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| California State APWU Convention Report | ||
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The California State APWU Convention began on Thursday, May 20, 2004 with the convening of the California State APWU Executive Board. This meeting gives union officials from all parts of California an opportunity to discuss current issues. In addition, the financial status of the state organization is updated. The state organization appears to be financially sound. Our state officers have a good handle on current issues. Major concerns are excessing, labor scheduler staffing model, unwarranted discipline, PTF conversion, maintenance staffing, and postal reform which could have an effect on every one of us. The actual California State APWU Convention began on Friday, May 21, 2004 and ran through Sunday, May 23, 2004. One of the most important reason to attend the state convention is the fact we get an opportunity for face-to-face meetings with national union officers from Washington, D.C. as well as regional officers. Another important reason is we get to discuss issues with local union officials from all parts of the California. The following officers address our delegates:
· APWU, AFL-CIO President Bill Burrus The message was very clear we are in a battle at all levels of the union: national, regional, state, and local as well as with the congress. Issues such as excessing, labor scheduler staffing model, unwarranted discipline, PTF conversions, new equipment and staffing, and postal reform, which could have an effect on every one of us as well as our families and friends. The union is on top of all of these issues as well as many others. Nothing is being taken for granted. The long delay with grievances is being addressed. Most of the delay is due to sheer volume of the grievances we file. Nationwide the backlog of grievances has been reduced from approximately 90,000 to 47,000 grievances. This has not been an easy task and has been accomplished due to the efforts of many union representatives at the national, regional, and local levels. We have approximately 8,800 grievances pending arbitration in the Pacific Area. We have 586 grievances pending arbitration in the Santa Ana District. Santa Ana has 41 clerk craft, 7 maintenance craft, and 1 motor vehicle craft Step 3 grievances pending discussion. We have made some positive headway. Some of the key issues addressed by the California State APWU Convention delegates are:
· Adding a new Oxnard SCF Representative was not approved. Congratulations to California State APWU President Isabelle Bailey, and all of the other state officers elected for the state term of 2004-2008. The 2004-2008 California APWU Officers are:
President Isabelle Bailey The Greater Los Angeles Area Local provided a presentation related to the National APWU, AFL-CIO Convention. The national convention is in Los Angeles, California from August 18-27, 2004. The national convention provides training on many subjects, craft conferences to address craft needs, resolutions for collective bargaining, and resolutions addressing the directions and administration of the National APWU, AFL-CIO.
Bobby Donelson | ||
| Blood Donation Requirements Have Changed | ||
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We recently changed our donor requirements of donating blood. If you could pass this information along to people you think might be interested in donating blood that would be greatly appreciated. The biggest change is that people who have traveled to Europe and the United Kingdom may be eligible to donate again. The restrictions read that any person who spent more time in Europe than 6 months from 1980 to 1996 or United Kingdom from 1980 to 1996 can not donate blood at this point. This is a change from 1980 to present day. Thanks for your help in spreading this message. We can use all the help we can get going into the Memorial Day weekend and the rest of the summer. If people have further questions or want to find out where a blood drive is taking place near them, please have them call the American Red Cross at 1-800-626-4017.
