DBCS Certification Process Underway
by Dennis Enderson, President
Automation Clerks at the Denver General Mail Facility, please be aware that management is implementing a process called “DBCS Certification”. As we understand it, certification is an effort to effectuate improved work methods with a goal of increasing productivity in this operation. Employees will undergo a standardized training program designed at the headquarters level for this purpose. Supervisors will be instructed to ensure that employees follow the prescribed work methods, so you can expect a lot of oversight. There is nothing unique about what is happening in Denver. DBCS Certification has been rolling out across the country for quite some time. It just happens to be our turn.
Management firmly believes in the certification process. They claim that it has significantly boosted efficiency and productivity in many installations. Perhaps this is true. However, while the union has no objection to the Postal Service seeking improved productivity, we demand that it not be achieved at the cost of compromising the safety and health of employees, nor by violating the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Article 34 of the contract prohibits the unilateral establishment of work and time standards. This means that management cannot insist that you achieve some arbitrary productivity standard under threat of discipline. Article 34 does require that we give “a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay”. The APWU asserts that this can mean a lot of things, and does not allow the imposition of a “one size fits all” standard. Abilities vary widely among human beings. Article 14 of the contract requires management “to provide safe working conditions in all present and future installations”. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has determined that the DBCS is an inherently unsafe device to work on, and has recommended that employees should generally not be pushed to generate higher and higher levels of productivity as a way to avoid repetitive motion injuries.
We cannot prevent management from going forward with the certification program. We will carefully monitor how the process is implemented. We will fight any efforts to establish arbitrary work and time standards, and we will defend your right to enjoy a safe working environment.
Our best advice to Automation Clerks is to follow instructions about how to perform your duties and to work in a safe and steady manner. Give a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. Please contact your APWU steward with any questions or concerns, particularly if you believe there are any safety and health issues. We’ve been down this road many times. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through this process.
Another Perspective on DBCS Certification
by Dave Coker, Chief Steward, GMF – Tour 3
DBCS Standardization Training is hitting automation at the P&DC. Wow, what a happy thought. Management wants to try to “certify” the DBCS’s in the plant, and so they are now engaged in these wonderfully humanistic training sessions, with training packet handouts.
What is certification? To be perfectly honest, I have no idea, other than to make goals and targets in line with what national headquarters wants and thinks these machines are capable of. What is the benefit to you? Not a thing that I can see. Many people are upset with their supervisors having these sessions, trying to reinvent the wheel, and threatening the employees. One in particular telling the clerks that he will be standing over them with his trusty stopwatch.
So, what should clerks do? Well, first the bad news. Management has the right to determine the METHODS you use on the machines, so follow the new methods as outlined, although they will feel awkward and will probably be slower at first. The new methods are just different ways of loading, sweeping and such.
Now the good news. The contract has not changed one bit on this score. There are no work standards to say how fast you have to go. Work safely, work ergonomically, and give a fair days work for a fair days pay. As far as throughput, numbers, or clearing jams in under thirty seconds and such, please do not worry. If a jam can be cleared in 30 seconds, fine, do so. If not, use as much time as is necessary to be safe and properly do the job. All the stopwatches in the world cannot change the fact that every day, every load of mail is slightly different than the one before. Some days you’ll run less. Do not let strong arm tactics scare you into doing something unsafe, such as working too fast for the conditions and injuring yourself. We are here to protect your safety and back you up on this.
Labor 2006 Happenings
by Muriel Ponder, Steward
As the midterm elections near, the sense of urgency here at Labor 2006 is growing. The news today that our Congress has virtually destroyed Habeas Corpus makes me very afraid of the direction this country is being moved. There is a lot of work to be done if we are to take control of our country and our future.
If you want to help, we will welcome you with open arms! We will also reward you with chances to win VALUABLE PRIZES! These include dinners for two, gas cards and a weekend trip to the mountains to name a few. Every time you volunteer you get a chance to win. Every time you volunteer, LABOR gets a better chance to win.
Saturday, October 7, 2006, is National Walk Day and the AFL/CIO will be hosting a barbeque picnic following our walk from the hall. The walk is from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM at the Colorado AFL – CIO located at 140 Sheridan Blvd. Come and meet Bill Ritter, candidate for Governor, and Ed Perlmutter, candidate for the 7th Congressional district. See you there!
Questions About Retirement Counseling
by Dennis Enderson, President
Several weeks ago, we reported that the national parties had signed a memorandum agreeing to reestablish retirement counseling in accordance with requirements contained in the Employee and Labor Relations Manual (ELM). Management had apparently suspended retirement counseling in conjunction with the transition to the Shared Services program, which is eliminating many Human Resources operations nationwide and shifting these functions over to the web based “Postal People” process.
The APWU objected that retirement counseling cannot be unilaterally terminated and filed an appeal that led to the favorable settlement signed on August 4, 2006. However, now questions have arisen about how management intends to implement the terms of the settlement agreement. There are actually two kinds of retirement counseling – group and individual. Group counseling has historically taken the form of a classroom seminar attended by several employees at a time. It is more general in nature. Individual counseling is supposed to be a one on one opportunity for employees to receive information about their specific circumstances. The ELM language requires that management offer at least one group counseling session per calendar year, and individual counseling upon request. It now appears management intends to move group counseling onto the “Liteblue” employee website as opposed to actual classroom seminars. It also appears they intend to limit individual counseling to only those employees who are actively engaged in the retirement process.
The APWU does not agree that individual counseling may be limited in this manner. We assert that any employee may request and receive individual counseling, regardless of whether the employee is engaged in the retirement process. We also question the idea of moving group counseling to a web based process. How would employees ask questions about the materials presented? In any event, we have contacted our headquarters office and learned that they agree with our concerns. They have promised to raise these issues at their level. In the meantime, if any of our members have requested individual counseling and been denied, we ask that you contact us right away so a grievance can be filed. Please contact me with any questions or concerns. Thank you for your cooperation and assistance.
