{"id":1888,"date":"2017-03-01T04:25:25","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T04:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/?p=1888"},"modified":"2021-07-07T20:57:56","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T03:57:56","slug":"promises-promises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/?p=1888","title":{"rendered":"Promises, Promises By: Western Region Coordinator Omar Gonzalez"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
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From the Office of The Western Region<\/em><\/strong>
Omar M. Gonzalez, Coordinator<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
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Promises, Promises<\/strong><\/div>\n
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I\u2019m not referring to New Year\u2019s resolutions many of us already broke. I refer to what promises to be an interesting year. Like millions of Americans, I, too, was devastated by last November\u2019s election results. However the election is over and we are into the first 100 days of radical changes in government and our lives. January 19 was the Obama Administration\u2019s last day. I will not go into a litany of his accomplishments or failures. I want to focus on some events to come that promise to be \u2013 or at least have the potential to be \u2013 an impact on you in 2017. Please don\u2019t fall for \u201calternative facts\u201d or fake news. Consolidation Moratorium\u00a0Expires in April<\/strong> April 1 promises disruptions and forced employee migrations. It is time for locals to re-educate members on the\u00a0Principles of Seniority & Reassignment\u00a0<\/em>in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). There are three basic elements (among many) when excessing occurs:<\/p>\n
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  1. The USPS is required to give notice to the Region of the operational changes no less than 90 days in advance (six months whenever possible). Normally it includes a notice of withholding for residual vacancies to place impacted employees. To prevent erroneous information, local managers are not to discuss excessing from the craft or installation with employees until an Area\/Regional Article 12 meeting is held.<\/li>\n
  2. To minimize impact to career employees, all Postal Support Employees (PSEs) working in the affected craft and installation will be separated to the\u00a0extent possible,\u00a0depending if separating PSEs will yield sufficient hours for a regular duty assignment. The sole criterion for selecting excess employees is seniority.<\/li>\n
  3. Affected employees get advance notice (not less than 60 days if possible) before involuntary details or reassignments are made from an installation. After attrition is applied, PSE hours are reduced, and volunteers are solicited, affected employees are issued a minimum 30-day notice that identifies their placement and report date. Employees need to be informed of their \u201cRetreat Rights.\u201d The local union should ensure the Retreat Right process and change in seniority is explained. Excessing employees outside the installation cannot occur more than once every three calendar months and is currently restricted to 50 miles (check your craft Memorandums of Understanding for more information).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The simplified process above contains the basic information a member needs to know when consolidations and excessing occur. While the CBA requires new Area Mail Processing studies, there are no provisions that prohibit excessing (involuntary reassignments) so long as the principles of reassignment and seniority are properly applied. You can access the Joint Contract Interpretation Manuel in Article 12 of CBA at\u00a0apwu.org. Postal Reform & Lay-Offs<\/strong> Management\u2019s legislative goals promise to impact your job. The GOP\u2019s stated mantra basically is\u00a0\u201cthe government works for the people, the people do not work for the government.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0In other words, cut back government employees. USPS is an independent establishment of the Executive Branch of our government. It is important to remember how the management of the USPS operates, from the President of the United States down to your direct supervisor:<\/p>\n

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    • USPS is under the direction of a presidential-appointed Board of Governors, which directs their powers through management.<\/li>\n
    • Management blames much of what hinders USPS on labor costs, price caps and product restrictions. They claim these are\u00a0\u201clegislative restrictions\u201d<\/em>\u00a0on USPS\u2019s business model and seek to have Congress impose \u201cpostal reform.\u201d This reform could affect our health benefits, our jobs through \u201cright sizing\u201d mail-processing infrastructure and transportation networks. This \u201cleaning out\u201d in reality is abolishment, excessing, consolidations and privatization of services including \u201coptimization of retail services,\u201d through closing post offices (replacing them with postal \u201cstores\u201d and retail partnerships instead).<\/li>\n
    • The Office of Strategic Planning and National Performance Assessment programs align management\u2019s goals. With our government in the hands of corporate elites, such postal reform could possibly lead to the relaxation by Congress of the\u00a0Private Express Statutes, which would have our Lay Off Protection Memorandum in the CBA expire.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Would management allow our postal monopoly to be undermined? They promised to have fair employment practices, safe secure workplaces, effective training, fair supervision, honest\/open communication, job security and performance recognition. So, you tell me. Remember we are a part of the Executive Branch and as the recent hiring freeze exception showed, we can be impacted by White House whims by the stroke of a pen. Worker Protections Weakened<\/strong> The government agencies we rely on to ensure fair working and living standards will be directed by corporate elites. The new Department of Labor will tilt even further against workers. Regulations prohibiting manager\u2019s unfair labor practices will be undermined. Weakened OSHA safety standards will increase injuries and deaths. Veteran Appeal Rights will give way to agency rights. Even time on the clock for grievances can go away. So much promises to change. What must not change is our\u00a0resolve to fight\u00a0for better working and living conditions. Fighting for better economic and social conditions, as well as against unjust laws, is what I and my fellow coordinators, Sharyn Stone, John Dirzius, Mike Gallagher and Kennith Beasley promise to do.<\/p>\n

      Join us and the APWU as we fight for our future!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

      \u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      \u00a0 From the Office of The Western RegionOmar M. Gonzalez, Coordinator \u00a0 Promises, Promises \u00a0 I\u2019m not referring to New Year\u2019s resolutions many of us already broke. I refer to what promises to be an interesting year. Like millions of Americans, I, too, was devastated by last November\u2019s election results. However the election is over and we are into the first 100 days of radical changes in government and our lives. January 19 was the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":6268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apwu-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1888"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10513,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions\/10513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apwu73.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}