Presidents Report
As I stated at last month's meeting, the big news everyone had to deal with was
excessing! I guess the biggest shock our affected carriers received was how fast
management was going to implement this movement. I told everyone the plan was to
have all unassigned regulars placed in their new offices by January 30th. I
didn't think it could be pulled off this fast but was told it was going to
happen, and it did. The majority of our affected carriers have started their new
assignments on time. There are still a few carriers who have not been placed as
of this writing, but I am told they will be placed as soon as jobs become
available. As you know I am not one to give management much credit for the
things they do, but in this case I believe they have tried to accommodate all
these transfers to the best of their ability, and have been very cooperative
with the affected employees, since this is a very trying time, and I thank them
for that. I want to clear a few things up that our carriers were concerned with.
Many carriers were shocked that they were actually being excessed. I guess they
thought this day would never come, since many received their notices back in the
summer. The one thing we must not forget is this is actually a good thing, in
that they have been placed in a regular position. I understand the offices to
choose from were not real desirable, but hopefully it will be short lived for
many. The reason I say this is many of our carriers may be able to retreat back
to their incumbent offices if there becomes a residual vacancy, or the
comparative work hour analysis shows their excessing wasn't needed. So,
remember, you always have retreat rights for as long as you are employed. Some
people may get back sooner than others, but I am sure many will return at some
point, so hang in there. Another issue many carriers were concerned with dealt
with the TE's. Carriers wanted to know why the TE's weren't let go before
carriers were excessed. A very good question, which I asked our business agent
about. The business agent stated to me that the TE's will remain for at least
the next 30 days, pending a review of the work hours at the offices involved. If
their hours are more than 8 hours a day during this time frame, then the
excessed employees may be returned, if the workload shows they could have done
this work. I am not sure I agree with this rationale, but this is what we are
being told is going to happen. Only time will tell what is actually going to
happe. For the record, Article 12 states," Management is required to
separate all Transitional Employees prior to excessing any letter carriers
except where "management can demonstrate that the work cannot be performed
on a fulltime basis in compliance with the requirements of the National
Agreement." This is why they have the ability to keep these TE's on board.
We all know there will be enough work to support these excessed carriers, but we
will have to wait the 30 days to show there really is enough hours to support
their being here and their excessing was not necessary.
I know this has been a tough transition for all the affected carriers, but
remember one thing: Thanks to having the provisions of article 12, management is
obligated to find a position for you, which is a good thing, and they are doing
just that. I hope to have some more updated information by our next regular
meeting in February. Hope to see you there.
On a lighter note, I want to thank everyone for coming to last month's meeting
for the installation of officers by former branch president Bill Revak. It was
quite a night, and I can't tell you how many members told me how much they
appreciated the branch for showing Bill the respect he deserves by choosing him
to do the installation. Thanks again, Bill.
Gary DiGiacomo
ATTENTION ALL STEWARDS
Please take note, the executive
board meeting on FEB 10, 2010 is a must attend meeting. The National Business
Agent will be giving training on some very important issues that we will be
facing this year. Please mark your calendar.
Next Meeting - February17
The next regular monthly meeting of the Branch will be held on Wednesday,
February 17, 8 p.m., at the American Legion Hall, 502 Colonial Ave., North
Woodbury. The regular monthly meetings of the Branch are held on the third
Wednesday of each month at 8 p.m.
The Branch Board of Officers and Executive Board meetings are held on the 2nd
Wednesday of the month. The Board of Officers at 7:30 p.m., and the Executive
Board at 8 p.m. The next meeting of the Board of Officers and Executive Board
will be on Wednesday, February 10, 7:30 and 8 p.m. respectively.
