Denver Metro Retiree
Chapter to Host Phone Bank
by Scott Morrow, President Denver APWU Retiree Chapter
The Denver Metro Retiree Chapter will be hosting a phone bank to register retired members to vote. Please plan on attending the work session with the Denver Metro Retiree Chapter on Saturday, October 22, 2016 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM, at the Union Hall. The Retiree Chapter will have a shortened meeting from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM and then launch into phone banking to contact our members who have yet to register to vote. Food will be available. As usual, our civic responsibility to vote is more important than ever, as we have clear choices at the ballot box. We should support those who back Unions, Retiree pay issues like Social Security, elimination of WEP, Medicare, CSRS, FERS, etc. Some candidates are for good pay, health care, climate change action and saving USPS, while others hate democracy in the workplace and rabidly want to privatize USPS, because it is the largest Union employer in the USA. Hopefully, if we can get all of our members registered to vote, they will vote for their own best interests on November 8th. All Denver Metro APWU members are invited to attend this meeting and phone banking.
My First Convention
by Cornella Morris, Steward
I was one of the lucky "Under Age 35 Members" that was chosen to attend the National Convention in Orlando, FL. It was a really great experience. I learned so much and met so many amazing people.
The two things that really stuck with me was Tatiana Hill, the Verizon striker in her early 20's. She stood with fellow co-workers and other Union members to fight for justice for herself, co-workers and friends that were fired without just cause. She never gave up. Her fight ended in a 46 day strike.
The Young Worker's Movement - This was awesome! All of the under 35 members stuck together to get our voices heard, as we are the next generation of the APWU and the USPS. Young people of this generation face economic insecurities unknown to previous generations. We should all stick together as one because, UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE BEG!
Creating Desirable Duty Assignments at Stations and Associate Offices
by Ron Malunat, Administrative Aide
I am currently getting clock rings for all PSE’s at all stations so grievances can be filed to create jobs. Since the last round of realignment by management, all stations are short staffed, PURE and SIMPLE. No news to station people and looking at how low of seniority station bids are going, it looks like the GMF member’s know too! It’s a mess at the stations with the turnover of staff. Crossing crafts, supervisors doing bargaining unit work, no one to cover sick and annual leave, mail is usually late, some bad supervisors, a lot of bad managers, short staffed and cutting more jobs.
Management's answer is more PSE's and so people just keep bidding out and more and more bids go unbid.
Holding PSE's isn't the answer because excessive hours by PSE's violates the contract. It may look good on paper so a supervisor can get their bonuses, but it's ridiculous. Long lines with customers staring at the Window Clerk and wondering why the other counters are closed. Management blames bad secret shopper scores on the clerks and encourages using the MPOS, even though the customers really need a full service window. Yeah, it's a mess! Anyway we will be grieving all stations with our Max Duty Assignment tool, which we call MDAT. Basically, the program takes all the PSE's hours and overtime hours and prints out what is desirable duty assignments. At that point, we grieve it. I am confident most stations and associate offices will have enough PSE hours to create a desirable duty assignment. In some offices, probably more than one, this process can take time but has been effective in other places. So far we've done Capitol Hill, Bear Valley and Glendale, with plenty more to come. Some of our associate offices have already done MDATS.
I have received a lot of compliments and encouragement on my article in the last Mountaineer on the part called "Customer Service...NOT". it contains specific examples of bad station supervision that hurt customer service. Oh so many examples and so little space to write about them, but I will. I will be putting these in our upcoming Union News Express too. Please send me your example of how management is destroying Customer Service at the stations. Be specific please and mail your example of poor customer service decisions by management to:
Ron Malunat, Administrative Aide
Denver Metro Area Local
15677 E. 17th Ave.
Aurora, CO 80011
Let's Get Ready to Rumble
by Dave Suwalski, Director Maintenance Craft
Custodians: Well once again Line H issues are here for fiscal year 2016. For those of you who do not understand Line H, let me explain it to you. In facilities that are maintained by USPS custodians, upon the conclusion of each fiscal year, during October of the new fiscal year, the total custodial work hours for the just completed fiscal year shown on the end of year reports for Labor Distribution code (LDC) 38 (custodial work) will be compared with 90% of the custodial work hours shown on Line H of PS Form 4852. The result will be provided to and discussed with the local APWU President or designee. Falling short of 90% of the work hours shown on PS Form 4852 Line H will result in compensation for each hour short of 90% of the hours on PS Form 4852 Line H paid at the overtime rate to the custodial employees who will be identified in writing by the APWU local union. The APWU local union will determine the appropriate custodial employee(s) to compensate. In the fiscal year of the MS-47 TL-5 implementation, the period shall be prorated for the time MS-47 TL-5 PS Form 4852 was in effect. Where staffing changes have been made during the course of the fiscal year, the final Line H hours of the PS Form 4852 to be considered for comparison at the end of the fiscal year shall be the sum of the hours shown on each PS Form 4852 line H, prorated for the period each of the staffing packages were in effect during the fiscal year. The 90% of Line H work hours is not intended to permit the staffing level for the individual facility (e.g. a station, branch VMF, annex, etc.) covered by the PS Form 4852 to be below the number of employees shown on the PS Form 4852. Where a custodial duty assignment works at more than one facility, the local parties are to agree on how to apply the work hours.
