From the President’s Desk
By John A. Ancona, President

I would like to give you an update on what has been happening at all the City Stations.  We have completed all 24 Stations as of May 22, 2012.  Lakewood is still doing in-section bidding and that will be completed within seven days.  Management has abolished jobs at almost every station and where these employees will go is up to management.  

You should have received a 30 day letter stating when the effective date of when your bid ends. Then, management should excess you from that station.  If that doesn’t happen, then management will give you a FLSA schedule telling you your hours and days off.  If you do not receive a schedule before 28 days after your letter expires, management must keep you on your current days and hours that you had prior to your exccessing letter. I am being told by some of our members that management has changed their hours before the letter takes effect.  If that is so, then you need to contact your union steward for a possible out-of-schedule grievance. Your union steward will investigate and let you know if a grievance exists.  Anyone who bid in-section and has new duties on their job, will be required to pass all training.  If you do not, you will become an unassigned regular and your bid will be reposted.  Management is required to schedule all training.  An employee will not be allowed to show up for training until your manager has scheduled it with LDDC.  Management has made these changes due to the needs of the Service and now they must prove the changes were necessary.  The union will begin to monitor these changes.  If management calls overtime, or works PSE’s and NTFT employees over their bid assignment hours, the union will argue that the changes were not needed, and to post retreat bids for employees with retreat rights.  I know that our members have many questions on these changes and rightly so.  It has been hard on everyone.  All questions and concerns should be directed to myself or Clerk Craft Director Ron Malunat.

Have a safe and happy holiday weekend! 

Human Relations
By Phil Desautels, Human Relations Director

As of this writing, the Postal Service has offered a voluntary early retirement to Level 16 and below Postmasters.  The offer is $20,000.  The Postal Service asked the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to give a report of recommendation.  Although the OIG did not give an official recommendation, they did write a report.

In the OIG report they listed buyout offers.  They range from $2700.00 to $58,000 depending on which group a person may fall if either CSRS or FERS.  
This is not official! The Postal Service is still in negotiations with the Unions, and there is no offer to craft employees as yet.  When an official offer comes out that affects us as craft employees, I will publish that offer.

Remember, if you desire counseling with me, please call me at 303-365-1524 ext. 12.  I can go over most of your concerns, and any documents that may be necessary can be notarized.

Maintenance Issues
By Miguel Salazar, Director Maintenance Craft

The Service had until May 23, 2012 to return our custodial duties at stations, branches and other facilities of an independent installation. Now in order to contract out our custodial work, the Service must add together all interior square and exterior square footage of the separate facilities and then apply the 18,000 square foot formula. With that work coming back, the Union has been working hard to ensure that the new bids will be done correctly.  We are making sure that all aspects of the contract will be adhered to when creating these bids.  Some of the issues that we are dealing with are, the hours, days off, travel between facilities, etc… The Union has been examining all of the facilities under our jurisdiction to ensure that all the work that we will be getting back is correct.  Once the bids are done, we will ensure that they are properly posted with all of the information so that you can make an informed decision if you would like that bid.

As a reminder, if you are responsible for UBBM disposal, that is still considered mail, and you should never remove that mail for any reason.  As harmless as it may seem, the OIG will still consider it “theft of mail” even if you never remove it from the facility, and just dispose of it.

I would like to wish you a safe Memorial Holiday weekend and have a great summer!

MVS Update 
By Robert Helmig, Director MVS Craft

On May 8, 2012, the grievance for the Aurora’s and Arvada’s went before an arbitrator.   Before we got started, management made a “threshold issue”.  This is a procedure that rarely happens, and we cannot go forward to hear the case until this threshold issue is resolved.  In a nut shell, management claimed that at Step 2 of the grievance, I made an argument for Article 32.1.c that pertains to local notification.  I will not lie and told the truth that I did, but it was not the main argument of the grievance, which were the five factors of due consideration under Article 32.1.a.  The arbitrator ruled in management’s favor, and the case is now tied to the national’s case for the same issue, local notification.  We did not lose or win.  It is now tied to the National’s case, as well as the AMC closure, the Boulder and Broomfield HCR.  When I spoke to our National Assistant Craft Director Mike Foster, he told me that case is scheduled later this year.  I will tell you, I was not happy.  I put a lot of work into that case, I was ready to go, I had witnesses ready; just to be told not today.  UGHHHH!  The battle continues, and I told Mike Foster that I will help National in any way I can on this issue.

The four positions posted are NTFT positions and I am disputing them. There is a new procedure and we cannot grieve them, but send them through what is called an Alternative Dispute Resolution Process, page 315 of the contract.  You, as a full time regular, can bid these positions, and if you are within a year of retiring, it will not affect your retirement.  The rest of us that are not close to retirement, it will affect everything from retirement, to overtime, annual leave, as well as other things.  If you are considering bidding one of these bids, contact myself or your steward for the details.  If I am successful in getting these changed to 40 hours a week, the union will try and get you Out-of-Schedule pay, but I cannot guarantee we will be successful.  The duty assignment on these bids is Work as Directed (WAD). 