Thanks and have a great day, | ||
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| Minutes of Safety & Health Meeting – May 18, 2004 | ||
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SUBJECT: Minutes of Safety & Health Meeting – May 18, 2004
PRESENT:
The meeting was called to order at 10:03 AM. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Norb has not attended a staff meeting to discuss the proper way to handle and timely processing of 1767s. This is still an issue to APWU. Employees are not being notified in writing about the abatement of a safety hazard. Every item from the last safety inspection is abated. The RR43 carrier case is continually being bumped with skids, pallets brought in by mail handlers driving forklifts. On occasion there is a work table on wheels with extended ends brought into that area. The cement parking bumpers used by the cases are not working. The committee suggested putting up permanent guard rails by the letter cases by the rural routes. There is not enough room to maneuver around in that area. Dave T. suggested switching the cases for mail processing. There would be extra lights dropped in to give more light for the clerks. Dave T. will bring this item up at the next staff meeting and see if there is a solution. Norb will send an E-mail to the SDOs and the MDOs. ACCIDENT STATISTICS There are a lower number of accidents for this year compared to last year. The largest number of accidents for Customer Service is in the slips, trips, and falls category. The largest number of accidents for the Plant is in the lifting category. 1767s The committee reviewed the 1767s. MAILHANDLERS No new business. NALC Is there or should there be a SOP as to what action a supervisor should be taking when an employee might be in danger of a stroke or a heart attack? The committee agreed that the supervisor should take charge. If the employee doesn’t want the supervisor to call 911, then the supervisor shouldn’t drive them to the hospital either. It is a liability factor. There is no list of employees that are trained in CPR. The employees were concerned about the liability factor. There was very little interest in the program. The post office is located very close to medical facilities. There was talk that District was going to purchase one or two Automated External Defibrillators per office. There is a question about who will be trained to use the device. The Power lift training program is a financial thing. The Plant can’t legally train another 250 employees with that program. Tim J. is willing to show the Customer Service employees a 10-15 minute demonstration on power lifting techniques. Norb will send an E-mail to the supervisors about this issue. The message will include instructions for the supervisors to respond even if they are not interested. The sensor lights on the roll up doors can be lowered. Plant won’t adjust the sensor lights until the system is ours. The final walk through is on May 19. The pull cord attached to the roll up door in the GMF carrier section needs to be adjusted or replaced with something better. John M. and Dave will bring up this problem with the company on the final inspection. Maintenance will also look into this issue. The motorcycle parking stalls will be marked after the cement is dry. There will be eight stalls. Parking vehicles on the lawn or in front of the gate in the parking lot is not permitted. Employees are to park their vehicles in lined stalls. John M. will talk to Sam about this problem. Some of the truck locks are getting worn out. When the inspection is done at night, some of the trucks are not locked. The customer supervisors should address this issue to the VMF. Norb will talk to Gary about this problem. APWU The APWU requested to review all submitted PS Form 1767s and safety suggestions since the last Safety and Health committee meeting. Some of the departments send the safety talk logs for Customer Service and Mail Processing to Norb. They were not available at the meeting, but Norb will send these logs to John Durben. Maintenance is in the process of getting bids to change the duct work and filters for the air conditioner at Cofrin station. The old hoist was replaced for the battery room at the GMF. There was a new lifting basket, pulley, and basket for the excess chain added. There are painted lines to aide in parking the load hogs. The emergency switch on the outside of the room has not been looked into yet, but will be. All of the items on the last safety inspection have been abated. John D. would like a copy of the first safety inspection. The security system will be fully operational on 5-19-2004. There are items that need to be discussed and some bugs need to be worked out with the system. There is signage that needs to be added by the gates on the south side of the building for customers and contract workers. Management feels that the location of the butt hut meets the regulations and that second hand smoke should not be a safety concern in this situation. John D. was concerned about the wet mail that gets dried on bread racks on the workroom floor. Is it just water on the pieces of mail or is it a biohazard? The mail handlers are the first persons to handle the wet mail. The wet mail arrives in the hampers picked up from the star route drivers. If the mail handler has a problem with the wet mail, they should contact the supervisor. John D. wants to know if there is a SOP for this situation. Norb will check the action plan if there is no SOP, one will be created and distributed. Gail N. was concerned about having no custodian on duty to cover for an 8 hour shift. Does this create a safety issue? This situation doesn’t happen often and it is not done intentionally. In the past, some employees would mention to the supervisor that a custodian didn’t show up on time so they could keep someone later. All employees should be wearing their badges all of the time. Maintenance will notify all employees when the whole new security system is up and running as part of a floor talk. Norb showed a safety deck video at the end of the meeting for educational purposes. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 10, 2004 at 10:00 AM. The meeting was adjourned at 11:45AM.
