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
December 28, 2005
Local Update
by: Jackie Engelhart
Associate
Offices Targeted for Excessing.
On December 13,
2005 the union was notified at the area level, that management “anticipates”
excessing 67 full-time clerks & 22 PTF clerks from post offices in the
Northern Illinois District. Management has authorized the withholding of an
equal number of positions (PS level 5 and below) within a 100 mile radius of
the impacted offices. Management at many of the affected offices do not agree
with the planned reduction in staffing. These numbers are worst case scenario.
Targeted Offices
with NWIAL in Bold are:
Arlington Heights
(4)
Bartlett (3)
Buffalo Grove (5)
Des Plaines (6)
Crystal Lake (3)
Glen Ellyn (5)
Glenview (7)
Highland Park
(4)
Lake Forest (5)
Lombard (7)
Maywood (7)
Mt. Prospect
(7)
Mundelein (3)
Palatine (9)
Schaumburg (12)
Priority
shipped out of Busse during Xmas.
During the week
preceding Christmas, Chicago Metro surface Hub experienced a massive plan
failure. Mail was diverted to Carol Stream, Palatine, and several other
facilities. I spoke with employees and managers to find out what happened. I
was told that management would not call overtime on the regulars (to save
money). And they did not hire enough casuals. When a large group of casuals
walked out because their pay was messed up. Management could not get the mail
out. Normally, management maximizes the ODL for Xmas at Busse. This year there
little overtime for the regulars, while TE’s were went to the “AMC” Annex to
work overtime. TE’s should not be working overtime if the regulars are not
getting it. the Plant Manager assured me the TE’s were “changed to casuals
effective December 6th. This was not true but if it was true, it
would have been in violation of the contract. Plan Failure!
Priority is a
Clerk Unit
Manual
distribution of priority mail is clerk work at both Palatine P&DC and Carol
Stream P&DC. Management at Carol Stream decided to assign some of this work
to mailhandlers and the appropriate cross craft grievances will be filed.
Priority (clerk) bids were abolished after Priority mail was sent to Busse.
Jurisdictional
Disputes
The next threat to
jobs at the facilities will be the automatic Induction retrofit of the
AFSM-100’s scheduled for 2006. The results of jurisdictional disputes on jobs
at the automated Facer canceller Machines, APPS, and the AFSM 100 will affect a
large number of clerk crafts. These decisions/disputes are all national level.
Low Cost Tray
Sorter
A meeting is
scheduled for January 3, 2006 with Carol Stream A/Plant Manager Woodall, to
discuss the second Low Cost Tray Sorter. Management states, “no decision has
been made”, despite the existence of a signed tripartite agreement.
Carol Stream CFS
Unit Closed
The last day for
the Carol Stream CFS Unit was December 17, 2005. the unit is now history, with mail
consolidated to Palatine P&DC. I sat in with Walter Elerby, Mary Alexander,
and John Colao when the employees chose by seniority from available
assignments. Every CFS clerk I met was unbelievably nice when they came in, and
left wishing us all a Merry Christmas.
Wheaton &
Arlington Heights Units Also Close in December
All Wheaton clerks
were assigned to same or similar schedules without any problem. At Palatine, 8
Arlington clerks assigned to manual letters, are not only having their days off
changed, but are being assigned split starting times of 2350 Tuesday through
Saturday and 2150 on Sunday & Monday. While Carol Stream consulted with the
union and kept us informed as the assignments were made, I cannot say the same
occurred at Palatine P&DC. All bids in mail processing have one starting
time and I have no idea why the Arlington clerk would be assigned with split
start times. I spoke with Plant Manager Melvin Dean and he assured me he would
take care of this.
Holiday
Consolidations
Mail was consolidated
to Carol Stream for Xmas and will be consolidated to Palatine for New Year’s.
The reason for this is to save money. At Palatine, clerks who wanted to work
Xmas were not allowed to work, but they are drafting for new Years, in some
sections back to 1976. Once again, management has shown that they have no
intention of allowing as many employees off as possible on the holiday.
(Reprinted from
“101 Facts”)
“As of December 15th,
the USPS announced a total of 42 separate facilities that will be either consolidated
into other facilities or be “reviewed” for possible consolidations into other
facilities. The list grows almost daily. The USPS has announced that any and
all consolidations will be “reviewed” under an Area Mail Processing program.
This means that the Area Vice Presidents will be the ones making decisions on
consolidations. They will essentially get an automatic approval from
headquarters in Washington. The consolidations are the result of the END
(Evolutionary Network Development) programs. The END’s stated mission is to
migrate to a flexible network that increases operational efficiency, reduces
costs and improves consistency of service. The network infrastructure changes
include closing over 50 annexes, closing 38 Remote encoding centers, converting
BMC’s to Regional Distribution centers for bulk Standard Mail, and converting
Priority Mail Processing Centers to Logistics & Distribution centers that
process Multiple types of mail. In addition, the END will involve mail
processing performance between tours and among plants and post offices. These
plans will be implemented nationally in 2006 and will set critical entry &
clearance times by operations. Plant equipment & floor layouts will be
standardized at plants and post offices. Manual Letter distribution will be
reduced by 10% and flat distribution reduced by 45% by the end of 2007.
“Per President
Burrus”
“The long-expected
USPS network consolidation is now in progress. With individual offices being
notified of changes to their mail processing operations. Plant consolidations
represent one of the most important challenged facing the union. It is
imperative that local and state unions organize a grassroots effort, with civic
groups and community organizations, to stop the USPS from closing facilities or
consolidating operations in their area.”
Scholarship
Applications
Forms for the
Hallbeck Memorial, The Hill, and the Vocational scholarship programs are now
available. The applications must be postmarked no later than March 1, 2006 and
be received by March 15, 2006. Applicants must be the son, daughter, stepchild,
or legally adopted child of an active or deceased member of the APWU. The
applicant’s parent must be a member in good standing for one year preceding
application deadline.
Congratulations
Retirees!
Congratulations to
the following APWU members who are retiring:
Winnetka steward,
Ro Harr
Carol Stream
clerks: Shirley Jackson, Joe Urbanik, Nora Parker, Lillie Thomas and Yvonne
Bass. Congratulations on your retirement and thank you for being APWU members.
50-50 Drive
ends on 1-31-06
With the
continuing attrition due to retirements, etc, we need to continue to organize
the non=member among us. The 50-50 Organizing Drive will end on 1-31-06. We have
signed up approximately 50 new members during this drive, but we need to
continue our efforts to bring our co-workers back into the union. “In
solidarity there is strength” is not just a slogan, it’s reality.
From all APWU
officers & stewards to all APWU members & retirees:
Happy New Year!