Message From the President

By John A. Ancona, President

November 14, 2014, is the National Day of Action!  The National APWU is asking all the locals to participate in a day of action by rallying in front of their Post Offices.  The theme will be to let our customers know that they need to get involved to save their Post Office. With the closing of facilities and consolidations of stations, it is imperative that everyone gets involved.  We are looking for volunteers to give between two and four hours of their time. We will be rallying outside the gate at 7500 E. 53^rd Ave. at the P&DC.  The hours will be 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM.  Anyone who wants to volunteer can contact me at 303-365-1524 ext.19.  Everyone needs to get involved! It’s your job that you’re saving!

From the APWU Website

On Nov. 14^th, postal workers across the country will come together for a National Day of Action to tell Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe and the USPS Board of Governors: Stop Delaying America's Mail!  Please join us! Whether you are postal employee, a small business owner, an individual customer, or someone who simply wants the U.S. Postal Service to survive and thrive, please get involved!

Why Now?

The Postmaster General is poised to make devastating cuts in service to the American people – cuts so severe that they will forever damage the U.S. Postal Service.

• On Jan. 5, the USPS is slated to lower “service standards” to virtually eliminate overnight delivery – including first-class mail from one address to another within the same city or town.

• All mail (medicine, online purchases, local newspapers, church bulletins, letters, bill payments, invitations) throughout the country will be delayed.

• Beginning Jan. 5^th, 82 Mail Processing & Distribution Centers are scheduled to close.

  These cuts will cause hardships for customers, drive away business, cause irreparable harm to the U.S. Postal Service, and lead to massive schedule changes and reassignments for employees.

  Flawed Strategy

  They are part of a flawed management strategy that has unnecessarily sacrificed service and failed to address the cause of the Postal Service’s manufactured financial crisis.

  · More than 140 plants have closed since 2012;

  · As a result, mail is delivered much later in the day, well into the evening;

  · Retail work is being sent to Staples, at more than 1,500 stores throughout the country;

  · Door delivery is being eliminated in most new housing developments;

  · Chronic understaffing frustrates customers and slows the mail, and

  · Six-day delivery is under constant threat.

  The four postal unions are joining forces to protect service, fight for our livelihoods, and defend our great national treasure, the U.S. Postal Service. We have many allies in the fight against the proposed changes, including more than half the Senate and 160 U.S. Representatives.

  Are the Cuts Inevitable?

  The Nov. 14^th date was selected because it coincides with the USPS Board of Governors’ last public meeting of 2014. On that day, the board will release the USPS financial reports for the fiscal year, and undoubtedly will once again bemoan “billions of dollars in losses.”  In fact, the USPS has earned more than $1 billion in profit from operations this year. The “losses” are the result of a bogus pre-funding requirement and have nothing to do with the cost of collecting, sorting and delivering mail.  On Friday, Nov. 14^th, help send a message to the Postmaster General and the Board of Governors: Stop Delaying America’s Mail!

West Wing Arbitration Settlement Update

By Bobby Rollins, Executive Vice-President

The West Wing Settlement involved getting employees back to their original assignments in the West Wing as well as a monetary settlement for all impacted employees.

The first of the two part settlement has already been implemented by management; however, the monetary part of the settlement is still pending at the local level labor office.

The union had a meeting on October 16^th with Eunice Sutton who was identified as the individual responsible for the monetary settlement. Upon completion of this meeting, everyone walked away from the table under the assumption that we were in agreement with how the monies were to be disbursed. I was to receive an email from Eunice by Tuesday October 22^nd with a draft of our agreed proposal, this email never came.

I sent an inquiry to labor as to what the holdup was and received an email from Char Ehrenshaft stating that the file was subject to OIG review and that she would not be rushing through it. I asked when I might expect labor’s proposal on this settlement and the response was; “I would hope by the end of next week”. The end of next week was Friday, November 7^th and to date; I have not received the proposal. I will keep everyone abreast of the situation as any new developments arise, and I can assure you that if labor’s proposal is not satisfactory and we can’t meet on common ground, we will be moving in a different direction with this.

What Has My Union Done For Me Lately?

By Lawanda Davis, Administrative Aide

CFS:   In December of 2013, a grievance was initiated because management was refusing to post bids. The union made an agreement that all bids would be posted and the employees would be entitled to out of schedule pay until they were placed in the bids.  When I notified Ms. Jacobs of the amounts that were owed to the employees she decided that she would only pay for bids that had been vacated in the past 90 days, even though there were bids that had been vacant for over a year.  I told her that was not the agreement and luckily, I had her sign an agreement for the out of schedule pay. 

I instantly appealed the grievance to Step 2 and later, appealed it to Step 3, where it was settled. All successful bidders will be paid an additional 50%.  I'm currently working on the amount to be paid to the affected employees.

What can I do to help, you may ask yourself.  This is what we need;  we need our members to get more involved with their union by attending union meetings, helping with our rallies, and getting involved with the political elections by offering to go door to door, telephone banking, and  sign-holding on corners.  We can no longer say that we don't need to do anything because it's not happening here.  IT IS NOW HAPPENING IN YOUR BACK YARD!! 

