Membership Picnic A Huge Success
by Dennis Enderson, President
The Membership Appreciation Picnic at Lowry Park on Sunday, June 25th was a huge success. The turnout was excellent, with well over a thousand individuals in attendance throughout the day. The food was superb, with a selection that included brisket, burgers, brats, hot dogs, beans, potato salad, corn, fruit cocktail, chips, cookies and more. The kids enjoyed bounce castles, balloons, Shane Allen’s magic show and games galore. Even the weather cooperated, with a cool and beautiful day throughout the seven hour event. Everyone enjoyed the music provided by the DJ, and especially by Tour 3 GMF Steward Dave Coker’s band, Ragged Edgez.
This year’s picnic represented a break from the recent past during which we have used professional event planners and caterers to conduct our picnics. This time we did everything “in house” and relied entirely upon volunteers. After a ten year break from this practice, many individuals felt it was time to give it another try, and that our members would respond well to such an effort. By all accounts, they were right.
Such a successful event would never have been possible without the superb efforts of a large number of volunteers. It all began at an Executive Board meeting at the urgings of Maintenance Craft Director Miguel Salazar, who volunteered to mastermind the entire process. Miguel spent months researching and putting together our plans, and was instrumental in selecting the location. Many others worked on their own and with Miguel to help plan the picnic, including Tour 2 GMF stewards Bobby Rollins and Mark Kirby, Executive Director John Ancona, Safety and Health Committee member Sheldon Lewis and Executive Vice-President Gary Scott. Many more volunteers stepped up on the day of the picnic to set up, prepare and serve food, and clean up at the end, including Clerk Craft Director Brian Thomason, Recording Secretary Gail Kirby, Assistant Clerk Craft Director Lawanda Davis, Director of Industrial Relations Paul Pearman, Motor Vehicle Craft Director Robert Helmig, Stewards Ric Lopez, Dave Villalva, Al Barker, Carolyn Molock-Shipp, Bonnie Hollomon, Bill Knuth, Dave Coker, and Shane Allen, and all of the previously mentioned individuals.
Phil and Tina Desautels spearheaded our COPA fundraising efforts. The children’s games were conducted by Organizing Director Chris Arellano, Anita Hicks, Gladys Williams, Sylvia Williams, Robin Hurst, and many others. Also pitching in and working hard were Margaret Madril, Patty Fox, Jim Elliott, Kevin Hempstead, Juliet To, and Glenda Baca. Many family members also stepped up including Cheryl Thomason, Callie Lopez, and Mercedes Scott.
We offer our sincere gratitude to all of these volunteers, along with many more whose names we may be inadvertently omitting. This was truly a picnic of the rank and file – put on by members for our members. We can never thank all of you enough for everything you did to make our 2006 Membership Appreciation Picnic one of the best in our local’s history. We also thank 7th Congressional District candidate Ed Perlmutter for showing his respect for our members by dropping by and visiting with us for a few hours. Finally, we thank all of our members for coming out with their families to attend the picnic. As in all other aspects, our union is nothing without our members. Thank all of you for sharing this very special day with us. We look forward to building on this highly successful event in the future.
Albuquerque’s Management
Accepts Reality – Will Denver’s?
by Dennis Enderson, President
You may recall that former Aurora, Colorado Postmaster Victor Benavides stopped long enough to have a cup of coffee as the acting postmaster of Denver on his way to becoming the District Manager of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Albuquerque has long suffered from very poor and inefficient mail service. It didn’t take Mr. Benavides long to figure out what the problem was – lack of adequate staffing. He has already hired 20 clerks, 45 letter carriers, and 28 rural route carriers in a very short time, and has plans for more hiring in the near future. During his brief stay in Denver, we engaged in discussions with Mr. Benavides about doing some hiring in the Denver District, a prospect for which he showed significant interest. Unfortunately, he was called away before we could finalize our discussions, and we are back to square one. For some reason, our local managers are dead set against any hiring in the foreseeable future, so we are stuck with excessive overtime, holiday mandates, increased stress levels, and almost non-existent incidental leave for the time being. We can only hope that our local management officials will draw inspiration from Mr. Benavides’ successful efforts and come to accept reality in the near future.
TSP to Stop Using Social Security Numbers for Access to Accounts
In light of the well publicized Veterans Affairs Department data breach last month, another federal agency with its hands on a lot of personal information – the Thrift Savings Plan – is concentrating on information security.
The TSP houses Social Security numbers, names, addresses and more that $180 billion in retirement savings for about 3.6 million current and former federal employees. Mark Hagerty, the plan’s chief information officer, told the TSP Board Tuesday he is comfortable with the security measures in place but is looking to expand them.
Participants will switch to using account numbers, rather than Social Security numbers, to access their TSP accounts online. That change will come in the next few months, Hagerty said.
22nd Annual J. P.
Jacobson 14’er Memorial Climb
by Dennis Enderson, President
The 22nd annual J. P. Jacobson 14’er Memorial Climb is scheduled for Sunday, July 9th at Mount Bierstadt, which is 14,060 feet high. According to Jake and Mae, Mt. Bierstadt is a fairly “easy” climb of about three miles with a 2,000 foot elevation increase. The trailhead can be reached by going to Georgetown via I-70, then proceeding south for 10 miles up to Guenella Pass. Park at the top of Guenella Pass at 11,669 feet. The trail is described as “well used and obvious,” heading due east towards the summit. J. P. Jacobson was a postal worker who passed away during a climb 22 years ago, and every year a group of friends conducts a 14’er climb in his honor. Anyone wishing to honor his memory is welcome to participate. For more information call 303-757-1535.
