We are less than two weeks away from the opening of the new Portland P&DC building. The USPS does not know what the Clerk, Maintenance and Motor Vehicle duty assignments will be. The APWU Local officers met with local postal officials on May 30 and 31, 2018. The service could not give the APWU Local officers a date when the next clerk craft posting will be available for review, what the maintenance assignments will be, and stated that the MVS runs are changing as the MVS employees are bidding. 18 days before opening, the USPS is still unable to determine what their employees bid jobs will be in a building that they have known about for years. The USPS will resort to giving their employees a temporary assignment order to report to the new facility. The Union is still of the position that the employees were entitled to more than a couple of weeks notice. At the most recent meeting the Union informed the USPS that it does not agree with the temporary assignments.
The USPS made the decision to build a new facility. The USPS made the decision to move all mail processing operations from three facilities into one facility. The USPS made the decision to change our jobs. It is now our job to make sure that they follow our contract with the USPS. How is it the second largest employer in the United States of America can’t figure out that all of this should have been started sooner or postpone the opening to a later date? The USPS cannot even get the furniture delivered and must postpone the moving of some of the employees who work in the District offices to a later date. We have heard this whole event described as a runaway train that is destined to crash. That may turn out to be true.
18 days prior to opening the service has not determined how the employees will be trained on safety, emergency evacuation, how to provide and assign lockers or give some type of general orientation of the new facility. The employee labor relations manual states:
817.4 General Safety Orientation for Employees
All employees, including non-career employees, must receive a general safety and health orientation and sufficient on-the-job training to enable them to follow safe work practices, to recognize hazards, and to understand the benefits to be gained by following safe work practices. Such training must also include:
- Site-specific safety rules,
- Specific job safety analysis,
- Required OSHA programs,
- Emergency evacuation procedures, and
- OSHA rights and responsibilities (see 817.5).
If the service fails to provide this orientation, please fill out a Form 1767, Report of Unsafe Work Condition or Unsafe Work Practice and give it to your supervisor. Your supervisor is required to fill out their portion of the form and return your copy by the end of your shift. We should be using the Form 1767 to report all unsafe work conditions – it will be very important as we enter into a new facility.
Date of Impact/Excessing is October 27, 2018.
As of May 30, 2018 the USPS states that the number of Full-Time Clerks to be excessed is 182.
As of May 30, 2018 the USPS states that the current PSE complement is 119 and they still intend on reducing that number to 47.
Portland Oregon Area Local 