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Meet the New
Northeast Region Coordinator
By John H. Dirzius, November 2009
Let me begin my introduction by wishing former Northeast Region Coordinator Liz Powell the very best in her new position as APWU Secretary-Treasurer. Sister Powell has served the Northeast Region for over 20 years, and she has worked tirelessly for the members of the region as well as APWU members nationwide. Her dedication has made a real difference. Congratulations, Liz, and thank you!
For the past 29 years I have been the president of the Greater Connecticut Area Local, which represents postal workers in more than 200 postal facilities throughout the state. Prior to my election as president, I served as executive vice-president and I held a number of other positions in the local and state organization. I have represented postal workers in a processing plant, in associate offices large and small, at a vehicle maintenance facility, and in all levels of Maintenance Craft. [read more]
‘WEBccm’ Spins, Other Entanglements
(This article by former Northeast Region Coordinator Liz Powell appeared in the November/December 2009 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)
As we approach the end of 2009 and have begun USPS Fiscal Year 2010, we find ourselves evaluating the impact to postal operations of retirement incentives that were offered in the latter part of August.
The moratorium on excessing (involuntary reassignments) associated with the separation offer gave us just a small window of opportunity to assess staffing and to grapple with our Area counterparts. As always, we sought to bring reason and sensitivity to the “migration plans” that are routinely hatched by postal managers.
Inadequate staffing in many installations has emboldened bosses to perform craft work, clearly undermining your job security: Contractual protections found in Article 1.6 must be enforced, and we need you to be our eyes, ears, and witnesses so that the union can fight to protect your jobs.
The stark reality is on the workfloor, where management continues its quest to downsize and reposition the workforce before the economy has had a chance to rebound.
Our Fight on the Floor
A basic tool management uses to impose new staffing models is the WEBccm Article 12 Field User Guide. WEBccm is a computer program that integrates the data in management’s Human Capital Enterprise System (HCES), supposedly to implement the regulations governing principles of seniority and reassignments.
It sounds fair enough, but in practice management often uses this tool to undermine contractual protections.
We fight against sophisticated computer staffing models and wayward managers at the local, regional, and national levels who manipulate them in a desperate effort to please their bosses’ directives to downsize, or else. The impact of management manipulations is evident, but when the union challenges contract violations, we have the burden of proof.
Regional Coordinators Sharyn Stone, Omar Gonzalez, Mike Gallagher, Bill Sullivan and I are constantly challenging miscalculations, misapplication of timelines, and skewed baseline figures, and we work closely with locals and NBAs who take this struggle to heart.
The misuse of WEBccm by cunning managers has undermined the Article 12 process we have used for decades. The number and intensity of union representatives who attended training on seniority and reassignment at the recent All-Craft Conference demonstrates how widespread the problems are.
The result is a denigration of service to the American public and disruption to the home and work life of our members.
Struggles in the Streets
To add to the entanglements, management embarked over the summer on a mission to close community post offices and to do so in a condensed period. Locals have mobilized throughout the country to combat this disservice to America. Innovative APWU leaders have harnessed the media, canvassed door-to-door, addressed civic assemblies and town-hall meetings, and staged old-fashioned picket lines to garner support from among the American public.
But the leaders and activists cannot do it alone!
We need you in this struggle to keep “service” in the Postal Service. Imagine 230,000 postal workers each working in their communities, malls, plazas, and outside the 30,000-plus post offices, getting the word out on station and branch closures. It can and must be done!
We have to make sure that the public knows that the government of the United States, as authorized by the Constitution and created by Congress, established the Postal Service as a basic and fundamental service. We have to win support from the public for our effort to stop the shuttering of stations and branches. We cannot let cybertechies, privateers, and postal managers destroy the postal institution that still serves to bind our nation.
But, again, this is a “we” project. You can’t say or spell UNION without a U and an I!
When your local, regional, and national representatives ask you to call Congress, contact civic leaders, leaflet communities, and attend meetings, be there! We need you in order to be united and strong in this struggle.
When the union asks you to join a legal picket line to fight post office closures, every one of you who is not on duty, must take part or we will all find ourselves in the unemployment line.
The struggle, my sisters and brothers, continues.
