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
November 25, 2005
Local Update
by: Jackie Engelhart
Happy Holidays!?
We continue to see
man-agement at both plants overdraft on holidays. If it is not a major holiday,
they call it a “working holiday”, but if it is a major holiday, like
Thanksgiving, they draft anyway. For Thanksgiving 2005, Palatine P&DC
decided to continue to do what they have done in the past, not take all volunteers
for Tuesday & Wednesday to avoid V pay, and then draft 100% on Thanksgiving
Day. I spoke with A/Plant, Manager Melvin Dean about this (briefly) on
Wednesday, 11-23-05 and he gave me the management explanation that the mail is
not here on Tuesday & Wednesday. We disagree with Mr. Dean on this, yes the
mail that comes in on Wednesday night is obviously not here on Tuesday and Wednesday,
but there is plenty of mail here at both plants to be worked. Management chooses
to draft on Thanksgiving to save money by paying the holiday (regular) rate of pay,
a opposed to paying all volunteers for Tuesday & Wednesday because they do
not want to pay the V pay. If all volunteers were allowed to work on Tuesday
& Wednesday, it does not take a rocket scientist to know that there will be
less mail to get out on Thursday, and management could allow more employees to
have the holiday off, which is what the, contract says.
Holiday Start
Times
Every year for the
major holidays we ask that employees be allowed to start earlier on tour 2 so they
can get home and enjoy part of the day. Every year management waits until the
last minute to coordinate with the other tours to let the Union know what units
will be allowed to start early, then the Union is expected to make the last minute
notifications to the employees, because that’s our job, because it’s for “our” employees.
Management continues the policy of 100% draft on holidays while they have the day
off.
Xmas & New
Year’s
Christmas day
& New Year’s Day both fall on a Sunday this year. The contract states that
when a holiday falls on a Sunday, and it is an employees’ non-scheduled
day, the following Monday will be observed as the holiday. Also, if an
employees’ non-scheduled day falls on a day observed as a holiday, the
employee’s scheduled workday preceding the holiday shall be designated as that
employee’s holiday.
Holiday
Consolidation?
I was informed by
Ron Woodall that the holiday mail would be consolidated to Carol Stream for Xmas
and to Palatine for New Years. We
will be meeting at
Labor-Management meetings at both plants this week, and we will ask exactly
what this means for the holiday scheduling. We will ask that management work with
volunteers only for these “major” holidays. It is and has been the Union’s position
that management take all volunteers for all 3 days of the holiday schedule
& not draft.
Labor Scheduler
“It’s official,
labor scheduler has been a bust.” These words were written by St. Louis Gateway
President Roosevelt Stewart. I am hearing that “the numbers are bad” at
Palatine and management has brought Carol Stream MDO Angela Sanders to Palatine
to help get the numbers up on tour 3. The Labor Scheduler changes went into
effect in June at Palatine and the overtime continues. The only difference
seems to be that the numbers (and service), have gone down. The Labor Scheduler
called for the excessing of 40 clerks (mostly from tour 1 AFSM and Automation)
to the mail handler craft. I have personally talked to personnel in the Associate
Offices and they wanted to know what was going on in Palatine. A/Plant Manager
Dean has “inherited” the results of the Labor Scheduler at Palatine. Shortly after
the Labor Scheduler was implemented at Palatine Ron Woodall was detailed as
A/Plant Manager to Carol Stream. Thus far he has not implemented any Labor
Scheduler changes at Carol Stream. Part of the reason for that is that the SPBS
and the SPBS operators will be needed until the Spring of 2006 when Irving
Park’s two APPS are scheduled to take CS outgoing mail.
Where are the C.S. Bids ?!
While bids
continue to be abolished at an unprecedented rate at Carol Stream, with the
elimination of the CFS and Wheaton units, management continues to “assign” the
"assigned" as opposed to posting bids per the contract. On conclusion
of “LDC68” interviews on tour 2, I was informed that 4 jobs would be vacated, 2
in AFSM and 2 in Automation. We are waiting for those jobs to be posted for
bid. They should be posted.
CFS Update
For Carol Stream
CFS clerks, we don't have much information, but we have been asking. I am informed
by Labor that In-Plant Support Manager John Colao is "working on it”. He
is matching CFS clerks up with positions being worked by casuals. Management informed
the Union & the CFS clerks weeks ago that the unit would be closing on
December 17, 2005, but the employees still do not know where & what schedule
they will be working. On November 23, Labor Specialist Fuechtmann and I asked
to speak to the employees for a few minutes and to let them know we would be
meeting with them this week as soon as we have some information. It amazed me
that the Supervisor did not want to stop the employees from working for a few
minutes to allow them to talk to us. Knowing that the unit will be shut down in
less than a month, and that the employees who have worked in this unit for
years would like to know what their future holds, the supervisor was more
concerned about losing a few minutes of production, than the employees being
allowed to ask a few questions. We did tell them that the Union would agree if
management allows them to keep their split days off and any excessing off tour
3 would be done by juniority. We hope management will have some information for
the CFS clerks this week.
Palatine CFS Unit
The Union was
informed recently that management will not be hiring Kelly Girls, as, they
believe the two CIOSS machines will be capable of handling, the CFS mail
without additional staffing. Two reasons for the success of the Palatine CFS
Unit are not the CIOSS, but the experienced CFS clerks and Manager Cynthia
Young, a manager who gets the job done & looks out for her clerks.
Serious Problems at Northbrook
AO Director Kathy
Stokes & I met with some of the Northbrook employees on November 18th to hear
complaints about OIC Raia. Also present on this date was the Local NALC
President and the Northern Illinois District Labor Relations Manager. He was
there to interview carriers concerning complaints about the OIC. Most of the
complaints we heard concern his instruction that employees must pick up a half
tub or 6 inches of flats and hold them while throwing flats. For many this is
uncomfortable & I saw a carrier throwing flats while struggling not to drop
the armload of flats she was trying to hold onto. Employees also complain about
being threatened with discipline for failure to meet “productivity requirements”
and for the OIG standing over them for long periods of time. There are no
productivity requirements for manual distribution, there are goals. I will be meeting
with Raia on December 1st to discuss these problems.
Constitution Changes
4 constitution changes
passed the first reading at the November meeting and will be read a second time
at the December meeting. If they pass the 2nd reading they will become part of
the constitution. Changes are posted.
New Stewards Appointed
Joe Golden was
appointed a clerk steward for tour 1 at Palatine. Sherry Thomas & Rogelio
Matias were appointed stewards at Chicago Metro Surface Hub.
50-50 New Members
Over 30 pew
members have signed under the 50-50 drive! Welcome all new stewards & new members.