received copies of the letters sent to the abolished tour 1 and tour 3 FSM Clerks on 5-8-07. The letters were dated 5-4-07 and notified them of their assignment to tour 1 automation on 5-12-07. They were given one week (or less) notice of the change.

NIOSH on the DBCS

NIOSH is the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health, and they have conducted studies in 1993 and 2006 on the flawed ergonomic design of the DBCS. The 2006 Denver Study concluded that short of a major redesign of the sweep side, the most effective way for clerks to avoid injury is to slow down the pace of work and reduce the amount of mail fed through the machine. The 1993 NIOSH ergonomic investigation of the DBCS described the multi-tiered stacker arrangement of the DBCS to be "A significant departure from good ergonomic design which places workers at high risk for lower back and shoulder disorders." NIOSH reports that the new DBCS are worse than the old ones, as they require the operator to reach higher and bend lower. Why was the DBCS deployed when NIOSH described it as a workers camp time bomb in 1992? The answer is money. A major reason for the deployment of the multi-tiered DBCS to replace the single-tiered BCS and the deployment of the four-tiered DIOSS DBCS to replace the single-tiered ISS is what management refers to as greater depth of sort. With 200 stackers vs. 60 stackers on an ISS, the mail does not have to be run as many times, and fewer Clerks will be needed. With Clerks making $50,000 per year plus benefits, USPS is committed to high productivity or big numbers. The problem is DB's are capable of processing a much higher volume

of mail than a human body can withstand over time, especially the sweeper. The USPS does not want to talk about this, but you have the right to work safely.

Help Desk to Close

We received a letter dated 5-14-07 from A/Personnel Manager Diana Robleski, notifying us that the Help Desks at both Carol Stream and Palatine will be closed effective 5-26-06. The Help Desk was set up to assist employees in using the KIOSK in the lobby for bidding, Postal EASE, and Human Resource Shared Services. The letter states employees will continue to receive service through the help desk number at 630-260-5624.

Constitution Changes Pass First Reading in May.

They will be read a second time at the June meeting (second Sunday) and if they pass the second reading, will become part of the constitution. The changes are 1) to delete the Assistant Clerk Craft Directors in May of 2008, 2) to publish Local Lines to the home up to 4 times and no less than 2 times per year, and to increase the New Director salary from $50 to $100 per month (as we have decided to go back to publishing the mailing in-house) and 3) a change to have the Secretary maintain the membership list by facility and craft (to reduce problems at election-time).

IPWU-NWIAL Seminar is Here

We are hosting the State Conference this year at the Arlington Sheraton on May 17-1 9. Human Relations Director Miriam Jackson, Social & Recreation Director Vera Wilkerson and their committee members have worked hard to plan this event, and we would like to see more of members or our Local take advantage of this opportunity to hear our national officers discuss the new contract, RI-399, Maintenance and MVS. Also, John R. Smith will be doing Retirement on Saturday from 9 am to 1 pm. We hope to see some of you there ...