Contract Negotiations December 21, 2018
Statement from President Mark Dimondstein to APWU on Status of Collective Bargaining
12/21/2018 – The Collective Bargaining Agreement (Union Contract) between the American Postal Workers Union and the United States Postal Service initially expired on September 20, 2018. Negotiations began in July with a big kick off and national day of action during which many of you participated as together we are “Fighting Today for a Better Tomorrow!” Since our contract expired there have been four extensions of negotiations in an effort to reach a voluntary agreement.
As your president, taking general guidance from the National Negotiating Committee, I led in reaching a tentative agreement with management on December 6, 2018. I believe it to be fair and positive for the members.
For the rest of this statement, please click here to access the PDF statement.
PSE Career Opportunity Update
PSE Members:
I have been advised by In-Plant-Support that all previously unassigned regular clerks have been assigned to a duty assignment, and that there are 16 residual vacancies. Accordingly, the Oakland Local APWU will be working diligently to get PSEs converted to career status as soon as possible, and to have the conversions effectuated in compliance with the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with an accurate PSE seniority list.
Fredric Jacobs
President
For a PDF copy of this update, click here.
Further Update / George H.R Bush National Day of Observation
Members:
The Senior Plant Manager has advised me that administrative leave will be provided for Plant employees for the National Day Of Observance (NDOO) after the peak season (January 4, 2019). Number 10 of the NDOO MOU states that a day of administrative leave must be granted and used within six months of the NDOO (December 5, 2018) or by the end of the Fiscal Year (September 30, 2019), whichever is later. Employees will select the day that they want to use their administrative leave, subject to management’s approval.
The City of Oakland has advised me that all retail offices will be closed on the NDOO. Employees with the NDOO as a nonscheduled workday will be granted a day of administrative leave at a future date.
PSEs are not eligible for the NDOO administrative leave. They get paid for all hours worked on the NDOO.
Fredric Jacobs
President
Update: Former President George H.W. Bush Day Of Observance
Members:
I have been advised that the Postal Service will observe the national day of mourning for former President George H.W. Bush on December 5, 2018. (See announcement and MOU below) I have also been advised by APWU Headquarters that PSEs will not be granted administrative leave for the Bush National Day of Observance.
Fredric Jacobs
President
Click here for “FYI – Former President George H.W. Bush Day Of Observance” announcement
Former President George H.W. Bush National Day of Mourning
Sent: Monday, December 3, 2018 10:20 AM
Subject: FW: National Day of Mourning
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2018 10:08 AM
To: Resident Officers <ResidentOfficers@apwu.org>; Regional Coordinators <RegionalCoordinators@apwu.org>; NBAs <NBAs@apwu.org>
Subject: National Day of Mourning
Revision of the Leave Offered Through the Wounded Warriors Leave Act of 2015
From: Lynn Pallas-Barber
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2018 2:49 PM
To: Regional Coordinators; NBAs
Cc: Jimmie Waldon; Clint Burelson; Lamont Brooks; Michael Foster; Idowu Balogun; Javier Pineres
Subject: FW: REVISED Notification No. N19C20180435 USPS Proposes to Revise MI EL-510-2016-8 Wounded Warriors Leave
- Eligible new hires will receive 104 hours of WWL upon hire (as required by the 2015 law) to be used for the remainder of the current calendar.
- Each January, all disabled veterans with a 30% or more disability rating will receive 104 hours of WWL to use during the calendar year.
- At the end of each calendar year, an remaining WWL will be forfeited but, assuming the employee still has a combined disability rating of 30% or more, he/she will receive a new 104 hours at the start of the new year.
- Any unused WWL is not rolled over to the next year, nor will it be paid out if the employee leaves.
- WWL can be used concurrent with FMLA, when appropriate.
Make Your Overtime Pay Work For You
MAKE YOUR OVERTIME PAY WORK FOR YOU!
INVESTMENT OPTIONS FOR POSTAL EMPLOYEES
By Derrick Lee, Records Secretary Oakland Local APWU #78
I hear postal employees talking about how they can invest with a limited amount of money and get a good return. My immediate response would be to participate in the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) at work. This is an excellent way to build money over a long period of time. Another option, in addition to the TSP, is to open a Standard & Poor 500 index (S&P 500 index) or Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) at a brokerage such as Charles Schwab or TD Ameritrade. You can open an account with Charles Schwab with no money and have money deposited directly into your brokerage account from your checking or savings account. You can deposit as little as $100 monthly into your account. As your account grows, when the index goes up, the return is larger. For example, a 10% return on $1,000, would be $100. When your account is worth $10,000, a 10% return would be $1,000! It gets better as your account grows. The rest of this article reviews the past performance of the S&P 500 index.