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| Dave Hannon sponsors hole for John Akey and Chett Dillon | ||
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On April 04, 2003, we all lost a great friend when Chett Dillon, former employee and steward for the local passed away. As the day of his anniversary drew near, I was thinking about him and with the oncoming golf season, all of the times myself and others had spent with Chett on the golf course. Being on the golf course with Chett was very different. A lot of times “Yooper” rules came into play, and many a time I or others would be walking down the fairway with Chett when he would simply disappear. You would be scratching your head wondering what had happened to him when all of a sudden he would come out of the woods or a nearby field from looking around for golf balls. I once played three holes with Chett out at Twin Oaks where the only time I saw him was on the tee box, and later on the green. In between I was completely by myself wondering if it was something I said, or a personal problem. Chett said it was neither, it was him just being a “ ball monkey” as he called himself. He was very good at it as at one time he told me he had well over 500 assorted kinds and quality from his endeavors and he was generous with sharing in his finds.
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| Presidential Commission on the U.S. Postal Service | ||
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A chronological list of reports and news releases regarding Postal Service Transformation.
Posted by John Durben @ 02:42 PM CST | ||
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| Draft House Postal Bill Circulated, But Questions Raised | ||
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Note: The markup of postal reform legislation has been postponed until Wednesday, May 12. We continue to work with House staff to address unresolved issues. Of course, the postal unions mentioned in the article is APWU. Congress Daily, May 4, 2004 The House Government Reform Committee began circulating a draft Monday night of the postal overhaul bill it will mark up Thursday, but some commercial mailers say the bill is too weak to save the beleaguered Postal Service. The 126-page draft, which Government Reform Chairman Davis will introduce sometime before Thursday’s markup, includes many provisions recommended by the President’s Commission on the Postal Service last July, including mandated transparency regarding the agency’s finances, costs and operations. Like the commission’s recommendations, the bill would restructure the agency’s rate-setting process, establishing an inflationary rate increase cap and creating a strong regulator to monitor rates. But the bill would not give the Postal Service nearly the level of rate-setting freedom recommended by the commission, instead imposing price controls on competitive postal products. The bill would return to the Treasury the military service costs for postal retirees who served in the armed forces, but it is mostly silent on the kinds of workforce issues Senate Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Collins has said she will include in her bill later this month. A Davis spokesman said he hopes the legislation will maintain the broad support expressed so far for postal change. “Chairman Davis is determined to keep together the coalition that has formed in support of postal reform,” the spokesman said. “We believe we have narrowed the universe of unresolved items to a very small few, and are hopeful that we will have bipartisan support when we mark up this legislation in committee on Thursday,” he said. Meanwhile, House Majority Leader DeLay told reporters that, although he had not yet seen the draft, he will schedule floor time for the bill if the committee approves it. “I see no reason why we can’t bring it to the floor,” DeLay said. A minority source on the committee praised the “cooperative process” of drafting the bill, but she said the legislation still leaves some large issues unresolved, including the fate of a mandated escrow account for the agency. Some in the mailing industry, however, believe the committee is so eager to maintain coalition support that it has produced a fatally weak bill. ‘This is a horrible, horrible disappointment,” said Association for Postal Commerce President Gene Del Polito, who represents large commercial mailers such as time, Capital One and RR Donnelly. “We have made clear there are two things that have to be done to reform the Postal Service. Give them new methods for cost determination and give them the authority to withdraw excess costs and needless services, such as facility consolidation,” he said. “There are no such provisions in the draft at all.” Del Polito said one provision in the draft to restrict worksharing agreements would actually drive up postal costs, although it is favored by postal worker unions and postal competitors. “I see a lot of compromises built in to assuage the concerns of competitors or unions, but I haven’t seen anything to suggest the postal service is going to be any better off under this bill,” he said.
– by Zach Patt | ||
| POSTAL WORKER JAILED FOR PROTEST AT MILITARY SCHOOL | ||
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Over 50 years the U.S. military has trained 60,000 Latin American soldiers in interrogation techniques and counterinsurgency tactics at the School of the Americas (SOA) in Fort Benning, GA. According to SOA (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institutre for Security Cooperation in 2001) training manuals, the insurgents targeted for torture include people who "support union organizing or recruiting" and make "accusations that the government has failed to meet the needs of the people."
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