Branch News
September 13, 2017Members-
I’d like to start by thanking everyone who made it out to the Picnic on Saturday. I think everyone had a good time and I hope that next year it will grow even larger. We wound up with a slightly smaller crowd this year as opposed to last. I just don’t understand why people wouldn’t want to take advantage of the day to come out and enjoy the activities and food, not to mention the chance to win some prizes and catch up with people. The winners for this year were: TV: Lucia Rosario Keurig Coffee Maker: Alan Sienkiewicz $25 Amazon gift card: Rob Bossert $15 Dunkin’ Donuts gift card: Joe Bujak $10 Giant gift card: Bruce Rissmiller Now let’s move on to a few items of serious business. Firstly, brothers and sisters, we need to start making sure that we protect our jobs. There are three main ways to ensure we are doing this. Number one is to make sure that we always swipe to the correct operation numbers when we move. We can’t get credit for the man-hours doing a job if the clock rings show that we weren’t doing it. This also aids in grievances. We recently lost some money in grievances because people weren’t swiped to the correct operation, therefore management states that the people were not, in fact, working there. The second thing we all must do is scan. Scanning provides the data with which the pudgy-fingered bean-counters decide how many jobs are needed based on how much mail is scanned in what periods of time. If there is scanning involved in your job, do it. Scan, scan, scan!!! The third important thing to do in order to help create and maintain our work is to grieve any violations. If you witness clerks or bosses doing our work, you should ask to see a shop steward or just fill out a witness statement and give it to a shop steward. The statement should include the names of the employees performing our work, the times in which they did the work, and what work that they were doing. If we want our jobs, then we must always fight to keep our jobs. The Union needs your help as the front-line fighters in the battle because without good witnesses our cases can just fall apart. If you sit back and do nothing then one day that job may either be abolished or given to someone else. Union doesn’t mean that just the stewards and I do the fighting; it means that we are united in our fight. If you receive discipline, either in person or in the mail, you need to give it to a steward to grieve. Management is under no obligation to give us copies of things that they send you and we are not made aware of when they issue you anything. It is up to you to exercise your right to file a grievance. We have 14 days to file a grievance and if you don’t tell us about the discipline then it is on your record for two years. Don’t let this happen to you. Ask to see a shop steward. Be ready for the crackdown on attendance…it is coming. As I’ve said before, attendance is the easiest violation for management to prove. There is no gray area; you’re either here or not here. All of the Mail Handler machines in the building involve some sort of ergonomic rotation to help prevent injuries, whether it’s hourly or half-hour rotations. ALL employees should have the right to a safe work environment; not just regulars, not just the people with bids on that machine, and not just career employees. Please abide by your machine’s rotation that you, the employees, have worked out. If management or I have to get involved with setting rotations then I am sure there will be some unhappy people. We are all adults here and everyone deserves to work without a greater risk of traumatic or repetitive motion injury. As per our Local Memorandum, any request for annual leave of 8 hours or less must be answered within 2 hours or else it is considered approved. For requests for more than one day but less than a week, management has 24 hours to answer the request. In order to enact these time limits, the applicant must fill out three copies of the form and put the time of request in the box on the left. You should then receive a copy back instantly signed by the supervisor in the block towards the bottom right acknowledging receipt. That is your proof of the date and time you handed the paper in. If you don’t follow this procedure, then it is difficult to prove the timeliness of management and you basically waive the time limits. In the coming months our Branch and the Lehigh Valley APWU will be combining forces to run a food drive for the Thanksgiving holiday. More information on this event will follow. Finally, I ask that everyone please say some prayers for Tour 2 Parcel Post Group Leader Rob Seruga. Rob and his family received tragic news and, barring a miracle, he is nearing the end of his allotted time here with us. He will be missed. Please keep him and his family in your thoughts. Stay United, Stay Strong- Sean |
Branch President Sean Craig
Lehigh Photo GalleryYour Union Representatives
Local Memorandum of UnderstandingCongratulations to Sam and JR
on their well earned retirement! |
