Labor-Management Meeting:

Mail Handler Jobs Changing

According to Herrick, there are 302 full-time regular positions, 4 part-time regular positions and 10 PTF’s. She is looking to lower the number of bid jobs to around 275. Herrick assured the union that there will be no excess mail handlers. She said there are at least 23 mail handlers who are not currently working their bid assignments.

Herrick noted that there is a great imbalance at the SJ P&DC in the number of jobs and the available work. For example, there are 89 bid jobs on Tour 1 and Tour 2. Yet Tour 1 has a heavier work load in that it’s responsible for all dispatching. There are also 20 platform jobs on Tour 1 – 18 of them have mail handlers working on a Saturday when mail volume is low. And the flats sorters have a total of 75 bid jobs on all three tours, yet flats volume has greatly fallen.

The union’s position is that management must remain cognizant of people’s personal lives and try to minimize the effect the reevaluation will have. Management agreed to work with the union to minimize the impact.

Management also said it is putting the QWL project on hold until after the reevaluation takes place. Previously, management had said it was ready to restart the QWL program.

Here are the other items discussed at the meeting:

Discipline
The union asked to be notified when management issues any discipline. There have been cases when the union has learned of discipline too late to take action that would have averted a personal disaster, such as in substance abuse cases. Management refused the union’s request.

Bargaining in Good Faith
The union told Herrick that some SDO’s are unwilling to hear a Step 1 grievance. Herrick said she will look into the matter. She also said some SDO’s may feel cautious about settling grievances because some of their past settlements have been detrimental to the Service and/or have enabled poor work habits to continue.

Crossing Crafts
The union told management it is violating the National Agreement by allowing clerks to prep mail directly into the AFSM’s induction stations. Management said it makes no sense to place mail that’s ready for induction into ACT’s first. The union said it will file a cross-craft grievance for every occurrence.

Plant Closings
Management said it has not heard anything about Swedesboro closing. It reiterated what the union already knew about the Philadelphia BMC, i.e., it is expected to lose some mail volume. But there are no plans to close the facility at this time. The Philadelphia GPO has announced that it is excessing 128 clerks and that it is looking to place them in jobs that are up to 750 miles from Philadelphia.

Chain of Command
The union said some mail handlers are confused about whose instructions they should follow: their supervisor’s or a manager’s from IOP or In-plant Support. Management said the mail handler has to follow the last order given to him or her by a manager, even if that manager is not an SDO.

At the meeting, the union presented a report on the use of power equipment. It was able to show the need for management to assign equipment to a specific operational area so that the equipment will be kept in good repair. The premise is that mail handlers would ensure its equipment is kept operational if they knew they would be working with that same equipment every day.

The mail-handlers union will post the formal minutes of the meeting as soon as they’re available.