Click on image to download Organizers Toolkit
APWU ALERT : Congress can put the breaks on the PMG’s disastrous cuts. Contact your senators today and tell them to stand up for prompt mail service!
National Mobilization Guide Against Plant Consolidations and Post Office Closures
Attention Postal Employees, Friends of Postal Employees, Your Family Members, Friends, Neighbors and Your Church, Club, and Association Members…
It is imperative that we blitz Senators Feinstein and Boxer’s offices with phone calls, emails and faxes. We only have until Wednesday, August 6, 2014, to get them to sign on to Senators Tester, Sanders and Baldwin’s letter to the Appropriations Committee. As Western Region Coordinator Omar Gonzalez points out, and emphasized by California State APWU President Michael Evans, everyone is affected. RIF is in play. Management is hiring a Reduction In Force Administrator to lay postal employees off!
Fredric Jacobs
President
7901 Oakport Street, Suite 2300
Oakland, CA 94621-2010
The senators who have signed on so far include: (source: National APWU)
Tester (D-MT), Sanders (I-VT), Baldwin (D-WI), Blumenthal (D-CT), Murphy (D-CT), Schatz (D-HI), Harkin (D-IA), Landrieu (D-LA), Markey (D-MA), Warren (D-MA), Cardin (D-MD), Stabenow (D-MI), Blunt (R-MO), McCaskill (D-MO), Franken (D-MN), Klobuchar (D-MN), Walsh (D-MT), Hagan (D-NC), Heitkamp (D-ND), Hoeven (R-ND), Shaheen (D-NH), Gillibrand (D-NY), Schumer (D-NY), Brown (D-OH), Wyden (D-OR), Johnson (D-SD), Thune (R-SD), and Leahy (D-VT).
From: Omar Gonzalez ogonzalez@apwu.org
Date: August 4, 2014 11:51 AM PDT
Subject: REGIONAL ALERT REGIONAL ALERT PLEASE FORWARD
THE PMG IS MOVING FORWARD
The PMG has taken action on the Federal Register to move forward with changing the Delivery Standards. For those who may think the PMG is only bluffing about the consolidation (AMP) of 82 more Plants this should serve as notice that THIS IS NO BLUFF! IT WILL HAPPEN IN 5 MONTHS!
In the Western Area , as have other parts of the country, management has begun issuing Notices of Withholding and AMP impacts. WE MUST COUNTER!
DO OR DIE
Congress is in recess for the remainder of the summer. NOW is the time to mobilize your officers and stewards to hit those work floors and postal installation entrances to get our members to ACT NOW!
Upon returning from recess the Senate will take up the Appropriations Bill in order to fund the government and pay USA’s bills. There is a letter being developed that will be sent to the Appropriations Committee to include language or attach a continuing resolution that WILL KEEP OUR CURRENT STANDARDS at the current level and STOP CONSOLIDATIONS for one year (it’s a start).
WE NEED YOU AND YOUR MEMBERS to contact their US Senators to support this effort and to sign on to the letter. AUGUST 6th is the deadline for the letter. Brother Marcotte our Legislative & Political Director has sent out an eTeam Alert last Friday. PLEASE TAKE ACTION!
BUT THAT ONLY GIVES US TWO DAYS!!!
While our priority at the moment is to GET EVERY SENATOR TO SIGN THE LETTER if for whatever reason you haven’t been able to or cannot mobilize, THE GROUND GAME will still be critical to help us STOP THE PMG AND AMP and the further erosion of postal services.
So please take the time to GET ACTIVE, TAKE ACTION mobilize your members: Not only will this help our nationwide effort to STOP THE PMG but the mobilization can also:
- Help with your Organization Drive
- Help build solidarity within your Local and State
- Help involve those members who never file grievances
- Help your internal support building
Plan visits and phone calls to the US Senators and Congressmen while they are in their Districts and Field Offices!
MY OFFICE IS NOT IMPACTED
If you believe that because your Installation is not currently affected by so called “Postal Rationalization” your members are safe you are mistaken! USPS is impacting offices with as little as 2 employees. Management is not just using AMPs – they are using Function 4, Customer Service Variance, Function 1 Mail Processing, Function 3 and just about any kind of process they can to eliminate the 11,000 jobs they have targeted BY OCTOBER 1, 2014!
If you are a gaining office you will have realignments that will cause disruptions in your facilities. AND YOU WILL BE BLAMED! If the PMG gets away with gutting the current SERVICE STANDARDS your facilities will soon be “Over Capacity” and your employees will be affected.
PLEASE DO NOT STAND BY AND LET THIS HAPPEN! Mobilize Today!
THEY HAVE TO FIND US A JOB v LAY OFF
There are few vacancies available in our crafts. Most are in the carrier craft. Our members involuntarily reassigned to the carrier craft enter an entirely different postal world. Do not let recent so called arbitral victories fool you. The NOLAN AWARD is being undermined by USPS by abolishing NTFT assignments and then giving the impacted employee a full-time schedule thus exposing him/her to reassignment into the carrier craft. THERE HAS BEEN NO NATIONAL UNION challenge to this tactic.
