Due to the disaster from hurricane Katrina on the gulf coast, I would like to remind everyone that thousands of Postal Workers have been impacted by this terrible storm and subsequent flooding. The APWU, in concert with the other Postal unions and the USPS established in 1990 a Postal Employee Relief Fund. Please consider sending a contribution to help our brothers and sisters who were devastated by this natural disaster.

Due to the hard work of Tom Calaci and John Hegan, another PTF will be converted to regular at the Longmont Post Office. In addition, the grievance to convert the senior PTF to regular in Lyons is advancing through the grievance procedure.

Due to the efforts of Castle Rock Steward Horst Pettenati, three PTF’s in Castle Rock will be converted to full time status. Congratulations to the new full time clerks and many thanks to Horst for the enthusiastic efforts he put forth in this case.

One provision of the recently ratified extension of the National Agreement calls for the union and management to once again establish pilot programs for modified work schedules. Specifically, such modified schedules would consist of four 10 hour work days with three non-scheduled days each service week. 

Several months ago, the Denver Metro APWU kicked off a drive to increase our local’s contributions to the APWU’s Political Action Committee, COPA. So far, our efforts have yielded excellent results that are drawing positive attention from APWU President William Burrus. I have received two letters from President Burrus acknowledging our increased contributions and thanking our members for their generosity towards COPA. While we are happy with our improvement so far, there is much more work to do. While few of us relish the idea of giving money to politicians, it is one of the best ways to gain their respect and capture their ears with regard to our vital legislative issues. Now, more than ever, please understand how important it is to donate to COPA. Your money will be used to help protect us from legislative attacks. By law, not one cent of dues money may be donated to political candidates. We are totally dependent upon your voluntary gifts to COPA for such purposes. Just a few bucks per payday would help a great deal. Thank you for your ongoing support!

The national APWU and management have given notice that the Postal Service will soon begin to install Automated Postal Centers (APCs) at the counter line in a number of offices around the country. We have received specific notice that APCs will be installed on the counter line in Evergreen, Parker, and at University Park Station in Denver. What does this mean for us? As you will recall, APCs have existed in the lobbies of postal facilities for quite a while. Now, we will have “Robo-Clerk” existing side-by-side with Window Clerks at the actual counter line. Obviously, this is an effort to further encourage customers to use these machines in lieu of going to an actual person. So far, we have been given assurances that there are no immediate plans to excess and abolish existing Window Clerks. However, in the long term, there are no guarantees. The ultimate success of APCs depends upon the willingness of customers to use these devices. In the mean time, we strongly urge all window clerks to do your job to the very best of your ability. We believe that APCs are a very poor substitute for a highly trained and effective Window Clerk. If you do your job well, postal customers will vote with their feet and the APCs should go away. We will continue to carefully monitor this process to ensure that our contractual rights are protected to the maximum possible extent.

We have believed for some time that Mountaineer Editor Steve Claeson is creating the best local newsletter in the American Postal Workers Union. Now we have the evidence to support this perception. At the recently concluded APWU National Postal Press Association Conference, the Mountaineer received three major national awards from a panel of expert judges. These included a First Place award for Best Front Page, and an Honorable Mention for the Hank Greenberg Award for Best New Editor. The most important honor was a First Place Overall Excellence Award for the Best Non-Professional publication in the entire union. Congratulations to Steve Claeson for these outstanding awards!

The national parties have agreed to implementation criteria relative to local negotiations. Each installation has a Local Memorandum of Understanding as a companion to the National Collective Bargaining Agreement that covers a list of 23 items not specifically addressed in the contract. Normally, each local agreement is re-negotiated sometime after the completion of the National Agreement. The contract extension calls for a 30 day period of local negotiations to occur sometime between October 3, 2005 and December 1, 2005. Either party may request to open local negotiations in a given installation. We are currently reviewing each of our several dozen Local Memoranda to determine whether there are items that need to be addressed. For this round of local negotiations, one nice provision achieved by President Burrus was a prohibition against impasse arbitration. This means that management may not attempt to cancel all or part of a local Memorandum through the impasse procedure. If the parties fail to agree on new language, then the existing language will remain in effect for the life of the current National Agreement. In effect, we are able to negotiate in a relatively “risk free” environment. (However, please remember that the union is also prohibited from appealing any items to impasse arbitration as well.) Once our review is complete, we will decide which offices, if any, for which we will request local negotiations. Now is the time for any interested member to communicate your wishes and concerns to your union officials. Please let us know of any changes you would like to see in your Local Memorandum. We will do our best to address the legitimate concerns of our members. Thank you for your input and active participation in this vital process!

The Collective Bargaining Agreement is a collection of agreed upon work rules. The better we know and understand those rules, the stronger we become as an union and an organization. If you believe a contractual violation has occurred, you have 14 days from the date of the occurrence or the date when the grievant or the union may reasonably have been expected to learn of the occurrence to file a grievance at Step 1. For example, when an employee receives a N-TOL/Letter of Warning, day one of the 14 days is the day after received. Here are some questions that were left on my voice mail at 303-365-1524 ext.13:

On Saturday, August 27^th, the DMAL/APWU sponsored two teams in the 2005 Bud Light Softball Marathon. DMAL Easter Seals Coordinator Toni Flores was successful in gathering a very attractive group of middle aged retired athlete members to participate in a day of fun! The teams were drafted and the stacked “Yankees” led by the DIR, had their lunch handed to them by the team led by the Executive Vice-President. Fun was had by all and a total of $1400 was raised. Thanks to all who participated and also to those who contributed to this worthwhile cause. See you next year.