APPS Impact Becoming Clearer
by Dennis Enderson, President
Recently, postal management met with local union officials to share the latest information about the anticipated impact of the Automated Package and Parcel Sorter (APPS) on staffing and scheduling at the Denver Mail Processing Annex (MPA). This information was shared via standup talks on all three Tours with employees at the MPA. The best available information is as follows: Once it is placed into full production of live mail, the APPS machine will operate seven days per week from noon until 7:00AM, which allows for a 19 hour run and a five hour “maintenance window” each day.
Within a very short time, two of the existing three SPBS machines will be decommissioned, dismantled and removed from the facility. One SPBS machine will remain for the time being, along with one 18 person SPBS crew on each Tour. This means that a large number of existing SPBS clerks will be excessed and abolished from Tours 2 and 3 so that the staffing on each tour is reduced to 18. Tour 1 will not require excessing because current staffing is already at or below this level. In addition, all manual distribution clerks will be excessed and abolished from Tour 2. On Tour 3, there will be no reduction in the total number of manual clerks, so none will be excessed.
However, there will be a significant realignment in scheduled days off. This will necessitate in-section bidding for current Tour 3 manual clerks. The bidding will be in-section because retreat rights were established for this section retroactive to July 2003, and impacted sections with active retreat rights always require in-section bidding in accordance with the National Collective Bargaining Agreement.
All of these staffing changes will take effect on January 21, 2006, the date negotiated by the parties at our recent meeting. We hope this will allow impacted employees time to adjust to new schedules, along with time to seek new duty assignments. We do expect a large number of clerk craft vacancies to be posted on the Denver Personnel Memorandum (DPM) in November, December and January. We urge all employees to carefully review the DPM in the coming months.
All excessed and abolished clerks will receive retreat rights to their former sections on their former tours. Retreat rights are preserved only by bidding all vacancies posted in an employee’s former section and tour, not just those duty assignments with the same scheduled days off. These employees will also receive one extra bid during the current contract cycle.
We caution all employees that this staffing structure is probably very unstable, and subject to rapid additional reductions in the near future. It will all depend upon the efficiency and effectiveness of the APPS machine. Please understand that, while we have no hand in the Postal Service’s operational decisions, we will do everything in our power to defend and enforce the contractual rights of every impacted employee. Our contract provides outstanding protections that guarantee every employee a full time job with the full rights and benefits of a career employee, even when our jobs are eliminated by automation. We are much better off than our thousands of unemployed sisters and brothers in the airline and manufacturing industries! Please stand with us as we work through these challenging issues in the months and years ahead!
News From the “Real World”
by Dennis Enderson, President
Here’s an article from today’s headlines about life in the “real world”. Every one of these 30,000 employees who are being laid off was protected by a union contract. I’ll bet they wish they were covered by our National Agreement. Reading stories like this one really helps me to appreciate how fortunate we are as members of the American Postal Workers Union!
GM to Close Nine Plants, Lay Off 30,000
Associated Press, Monday, November 21, 2005
Detroit – General Motors Corp. (GM) will eliminate 30,000 manufacturing jobs and close nine North American assembly, stamping and power train plants by 2008 as part of an effort to get production in line with demand.
The announcement Monday by Rick Wagoner, chairman and CEO of the world’s largest automaker, represents 5,000 more job cuts than the 25,000 the automaker had previously indicated it planned to cut.
GM said the assembly plants that will close are in Oklahoma City; Lansing, Mich.; Spring Hill, Tenn.; Doraville, Ga, and Ontario, Canada.
An engine facility in Flint, Mich., will close, along with a separate power train facility in Ontario and metal centers in Lansing and Pittsburgh.
Wagoner said GM also will close three service and parts operations facilities. They are in Ypsilanti, Mich. and Portland, Ore., as well as one unidentified site. A shift also will be removed at a plant in Moraine, Ohio.
“The decisions we are announcing today were very difficult to reach because of their impact on our employees and the communities where we live and work,” Wagoner told employees.
“But these actions are necessary for GM to get its costs in line with major global competitors,” he said. “In short, they are an essential part of our plan to return our North American operations to profitability as soon as possible.”
PTF Clerks Make Regular in Golden Office
by Dennis Enderson, President
Recording Secretary Gail Kirby reports that she has successfully negotiated the conversion to full time regular status of two part time flexible clerks in the Golden, Colorado office. This is on top of the eight PTF clerks who were converted about a year ago in the same office. This is continuing evidence of our determination to pursue PTF maximization anywhere and everywhere possible within our jurisdiction. Our thanks go to Gail for her excellent efforts that resulted in these PTF conversions. We also congratulate our newest full time regular clerks in Golden!
