HELLO UNION MEMBERS

by Mark Kirby, President

You have probably seen all the reversions being announced in the DPM from management.  I just don’t understand their thinking.  The District Manager tells me straight to my face that he would like to beef up the staffing at the GMF but he says that he is unaware of the reversions that are happening at a record pace.  Really? Employees are working beyond 60 hours in a week, PSE’s are working more than 40 hours a week, Clerks are working outside of their bid assignments, getting paid Out of Schedule premium up to four hours and then being told to stay four hours on overtime.  It makes for a good pay check, but does any of this make sense?  The stations are so understaffed that non-volunteers are being mandated to work beyond eight hours in a day and having to work a sixth day.  PSE’s are working seven days a week without a day off, not knowing when their next day off may be.  To have a life outside of the post office or to just get a day off for some much needed R&R, they have to call in! 

Now that the non-volunteers are being forced to work overtime, management is using “absent from overtime” occurrences against them for discipline.  In other words, tell your supervisor you can’t work the overtime and they will use it against you for attendance review.

I am getting many calls and questions regarding what’s going on with the bids?  Why are they being canceled? Why am I being taken out of a bid that I properly received?  The bottom line is that management has placed EAS employees into the position of reviewing bids and awarding bids and these individuals have no clue of what they are doing.  It’s not all their fault because management does not provide these people with any training, so there is no assurance the bids will be posted and awarded correctly!  I don’t believe we have had a proper DPM since August of 2017, so if you are getting extra money on your pay check, thank your union for making sure that management is being held accountable for their total disregard of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. 

So far this year management has paid out approximately $750,000 dollars in grievances for the Clerk craft and approximately $350,000 dollars in the Maintenance craft.

CONGRATULATINS TO ROBERT HELMIG  

by Ron Malunat, Administrative Aide

On behalf of the DMAL Executive Board we would like to congratulate Robert Helmig on being elected as President of the Colorado State APWU.  We know Robert will continue to apply his work ethics and dedication to this position as he does for the local now.  Good luck and we are all looking forward to working with you as the State President.

HOT UNDER THE COLLAR

 by Joe Quintana, Coordinator

Recently, there have been incidents between employees in which "Emergency Placements" have occurred.  Verbal altercations between our clerks, and often times the "Amazon" delivery drivers, have taken place at Lafayette, Englewood and Northglenn.  While our clerks have done nothing other than to try to do their jobs as instructed, management apparently chooses to take the easy way out by emergency placing any clerk involved.  The union, your union, immediately files the appropriate grievance in every situation, but because management drags their ass in resolving each grievance, the clerk involved must endure no paycheck, stress and a huge degree of uncertainty as to what will happen.  Also impacted are the clerks who are forced to work overtime to cover those on Emergency Placement.

Be assured that the APWU is doing all we can to get these clerks back to work with, hopefully, full back pay.  Also know that the APWU is keeping a close eye on the physical altercation that occurred on May 10, 2018 at the Montbello Station between two supervisors, in which one broke his leg.  Both were emergency placed, but I'm sure they will be brought back to work before any of our clerks!  Stay tuned!

SAME STORIES ACROSS OUR STATE

by Monica Lipscomb, Asst. Dir. Clerk Craft

We start this week having just returned from the State Convention.  I had the privilege of serving as the Election Committee Chairperson. along with Jeani Hart and Rick Daniels.  Robert Helmig is the newly elected State President!  Please congratulate him next time you see him.  Please also remember to give your thanks to George Prusak for his 22 years of dedicated service.

When speaking to our states different stewards and board members, the examples of the reversions of jobs, while being constantly understaffed, were all too familiar.  Striking really!  While we all fight the same fight and file the same grievances, not one of us can truly predict what the future holds.

We are all astounded by the "new" way that management handles the questions being raised.  Issues such as being short staffed are handled by management doing bargaining unit work, and when grieved, paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars in Colorado alone.  Times that across the country!

Omar Gonzales brought us information on the Executive Order handed down from Trump.  We read the order; it is full of lies, still eluding to the public that taxpayer money funds the Postal Service!  Perhaps taxpayers will have to fund a bail-out of the Postal Service.  The claims that are reported in the order suggest that the USPS has incurred 65 billion dollars in cumulative losses since the 2007-2009 recession.  Trump claims that Amazon is trying to destroy the service singlehandedly.  It is very interesting how politicians still distort facts and figures.  Do yourselves a favor and read the order; who knows how this will be spun.

The latest and greatest brand new facility slated to open soon is in Portland, Oregon.  It cost a staggering $93 million to build, 65 billion in debt and still spending millions, seems about right!  Examples of distortion, greed and mismanagement abound.  The good news is that summer is here; we get to go on annual and relax and have some fun.  Be safe and enjoy yourselves.

MVS UPDATE

by Robert Helmig, Director of Motor Vehicle Craft

I would like to thank everyone who supported me in becoming the State President for the APWU.  I will bring the same dedication and work ethic as I have for everything else I have done for the members of the APWU.

We still are at an impasse with the bids.  In my last communication with management, I was told that there is a grievance on it.  I take that as refusing to talk and will let the grievance take its course.  I have asked our NBA Jerome Pittman to accelerate this grievance at arbitration.  We have a date set for July 6, 2018.

As we are subject to DOT drug and alcohol testing, it is very important that you watch the chain of custody.  If names do not match up, challenge it right then and there.  It is too late when that test comes back positive to challenge it.  You will not be able to retake that test.  I’m working on getting management to use another facility and company to do DOT physicals and drug tests.  We have had way too many problems with Concentra.

