The National APWU Election Committee has begun counting the ballots for the 2004 national officer election. Early returns indicate that President Burrus will most likely retain his office, along with Secretary-Treasurer Terry Stapleton and Director of Industrial Relations Greg Bell. Organizing Director Frank Romero is locked in a tight battle with Des Moines Local president Lance Coles and APWU Health Plan Director William Kaczor is running slightly ahead of Cherli Montgomery. It may take several more days to tally the over 74,000 ballots returned by APWU members. We will report the final results of the election as soon as information becomes available.

We have received reports that some members are receiving unsolicited mailings addressed to them at their work location. These mailings often list the employees’ work facilities and pay locations and contain offers to sell various financial products to the recipients. Please rest assured that the Denver Metro Area Local APWU has nothing at all to do with these mailings. We have never and would never share our membership mailing list with any outside entities. On the rare occasions we have sent solicitations to our members, we have always included a cover letter from local officers to make our involvement very clear. Also, we require vendors to deliver pre-stuffed and pre-stamped envelopes to our office where we apply the address labels. Address information is never shared with the vendors. If you receive such a solicitation letter at work, we recommend you either refuse it or report it to postal management. We do not know how such companies are obtaining your work address information, but we believe it is possible it is being done illegally. We will continue to investigate this issue and do our best to put a stop to these mailings.

A local grievance had been filed in 2001 concerning Level 5 clerks being required to perform AFSM-100 Level 4 work. The local appealed this grievance to Step 3 where it was held pending the outcome at the national level. Unfortunately the decision was not made in favor of the APWU. Arbitrator Das ruled “unlike crossing craft lines—there is no inherent or other contractual prescription on cross wage level assignments within the Clerk Craft.” The local has many grievances held pending national level decisions. As these decisions come in, I will continue to keep you informed through the Union News Express.

In accordance with a memorandum in the National Collective Bargaining Agreement, all current career PS-4 CFS Clerks will be upgraded to PS-5 effective on November 13, 2004. On a one time basis, this upgrade will be based on a step to step upgrade mechanism and will allow employees to retain credit for waiting time already accrued towards future step increases. This memorandum was negotiated to afford protection to CFS Clerks who would have been exposed to possible layoffs when the new PARS system is implemented sometime next year. Current contractual rules do not allow clerical employees to be excessed into higher level positions. Many thanks to our national officers for their foresight and consideration for the welfare of CFS employees.

It’s that time of the year where the over time is offered to those who want it or mandatory for those who don’t. What ever the situation you should remember that your body will give you signs of fatigue as well as other signs so please beware.

The automated Biohazard Detection System is now operational at the Denver General Mail Facility. The system analyzes the air near automated equipment once every hour. If anthrax is detected and confirmed, an alert will occur that causes the evacuation of the facility. It should be noted that this system is very new and still somewhat experimental, so there could be glitches for some time. However, we applaud the Postal Service for taking this important step towards creating a safer working environment.

Both proposed postal reform bills, H. R. 4341 and S. 2468, have been effectively killed for the current congressional session. Congress adjourns on Friday, October 8, 2004 and neither bill has been scheduled for a floor vote. It is highly unlikely there will be any new postal legislation until next year, at the earliest. This is both good news and bad news. The good news is that our pay, benefits, job security and collective bargaining rights are safe for now. The bad news is that the Postal Service is in a severe financial bind that could result in a huge rate increase next year. There were parts of both proposed bills the APWU strongly supported that would have financially strengthened the USPS and precluded a rate increase. In fact, the union was prepared to endorse H. R. 4341. It appears President Bush orchestrated this situation to create a crisis next year so he can go after postal workers’ pay and benefits more aggressively. Please help us to elect John Kerry as president so we can save our jobs!

Several weeks ago, the Denver Metro APWU learned that postal management had issued a policy prohibiting employee sponsored “pot lucks” in the cafeteria. Upon discussing the issue with management, we learned that there might be a provision in the USPS contract with the cafeteria food vendor prohibiting employee “pot lucks”. (This provision would be similar to policies at stadiums and movie theaters preventing patrons from bringing in their own food and beverages.) After further discussion, the food service provider has graciously offered to waive this contractual provision as a good will gesture to employees. It is requested that we provide notice to the provider so that he can adjust the amount of food prepared to conserve supplies and cut costs. Management plans to discuss this matter in stand up talks with employees. Many thanks to the food service provider for helping us to resolve what could have become a difficult and divisive issue.

Administrative Aide Sandy Carruthers has successfully negotiated an agreement to post a number of Level 6 “Review Clerk” duty assignments in the Denver office designed to replace details for employees performing the duties of “Mail Flow Coordinator”. Eight of these vacancies were posted on the last Personnel Memorandum. These are senior qualified vacancies offering Level 6 opportunities for our members. Many thanks and congratulations to Sandy for achieving this excellent agreement. 

Clerk Craft Director Brian Thomason has designated Bonnie Hollomon as Chief Steward on Tour 1 at the Denver GMF. We appreciate Bonnie’s willingness to step up and volunteer to serve in this vital leadership role for our members.

It has been a year since Ergonomic Risk Reduction Process (ERRP’s) has been implemented at the Denver P&DC. ERRP, for those who are not familiar is recognizing the effect of musculoskeletal disorders on the workforce. The Postal Service, American Postal Workers Union, the National Postal Mail Handlers Union and OSHA have entered into a strategic partnership to identify and control ergonomic risk factors. This process sounded so convincing that Albany facility became a pilot sight in February of 2003, from a hand shake by all parties before this agreement was signed on April 4, 2003.

This morning at approximately 6:30 a suspicious device was found by a postal employee in the vicinity of the Carrier Training Academy located in the north parking lot at the Denver General Mail Facility (GMF). The Postal Inspection Service and Denver Police were immediately contacted and arrived at the scene shortly thereafter. The Finance Station and Business Mail Entry Units at the GMF, as well as the Administrative Building, were evacuated.

Suspicious items in the mails and at postal facilities are a rarity. If you find an item that is suspicious in nature, leave it where it is and contact your supervisor immediately. 

The finalization of the snowstorm grievance in March 2003 has been completed. All necessary pay adjustments have been completed and sent to Eagan Accounting Center in Minneapolis, MN for processing and payment to all of the affected Clerk, MVS and Maintenance employees. This grievance was enormous in scale and required a mountain of documentation.