Children's Christmas Party A Huge Success
The Branch
held it's annual children's Christmas party on Sunday, Dec. 13th and once again, it was a huge success. The party was well
attended and all the children received American-made presents and a photo with
Santa. A big thank you goes out to Trustee Donna Villec for organizing the event
and Branch Officers Gary Digocomo, Norm Spence, Tom Barnett, Fred Mendel, Joe Walder, Jim
Comuso,
Atco Shop Steward George Greenwood as well as Trudy Spence, Clinnie Barnett,
Jeannie Mendel, Annette Metz, Bill and Marie Revak for all the hard work they
did to make the day special for the children and grand children of our members
Grievance Log
The following is a list of the offices who won monetary remedies this past year
for either Article 8 violations, TE loaning or other violations which incurred a
monetary award. These numbers do not include all the steward time needed to
process these grievances. If you do the math you will see our stewards were very
active in trying to protect our members from the mismanagement in this district.
Blackwood-$3100.00 Deptford-$6700.00
Glassboro-$950.00
Somerdale-$6100.00
Hammonton-2963.00
Maple Shade-$1860.00
Paulsboro-$5500.00
Stratford-$13000.00
Riverton-$5715.00
Voorhees-$1500.00
Runnemede-$800.00
TOTALS: $48,188.00 from the offices reporting in, but still much more money won
as a result of the poor leadership in this district.
As you can see this is why we are in the shape we are in! When the DM states,
"this is just the price of doing business," I am still amazed he
continues to steer this ship!
Step B Results
Sewell: Management did not have just cause to issue a 7- Day suspension for
failure to follow instructions. Suspension rescinded.
Sewell: Management did not have just cause to place grievant in an off-duty
status (without pay). Grievant returned to duty with full back pay and all lost
benefits.
National Park: Management did not have just cause to issue a 14-day suspension
for abandonment of mail .Suspension rescinded
Williamstown: Management did not show cause when they improperly removed a TE
carrier. Grievant reinstated with back pay of 36 hours per week for each week he
was out (approximately 7 weeks)
Magnolia: Management did not make every reasonable effort to reassign the
grievant to non-driving duties as required by Article 29 of the J-CAM. Grievant
will be credited with 44.23 hours of annual leave he was forced to use.
The branch has nice clean uniforms at the hall for free and you can call me
any night I live a block away please check them out. Also all bills get sent to
me first and my PO Box 227 National Park NJ 08063 before they get paid. And I
hope to see everyone at the retirees dinner April 17th 2010.
Thank you Jim Comuso chairman of the board of trustees.
NALC Health Benefits
Open season for 2010 season netted a increase 6,431 new members. We like to
welcome our new Members to the plan. For more information on the plans and
updates go to NALCHealthBenefitplan.org Fred Mendel HBO
3RD Annual Branch Banquet- April 17
The 3RD Annual Branch 908 Banquet will be held on April 17, 2010 from 7:00 -
11:00pm at Nicolosi's Catering, 1 Hessian Ave. Woodbury, NJ. This is a great
night to eat, drink, dance and socialize with good friends and especially to
honor those carriers who have retired in the past year as well as those who have
been selected to receive Branch awards. If you have retired since the last
banquet or you will retire before April 17 , contact Branch Recording Secretary,
Mike Powell at 908Recordingsec@comcast.net
Those being honored will receive one
free ticket to the banquet. All other Branch members, family and friends are
encouraged to attend at a cost of $20pp. Current Branch retires will receive one
ticket at half price ($10). Tickets may be picked up from Branch Recording
Secretary Mike Powell at any Branch meeting, or by mailing the form below with
checks made out to NALC Branch 908, to PO Box 375, Gloucester City, NJ 08030
Name:
( please print )
Check One: Honoree ( ) Retiree ( ) Other ( )
Total Number Attending :
Amount of remittance enclosed :
Send to PO Box 375, Gloucester City, NJ 08030 by April 7.
