Branch News
December 3, 2018
Fellow members- The holiday season is once again upon us and the building is in a transitional and its traditional state of flux. We have a new acting Plant Manager right at the busiest time of year right when our assigned Plant Manager had not even set up and followed through on his peak season plans. PM Howard Patterson is trying to piece together what he can with a work force that is short-staffed, floor bosses that can be unprofessional and incompetent for the most part, and a Christmas season that appears like it will be busier than previous years. Every year seems to be the first year that Christmas arrives in December even though it’s a holiday that has been celebrated long before the Post Office’s inception. Last year was an unmitigated disaster like I’ve never seen in my twenty plus years here and I am just hopeful that this year doesn’t go the same way. I want to thank everyone who donated to the Thanksgiving food drive this year. We collected 6 boxes full of food and $20 in monetary donations. That is slightly less than last year, but I am partly to blame for that because I started it a week late this year. We will do better next year. Thank you again!! Starting November 24th, regulars and MHAs both received pay increases. Please see the wage charts that I posted on the bulletin boards and on our Facebook. On November 13th, we held our winter Branch Meeting at Dolce Mamma and it was the most attended meeting that we have had during my tenure. I believe that all in attendance were satisfied with the food and drinks provided and that the conversation and information was also well-digested. I will definitely be looking at this venue again and I thank all of you that attended for your desire to participate in the Union and its functions. As always, anyone who attended will have extra chances at winning the holiday gift cards. Speaking of the holiday gift cards, we will be drawing the winners on Friday, December 7th. There will be a total of 8 winners for the $40 Wegmans’ gift cards. National President Paul Hogrogian issued his call for National Agreement bargaining proposals from the membership. If you have an idea for an amendment to our CBA, there are forms in the Union office for you to fill out and submit to me by January 10th so that they can be submitted to the National Office. Last contract, we had a bunch of contract suggestions to send in. I look forward to that level of participation in the bargaining process again. After the New Year, there will be a lot of changes in the building. The new PM has already targeted the no-lunch policy but thus far we have been able to hold him back from doing anything drastic. There should also be large windfall of jobs coming our way as a result of the new Function 1 Scheduler numbers. While I don’t always agree with the flawed mechanism that arrives at the numbers; when we are benefitting from it, I will not look a gift horse in the mouth. I’d like to remind everyone that the Winter Bowling Event will take place on January 26th from 7-11PM at Town and Country Lanes. As with all member events, it is FREE for members. It will be a four hour event including unlimited pizza, wings, soda, beer, and wine, as well as the cost to bowl and rent shoes. Stop in the Union office to sign up. It is the busy holiday season and as usual we are short on staffing. Please keep an eye out for clerks performing Mail Handler work. Last year we received over $21K in grievance settlements arising from cross-craft work in December. Stop in the office and fill out a witness statement. Congratulations to Ed Bezpietka and Carl Burghardt on the retirements at the beginning of this month. They both had long and story-filled careers and now can move on to the next chapter of their lives. Finally, in this holiday season and when everything gets hectic and congested here in the Valley, please remember that we are all just here to do a job and that we are all humans. The problems that occur in this plant and are fueled by management’s gaffes are not worth getting your temper up and losing your job over. If you have a difference of opinion with a coworker, walk away and cool down before setting in motion a series of events that could end with you out on the street for a period of time. If a supervisor is setting you off, request a steward and then get off the floor for a while to talk the situation over with a union rep. We are all in this together and most of us just want to do our jobs and go home. Remember to treat others the way that you wish to be treated. Stay United, Stay Strong- Sean |
Branch President Sean Craig
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