USPS Awards
Domestic Air Contract to UPS
USPS Newslink Extra dated June 28, 2006
The Postal Service today awarded a contract to United Parcel Service (UPS), significantly enhancing the Postal Service’s business relationship with UPS involving the domestic air transportation of mail. The agreement calls for UPS to transport primarily First-Class and Priority Mail to and from 98 U. S. cities.
Today’s agreement is a three-year arrangement with the possibility of a two-year extension. Currently, UPS provides the Postal Service with mail transportation to and from 16 U. S. cities. Service under the contract will begin July 1, 2006. Postal Service customers will see no change in the way their mail is delivered as the result of this contract. Post Office retail operations also are unaffected.
United Won’t Fly U.S. Mail
United Airlines will stop carrying U.S. domestic mail after June 30, after it failed to qualify for a contract renewal and declined a short-term contract extension.
United said it did not qualify for a five-year domestic mail contract renewal from the U.S. Postal Service based on its on-time domestic mail delivery performance from October through March. It decided not to take a contract extension through September 30.
The airline will continue to carry international mail, which it said makes up most of its mail service in volume and revenue.
AI Implementation Well Underway
by Dennis Enderson, President
The first AFSM 100 Automatic Induction retrofit at the Denver GMF has been completed, and the modified machine has been released to the Postal Service by the contractor. The second modification is well underway and it appears the whole process is on schedule for all seven machines to be completed by mid September. As previously reported, this change results in operational jurisdiction being largely switched over to the Mailhandler craft, with only one clerk remaining on each modified machine. (This occurs in accordance with a decision by postal management that has been grieved by the APWU at the headquarters level.) As always, a transition of this magnitude results in short term disruption and confusion, often to the point of apparent chaos. We have received reports that some contractor employees are telling clerks that up to three clerks are needed to staff each machine. While we may agree with these sentiments, please understand that the expression of these opinions has no relevance with regard to management’s challenged decision concerning this issue. The designated staffing of 5 Mailhandlers and one clerk per machine will remain in place unless changed by management or overturned by a national level arbitration award. As each machine is retrofitted, we expect more problems and issues to arise. You can help us by watching what is happening and reporting your observations to your union stewards. We ask for your continued patience as we pursue this major jurisdictional issue through the grievance procedure.
Member Wins Transfer
Through Arbitration Award
by Dennis Enderson, President
The Denver Metro APWU recently received a successful arbitration award relative to an employee being denied a mutual swap transfer to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The arbitrator fully sustained the union’s grievance and ordered that the employee’s mutual swap transfer be granted retroactively, with full seniority benefits. This excellent result was achieved through the outstanding efforts of Clerk Craft Director Brian Thomason, who was the steward for the case, and the skillful efforts of Executive Vice-President Gary Scott, who served as the union’s advocate during the arbitration hearing. Congratulations to the grievant, and many thanks to Gary and Brian for this hard fought union victory!
PERF Eligibility Criteria Modified
APWU Web News Article #39-06, June 26, 2006
The Postal Employees’ Relief Fund Executive Committee voted June 21 to amend the fund’s eligibility criteria. PERF committee members considered the action necessary to address the more than 1,100 pending applications received from active and retired postal employees in the Gulf states. Almost all are requesting assistance for repairs to damage sustained from hurricanes Katrina, Wilma, and Rita.
The changes in criteria are retroactive to Aug. 28, 2005. They will enable the committee to expedite the review process once applicants provide any outstanding documentation that is required to support their losses. Currently, more than 90 percent of the applications are incomplete, primarily because federal and state relief grants for housing reconstruction have not yet been made. The slow pace of the insurance-company decision-making process also has been a hindrance.
After lengthy discussions, the new criteria were adopted unanimously by the fund’s executive committee, which is still contemplating proposals to change the formula used to determine the sizes of grants.
These proposals are expected to be voted on in the near future — the change may be necessary to avoid depleting the fund if it is to provide relief to all of the applicants requesting assistance from the 2005 hurricanes.
APWU is one of eight postal organizations that comprise PERF.
Still No CFS Staffing Plan
by Dennis Enderson, President
Unfortunately, we are still awaiting management’s re-staffing plan for CFS after PARS implementation. We have repeatedly requested an impact statement and a post implementation staffing plan for almost a year, and nothing but empty promises have been provided. What we have received is a lot of conflicting information from various management officials that is of no use for employees to make informed decisions about their futures. Acting Denver Postmaster Alan Catlin has promised at least sixty days of notice prior to any abolishments and/or re-postings.
For now, all we know is that the first CIOSS machine should go online in July 2006, and the other two later in the year. We do expect staffing impacts, but no specifics are known at this time. We share the frustration of CFS employees, and we will continue to press for more specific information.
Smoking Ban to Take Effect July 1st
by Dennis Enderson, President
Please be aware that the new statewide smoking law takes effect on July 1, 2006. We have analyzed the new rules and determined that we are legally required to eliminate the indoor smoking area at the union office on that date. We will appreciate your understanding and cooperation in this regard.
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