Every year the GMF custodians have been paid on Line H. The stations have never received a Line H payment. I do not know why this has never been accomplished in the past. I will make sure that we pay attention to the stations this year. I need your help by writing statements for Line H violations such as:
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No Route Sheets - Line H violation.Management should be providing you a PS 4776 Form.
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Doing Recycling - Work Order should be given
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Moving Pallets - Work Order should be given
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Hanging Signs - Work Order should be given
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Moving Furniture - Work Order should be given
These are just an example of some things. If you want to learn more about Line H, please call me at 720-470-9236.
Mechanics - To all the in house mechanics, I want to say thank you for the hard work that you do, from keeping machines running to keeping the buildings maintained. Steve Ballinger settled the AFC move grievance with management. Thank you Steve for the hard work. I have been battling with management over getting more bids and managed to get two bids back. One for Tour 2 Maintenance Mechanics and one for Tour 2 BEM. I will continue to push the bid issue with Barb and Doug. As you know, we are constantly understaffed despite what management and the staffing package says.
FMO - To my FMO brothers and sisters, thanks for everything you do. I know management wants the locks done, the mail boxes done, the stations done and the parking lots done, all at once. We all know how shorthanded this department is. I have seen a lot of contractors at stations. I am reviewing Article 32's that come across this desk and grieving them. Please provide me a statement if contractors were used. I am well aware that people are not being pit trained for the lifts and that a lot of you are still waiting to go to school. The problems are being addressed with getting these issues taken care of. We are currently talking with Karen Padden regarding these problems. Please keep writing grievances on any contract violations. Maybe someday management will realize how shorthanded we are. To all Maintenance people, I just want to say thank you and if you have any problems or issues please call me at 720-470-9236 or 303-365-1524 ext. 20.
Pain is Not Gain
by Kijana Myers, Director Human Relations
Lately I've been getting a lot of calls with regards to OWCP not accepting claims. OWCP doesn’t recognize pain as a contributing factor when dealing with symptoms. I'm not saying that you're not in pain, but OWCP doesn’t recognize it and if they don’t recognize it then it's not a factor. When dealing with On The Job Injuries, you have to show documentation for everything. OWCP wants a reason to deny it, so if pain is your only symptom, your claim will be denied more than likely. I have no way of knowing if your claim will be denied or not, even if you do everything and provide all documents. I do know if pain is the only symptom, it will be hard to get it approved, which more than likely means denied.
On to a different subject - Reporting. Now if you didn’t know, you have 24 hours to report an On The Job Injury whether you want medical care or not. What that does is get it in the system, (which by the way management has 24 hours to put in EHS) just in case later you have symptoms of some sort. Management is trying in every way to challenge any OJI, if not reported as soon as possible. Knowing that, report the OJI as soon as possible. I can't stress enough the importance of reporting the injury ASAP. It makes everything else go a bit smoother. Once you report the injury and management doesn’t provide care or transportation, let them know that according to ELM 544 Reporting Procedures, that’s their responsibility.
544.1 Responsibilities
544.11 Immediate Supervisor Responsibility
544.111 General
When a notice of traumatic injury or occupational disease is filed, the immediate supervisor is responsible for doing the following:
a. Immediately ensuring that appropriate medical care is provided.
b. Providing the employee a Form CA-1 or a Form CA-2.
c. Completing the receipt attached to Form CA-1 or CA-2 and giving the receipt to
the employee or the employee’s representative.
d. Investigating all reported job-related injuries and/or illnesses.
e. Immediately notifying the control office or control point of an injury, disease, or
illness.
f. Prompt completion and forwarding of Form CA-1 or CA-2 to the control office or
control point on the same day it is received from the employee.
I hope this helps clear up some things dealing with OWCP and OJI’s. Feel free to call me if you are having any issues.
MVS Update
by Robert Helmig Director MVS Craft
It has come to my attention that management is requiring you to not scan if you are late. This is one time I will advise you to refuse and not follow that order. You need to scan, every time, even if you are late. This is how management is getting rid of our work. So scan AND fill out the tractor logs.
The new contract forbids any new contracting out and MVS just got a GREAT Article 32 Step 4, in which the arbitrator ruled that management cannot contract and then notify the union, he went on to say that they can’t contract out till they return over 110 routes that are still in dispute at the national level.
I was able to get the three fulltime permanent driver safety instructors positions reposted correctly. The posting will close on the 1st of October. I have sent notification to management requesting the once a year bids. When the union receives the bid package, we will look them over. Since breaks and lunches seem to be a problem now, I will make sure they are indentified in each bid. We in MVS get two 15 minute breaks and a ½ hour uninterrupted lunch. This is a federal law and a past practice. If management can’t abide by this, then the union is prepared to file grievances and labor board charges so they do abide.
If you fill out 1767’s and management wants to throw them away, let me know so we can get OSHA involved. Make a copy before you give it to management.
As always, if you believe you have a grievance, see your steward. I am always available to speak to you as well. My number is 303-365-1524 ext. 15.
/rb
opeiu #30
afl-cio