It is important that when you believe you have a grievance, to speak to your steward.  Each steward is only certified to represent the tour that they work on.  If a steward on a different tour files a grievance for you, it may be cited as procedurally defective and get thrown out.

As always, if you have any questions, get with your steward or contact me.

SUPERVISORS DOING CLERK WORK AT STATIONS

by Ron Malunat, Administrative Aide

Supervisors and Carriers doing Clerk work at stations is rampant.  Due to cutbacks of jobs over the last few years, mail isn't "getting up" on time at stations.  Instead of admitting that the job cuts went too far and then post jobs to get the work done, management is choosing to do Clerk work, which obviously is a serious VIOLATION OF THE CONTRACT.

The seriousness of this cannot be under estimated!!  The penalty for this violation is to pay 1 1/2 times the straight time rate for all time involved.  This is a pretty serious penalty because this violation affects the number of jobs we have.  Management will not repost jobs as long as they get away with doing our work.  They have to admit their mistake and admit this is why overtime is up and why they do craft work.  It's not due to any other reason they give you.  Simply put, these violations are the end result of bad decisions by management.  So far this year we are having a RECORD AMOUNT OF PAYOUTS for supervisors doing our work.  Please help your fellow workers and report these violations to the union so it can be used to help create new jobs.  You wouldn't believe the amount of money members are getting for this and you should too.  Please immediately report these violations.

FALSE "UP TIME" SCANS

by Ron Malunat, Administrative Aide

If your supervisor is scanning "mail up times" falsely, please report it immediately.  This also includes falsifying time for Carriers and Clerks.  We are getting reports of supervisors continually falsely scanning and reporting "mail up times".  You can report it to the Office of Inspector General Western Area at 1-800-447-8477 or email at www.oig.hhs.gov/fraud/reportfraud.  You can remain anonymous if you want to. Western Area Vice-President Greg Graves has sent letters to us all to report this.  This memo clearly states, "your obligation to manage and work with integrity".  This includes turning in your supervisor if they give you a direct order to scan mail up when it's clearly not up.  He goes on to say each violation MUST be reported to the Office of Inspector General.  He is obviously talking about integrity being important to the USPS.  This is true, but I also want to emphasize how important this is to the security of our jobs.

CLERKS CONTINUE TO BATTLE!

by Laviena Vargas, Director Clerk Craft

The Denver Metro Area is in need of any and all clerks who are tired of seeing management do our clerk work, tired of being harassed by management to hurry and do more and to work faster!  All clerks are fed up with management posting DPM after DPM that is full of stupid mistakes that result in bids being canceled.  Or worse, erroneous bids being improperly awarded.  All clerks are tired of working hours and hours of overtime, to include their day off!  These pressing issues are NOT new, in fact, they are the same old annoying issues that the clerks in this local continue to battle!

The above said issues are affecting EVERY clerk!  Our local is on track to file a record number of grievances for this calendar year and it is only May.  For that main reason, as your Denver Metro Area Clerk Craft Director, I am kindly asking every single clerk to consider stepping up and to volunteer to be a union steward.  We currently have great stewards enforcing our national contract here locally; the only problem is WE DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH STEWARDS to file and cover all areas and all issues. Our Local has over 1,600 clerks! Management swears we are “overstaffed” in all areas and that the mail volume is down, thus resulting in their decision to revert almost every bid that becomes vacant.  My question to management then is “IF we are so overstaffed that every bid is being reverted, then why is releasing the very few stewards that we do have such a problem?”  Hmmm….  Maybe management figures if they do not release the stewards to address the contract violations then maybe they figure they can prevent the union from filing the hundreds of grievances on the violations?  Tour 1 at the GMF is in need of a steward. Tour 2 at the GMF is also in need of a steward. Tour 3 stewards are fighting to get released to address all of the grievances occurring on their tour. Release issues are affecting every single steward!  All current stewards are doing more than their fair share and then some. Please recognize and Thank our current strong Union stewards representing our Clerks:

Philip Alcala-GMF T1                 Al Barker-GMF T1 

Lawanda Davis-GMF T1            Charles Quintana-GMF T2 

Tim Samuels-GMF T2                 Fleming-GMF T3 

Asst. Director Clerk Craft Monica Lipscomb-Coordinator

Cornella Morris-GMF T3           Toshay Wilkerson-GMF T3  

Tina Vivens-Stafford-GMF T3   Connie Archuleta-Bear Valley   

Sarah Barber-CFS                        Connie Bernal-Lakewood            

Barb Lucas-Morrison                    Ron Malunat-Coordinator         

Jolene Montiel-Coordinator         Jessica Price-Lafayette                 

Margaret Putzier-Boulder           Teri Moody-Boulder                    

Joe Quintana-Coordinator           Dejanae Rice-Stockyards             

Rachelle Roybal-Englewood       Shawn Swanagon-Englewood    

Deanna Tesone-Louisville            Lorri Valdez-Flores-Cap Hill     

Chris Andrews-Coordinator        Robert Helmig-Coordinator        

Anthony Lacido-Coordinator

 “Thank you Stewards and thank you EVERY CLERK who is out there working hard to ensure the Postal Service is able to operate & provide service every day!” Any clerks interested in being a steward, please contact myself at 303-365-1524 ext. 13 or Assistant Clerk Craft Director Monica Lipscomb at ext. 17. There is POWER in numbers and the more stewards our local has, the more POWER WE WILL HAVE!    

I would also like to congratulate our very own DMAL Robert Helmig for being elected as our new Colorado State President!  We look forward to Robert leading the State! 

/rb

opeiu #30

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