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
February 24, 2006
Holiday Schedules And Discipline
Holiday Schedules And Discipline
We have seen a
marked increase in the number of disciplinary
actions as a result of employees not reporting for duty once they are scheduled
to work during holiday schedules.
Employees are reminded
that that if they are unable to report for duty on a day that they are
scheduled to work, they must notify the USPS if they will not be reporting for
duty.
When you are
calling in for a holiday or a non scheduled day, the
computerized system cannot enter leave for those days and employees are told to
contact their supervisor.
For Palatine and Carol
Stream, employees should contact leave control. The point is, it is imperative
that you call in. if you don’t call-in, management is generating 3971s for AWOL
NO CALL and there has been disciplinary action initiated.
Skills Bank Assignments, The Mentoring Program, And Your
Bid
The LMOU which was recently negotiated between the NWIAL and the USPS still has the skills
bank language. We anticipate more utilization of the skills bank since
there were some recent large monetary pre-arbitration settlements achieved. If
you are unfamiliar with the Skills Bank procedures, please contact your area steward.
Management has their
own program for non-bargaining unit assignments and the program is called the
Mentoring Program. This program is
not negotiated between the local
and management.
Employees that are
detailed to bargaining unit positions, within their respective facilities
have nothing to worry about as far as losing their bid assignments, because these are temporary assignments that are recognized
bargaining unit assignments. However, if you are in a non-bargaining
unit assignment,(204b, EAS, etc) you are NOT in the bargaining
unit and you run the risk of losing your bid assignment. If you are unsure regarding a skills bank assignment, you can always talk to
your union steward. If you're out of the bargaining unit, you can always talk to
management. If you are out of your facility, and
your bid does not necessitate travel, the chances are you in a non-bargaining unit assignment.
Pay Increase Effective 3-18-06
The first COLA
under the 2005-2006 contract extension amounts to 22 cents per hour increase,
or $17.60 per pay period. The ninth COLA will take effect March
18, 2006 (pay period 07-2006, pay dated April 7, 2006). Pay charts reflecting
this COLA and the 1.6% pay raise will be printed in the next APWU magazine.
1.6% Pay Increase also means a79 Cents
Dues Increase.
Effective pay
period 07-06, March18, 2006 there will be an automatic due increase of 79 cents
based on the 1.6 % pay increase.
This is in compliance with Article 16 of the national constitution.
Postal
Reform Legislation
The senate approved a postal reform bill by “unanimous
consent” on 2-9-06. Before the legislation can be sent
to President Bush differences between Senate bill (S.662) and House bill (H.R.
22) must be resolved. A conference committee is currently meeting behind
closed doors in to decide the fate of key provisions in the proposed postal reform legislation. Because they would make the
federal budget deficit appear larger under federal accounting rules, the
President has threatened to veto legislation if it includes two provisions. One
provision would release from escrow 3 billion dollars the USPS saved by ending
overpayments to the Civil Service Retirement System, and the other would return
military retirement-benefit liability obligation to the U.S. Treasury. No other
federal agency is required to pay these costs. Now is the time to contact your
US Congressman and Senators to let them know that you support postal reform that does not hurt postal employees.
Identify
Thieves Targeting Postal Employees &FEGLI
Nigerians posing
as representatives from the office of Federal Employee Life Insurance (FEGLI)
have been asking employees for their social security numbers, Employee IDs and USPS PINS. This group surfaced in Pittsburgh under the name Employee Service Division, UAF, and is
distributing business cards claiming to represent FEGLI and is based in Silver Springs, MD. If anyone matching this description contacts you,
cal1 your local Inspection Service office immediately. Never divulge your USPS PIN to anyone and only provide your social security number and Employee ID when you're using it for an
official purpose, such as on Postal-EASE or filing a health benefits claim.
If you believe your USPS PIN has been compromised, you can establish a new one by calling the employee
service line at 877-477-3273 and pressing 3. You'll be prompted for your social
security number, your current USPS
PIN and then prompted to select
a new 4-digit USPS PIN.
Posta1
PEOPLE Fairs
Many of the local
Personne1 Office functions will be processed at a national Human Resources
Shared Services Center located in Greensboro, North Carolina. This will begin in
the Northern Illinois District in
April of 2006. In her continuing effort to
prepare employees for these changes Ann Jones is sharing information on
upcoming postal 'PEOPLE Fairs to be held as
follows: Carol Stream P&DC
on March 6 from 3 to 9:30 pm and on March 7 from 6am to noon Palatine P&DC on March 8 from 3 - 930pm and March 9 from 6 am to noon.
USPS Briefs APWU on Plans to Realign
Postal Network
The Postal Service
provided along-awaited outline of the Evolutionary Network Development (END)
program in a meeting with APWU (national) officers on 2-14-06, on the same
day it submitted the plan to the Postal Rate Commission. The Postal Service is
required by law to seek an advisory opinion from the commission when it
proposes to make changes in service that are national in scope. Under the
Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Postal Service is also required to notify the
union when a major relocation of employees is planned “due to the
implementation of national postal mail networks." The APWU filed a Notice
of Intervention with the PRC on 2-15-06, advising of the union's
intent to participate in any proceedings that occur as a result of the
USPS plan. The USPS plans to replace the nine existing facility-types with the following five processing facility types:
Regional Distribution Centers which will process al1 classes
of parcels & bundles and serve as Surface Transfer Centers,
Local Processing Centers which will process single-piece letters &
flats and will cancel mail, Destination
Processing Centers, which will process single piece letters &
flats, Airport Transfer Centers,
which will serve as transfer points only, and Remote Encoding
Centers. Over a period of years, these facilities are expected to replace P&DCs,
etc. The network must change, according to USPS, due to declining first class
volume, redundancies in the existing network, and the need for
operational flexibility.