On June 18 some of our local members were joined by other members of our community in a rally to bring attention to the reduction of almost 300 clerk craft jobs in the Portland Oregon Installation. Thanks to all who attended, including Jobs with Justice, NALC, AFL-CIO of Oregon, and CPWU.
We have received many questions from our Membership about what will happen when we arrive at the new Portland plant on 06/16/18. Our latest meeting with the Service has provided some information that we want to share with you. The Service intends to gather all of the employees in the Cascade conference room to view a short video. Upon completion of the video, employees will tour the workroom floor with safety representatives. All employees should receive this first day orientation concerning emergency evacuation exits and gathering points, BDS, lockers, timecards, safety, etc.
This orientation should be held on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to cover different days off for the workforce. If needed, another orientation will occur on Tuesday. The Service should provide the same orientation to any employees who are on leave during this next week.
Reminder: Union T-Shirts on Fridays and Opening Day Stickers.
We must stress that all Members should have their e-bidding accounts established at this time. If you have not bid in a while, or have not set up your e-bidding account and password, you need to complete this process as soon as possible. Please do not wait until the last minute, only to find that you are unable to bid on any vacancies in the future.
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:
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:
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.
The Portland Local office will be open for 24 consecutive hours beginning at 12 noon on May 24, 2018. Any MEMBER who has questions, comments, concerns, issues or discussion is invited to drop in at any time. President Joe Cogan and Vice-President Bill Martin, along with other officers and stewards, will be present. We plan on scheduling another 24 hour event in the near future.
On May 20, 2018 at 5:00 pm, the local will be conducting a clerk caucus. The intent of this event is for MEMBERS to come and discuss issues. Expect to hear much about new facility, reassignment, impacts and excessing. All subjects, issues and crafts will be open for discussion. We invite every MEMBER to attend. This will be followed by the General MEMBERship meeting at 6:30 pm. If necessary, we will continue the caucus following the General MEMBERship meeting.
A merged list of Portland and Mt. Hood PSE’s is posted on the “Portland Seniority Roster” page.
The Mt. Hood and Portland Installations merged seniority roster has been posted on the Portland Seniority Roster page. We believe that it is correct. If you believe there is an error with this roster, please call the office and share your concerns. We will investigate and make any necessary corrections.
