Prior to the May membership meeting will be the Executive Council meeting.  All members are welcome to attend.  We will be discussing the current actions happening at the Portland City stations and Portland GMF.

Local Union officers met with members of management on May 9, 2017 .  This meeting was concerning the upcoming changes the service intends on doing.  They have a plan to change operations at the Portland Plant and to Portland city stations.  How these changes will impact Mt. Hood P&DC, PACC and the AO’s is yet to be determined or even addressed by the service.

The service stated they intend on moving 70-80 percent of DPS volumes to Mt. Hood P&DC.  And then went on to state “don’t quote me on those numbers”.  The reason they claim for this move is that Mt. Hood is more efficient and that it will make for an easier move to the new building in March 2018.   The service provided a list of 36 Tour 3 plant jobs they intend on abolishing.  The service claims that this will result in sectional excessing.  This means that the junior clerks will be moved to another section.  The service does not know where they are moving the excess clerks.  Management claims the excessed clerks will be assigned work currently performed by PSE’s.  They claim that PSE hours will be reduced.  We were told previously that PSE’s will be laid off at Portland in hope that they apply to work at Mt. Hood.

The service claims they are over staffed by 24 full time jobs in the Portland city stations. The service identified 35 station non-traditional full time (NTFT) clerk jobs for reversion, abolishment or reposting.  These are the 4/10’s and less than 40 hour positions in the city stations.  The service stated that the reason that NTFT assignments are identified is they are the best place to find hours savings and the jobs are hard to back fill.

The service only provided a list of job numbers. The Union has requested more information.  As of this posting, none has been provided.  The service requested another meeting this week.  Without specifics based on facts and documentation, why have a meeting? The Union offered to meet May 18^th or 19^th, the service did not take the Union up on that offer.  There are many questions that the service was unable to answer.  Who are the impacted employees?  Where will the impacted employees be reassigned?  What is the impact to PSE’s.

Mt. Hood P&DC, PACC, Maintenance at Mt. Hood and Portland and Motor Vehicle Service;    Moving a large volume of mail to Mt. Hood, how will the mail get there and out to its final destination?  What will be the impact on the Maintenance and Clerk craft employees at PACC and Mt. Hood P&DC?  What will be the impact on the Maintenance employees at Portland P&DC?  All questions that need to be asked and answered. The service has not stated any impact to the employees in these areas. The Union has mailed a request for a Labor Management meeting with the Manager of Mt. Hood P&DC.

The local knows that if the service goes forward with these actions they will be in violation of our contract.  Be assured that we are taking this seriously and working diligently addressing these proposed changes. We will be enforcing our contract.  We suggest that if you think you are one of the impacted employees; ask your supervisor what they are doing. This is managements plan.  Management should know why and who.  Your local supervisor, manager, MDO should be able to communicate to the employees what is occurring.  If they say they don’t know, ask them to find out and get back to you.

There are many issues that will need to be addressed concerning these actions.  Watch this site for updates.  Local officers will be available to answer questions at E-Council at 5:00 pm and  Local membership meeting at 6:30 pm, May 21, 2017.

 To be voted on at the May 21, 2017 General Membership meeting.

CURRENT LANGUAGE:

Article 10-ELECTION OF OFFICERS AND DELEGATES

Section 9

The President shall, with the 2/3 majority approval of the Executive Board, appoint a member in good standing, to fill the unexpired term of a general executive board member who has vacated his/her position. Vacancies of Craft officers shall be filled by nomination and vote of Craft members present at a special election meeting.

PROPOSED CHANGE TO CURRENT LANGUAGE:

Article 10-ELECTION OF OFFICERS AND DELEGATES

Section 9

The President shall, with the 2/3 majority approval of the Executive Board, appoint a member in good standing, to fill the unexpired term of an a general executive board member who has vacated his/her position. Vacancies of Craft officers shall be filled by nomination and vote of Craft members present at a special election meeting.

NEW LANGUAGE:

Article 10-ELECTION OF OFFICERS AND DELEGATES

Section 9

The President shall, with the 2/3 majority approval of the Executive Board, appoint a member in good standing, to fill the unexpired term of an executive board member who has vacated his/her position.

On Friday April 14, 2017 Vice-President Bill Martin, Clerk Craft Director Kevin Fraser and I attended a meeting with the Senior Plant Manager, District Manager and Human Resources Manager. This was just a short “heads up” meeting. We expect many more to come. The service has determined that mail volume has reached a point that they need to abolish and re-post duty assignments. This is allegedly due to a national applications called “Workforce Dashboard” and “Job Bid Management”. We all know what has happened with their previous national programs. If you remember “Four Walls” or “OWC”, we all know how well that worked out. Within days we all knew it wasn’t working. Within weeks and months, the service started to pack it in. The problem with national programs is that local management goes along with it, no matter what the local circumstances. The service claims that 67 districts are going through this process. One size does not fit all.  How many of those 67 will be consolidating three mail processing facilities into one building in less then a year?

The service would like to eliminate Non-Traditional duty assignments in the Portland city stations. At the same time they would like to move mail for DPS processing from the Portland P&DC to the Mt. Hood P&DC.  The service claims this will result in re-posting and abolishment of duty assignments and laying off of PSE’s.  The service hopes the PSE’s let go in Portland will go to work at Mt. Hood P&DC. The service would like to see this process completed in June. We will be meeting regularly on this issue as well as the consolidating of Mt. Hood P&DC with the Portland Installation.

May 21 and June 14 will be the next General Membership meetings.    As new details become available we will be updating the members at those meetings as well as on the local website and Facebook page.

The Postal Service, as of April 26, still does not know what the details are  for the city stations and have not provided any new information for the stations or P&DC’s.   The service stated that they hope to have more details around May 3.

At the February membership meeting Kevin Fraser was elected to fill the vacant Clerk Craft Director position.

The January meeting is scheduled for January 29, 2017, 6:30 pm.

The Clerk Craft Director Election meeting and February General Membership meeting are  scheduled for February 12, 2017, 6:30 pm.

Appreciation to all the Officers that were able to come in during the recent weather events. Vice President Bill Martin, Secretary/ Treasurer Debbie Battle, Director of Education Cheryl Walton, Director of Legislation Daniel Cortez and Director of Associate Offices Verna Matthews.

The Annual Recognition Luncheon has been rescheduled for Sunday February 12, 2017.  Please RSVP by Friday February 3, 2017.  Please be aware that the invitations went out stating Saturday, the event is Sunday,  February 12th.

Riverview Restaurant 29311 SE Stark St.  Troutdale OR 97060 12:30 pm

The Executive board will be meeting on January 11, 2017 at 1:00 pm.  One of the issues the board will be addressing is the rescheduling of the January General Membership and the Clerk Craft Director election meetings. All members are welcome to attend.

The Local Executive Board has made the decision to cancel the membership and
Special Election meetings scheduled for January 8,2017. Ice is a problem all over the surrounding areas.  The Special Election meeting will be re-scheduled in accordance with the Local constitution.