Our craft employees must be qualified to be reassigned to carrier craft is another recent arbitral win. DO NOT BELIEVE THAT MANAGEMENT hasn’t plotted and planned how to get around this loop hole. Management is a master of deceit and determination. Management is hiring a Reduction In Force Administrator. There are some among our ranks that believe this is simply a tactic. DO NOT BUY INTO THIS THOUGHT PROCESS. Read Article 6:
Article 6(3) : ….the Employer shall have the right to effect layoffs for lack of work OR FOR OTHER legitimate reasons. This may be exercised IN LIEU OF REASSIGNING EMPLOYEES under the provisions of Article 12, except as such right may be modified by agreement.
Currently there are thousands of postal workers who are exposed to lay off. ALL of our recently converted PSEs; any new hires since November 2010, those excessed into the carrier craft from our crafts who have not yet have earned lay-off protection. AND CONSIDER THAT OUR CURRENT LAY OFF PROTECTION can be voided if legislation passes that relaxes the Private Express Statutes (see MOU page 307 CBA)
NOTE: Our current Lay Off Protection EXPIRES in 8 MONTHS
INTERNAL PREPARATIONS
I have asked for the assistance of our NBAs to help develop an internal process for dealing with the impacts of the AMPs and Rationalization via contractual appeals (at press time only 3 have thus far submitted data). The Region will issue the updated guidelines as soon as they are fully developed. We also will conduct teleconferences with locals and states and work together on dealing with management’s mess!
BUT WE CAN NOT GRIEVE OURSELVES OUT OF THE POSTMASTER GENERAL’S SINISTER QUEST TO THE POSTAL SERVICE OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES!
WE NEED YOUR IMMEDIATE ACTION AND MOBILIZATION IF WE ARE TO SUCCEED AND SURVIVE!
I have attached a Tool Kit issued by our HQ. Please print it and read it. If you need any more info on the Legislative Front call John Marcotte at (202) 842-4211 or GrassRoots Organizer Phil Warlick at (626) 585-1404.
THIS IS NOT A DRILL,
Omar
Omar M. Gonzalez
Regional Coordinator
PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO YOUR INTERNAL CONTACTS AS YOU DEEM PROPER!!
Thank you!
enufisenuf merely muddies the waters trying to distract from the issue.
Of course union officials are well paid. They are trying to overcome mismanagement and political collusion at the highest levels.
You should put some effort into thinking about why some want to dismantle the USPS, instead of dancing to your master’s orders.
Follow the money.
You will never have the unions join forces. Just look at the salaries of their presidents (Rolando, Hagerty and Diamonstein)and tell me if you would give that up!
Man come on you morons! Buyout all the CSR employees with a year severance pay an be done with this BS. move on.
Unless your all just really Drama Queens.
Hate to tell you anti Omar guys this but a position for a manager to run the RIF’s has been posted. My office is making preparations to close, moving out equipment, mail being processed by our gaining office. Also two carrier stations getting ready to close and move into the our building once T-1 is gone. Read some of the other articles on postalreporter. The congressman that drafted PAEA said bulk mailers all across the country are working with congress to keep their rates low and they have the money to get that attention. Bulk mailers make millions of dollars a year and are willing to spend thousands to be heard.
We all know that if 80,000 workers are let go the mail can’t move. Just remember that at the plants anyone can learn to run a DBCS in a day or two. So if you are against crossing crafts, why? One of the biggest problems the P.O. has is when mail volume is low is finding work to keep people busy. This hurts the company when people are standing around, the company that provides your paycheck. APWU and NPMHU should at least consider combining. The biggest advantage people have is they can perform many different tasks, machines can only do one! Plus the money saved on running two unions can be greatly reduced and the remaining union would have more money to fight to keep our jobs.
Not sure & EyeSee…2 Omar appointees or just looking for appointments? Hmmm? Saw him in action…just another politician career union official who if voted out or position eliminated by “L” Street will take his union officer only retirement fund and sail off into the sunset.
Get out my guitar an play, just like yesterday.
Plan for the worst and hope for the best.
aaaw all you barry supporters.. that’s obama’s real name. only 2 repubs. all demo rats. enjoy. don’t believe everything you read.
Not Sure, you are correct: Omar is the real deal when it comes to protecting members.
Sometimes appearances reveal obvious truth: These Omar-bashers – be they union-haters, scabs, malcontents who have issues with their union – they plant themselves here to sow seeds of doubt to give you pause and thereby cause inaction.
If you will notice, They criticize the man by nitpicking irrelevant aspects about him or his assertions, not the real issues at hand – the dismantling and destruction of the USPS.
They add nothing of value to the conversation. They are here to disrupt and distract the conversation. Ignore them.
Contact your Congressmen and Senators.
Thank you for reading this.
You mean fallin’?
On the issue of Feinstein joining other senators. I doubt very seriously that Feinstein and Boxer will sign anything that involves USPS.
The people talking about Omar are way off base. Omar is the real deal when it comes to protecting members. Many members are unaware that many times he clashed with other national officers over issues affecting us. Now i know members were upset with the previous apwu administration but Omar should not be lumped with that group.