Consolidation Begins in Bits and Pieces
by William Burrus, President APWU
The long-expected USPS network consolidation has begun in bits and pieces, with individual offices now being notified of changes to their mail processing operations. Over the past several weeks the union has received notification from the USPS of the planned consolidation of “some operations” at 10 offices one week, followed by a dozen more the following week.
In 2002 I informed APWU members that plant consolidation represented one of the most important challenges facing the union. Concern about the effect consolidations would have on our members was a major factor in our decision to extend the 2000-2003 Collective Bargaining Agreement until Nov. 20, 2005. (This past summer, members again overwhelmingly ratified an extension, until Nov. 20, 2006.)
The two-year contract extension required management to share its consolidation plan with the APWU by December 2002, and protected members from excessing beyond 50 miles through May of 2003.
Despite numerous discussions and our repeated requests over the two-year period of the contract extension, the USPS never presented a consolidation plan. Management finally acknowledged that it had abandoned the concept of a national plan and that future consolidation efforts would be directed at “Area-wide efficiencies.”
It is now clear that USPS management plans to alter the national network through a series of piecemeal changes. It is expected that in the coming months the Postal Service will inform the union of additional offices identified for change.
These changes will include merging many mail processing operations, leaving some communities with only retail and delivery services. The APWU will respond with all available resources. A group of resident officers has been empanelled to coordinate the APWU response, including activating and updating APWU plans that were developed and distributed to local and state presidents in 2003. As local offices are identified for consolidation, the national union will coordinate national and local resources to oppose any degradation of service caused by consolidation.
Please Dispose of Erroneous
Bid Annual Forms
by Dennis Enderson, President
A couple of weeks ago, a number of bid annual leave application forms were distributed in Denver facilities with an incorrect return deadline of November 30, 2005. Corrected forms with the accurate deadline date of December 19, 2005 have been issued to all parties, and these erroneous forms should be disregarded and destroyed if discovered. Please contact Clerk Craft Director Brian Thomason or myself with any questions or concerns about this issue. Thank you for your assistance and cooperation.
Custodial Hiring Underway in Denver
by Dennis Enderson, President
In accordance with contractual staffing requirements, the Postal Service is in the process of hiring new Labor Custodians in the Denver installation. Custodial staffing is determined by the effects of a national APWU arbitration award from several years ago that requires a certain level based upon an analysis of the work to be performed. The current hiring is required to replace employees lost through normal attrition. We will continue to carefully monitor this situation to ensure that our work is not lost to casuals and/or subcontracting.
Christmas Holiday
by Paul Pearman, Director of Industrial Relations
Q. Since Christmas is on Sunday, when is my designated holiday?
A. If your SDO is Sat./Sun., your designated holiday would be Monday. If your SDO is Sun./Mon., your designated holiday would be Saturday. If your SDO's do not include Sunday, Sunday would be the actual holiday and would be observed as such.
Q. Do I get paid extra for working on Christmas?
A. Full time and part time regular employees who are required to work on Christmas Day or their designated Christmas holiday are paid an additional 50% of their base hourly rate for up to eight hours of Christmas worked pay in addition to their holiday leave pay.
Q. Can I opt to have my annual leave balance credited for working on my designated Christmas holiday?
A. Employees who work all or part of their holiday may elect to have their annual leave balance credited with up to eight hours of annual leave instead of receiving holiday pay.
Holiday Leave Pay is the guarantee when observing a holiday.
Upcoming Events to Remember
by Dennis Enderson, President
- Saturday, November 26, 2005 from 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM – Regular Membership Meeting at the union office. Food will be served! We will vote whether to send additional delegates to the 2006 APWU National Convention in Philadelphia. Please bring your favorite goodie to help raise money for COPA at our Bake Sale. We will also have our COPA drawing for an IPOD and two $50 cash prizes!
- Saturday, December 10, 2005 from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM – Annual Denver Metro APWU Children’s Christmas Party at the union office for members only and their children ages 12 and under.
- December 13 & 14, 2005 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM each night – Santa calls to the children of our members. Please contact the union office to request a form so we can coordinate these calls with Santa’s busy schedule!
- Now until Christmas – Send a letter to Santa Claus and receive a personalized response letter to your child. Please send your Santa letters to the union office so we can forward them to his workshop at the North Pole. Make sure to include a return address so Santa can respond to your child!
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