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[For the rest of the article, please download the full article by clicking here.]
The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint or position of APWU, Oakland Local 78. Furthermore, APWU, Oakland Local 78, do not endorse any opinions
from this article.
The author is not a registered financial advisor and wrote this article for informational purposes only. We recommend you consult your financial advisor or consultant before you make any investment decision. As with any financial decision, it is recommended you do your financial homework and research on any investment vehicle to increase your chances for success.
Urgent GIVE2 PERF Fundraising Drive
MEMBERS ARE IN NEED. Funds for the Postal Employees’ Relief are critically low. We need your assistance to drive member contributions.
In the last year, back-to-back typhoons, volcanic eruptions, relentless wildfires and ravaging hurricanes have levels communities, indiscriminately swallowed and splintered homes, and left rubble and ash in their wakes. Images fail to reflect the actual depth of destruction and heartbreak. Many within our postal family need our help. They have been displaced, left homeless and are in despair. These catastrophes have also taken substantial toll on PERF.
For the full announcement, click here.
VOTE!
Someone’s Life is In Your Hands: VOTE on November 6
Susan Robison, Assistant Editor Oakland Postal Worker
During every election season we’re besieged by pleas to vote, either for or against some candidate or ballot measure or just because it’s a civic obligation.: Eat your spinach. Change your oil. Floss. Vote. Midterm elections are commonly seen as snooze fests, although, since the president’s party nearly always loses seats in Congress in the mid-terms, somebody must be going to the polls.
California’s biggest races, for governor and for one Senate seat, currently favor the lieutenant governor and the incumbent Senator respectively. There are also eleven propositions on the ballot, at least one of which asks voters to decide on matters of life and death.
Proposition 8 claims that the clinics that administer kidney dialysis are making too much money and need to have their income regulated. Most dialysis treatments are paid for by MediCal or Medicare, since Medicare covers people with end-stage renal disease regardless of age. How likely are these clinics to accept reimbursements even lower than what Medicare provides? Technicians and nurses who work in dialysis clinics are hard to find, since they need extra training aside from nursing school. Clinics are the best places for people to get the dialysis treatments they need to survive. If these clinics cut back or close because they cannot operate profitably, patients will have to go to the ER, a much more expensive way to get dialysis. And if the few dialysis stations at hospitals are in use, patients will have to find another hospital at once, or miss a treatment, with a greatly increased risk of death. Proponents of Proposition 8 say the emphasis should be on making more transplants available. This is an absurd argument. We have a severe shortage of kidneys as it is. People who don’t manage to find compatible private donors often die waiting. Others are not physically able to get transplants. The decisions people make about this measure could end up killing patients.
Propositions are often deceptively worded. A measure banning marriage equality in the state some years ago confused people so much that some voted for the opposite outcome to what they intended. Proposition 10, which would overturn the Costa Hawkins bill of 1995, would allow individual cities to institute some form of rent control and would no longer exempt single family houses or new construction. It’s less likely that large developers would build units knowing that rent limitations would make it harder to sell the buildings down the line. And the owners of single-family houses could very well decide the added restrictions are not worth the trouble and sell their houses or convert them to short-term rentals. In cities like Santa Monica, which has had fairly strict rent control for years, there was a noticeable reduction in housing stock, making it very difficult to find someplace to rent for those who were not already renting when the local ordinance was passed.
And who can say for sure whether a given bond issue is a good idea? Not most voters, who have no experience in finance.
The American electoral process asks us to decide matters that will affect everybody for years to come. Despite all obstacles, voter registration is up substantially in states like Georgia, as are early-voting figures. Know who really wants to vote?-Ex-cons and jail inmates. Felons who have completed parole, and people in county jails awaiting trial, can vote in California. Alameda County alone has registered 425 jail inmates to vote this election season.
As postal workers and retirees, we are free to vote in every election. So vote by mail, vote early, or get yourselves to the polls on November 6.
Just VOTE!
For a PDF version of this post, click here.