Nominations For Shop Steward Of The Year
The Shop Steward of the Year Award will be awarded at the Branch retirees
banquet. There is a nomination form available online at nalcbranch908.com/sofyear.pdf.
or simply write on a piece of paper the following information: Name of Steward
being nominated, Office, Person making nomination ( must be from Steward office
), and statement including accomplishments, knowledge of contract, ability to
deal with co- workers and management, and dedication to the NALC and 908.All
submissions must be received by March17, 2010. The winner will be selected by
the awards committee and kept confidential until the presentation at the
banquet. Mail completed submissions to :
Branch 908 Steward Of The Year
PO Box375
Gloucester City, NJ 08030
Branch President and Vice President Cell Phone Numbers
President Gary Digiacomo - 856-906-2838
Vice- President Steve Rutkowski- 856-906-2026
Attendance prize now stands at $50
Had he been in attendance at the regular monthly meeting of the Branch on
Wednesday, January 20, J.D. Musser Wenonah , would have been the recipient of
the $25 attendance prize. The prize now increases to $50 and will increase
$25
per meeting, up to a maximum of $250, until a member in attendance has their
name drawn.
Dates To Remember
February 21-23 Region 12 Rap Sesssion
March 9-12 NJ Congressional Breakfast
May 23-25 NJ State Rap Session
August 9-23 National Conventation
DELIVERY OPERATIONS INFORMATION SYSTEM
(DOIS) SETTLEMENT
Q01N-4Q-C 05022610 (M-01664)
After reviewing this matter, the parties agree to resolve this dispute based on
the following: The Delivery Operations Information System (DOIS) is a management
tool for
estimating a carrier's daily workload. The use of DOIS does not change the
letter carrier's reporting requirements outlined in section 131.4 of Handbook
M-41, the supervisor's scheduling
responsibilities outlined in section 122 of Handbook M-39, or the letter
carrier's and supervisor's responsibilities contained in Section 28 of Handbook
M-41. DOIS projections aren ot the sole determinant of a carriers leaving or
return time, or daily
workload. As such, the projections cannot be used as the sole basis for
corrective action. A five minute time credit for lines 8-13 will be added or
when route inspection data is available
for lines 8-13 the actual average information will be used for daily workload
projections. Management is responsible for accurately recording volume and other
data in DOIS. Other
than obvious data entry errors, route based information may only be changed
through a full count and inspection or minor route adjustment. Additionally, the
parties have previously
agreed that functions in DOIS which relate to the route inspection and
adjustment process must be in compliance with the city letter carrier route
adjustment process in Subchapter
141 and Chapter 2 of the M-39 handbook. Exceptions are offices that have jointly
established an alternate route adjustment method. DOIS base information in such
offices shall, as appropriate, comply with the alternate route adjustment
method. Date: July 30, 2007 The terms of this settlement became effective
September 11, 2007 with the ratification of the 2006-2011 National Agreement.
FEBUARY WINTER STORM
By the time this letter is received the worst of the storm will be over,
unfortunately we will still have to deal with the clowns or better yet, the
insane clown posse, who are in charge of this district. The first thing that was
said by the posse was that anyone not showing up for work on Saturday would be
considered AWOL and some type of discipline would be issued. Are these people
for real !! I got up around 5:30am shoveled my sidewalk, driveway and then
cleaned off my car and low and behold it was snowing and blowing so bad
everything was covered up in a matter of minutes. So, I call the Employee
Emergency Number and it tells me that everything is normal and to report to
work. I think to myself ," Wonder what state this recording is coming
from" so I call a taxi, although I might not be the sharpest knife in the
drawer, I did figure out that it was not SAFE to drive in these conditions.
While waiting for the taxi I started watching the news and low and behold the
news was also saying that it was not SAFE to drive and that no one should be out
in these blizzard conditions. I report to work via taxi at 7am and there is no
mail to case except for the curtailed 3rd class flats from Friday. The plant
seemed to be having transportation problems, HELLO there is a blizzard going on
at the moment, we never received any dispatch from the plant. At 845am we are
informed that a call would be coming at 9am with directions. The call comes and
we are told we can go home. The Insane Clown Posse does it again, this time
putting the very lives of the employees who put money in their pockets at risk.
I wonder if any of the Posse could be held accountable for any personnel
injuries or property damage suffered by anyone coming or attempting to come to
work. I will have more to report on this next month. I was just thinking , maybe
the Posse will reimburse me the $9 taxi fare I paid to get to work. Doubt it,
cause that would be the safe and right thing to do!
Mike Powell Recording Secretary 908
