Branch News
3/17/2022
Fellow Members- It’s been a bit since I posted something, so here we go for the February and March version of my blast. In the Union’s version of “Hello, Goodbye”, we wish a happy retirement at the end of this month to Joe Prokopovich, Ronda Huff, and Lisa Woykowski. We thank Joe and Ronda for their service not only to the customers, but also for their service to the country in the Armed Services. Ronda wasn’t really here too long to get to know, but Joe and Lisa have been here for years and I have gotten to know them both. We thank all three of them for their service and we wish them all good health and good times in their future. Congratulations! Meanwhile, we welcomed and trained three new stewards. Jennifer Dempsey is now an alternate steward for Tour 1 in the Plant. Esteban Rivera and Solange Rodriguez are both regular stewards in the Parcel Support Annex. We will be setting up a satellite office in the Annex to help with processing grievances more efficiently and timely. In good news nationally, the Postal Reform Act passed the House and the Senate and is just awaiting President Biden’s signature. That Act will help straighten out some of the financial woes that plague the Service. We also received a COLA this pay period. Everyone’s salary was increased; the amount that it increased varies depending on your start date. The Summer Picnic has been scheduled for Sunday, August 28th. Local 308 is ordering black zip-up jackets for all of the members. I will be coming around to show you a picture and to get your size. If you are a veteran of the Armed Services and wish to have your picture displayed on the Wall of Honor, please submit an 8 x 10 to either myself or Transportation Manager Pablo Padin-Gonzalez. Grievances continue to be filed at a record pace and the payouts keep on coming. A big thank you is owed to all of the people who write statements when they witness clerks or supervisors performing our work. A big thank you also goes out to our shop stewards who continue to file the grievances to try and protect our jobs and to create new ones if necessary. If you see extra money in your checks, these are the reasons why. Ergonomic rotations on the machines (APPS/AI/HSTS/APBS) are for all Mail Handlers, not just regulars and not just bid holders. The rotations are in place to keep everyone healthy and safe; they should be followed by everyone on every shift, every day. Please don’t just keep doing repetitive motions or force someone else to do the repetitions; follow the rotations and stay safe. I talk about the most important aspects of our jobs at every Branch Meeting and on these posts all of the time, scanning and swiping. Make sure that if you are supposed to be scanning that you are scanning everything, all of the time. Scans are how customers track their mail, but most importantly it is how workloads and volumes are tracked. Lately, our load and unload scans have been some of the worst in the nation. How is that when we have fully staffed docks? What that is showing is that we are not receiving or sending mail from our facility. That does not look good to the bean counters. Just like with grievances, it isn’t just what we can say that we do, it’s what we can prove that we do. Right now we aren’t showing the numbers. SCAN, SCAN, SCAN!!! If you get moved from an area and go to work another area, be sure to swipe to that new operation number. It doesn’t matter if a supervisor tells you not to swipe…you go and swipe. Operation numbers on clock rings are how we prove where people are working and where we need jobs. Again, it’s all about what we can prove. If a supervisor gives you a hard time about clocking over to the right operation number, please let the Union know about it. Management is back to playing their game of taking your Annual Leave when you request sick leave or LWOP. Contractually, management does not have the right to do this, so don’t let them! You decide when you’re A/L is used, not them. If you request some other leave and management changes it, see a shop steward and file a grievance to get it back. Don’t let them steal your time!! There will be a retirement seminar at the Best Western down the street on April 24th. The woman who runs this has helped several of our recent retirees and comes highly recommended. I have dealt with her and can say that she is very knowledgeable and helpful. See the flyer on the bulletin board!! It’s time, once again, for me to bash the HR department of Philadelphia. The underwhelming and inept that disguise themselves as human resources employees continue to get in the way of progress and job fulfillment here in the Lehigh Valley. They have informed us that we are overstaffed; this is because they are using numbers from 9 months ago before they took over. Since they have failed to do most of their jobs (bids, hiring, conversions, removing from rolls) and the parts that they did do (seniority) they managed to mess up, we are stuck in a holding pattern awaiting their next misguided and ridiculous suggestion. Thankfully, local management sees the glaring issues and is working with the Union to try and get the building correctly staffed because in the end that benefits the Service and the customers. According to my numbers, we would be due 5 conversions from the February residual job bids. I will keep everyone updated as information becomes available. If we performed our jobs at the level that Philly HR does theirs, we would all deservedly be out of work. Stay United, Stay Strong- Sean Happy St. Patrick’s Day!! Lehigh Valley - Scranton
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Branch President Sean Craig The Last & Happiest Swipe!
Congrats Lisa!Your Union RepresentativesLocal Memorandum of Understanding |