President’s Report

June 1, 2009

Before I report on our Local’s issues, I would like to take this opportunity to ask you to keep Cindy Dolbier’s family in your hearts and prayers.  Cindy was one of our APWU members and she passed away suddenly on Wednesday May 27, 2009.  She was a 21 year member of our Lakeland Postal family and she will surely be missed.  God speed.

We are almost half-way through 2009 and we haven’t been able to stop long enough to catch our breath!  Time is flying by and too many upsets are happening on a daily basis.

In my last article I told how excessing was going to happen around the state. Since that time, we excessed ten Clerks out of the Lakeland installation.  All ten Clerks were voluntarily excessed as they left in lieu of impacted employees. Impacted employees are the employees that were initially designated as junior employees within an installation. Regardless of how they were excessed, our Local is standing firm with its position that no employees should have been excessed prior to receiving a 90-day notice which would have been June 7 at the earliest.  I initiated a grievance on this issue and am awaiting a Step 2 response from Labor Relations. 

Remember that whether you are voluntarily or involuntarily excessed out of the installation, you keep your craft seniority if going to the same craft.  If you decide to change to a different craft, you would be starting a new period of seniority (i.e. going to Carrier or Mail Handler).

After Lakeland’s first phase of excessing, it was Tampa’s turn and they are finishing up their first wave as I am writing this report.  This domino effect will impact numerous other installations before it is over. 

Nationally, we saw the number of unemployed increased by 563,000 to 13.7 million with a new high in the unemployment rate of 8.9%.  Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed has risen by 6 million with the unemployment rate growing by 3.9%. In these tough times I am thankful for the fact that the APWU has not lost any jobs thru unemployment or layoffs!!  Let’s all give a cheer for our negotiated Collective Bargaining Agreement!!

There is still no word on the Tour 2 Compression issue coming out of our National Headquarters but when I hear anything I will let you know.  Our APWU is being pushed and pulled from every direction. This is the time that we all need to unite and stand firm in our quest for our common good.   Rest assured that not only locally, but nationally as well, we are working around the clock to police our Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Locally we are encountering many issues grievance wise.  In our Associate offices we are working on (4) Letters Of Demand, job posting problems, Letters Of Warnings, and excessing to simply touch on a few.  In the Lakeland P&DC (Plant) we are constantly encountering an array of issues too numerous for print.  The ‘excessing’ issue will be coming up again due to the AMP (Area Mail Processing) and what the USPS says is ‘Low Mail Volume/Mail Decline’.  When we receive our next ‘impact’ letter I will keep everyone up-to-date via this forum, our website, and the APWU Bulletin Boards.  I have spoken to our APWU Southern Regional Coordinator, Bill Sullivan, and he has agreed to come to Lakeland for a meeting to answer any questions and concerns from our membership.  I will notify everyone once this is finalized. 

Another area of concern in both our Plant and in the Associate Offices is that of the National Reassessment Program (NRP).  This is where certain limited and light duty employees are being looked at with concerns to their limitations and employment with the USPS.  I have sat in on a few thus far with quite a few others on the agenda for later this month.  This NRP program is going on all over the country and it has made its way into our State over the past year or so.  We are being diligent and are doing our best to combat any negatives to our membership.  

The Mystery Shopper program has become a concern in our district. Some management officials are attempting to isolate employees that they say missed certain questions and are then grilling them about it.  It has even been reported that management has gone so far as to make employees sit in on telecoms with management employees. Please know that you CANNOT be disciplined due this program!  

On September 15, 2008, the USPS and APWU settled a National Level grievance on this subject.  The outcome stated, “Evaluations generated through the Mystery Shopper or similar programs shall not be used as the basis for discipline.”  We cannot let these actions go unchallenged.  If this or something similar to this has happened to you, contact your Steward or Officers right away.  Although we must follow the instructions of our management supervisors and we can be subject to discipline based on the PS Forms 4000A and 4000B (supervisor’s personal observation), NO discipline can be issued based on the hearsay of a mystery shopper or any similar third party.  If management wants to have a discussion with you concerning the Mystery Shopper program, request that your Steward be present with you.

Remember to enlighten non-members as to why we all need to join together in these times!

In Solidarity,

Joe Paul/ President