[August 29th]

APWU's Member Transfer System Back Online

The site will provide you with information on how the transfer process works and can aid you in making a transfer to a new postal installation.

Visit the Member Transfer System for more detailed information.

        [August 21st]

National Negotiations News Item- Local Interest!

A member of Pittsburgh Metro has been selected to testify before the national arbitration panel on behalf of the APWU. This clerk was selected by our National officers to help present the Union's case. Hearings will take place in Washington, DC and Chicago, IL. Information will be posted here, as developments occur.

Please refer to the news item in the Late Autumn Metro News Edition to read more.

        [August 20th]

Post Office Management Faulted

Probe: Supervisors at Fullerton facility were 'abusive,' according to inspector general study done in response to workers' complaints.

Read the full article at the Los Angeles Times online newspaper site.

Does any of this sound familiar? Why are we not surprised?

        [August 20th]

A One-Sided Agenda to Privatize Social Security

President Bush and his handpicked privatization commission are mounting a campaign to convince Americans to replace part of Social Security's guaranteed benefits with private individual investment accounts. The commission is releasing a new report that will be used as part of a larger public relations offensive designed to undermine public confidence in social security. As this Administration has already shown, it is willing to twist and distort the truth in order to privatize Social Security.

The Bush commission to privatize Social Security represents Wall Street, not working families. This is a stacked commission that has been ordered to come up with a plan to privatize Social Security. The Bush plan will drain $1 trillion out of Social Security. The $1 trillion price tag for the Bush privatization plan means big benefit cuts.

The big question for the President and his commission is: Whose benefits get cut and by how much? Under the Bush privatization plan, workers will see a 40 percent average benefit cut. Secure, dependable social security benefits are critical to tens of millions of Americans.

Information provided by J. Zunic of the ACLC from an article in the AFL-CIO Legislative Alert

        [August 19th]

Are you ready? Labor Day is almost here!

The PMAPWU has loads of wonderful things for you, and for you to do on Labor Day... come out, bring the family and make sure our contingent is one of the largest marching!
Mark September 3, 2001 on your calendar and show Pittsburgh your Union Pride....

Free parking is available at the Pittsburgh Brewery (3340 Liberty Avenue in Lawrenceville)
and the Port Authority will again provide free shuttle service from Mellon Arena and back.

Click on over to our Events page to get all the details!

        [August 17th]

Airmail Facility Update

The parties have met to discuss management's intent to restaff the level 5 bids at the airfield.

The Union made a counter-proposal that management has agreed to take into consideration before making their final decision. The parties are scheduled to meet again on Monday, August 20, 2001. As information becomes available, we will post the latest.

        [August 17th]

Entertainment Books Available

Both the Pittsburgh edition and the Pittsburgh-East edition will be offered by the Pittsburgh Social and Recreation Committee again this year. For more information, look for the flyers in your installation, or even better-- sign up to be on the committee's mailing list.

Tentative delivery date is the week of October 1, 2001. Limit of one per employee.
LAST DAY TO ORDER IS SEPTEMBER 12, 2001.

        [August 16th]

Update on the Staffing Changes Outside the GMF

BMC - Management has changed ten bids on the parcel sorter. At the meeting held on August 13th, management confirmed that no further changes in staffing will be made until the new SSIU is installed and operational-presumably sometime in March 2002. Management claims the changes are due to a severe drop in mail volume at the BMC. They claim that in order to run a more efficient operation, further changes in staffing are needed.

PPMPC - Pittsburgh is one of only two sites that still does not have a staffing package for the PPMPC. On July 31st, the Region got involved and requested that Gary McCurdy "motivate" his staff to get their jobs done at the Area level. To date, only one PMPC site has a signed memorandum. Pittsburgh is the only site that has gone to impasse. All other sites are either involved in extended negotiations, or they have not yet begun negotiations.

AMC - Meeting has been scheduled for Friday, August 17, 2001. Information will be posted after the meeting takes place.

Arbitration - The parties are in the process of selecting a new panel of arbitrators to hear Local cases, so there will be no cases presented for a few weeks this summer. During this lull, several advocates will be working on major pending cases that have been sitting in the system for years. When hearings resume, we hope to be able to bring closure to these issues.

The Craft Directors have been asked to review all pending arbitration cases in their respective crafts in order to ensure that the cases are properly prepared for hearing. To date, only one of them has responded, stating that he will cooperate and review cases pending on the docket.

        [August 15th]

New Maintenance System

The Maintenance Jim Lingberg and Assistant Maintenance A Director Bobby Donelson met with the USPS at the NTAC on Friday to discuss the Maintenance Selection System (MSS) and the Maintenance ABID2000 systems.

In the near future the USPS will testing a new system which will replace the current MSS program and ABID2000 systems and go to Web Base Program.

The intent of the change is to ensure every office in the country is adhering to the contract and proper method of placing employees on a Promotion Eligibility Registers (PER). Secondly, if a notice of intent is posted, the program will provide the proper means to fill the positions. In many cases currently once the Preferred Assignment Registers (PAR) are exhausted errors occur. The system will provide an audit trail. This way, we have a paper trail to ensure the proper person was placed into the proper position.

PER registers will be generated by the new system. Currently NTAC only generates the PER rating. The Local office does the PER's and this interfaced with the ABID2000 Maintenance System.

