Floor Edition

June 08, 2010

Update by Jackie Engelhart

Fox Valley AMP

Dave Baskin and I went to the Fox Valley AMP Public Meeting to show our support as the Fox Valley Local supported us at the Palatine AMP meeting. Also in attendance was Palatine Senior Plant Manager Greg Johnson. The Fox Valley meeting was at Waubonsee College in Sugar Grove which gave rise to questions as to why management chose this out-of-the-way location instead of a more convenient site such as the Holiday Inn in Aurora. This was a public meeting in name only. The only member of the public to speak was one elderly lady who asked a couple of questions and then said she loved all of us and she didn't think this was a good time to eliminate jobs. South Suburban (and former Palatine) Plant Manager Mark Tovey said Fox Valley will not lose any job because they are gaining standard mail from other districts including the Northern IL District.

Palatine AMP

Fox Valley was able to save 40AMP impacted jobs by taking standard outgoing mail from other districts-and I wonder if Palatine could not have tried to take other mail to offset the loss of the outgoing first class mail. The worst of the Palatine AMP has Clerks being offered jobs-as far away as Iron Mountain Michigan and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania for Mail Handlers. Twenty Clerks who-did not qualify for Carrier jobs are being offered jobs out of state. There-are also four level 5 MH jobs at Carol Stream which cannot be offered to Mail Handlers because they cannot be placed into a higher level job. Many of the Clerks who did not qualify for Carrier jobs are off due to the NRP. We have told management they cannot place Clerks into jobs for which they are not physically qualified and they should not force injured Clerks who are off due to NRP to move to another state only to be put off work again by NRP.

Carol Stream to Retreat Clerks from MH Craft

On June 1^st we met the new A/Carol Stream Plant Manager Chuck Sciurba. He is the Fox Valley Plant Manager and is replacing newly appointed CS Plant Mgr. Lee Thompson who is on a detail in Michigan. We asked him when the Clerks would be returned from the Mail Handler Craft and he it will be done as soon as possible. There are 12 Clerks left of the 14 who were excessed to MH and they should all return within the next 28 days or so. They are needed to fill tour 1 jobs being vacated as new tour 3 bids are posted for the Palatine AMP mail. CS is taking 2/3 of the Palatine mail and the completion date is July 1^st. The total combined daily volume of 850,000 pieces is what CS used to cancel a few years ago and less than the 1.2 million Palatine was canceling a few years ago. The volume decline is the reason for the decision to consolidate outgoing mail to CS which they say they will save $10 million yearly by cutting 160 Palatine employees.

Palatine Tour 3 Automation

Greg Johnson has not responded to my requests for a meeting with tour 3 Automation Clerks. One question I would ask him is why new bids were posted instead of giving option letters to the new 1300 start time. I understand the desire to help the tour 2 Clerks whose 1192 bids were abolished but there is contract and LMOU language on option letters when changing the start time on bids for which the principal area of assignment and non-scheduled days are not being changed. Management did not post newly created 1192 jobs and then abolish the 0700 Automation jobs, they gave the tour 2 Clerks option letters to 1192. Clerks who had just been awarded 1300 jobs did not understand why they were being given letters of abolishment and/or being told they were excess to the needs of the section. These actions called into question the entire process and NBA John Clark was asked to conduct a review of the process. His conclusion was that management had circumvented Articles 37 and 12 by not providing option letters to the 1600 and 1800 incumbents. When John's review confirmed what we had said in the first place I called senior management to inform them and later faxed a letter to HR Manager Lingenfelser. She asked what did we want them to do and I said tour 3 should get option letters. Return the 1192's to 1192, repost any vacant 1192 jobs to 1300 by attrition, and give option letters to tour 3 Clerks who match with currently vacant 1300 jobs. Management added 59 new jobs to the 58 they already had in tour 3 Automation and they knew they only need 59 jobs, not 117.

Labor-Management at CMSH

We normally meet for about two hours but this meeting lasted for three hours. A/Plant Manager Tony Alvarado extended our time so we could finish the agenda. A big question was when will we get a copy of the staffing changes and we were told they are not ready to share them yet. We were told the first class STC mail has been shifted to the NDC and Busse will be a Priority Center. Busse will be the only facility in the country with three (3) APPS machines. Busse is also adding a second SPBS to be used mainly as a back-up and for heavy volume periods. We don't know how long Mr. Alvarado will be here but he seems to be a manager who will get things-done. The change of fortune for Busse is based on the relocation of the ISC from an expensive leased facility into the AMC O'Hare building and the mail change& resulting from the loss of the AMC mail processing operations. A few months ago Clerks and Mail Handlers were excessed out of the BMC (now the NDC) in Forest Park. Now some of those employees who were forced to relocate out of state are being asked if they want to return to the NDC! Either management at the Area level does not know what they are doing next or they know and they don't care about forcing craft employees to relocate out of state on a temporary basis. Management likes to say all movement is being done in compliance with the Agreements. but a decision to move employees from state to state on a temporary basis was not made by any Union. Busse has avoided this fate but the 300 employees at AMC O'Hare are now collateral damage.

NRP Update

A few more Palatine employees had job offers withdrawn as senior management continues to reduce the necessary work in that plant. Carol Stream continues to call overtime in manual units while Clerks sit at home because there is no work for them at Carol Stream. Management has finally provided most of the information requested by the Union for NRP grievances appealed to Step 2. While waiting for management to provide the requested information the NALC won a grievance on the NRP that directly attacked management's basis for withdrawal of jobs offer based on "necessary work". Because of the delays we were able to review the NALC case in preparation for our own cases. Most of the employees are still off of work and some have still not been paid by OWCP. Many are pursuing MSPB and/or EEOC complaints against the Employer for the withdrawal of job offers. "For thirty years or more the USPS had work for any restrictions but suddenly they have work for few. For thirty years they assigned the injured Clerks into letters, flats, and nixie instead of posting bids. At Carol Stream the flats unit was almost entirely staffed by injured Clerks with very few flats bids. Now management is pulling the rug out from under the employees who had assignments, not bids. With the posting of tour 1 flats and letters jobs at Palatine a few seniors may be able to obtain a bid and return to work. At Palatine, Ralph Ramion will continue to "'look" at what is necessary work which means more job offers may be withdrawn. The only security for injured employees in the NRP era is a (bid) duty assignment.