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
September 07, 2007
Local Update by Jackie Engelhart
National
Election Ballots to be Mailed.
The APWU Election Committee will mail ballots for the
2007 National Officers Election Sept.12-15 and ballots are due back by 2 pm on
Oct. 5. Members who have not received a ballot by Sept. 20 are asked to notify their
local, or to contact the American Arbitration Association between the hours of
9 am and 5 pm (EDT) at 800-529-5218 to request a duplicate. To receive a
duplicate ballot, members must provide their name and the last four digits of
their social security number, along with their local, craft, mailing address,
and telephone number. Ballots may also be requested by e-mail to apwu@adr.org.
The Election Committee will supervise the vote count. Unofficial
election results will be posted at www.apwu.org as soon as they are
available. Official results are expected by Oct. 12. We cannot endorse
candidates in any Union publication, but we can say that this is your
President Burrus Testifies on
Privatization
The APWU President testified before the Senate on July
25th, saying the USPS has begun to travel down the road to privatization
without authorization from Congress or the American people, and he urged Congress
to exercise their right to set public policy. He testified the Postal Service
has adopted a business model that is designed to privatize mail processing,
transportation, maintenance and delivery. Burrus
described the Postal Service as "a private investor's dream: a tax exempt,
public monopoly, with revenues of $80 billion per year. "They
are eager to divide up the pieces of the USPS for their private gain. He
testified on the "Mailers Technical Advisory Committee", a panel composed
of high level postal officials and representatives of large mailers who meet in
secret to develop postal policy. Presidents of all four postal unions voiced similar
concerns.
APC's Phase II
Part of the USPS Transformation Plan is the deployment of Automated Postal Centers (APC's)The stated goal in Phase I was to move 40% of retail transactions to "alternate access channels" by 2010.The plan is not working as50% of the APC kiosks are not meeting minimum revenue requirements in 2006 and into 2007. The USPS has plans to purchase 3000 more APC's, but only 50 to 100 of the targeted offices have sufficient APC transactions to show a cost savings, and this purchase could result in a $115 million dollar loss. Phase II of the plan is now on hold while a plan is developed to increase revenue and transactions at the APC's.
APC vs. SSA Clerk
While lines at the APC may be short, lines at the window
usually are not. Many postal customers prefer transacting business with the
Sales and Service Associate at the window over the APC in the lobby, and postal
management is still trying to figure out how to change that.
USPS, OIG & FMLA
The USPS has often complained about the Family and
Medical Leave Act being abused by employees. The Department of Labor has
reviewed the FMLA and determined it is working as planned, but the USPS has
directed the OIG (Office of Inspector General) to investigate FMLA usage and
some employees have been accused by the OIG of exceeding medical limitations
and/or not adhering to the medical documentation submitted. All employees need
to know that management can have OIG investigate any questionable FMLA
situations, so be sure to adhere to any documentation you submit. This applies
to any medical documentation submitted, not just for FMLA documentation. Make
sure your documentation is accurate and you do not exceed your medical restrictions.
Bidding & Shared
Services
The change to Shared Services should be completed by 9-31-07,
at which time employees will be able to change personal data using PostalEase and LiteBlue from home
and Postal Kiosks (where available) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This will
include the ability to bid on postings from home. We have not been informed if
you will be able to view the postings from your home or if you will still have
to look at the bid board at work before bidding at home. It would make sense to
post the bids on-line and on the bid board.
Electronic OPF's Coming Soon
We advise all employees to contact Personnel to review
your OPF before these files are converted to electronic files. Make sure
discipline is removed and your beneficiaries are up to date.
National Reassessment
Plan
This is postal management's detailed plan to separate or outsource some injured employees. Phase 1 Steps are:
1. District
Assessment Teams established to review all medical documentation for injured
workers.
2. Light/Limited
Duty Standard Operating Procedures are set.
3. Employees
on light and limited duty are tracked.
4. Medical
documentation is reviewed and updated.
5. Form
50's indicating craft are reviewed to determine what work is "not"
available.
6. Employee's
supervisor verifies what work is being performed by injured employee and issues
a report.
7. NPR
Activity files are created for each ill or injured employee.
8. Job
offers may be created and offered to employee.
9. Maximum
Medical Improvement (MMI) of employee is determined.
10. District notifies Postal Headquarters they are ready for
Certification to move to Phase II
Phase II in Progress
District Management is doing the following:
1. Preparing
service talk for employees. (geared towards not alarming
workers).
2. Local
Unions are briefed.
3. Updates
of MMI employees made.
4. District
NPR and Operations Teams meet to discuss what work they will make available.
5. Local
commuting areas and installation boundaries are established.
6. Teams
start looking for "productive" jobs.
7. Teams
draw up list of employees for which there is no work and conduct interactive interviews.
8. No
Work Available is declared and employee is escorted out of the work, floor,
issued a CA 2a, CA-7 Compensation Form, and their badge is taken away.
9. Employee
is referred to workers comp and vocational rehab to outside employment.
This is management's plan to get rid of some injured
employees.
What Next?
We know management is deep into Phase II and preparing to
roll this out, and the
If your are designated as NWA,you should do the following:
1. File an EEO (contact the 800 number for forms and counseling) within 45 days for being treated differently than other employees. (discrimination).
2. File
an MSPB Appeal because management has failed to restore you to duty. Appeal within
30 days of being notified there is no work available. (Veterans)
3. File
a grievance within 14 days of being denied work or of being treated in a way
that violates the contract. (Get representation for all of the above.)
Management has obligations under the law, including the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, as well as
contractual obligations per Articles 13 and 19 and the EL-505, EL307 and the ELM
546. We are an aging workforce and any one of us could become an injured
employee. If your are not injured, do not allow
yourself to be pushed into working unsafe and becoming injured.