As we did in 1997, the Maintenance Officers will be heavily involved in this process. The EL 304 corrected many problems we had with the MSS. Since 1997, MSS errors and problems have reduced. However, many still exist and delay with updates (37 day contract limitation) occurs.

Currently the "business rules" (or proper methods of filling a position) are being reviewed. The correct contract provisions will be programmed into the new system. Employees seeking placement on a PER or an update will have easier access as well as a clear reason if they cannot do what they seek to do.

The system will also provide data for every office and for every Maintenance employee. Forms will be printed to reflect the positions in a particular Installation.

We are in the very early stages but hope to pilot in October or November. The goal is to eventually have all Maintenance positions in the new system.

This is the first briefing on this new proposed change.

New Custodial Exam 916

The new Custodial 916 is due out next month. Currently we still have unanswered questions on the affect and application of current PER's and current employees.

The issue of waiving qualifications for current employees who are not custodians is not decided.

        [August 7th]

Update on the Staffing Changes for the GMF

CFS - Several bids are currently posted. Some of the bids have retreat rights listed on them. There are three clerks city-wide who are eligible to exercise retreat rights to tour 3 CFS bids.

PSDS - The posted bids require a completed 991. According to our National, management cannot make any decision based upon the information listed on a 991 or any other piece of paper listing KSAs. The TACS jobs are senior qualified. The bids must be awarded based upon seniority, successful completion of test 725 and five days of computer training only. No other information can be considered when awarding these bids.

There have been many discussions between the parties about the 991 and KSAs being listed on the bid posting. If you bid these jobs and the jobs are awarded to someone junior to you, be sure to see your steward immediately to grieve the possible violation. If your rights were violated, the steward will need a copy of your current bid to file for out- of -schedule pay for all time that you are not in the correct bid.

FSMs - Management is currently canvassing tour 2 FSM clerks into different layoffs that will make the section a seven-day operation. The one excessed clerk will have an opportunity to exercise his retreat rights. As all keying positions are slated to go away on the FSMs by June 2002, management has expressed their intention to revert tour 2 vacancies that occur in the FSMs.

SPECIAL DELIVERY - We have been told that there will be no jobs lost in the section. The FedEx deal has impacted the workload. With Express mail arriving an hour or two later than before, it is nearly impossible to deliver Express before the 12 noon cut off. Management is uncertain at this time whether or not bid hours will be changed. Some creative alternatives are being attempted.

        [August 2nd]

FedEx Retail Agreement-- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Did you know that the USPS and FedEX are doing business together? Are you curious about how this will affect USPS operations, and ultimately... us?

If you work in the Retail and Customer Service side of the USPS (as opposed to the P&D end) you really will want to look at these.

Check out the FAQs we've made available for you.

        [August 2nd]

Rally This Monday, August 6, 2001-- Downtown Pittsburgh

The Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union, Local 57 has been organizing the new Renaissance hotel workers for the past 5 months. We are now at a critical point and call on you for your support.

On February 21, 2001 we entered into a neutrality/card check agreement with the hotel's developer, Fulton L.L.L.P. and operator, Sage Hospitality Resources L.L.C. This agreement was brokered to insure labor peace for the operator and as a way for employees to freely choose or not choose to be represented by our union. The agreement also has a clause that if either party has a dispute they would go to binding arbitration.

Our union filed for arbitration on June 22, 2001 over the way the card check was conducted. The main issue was whether union authorization cards should have been counted or not counted. On July 3, 2001 the arbitrator ruled in our favor and ordered the hotel operator to recognize our union as their employees' exclusive bargaining agent. To this date, the hotel operator, Sage Hospitality Resources L.L.C. (head quartered in Denver, Colorado) has refused to recognize us. Therefore, we feel it is necessary to begin holding lawful and peaceful demonstrations in front of the Renaissance Hotel.

We call on you to stand with us in our fight with this out of State Company. All workers have a right to join a union free from fear or intimidation from their employer. Please join us in our first rally in support of the Renaissance Hotel Workers on Monday, August 6, 2001 from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. at Fort Duquesne Blvd. and Sixth Street. We look forward to seeing you there!

        [August 1st]

Coat Drive for Homeless Begins in September (Reposted)

Light of Life Ministries Annual Coat drive will begin September 4 through October 12. Drop your gently used winter coats off at your neighborhood drycleaners anywhere you see the Western Pennsylvania Cleaners and Launderer's Association (WPCL) logo displayed.

These participating drycleaners will clean the coats free of charge and deliver them to the mission. Coats will be distributed to the homeless and the needy on Saturday, October 27, 2001.

        [August 1st]

Rock Against Racism 2001 (Reposted)

The Thomas Merton Center is presenting Rock Against Racism 2001
on Saturday, August 18th, 2001 at the Schenley Park Overlook.

Read the message from representative Maryellen Hayden:

"The Thomas Merton Center has been hard at work supporting the Living Wage, producing education and information pieces on how the Bush tax cuts affect the poor, working class, and middle class people in our area. We have also been working to develop broad-based community support for efforts against racial and ethnic oppression."

"Rock Against Racism is an effort to bring together different kinds of people using diverse types of music. Last year, our first concert had over 500 people in attendance. This year, we expect 2000."

Make plans to go!