Nineteen elected delegates from the Denver Metro Area Local APWU will be attending the APWU National Convention in Los Angeles, California. The Craft Directors will also be attending the craft conferences just prior to the convention. The Craft Directors will be in Los Angeles from Friday, August 20, 2004 until Saturday, August 28, 2004. This includes Clerk Craft Director Brian Thomason, Assistant Clerk Craft Director Susan Kaminitz, Maintenance Craft Director Miguel Salazar and MVS Craft Director Fred Morin. Motor Vehicle Craft Steward Red Millard volunteered to travel with this group so he could attend the MVS Craft Conference at his own expense. The rest of the delegates will travel to the convention on Sunday, August 22, 2004 and will return on Saturday, August 28, 2004. These include President Dennis Enderson, Director Industrial Relations Paul Pearman, Administrative Aide Sandra Carruthers, Executive Director John Ancona, Recording Secretary Gail Kirby, Jackie Fleming, Safety & Health Coordinator Rick Romero, Bobby Rollins, Organizing Director Chris Arellano, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Coordinator Saundra Calderone, Dale Mitchell, Jim Elliott, Sandra Garcia and Political Director Tina Desautels. These delegates will represent our local at the most important gathering of APWU members that occurs once every two years. Convention delegates will decide upon matters relative to the Constitution and By-Laws of our union. They will consider and vote upon resolutions that will determine the priorities of our national negotiators in the future. They will perform all of the necessary work relative to the governance of our entire union. You have elected an excellent group of delegates. I am confident they will do a great job representing our local at the convention. We will appreciate your patience and understanding during the necessary absence of these union officials.

 

The US Postal Service has initiated a deployment to modify the AFSM 100 systems throughout the country. The modification is known as the Automatic Tray Handling System or ATHS. This system will automatically remove the full tubs from the stackers, and replace them with an empty, pre-labeled tub for the appropriate sort plan. The deployment start date for the Denver P&DC is August 8, 2005 with completion on September 30, 2005. It appears ATHS will impact AFSM 100 staffing. The Denver Metro APWU will work hard to minimize adverse impacts on employees and to ensure that any staffing changes are implemented with strict enforcement of all applicable contractual provisions. Please understand that operational changes are coming at us from all directions at an ever increasing rate. We are doing everything in our power to protect the rights of our members. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through the many challenges that lie ahead.

 

The APWU’s team played on August 15, 2004. I would like to thank those that made a contribution to this cause. The players that represented the APWU were Cody Thomason, Susan Kaminitz, Carl Pearman, Toni Florez, Brian Thomason, Miguel Salazar, Gary Scott, Dave Callahan and myself. Mercedes Scott played as our designated base runner. The Easter Seals Softball Marathon was a huge success, and it is a great feeling to know we contributed to its success.

 

Many officers and stewards are attending the APWU National Convention in Los Angeles from August 20, 2004 through August 30, 2004. An extension has been signed by Senior Labor Relations Specialist Tony Benitez and myself to extend those time limits that would expire during our absence. This assures your contractual rights continue in our absence.

 

The Denver facility is one out of 282 sites that will be installing the Biohazard Detection System (BDS). The BDS system will begin installation September 25, 2004 and be ready to go on October 8, 2004. The system is designed to detect the presence of Anthrax on mail passing through the Automated Facer Cancellers (ASFC’s). The BDS warning system responsibility is to act on the well being of the employees. Samples will be taken every hour. There will be a different alarm sound from a fire alarm. When the alarm goes off the employee will alert the supervisor and the process for evacuation will start at that time. Employees will be asked to evacuate in a calm and controlled manner. Once the alarm is set off it will take 90 minutes to complete the process to decide if it’s a valid detection. The BDS will only be operating when the AFC’s are operating. Once the employees report to their designated areas, a head count will be taken. Employees will scan their badges to make a head count. The Denver Metro APWU has been briefed on the implementation of this new system. We will carefully monitor its implementation and operation. We hope it will help to provide more security and safety for our membership in the future.