Now Omar said to contact your senators asap. if postal workers have been paying attention to news on usps the request is a no brainer.
Sounds like the sky is fallen?
“Brakes”.
the drama continues……..L….O…..L bla bla bla
Currently there are thousands of postal workers who are exposed to lay off…really Omar you lying piece of excrement? Your BS headlines are an old union tactic called smoke & mirrors that career union officials (like yourself) use to manipulate the lemmings. Say Omar, why don’t you tell everyone of the last time you actually touched the mail other than opening envelopes addressed to you?
Well pilgrim, I think a shootout may fix the problem.
Donahoe is doing what Darryl Issa and some other GOP asswipes are telling him to do. The real question is whether there are enough votes to defeat these guys who are hell bent on sending the USPS into private hands. Look at some of the other posts – people all over are mad as hell at what the PMG is doing and putting pressure on their legislators to try to protect their mail service, so despite some peoples’ claims to the contrary, there is still a valuable service to be had, especially in the parcel market and the increasing amount of spyware, hacking and other privacy violations on those too overly dependent on the internet and social sites.
And what the hell is wrong with Obama? Why didn’t he do something about this PMG? Answer: he doesn’t give a shit either. So much for the union endorsements.
Luv Vera- I guess you can’t read. Because if you could you would have read which employees 6(3) pertains to. But when luv vera wants to be deceptive or crude all it (probably a manager or wanna be manager)has to do is point a crooked finger and call someone else deceptive.
And yes Deetee the PMG and the BOG is doing what “some” in Congress wants him/them to do- but that does not mean that Congress as a whole can’t be petitioned to act responsively and responsibly. So no need to name call unless you really feel the need. God Bless!
I wish the writer of the notice knew the difference between “breaks” and what it should have read, “brakes.” C’mon, please proofread a little more closely.
Didn’t Gonzales help push the lies from Guffey and his minions who were voted out of their executive positions that if they voted for the Guffey’s big giveaway CBA of 2010 that they would be protected from layoffs and not be excessed beyond 50 miles if they voted yes on their wonderful CBA? now he’s telling the truth after the stupid members allowed themselves to be bamboozled by their own leaders!
Feinstein,through her husband Dick Blum’s no bid contract to sell off postal facilities will make in the hundreds of millions off the sale of postal facilities,no way in hell Feinstein would sign on give up all that money!
We’re all gonna DIE!!! How was that? Was that dramatic enough for you? Mebbe this Omar guy and the unions should’ve reached way down and found a pair BEFORE alot of us got moved around. They’ve been playing defense so long ever since the recession that they’ve forgotten what it is they’re supposed to be doing. Forced cross-crafting every day? Went from being 15 minutes from your plant to driving an hour downtown? They don’t care.If it isn’t about OT, they don’t want to hear it. Sounds like a few of the top dogs might be affected so NOW they want to do something about it.
The remaining employees on tour i will take a $$$ hit!
Floor Edition July 9, 2014
Update by: Jackie Engelhart
USPS Plans to Close 82 Facilities in 2015…
The USPS announced on 6-30-14 that they will go forward with the plan that had been on hold for two years, to close 82 more facilities in 2015. Facilities in our area on the closing list are Fox Valley and Madison WI. At a Town Hall meeting new Carol Stream Plant Manager Mike Kotula stated the decision on which plants to close is not being made based on productivity but on size. Management is closing smaller plants with the mail going to the nearest large plant not closing. Fox Valley mail will go to South Suburban and Madison to Milwaukee. Palatine, Carol Stream and Chicago Metro are not on the closing list. This consolidation plan is based on changing the first-class overnight service standard to two day which means mail does not have to be processed overnight. Elimination of overnight means mail will be processed in a 20 hour window on tours 2 and 3, but not on tour 1. Management states mail processing will begin at 0800 am with the DPS beginning at 12 noon.
Time Changes to Come
Most of the mail should be finished by the end of tour 3 so there will little if any mail processed on tour 1. Machines will be empty on tour 1 so the preventive maintenance window will be on tour 1. Clerk jobs will switch to tours 2 and 3, while some skilled Maintenance jobs will switch to tour 1. USPS put out a letter to customers explaining the planned consolidations.
http://www.nwial.com/
http://www.nwial.com/HTMLfiles/FLOOR%20SPREADS2.htm
“Congress can put the breaks on the PMG’s disastrous cuts.” Hey dumbass, the PMG is doing what Congress wants him to do; you dont know that??
another omar gonzalez ‘the sky is falling,’ chicken little rant. this post is deceptive and uses references that aim to scare people but aren’t complete or true. just one example: omar gonzalez posts a reference to the contract in article 6 (3) when whining about layoffs. oops, omar omitted the part of article 6 (3) that identifies which employees this is relative and specific to. so omar, let me just say this. when you are deceptive and try to bullshit and fool members a lot of them will simply completely tune you out and trash the union for allowing a person of such low character behave like this.
Finestein makes millions from the sale of postal facilities. Good luck trying to get her to sign on. She’d be a Republican if they allowed gun control.