We are currently holding a rally at the GMF on November 14, 2014, from 12:00 PM to 4:30 PM.  Wear your favorite union shirt and plan to attend and help us SAVE OUR JOBS.  The Mail Handlers and Carriers will be out there lobbying to help us, but we have to be there too.  The AFL-CIO has offered to come out and rally with us.  We can't ask other unions to come to our house and support us and WE aren’t out there helping ourselves.  Call DMAL President John Ancona at 303-365-1524 ext. 19, and let him know what hours you are available.

Now with that being said, since we have been put into an excessing event, you can now transfer to another state with priority status because, under our contract, you can transfer to any residual vacancy without your attendance or safety record being reviewed.  Every time an employee transfers out of the facility, then there is one less employee that will be excessed.  We will continue to fight the excessing event and try to lessen the impact as much as we can, but we have to STAND TOGETHER AND FIGHT BACK!!  So the next time you think “What has my union done for me lately?”, keep in mind we are continuously working to create desirable duty assignments, we are lobbying politicians to save the Postal Service from its continuous attem pt to destroy itself, we are attempting to save employees’ jobs from the discipline procedures set forth by management, AND we are representing you and protecting you.

It is Bid Annual Time Again

By Chris Arellano, Director Clerk Craft

By now management should have passed out the 2015 Bid Annual Forms.  They should have been out on November 1, 2014.  If you have not received one, ask your supervisor.  It is management’s responsibility to pass out the forms.  The forms must be turned in by December 1, 2014, to be considered.  The annual leave must be posted on a master schedule no later than January 10, 2015.  The new leave year begins January 10, 2015.  You must bring your annual leave balance to 440 hours or you will lose any hours over 440.

Important Dates to Remember

• Penalty Overtime Exclusion begins on November 29, 2014, through December 26, 2014.

• Open Season for health benefits begins November 10, 2014, through December 8, 2014.

• One percent contractual increase effective November 15, 2014.

  Congratulations to Newly Converted Career Employees

  Upon conversion, you will be receiving a Stand-Up Training on the web sites available for health insurance, life insurance and thrift savings.  This must be completed within 60 days.  You will also be able to access a pre-employment screening and an authorization and release questionnaire for benefits information.  Both must be done on the computer.  Beware! Upon filling out the pre-employment screening, make sure you do not leave anything out on the questionnaire.  Management thoroughly confirms you answered truthfully.  If the form is incomplete, this could cause a delay to your conversion to career full-time status.  Please double check and make sure the form is complete.

  The websites that are useful are listed below:

  Health Insurance: http://opm.gov/insure/health/index.asp

  Life Insurance: http://opm.gov/insure/life/index.asp

  Retirement: http://opm.gov/asd/htm/HOD.htm

  Thrift Savings Plan: http://tsp.gov/forms/index.html

  Federal Long Term Care Insurance: http://www.ltcfeds.com

  If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact your union steward for assistance.  One last note; just because marijuana is legal in the state of Colorado, it does not mean the Federal Government takes that position and they feel it is illegal and against Federal law.

MVS Update

By Carey Henricks, Director MVS Craft

We normally would be bidding runs for the drivers right now, but there are several issues that are not allowing me to call for the bids. First is the fact that nobody came to me with a set of runs to approve. Second is the fact that our Postmaster General Pat Donahoe is going ahead with the closures and restructuring of the service standards. These will more than likely change our dispatch times coming out of the GMF. I had discussions with management about the runs and they want to wait to bid in January. I was told that they did not know how many runs we would have in January. That is what prompted me not to call for bids. As of right now, we are staying with what we have. I can not call for bids in the dark. I need to know that we will have the number of runs that we have now, if not more. If I call for bids without a proposal in front of me, they could come to the table with 85 runs and then we loose 15 career positions to excessing. That is not acceptable to me!

The mechanics have done their bidding and are in their new positions. We now have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in place so that we can bid on an annual basis. I addressed bid annual after we completed the job bids because I new that Randy would be pushing for forcing the employees to bid three weeks at a time. Pete told me to make another MOU and break it down so that we would not have the problem that we have right now. I sent a copy via e-mail to him and he stated that at this time, after further discussion, we will stay with what the LMOU says until the new contract is in place. Nobody can force you take more annual than you wish to take. Also, the makeshift form that was produced is not an official form so don’t sign it and agree to fill out a 3971 two weeks before your annual begins.  

Christmas is a Coming!

By Jean Daniel, Secretary

HO HO HO! Christmas will be here before we know it.  To all DMAL members, Santa wants to bring a smile to your child’s face by receiving a personalized letter from him!  Just send in your child’s name, address, something about your child, and what he/she would like to find under the tree from good ol’ Santa.

Send your requests to:

Santa Letters

DMAL/APWU

15677 E. 17^th Ave.

Aurora, CO  80011

Dates to Remember

• The next General Membership Meeting will be held on November 22, 2014 at 9:00 AM. Please plan on being in attendance.

• The next DMAL Retiree Chapter Meeting will be held on January 24, 2015, beginning at 11:00 AM. All our Retirees are most welcome in bringing in the New Year with our new Retiree Chapter

• Watch for our Winterhaven Stand Down fliers! If you wish to contribute, please have your materials to the union hall by December 26, 2014.