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
November 15, 2008
The Carol Stream Plan
We met with Plant Manager Greg Johnson and In-Plant Support Manager John Colao on 11-12-8 to hear their plan for compliance with the nationally mandated "compression of tour 2". Their "plan" will eliminate 75 clerk jobs on tour 2 and assign 18 to tour 3 and 57 to tour 1. All 52 tour 2 automation clerk bids will be abolished and 22 of 31 manual distribution jobs will also be abolished. The plan is to assign all 75 tour 2 clerks to automation including the abolished manual clerks. This is a national plan to push senior clerks into automation on nights and into retirement. The senior clerks on tour 2 are being abolished nationwide. Only 6,000 of the hoped for 40,000 career employees took the early out, and management wants to cut 64,000 more jobs in 2009. Manual jobs will be posted closed section after the junior clerks are removed from the tour 2 section.
January 3, 2009
This is the effective date of the changes for both Carol Stream and Palatine. The original date given for Carol Stream was December 6th but 601 CCD Calvin Taylor asked and Plant Manager Johnson agreed to change his timetable. We asked them to consider assigning some tour 2 automation clerks to 1155 so they could keep their bids but our arguments were rejected. Carol Stream management feels theirs is the best plan for the company and the customer. All abolished clerks will be assigned on 1-3-09 but management does not know when they will post bids. The most senior clerks are being sent to nights and assigned to replace injured clerks holding bids on tours 1 and 3 (and to replace casuals). The statement was made that bids will be posted after the National Reassessment Process (NRP) when they find out how many clerks are referred to OWCP as NWA, meaning no work available.
Palatine: 175 to 157
We met with Tim Anderson and Industrial Engineer Blaze Steel on 11-14-08 at Tim's request to discuss the Palatine changes. They told us there will be a reduction in the proposed impact number we were given on 11-4-08 from 175 to 157. They said this change was made because they listened to the union when we told them tour 1 automation is chronically understaffed and a reduction of 20 bids makes no sense. These compression plans are all based on a computer program called "Run Plan Generator" that plugs in mail volumes and current productivity rates for each operation to arrive at the required staffing. We asked how there could be such a dramatic difference in the numbers for Carol Stream and Palatine and were told were comparing apples and oranges. Carol Stream has just under 700 clerks at 696 and Palatine has 720 (down from 801 in July). The mail volumes and complement are very similar so the question is why is Palatine impacting 157 clerks'?
Palatine "Closing the Gap "
This document details strategies for 2009. "Tour 2
automation will be moved from a 0700 start to 1155. The shift in start time will
allow compression of current tour 2 processing with outgoing operations. Manual
Flats and LCTS start times on tour 2 will also be moved from 0700 to 1155. Manual
letters, 2C, and Registry will be eliminated on tour 2. Review clerks
will not be required on any tour. Each tour requires only one general clerk,
requiring two bids to cover non-scheduled days. Only Gantry Robot and Express operations
will remain unaffected. Tour 3 automation will begin with outgoing processing.
DIOSS and DBCS/OSS equipment that began running at 1155 will shift into
outgoing operations at 1630 after the crews lunch break. Additional machines
will begin processing at 1600 and 1930. The 2C belt will be eliminated and
Registry will be moved to a start time of 1530. Gantry Robot, IPP, LCTS, and Express
operations will remain unaffected. Tour I automation will have start times of
2100 and 2230. Manual letters will start as 2000 and 2230. All AFSM will start
at 2300 and Manual flats at 2230. The 2C belt will be eliminated and Registry
moved to a start time of 2000. Gantry Robot, IPP, LCTS, and Express will remain
unaffected.
Increase in BPI to l00%?
This plan wants to "capture opportunity hours by increasing BPI from 80.7% to 100% in automation, and from 75.8% to 100% in automated flats. " Tim said one reason for the impact at Palatine is the low BPI. Palatine management thinks the way to increase BPI is to excess employees.
The $38.50 / hour Problem
For every work hour reduction management saves $38.50 in salary and benefits. If you don't understand why management does not care about you it's because they see you as a $38.50 per hour problem. That is why they continue to outsource our work and get rid of us while spending billions on the next generation of processing equipment for mail volumes that have now declined to 1977 levels. They have committed to the purchase of 100 FSS machines to DPS automated flats in spite of large declines in volume. PM Potter met with the senior executives in Chicago on 11-10-08. They were told FSS orders have been cut so if your district was getting 4 or 5 you will be getting only 3 now. I asked Greg Johnson about this and he said he was at this meeting and he has not heard of any reduction of the number of FSS we will be getting. Those meeting in Chicago work for the Company while the other 98% of us not in the senior executive
category work for the Service.
Savings under NRP
Included in Palatine's "Closing the Gap Strategies" is a planned savings of 19 full-time positions due to NRP with start date of 4-1-09. (19 x 38.50 = $566,720.) This information contained in this management document, and the fact that Carol Stream is waiting to post bids in part based on NRP, confirms what NRP is for. Each time we meet with the team of 3 in these interviews they read the script and pretend to be there for the employee. They are the lowly foot-soldiers in the management war on their own employees. I would not want to admit that either but you can't hide the truth.
Burrus to hold
Telecom
At the request of Local Presidents and union officials across the country, President Burrus and Industrial Relations Director Greg Bell will be holding a telecom on 12-3-08 to address these national attacks by the Postal Service. I faxed a letter to President Burrus on 11-14-08 on the tour 2 compression and the Reassessment.
Chicago Metro
Problems
There is another problem with the SPSB bids and we're all tired of waiting. Chief Steward Yolanda Safsaf continues to hear feedback that more SPBS bids and bids with good off days are needed. She has requested tour 2 condition reports to document that there is mail in the facility earlier than 1950 and SWYB clerks who were moved from 1700 to 1950 should not have been moved. They should be moved back to 1700 or earlier if there is mail to be worked . I have asked Plant Manager Ruby Branch to set up a meeting with the tour 3 clerks so we can both hear their complaints. I have also asked Ruby to schedule a meeting for tour 2 maintenance employees to address ongoing problems on that tour. I will be attending the monthly APWU Chicago District Labor-Management meeting which is held on the third Wednesday of each month so Busse issues are included in the agenda. The main issue is that Busse is understaffed in all APWU crafts and we need vacancies filled. Residual vacancies in the custodial occupational group stay un-filled for months because we are in withholding. It should not take forever to fill residual vacancies being held while work is being skipped and the building condition deteriorates.