Branch News
March 17, 2018
Members- I noticed that in my last posting I was remiss in noting that we have 2 freshly trained and newly appointed representatives. Harvey George and Shandra Fallen attended steward training at Local 308 Headquarters and are now trained to represent our members. Congratulations to both of them!! The end of this month will mark the end of their postal careers for Mail Handlers Greg Beam and Jim Reiser as they enter into retirement. If you see either of these fine gentlemen over the course of the next two weeks, be sure to congratulate and wish them well as they move on to the next phase of their lives. Congratulations to both of you and we wish you good health and enjoyable times in the years to come. I want to remind all of you that we now have a Facebook group called “NPMHU 308 Lehigh Valley”. It is a closed group, so you will have to request to join. It can be useful in keeping up with holiday list changes, meeting dates, picnics, and other information. I addition it provides another forum to express opinions, ask questions, raise concerns, and in general to just stay in touch and informed. Courteous and respectful behavior is expected and I do monitor and edit the page. Management continues to call people into the office for attendance and also now for the “snowstorm that wasn’t” on March 7th. If you are called in and it is thought that the discussion may lead to discipline, then it is your responsibility to request a steward. It seems that the cross-craft work may have slowed slightly, but bosses continue to perform our duties. I know I sound like a broken record, but please do not let these violations of our CBA go uncontested. It cannot be stressed enough that the jobs that they are doing are ours. If we continue to let them do our work without putting up a fight, then we will lose work and jobs. Write a statement and give it to a shop steward or ask to see a shop steward and then write a statement. Management must be made accountable for violating the contract. Help us hold them accountable. Here is your other monthly reminder: SCAN, SCAN, SCAN!! We currently have approximately 40 cases waiting to be sent to Step 3 for decisions, most of which are cross-craft issues from clerks being on the HSTS and AI/AFSM. There are also three grievances for the jobs that have not been posted after they were vacated. We are still waiting on one arbitration decision. Overall grievance activity declined since Ken Hanson took over as plant manager, but that wouldn’t have been difficult seeing that his predecessors, Christine Goughler and Jeff Hotchkiss, had helped us to file a record number of grievances in each of the previous three years. This year there has remained a relatively steady flow, but there could be a large uptick in those numbers if the attendance-related discipline starts up. Here’s another reminder for you to mark your calendar and put in your 3971 for Saturday, September 22nd. That is the date for this year’s Lehigh Valley/Scranton NPMHU Family Picnic. Once again it will be held at Bethlehem Township Community Center Pavilion #1 from 1-7PM. There will be games, activities, and prizes for people of all ages. It has gotten bigger and better every year…don’t miss out! Stay United, Stay Strong- Sean |
Branch President Sean Craig
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