 

Seven delegates from the Denver Metro APWU attended the Colorado AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education (COPE) Convention at the Denver Renaissance Hotel on Friday, August 13^th and Saturday, August 14, 2004. This is the annual gathering of the governing body of the state organization. This year our primary mission was to consider endorsements of candidates for state and federal offices. This includes everything from the Colorado House of Representatives to President of the United States. The convention was co-chaired by Colorado AFL-CIO President Steve Adams and Secretary-Treasurer Paul J. Mendrick, former president of the Denver Metro APWU. The state organization did a terrific job of putting on this convention. We heard from a number of distinguished guest speakers, including Senate candidate and current Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar. We learned that Colorado is considered to be a “swing” state in this election, and will get a lot of national attention from both major political parties. Our eventual endorsements were based entirely upon which candidates we believed would best represent the interests of working people and organized labor. You will read much more about these endorsed candidates in the next issue of the Mountaineer. Our local was well represented at the convention by Executive Vice-President Gary Scott, Director of Industrial Relations Paul Pearman, Associate Editor Steve Claeson, Political Director Tina Desautels, AFL-CIO Vice-President Joe Quintana, Administrative Aide Sandra Carruthers and myself. We are particularly pleased that long time Denver Metro APWU friend Congresswoman Diana DeGette received a unanimous endorsement for re-election. Please watch your mail for the next Mountaineer to learn more!

 

The First Annual DMAL Membership Motorcycle Ride will be run in conjunction with the DMAL Membership Picnic, Sunday, September 12, 2004. Check in and continental breakfast will be from 8:00 AM until 10:00 AM at the union office at 15677 E. 17^th Ave. The ride will begin at 10:00 AM and end a couple of hours later at Clement Park, 7306 W. Bowles, the site of the Membership Picnic. Entry fee is $15 for single riders or $25 for two riders on the same bike. All riders will receive a union t-shirt. All proceeds will go to the Labor’s Community Agency to help APWU members when they are in need. Come out and enjoy the ride with other APWU members and their families while making a contribution to a good cause. Please contact the union office for more information and/or an application to participate in this unique event.

 

The Denver Metro APWU Scholarship Committee will soon select the five successful applicants for the $500 Moe Biller Scholarship Awards. The Committee is scheduled to meet on Friday, August 20, 2004 to begin reviewing and screening the applications received by the deadline of July 31, 2004. The Committee members are John Kelly a former long time APWU National Business Agent; Ron Gorman a former long time Associate Editor of the Mountaineer, as well as a former Motor Vehicle Craft Director and steward of our local; and Jim Deden, the legendary long time window clerk in the Commerce City Post Office. The successful applicants will be selected by no later than August 31, 2004. Good luck to all applicants!

 

Automation Deployment. The USPS is in Phase 2 of the Corporate Automation Plan (CAP). The plan lays out the strategies to automate letter, flat and parcel sorting, as well as bundle, tray and container processing.   The purpose is to reduce distribution costs through developing innovative technologies to automate distribution and material handling. The ultimate goal is to implement a “fully automated” operating environment. All APWU and mail handler crafts will be impacted.

The following provides an update on imminent automation deployment in the DMAL offices:

Watch for information on other automation deployment information as it becomes available. For example, coming down the line are automated sweeping and feeding systems for the AFSM 100.

 

Long time Denver Metro APWU steward Sonda Goss has agreed to be appointed as a Field Coordinator effective September 7, 2004. Sonda is also the current Secretary-Treasurer of the Colorado Postal Workers Union and has previously served as a Coordinator and as Clerk Craft Director of the Denver Metro APWU. Sonda will provide union representation at a number of Denver stations including Montbello, Montclair, Northglenn, North Pecos, Northview, Park Hill, Rocky Mountain, Stockyards, Sunnyside and Thornton. Along with these changes, Coordinator Chris Arellano will assume responsibility for three Associate Offices – Conifer, Evergreen and Morrison. We hope these changes will help to better distribute the workload and improve overall the quality of representation. Many thanks to Sonda and Chris for helping us to better serve our members.

 

Recently, we learned that Selwyn Epperson has been appointed as the new Postmaster of the Denver office. Congratulations to Mr. Epperson. We wish him the best of luck in his new assignment. We look forward to working with him in the future to help ensure continued operational success while protecting the interests of the employees we represent. We are currently meeting with Mr. Epperson in an effort to fill residual vacancies in Denver Customer Service offices. This mutually beneficial goal will help the Postal Service provide better service, while affording our members more opportunities to exercise their bidding rights for preferred assignments.

 

The Denver Metro APWU All American Membership Picnic is scheduled for Sunday, September 12, 2004 from 11:00 AM until 3:00 PM at Clement Park, located at 7306 W. Bowles Avenue. Food will be served from 11:30 AM until 2:30 PM. The picnic will include an excellent catered menu, a caricature artist, face painting, a watermelon eating contest, and many games for all ages. Games include a “giant moon bounce”, “bungee run”, volleyball and much more. Members and immediate family members are welcome. Clement Park is on Bowles Avenue east of Wadsworth, just across the street from Raccoon Creek Golf Course. This will be one of our best membership picnics ever. Don’t miss it!

 

/rb

opeiu #5

afl-cio