ERRP Re-Structured
by Dennis Enderson, President
For the past three years, the APWU, NPMHU, the USPS, and OSHA have agreed that the Denver office would participate in the Ergonomics Risk Reduction Process (ERRP). Designees from the USPS and both unions meet regularly to discuss identified ergonomic safety and health issues in an effort to seek mutually agreeable solutions intended to minimize and/or eliminate workplace hazards. APWU’s participation is based upon a national level memorandum contained in the contract. While ERRP has yielded tangible and beneficial results with regard to injury reduction, there have been ongoing issues with regard to the size and structure of the committees at the GMF and MPA. The APWU, NPMHU and USPS have now jointly agreed to a streamlining and restructuring of the committees that we hope will resolve many of the issues in dispute without compromising the integrity or effectiveness of the process. There will now be one committee with no more than one union designee from each Tour and facility from each union. This will allow for a total of six representatives from each union to remain actively involved with the process. We believe this is more than adequate, and will provide a strong voice for the interests of our members at the table. ERRP is a success story in the collective bargaining process, and we will work to ensure it remains that way in the future.
Contract Stations – A long Term Reality
by Dennis Enderson, President
Whether we like them or not, contract retail stations are a long term reality within the Postal Service. Recently, some employees became concerned when a new contract station opened in Denver and a career employee was instructed to travel to this station and provide some training to the contract employees. Research revealed that it has been a long term practice for career postal employees to provide training and support for contract stations, particularly in Associate Offices such as Boulder and Golden, where contract stations sometimes even outnumber actual Postal facilities. We have also learned that Denver now has as many as eight contract stations to go with our approximately 27 postal retail units. This is an alarming trend, and helps to shed light on management’s refusal to hire career clerks in Denver. As we all know, Function 4 teams have fanned out all through the Denver District, and they never come in looking to increase staffing. One could reasonably conclude that management is deliberately attempting to shift our business over to contract facilities by understaffing postal facilities to the point that service is compromised. This is an important concept to consider in the middle of national contract negotiations. What is more important in the long run – wage increases or enhanced job security? What are we willing to trade off for stronger limitations on subcontracting our work? Tough and courageous decisions need to be made. For all of our sakes, I hope we make the right choices.
Enough is Enough!
Burrus Update #12-2006 – September 25, 2006
After 15 years of fighting excessive postage discounts for large mailers, the APWU succeeded in 2004 in persuading key legislators, mailers, and other interested parties to include specific restrictions on discounts in pending postal reform legislation. The principle that guided us was simple: Discounts should not exceed the costs the Postal Service avoids when mailers presort their mail or engage in other “work sharing” activities. The agreement was the result of a long struggle. The APWU had been the lone voice asserting that discounts were often excessive; that excessive discounts rob the USPS of desperately needed revenue; that they shift a disproportionate share of the Postal Service’s “institutional costs” from large mailers to small businesses and individual citizens; and that they amount to a subsidy of private, special interests – a subsidy provided by the Postal Service and the American people.
The agreed-upon compromise, which also was included in postal reform bills introduced in Congress in 2005, provided that work sharing discounts could exceed the postal costs avoided only in limited circumstances; that excessive discounts would be corrected over time; and that the Postal Service would be required periodically to justify the postage discounts it offered. Before long, however, the large mailers, USPS management, and their White House supporters began to renege on their commitment, offering progressively more watered down provisions to replace those that had been agreed upon earlier. Their goal was clear – to preserve the excessive discounts for major mailers.
While mailing industry spokesmen wage a constant propaganda tirade against the salary and benefits received by hard working postal employees, behind closed doors these phonies demand continued excessive discounts in order to pad their own profits. This is hypocrisy at the highest level. Some of these discounts are so extreme that if postal employees were paid the same value for the work we perform, our wages would surpass $75 per hour! The justifications for excessive discounts are hollow at best. They begin with the excuse that corporate entities have made investments that would be put at risk if the discounts were no greater than the Postal Service’s costs. This argument constitutes an admission that some discounts are greater than the cost, but it also raises another important consideration: What about the $17 billion investment in automation the United States Postal Service has made?
According to the industry pundits, it is all right for the Postal Service to absorb the cost of investment, but large mailers and consolidators should be protected against such expenses. Another stale response is that adjusting the major mailers’ rates to the avoided postal costs would lead to “rate shock”, and would cause corporate advertising mailers to abandon the Postal Service. Concerns about price shock justify ending excessive discounts gradually – as the agreed-upon provisions call for – but they cannot excuse them indefinitely, and they cannot justify them in principle.
These excuses are regurgitated from the same mouths that constantly criticize postal wages and benefits. They have the gall to continue demanding postage discounts that cannot be justified, while questioning our negotiated wages and benefits and telling us how lucky we are. They constantly assert that labor costs must be curtailed if the Postal Service is to remain competitive, while ignoring the harm to the financial stability of the USPS caused by excessive discounts. I am disappointed that the postmaster general has joined forces with these private, for-profit entities at the expense of the American citizens who employ him. As a member of the USPS Board of Governors, he is bound by its credo, which states, “The Governors are chosen to represent the public interest and cannot be representatives of special interests.”
Enough is enough! The concept of “uniform rates” cannot be re-interpreted to justify postage rate discounts for large mailers that are below the cost that would be incurred by the Postal Service if the work were performed by postal employees. Those who profess to want an efficient Postal Service should join with the APWU in support of rates that absolutely limit discounts to no more than the cost to the Postal Service. Enough is enough!
/rb
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