As always, if you have any question, comments, or concerns, get with your steward or you may contact me at 303-365-1524 ext. 15. 

Second Term PSE Health Benefits
By Miguel Salazar, Health Plan Representative

Many of the PSE’s will soon be entering into their second term of employment with the Postal Service so the following will be important in obtaining your health benefits.

PSE’s  may enroll within 60 days of becoming eligible for Federal employees’ health benefits when the following requirements are met:

1. Complete one full year (365 calendar days) of continuous employment with no breaks in service of more than 5 days. (Some employees will take their five day break before they hit the 365 days, so not everyone will be breaking at the same time.  Once you come back from the five days and then reach the 365 days, you will be eligible for insurance).

2. Have a regular scheduled tour of duty, arranged in advance, and expected to last for at least six months. (What they do here is look back to your previous months to see if you made enough money to cover your expenses).

3. Maintain sufficient earnings each biweekly pay period to have the total cost of premiums withheld from pay after mandatory deductions for Social Security, Medicare and federal tax.

PSE’s will be eligible for the 75% USPS premium contribution if they choose the APWU Consumer Driven Health Plan once they are reassigned for another 360 days.  They will pay 25% of the premium.  They are also eligible to enroll in any other Federal Employee Health Benefit plan, but will have to pay 100% of the premium cost.  To enroll, you must fill out the PostalEASE FEHB Worksheet that is in the booklet and send to Shared Services, if you are in need of additional information, you can call Shared Services at 1-877-477-3273, Option 5.  Once you are enrolled, you will be able to use PostalEase. Your coverage will be effective on the first day of the first pay period that begins after the postal service receives your enrollment.

 Lead Clerk Information

By Ron Malunat, Director Clerk Craft

Is it higher level for eight hours?  Will I have to do craft work?  Will I do TACs time keeping?  Is there a difference between Customer Service and Plant Lead Clerks?  All of these and many other great questions are being asked regarding the new Lead Clerk positions.

Incidentally, the answer to all of the above questions is, yes!  We are going to put out a special Union News Express early next week.  I am currently putting this together.  It should answer a lot of questions and concerns.  I am getting input from our National Business Agent and other local officers on information I should include.

Also, we are getting questions on the in-section bid results and subsequent training at Denver Stations.  Please read President Ancona’s article on this subject.  It has good information and I would like to add some things.  First, President Ancona met with Postmaster Talbott on these issues.  They agreed on what happens if a person doesn’t qualify on a job they got during an in-section bid.  Failure to qualify would render the bidder unencumbered and would be assigned by management where needed.  Please do your best to qualify on any job you get from an in-section bid so you do not become unencumbered.  If you fail to qualify, contact your steward or coordinator to see if management did your training properly.  Finally, please look for the special Union News Express next week. 

Have a great holiday and be safe out there!

1226/Pie Carts

By Miguel Salazar, Health and Safety Rep. and the ERRP Team

The 1226 Pie Cart is used to support DBCS operations. Pull out trays on the cart are designed to make tray access easier.  As an important safety measure, the trays are interlocked to prevent a “tip over” of the cart if too many loaded trays are pulled out.  Defeating the interlock system is an unsafe act.  To comply with safety and ergonomic considerations, the Postal Service is committed to maintain these carts in proper working order.   Maintenance has been over hauling the 1226’s of machines.  Each machine’s 1226’s will be addressed, please be patient.  Estimated time to complete repairs for all 1226’s on a machine is two to three weeks!

Special Note: Please put the 1226/pie carts back to the original machine after completion of a spilt zone.  This helps maintenance locate 1226’s when fixing. Please utilize the pie carts as they are intended to avoid any safety issues for you or your fellow workers.  Management may try to put pressure on you to work faster but they cannot force you to work in an unsafe manner!  If management does try to force you to work in an unsafe manner, you do have the right to refuse that order and contact your union steward to write a statement.  Remember, it is our goal that every employee who came to work healthy will go home healthy!

Remember now that the kids are out of school, keep an eye out for them and have a Blessed and fun summer!

Retiree Tracking

By Jean Daniel, Secretary

Below please find our new Retirees since the last issue of the Union News Express (4-27-12).  The DMAL wishes all our Retirees a happy and healthy retirement!

Attendance Incentive Award

By Rita Burns, Office Manager

At the conclusion of every membership meeting, an Incentive Award Drawing is held to encourage membership attendance.  This drawing is designed to be randomly selected from the membership roster.  The winner who is present will receive a $200 door prize.  If there are no winners, the amount is increased $25 for the next month’s meeting.  The 20 names are randomly selected by our office staff, and placed in a sealed envelope to be opened at the meeting.  The names were read and there was no winner at the April Membership Meeting.  The May meeting amount will be $225. 

/jd
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