Director of Industrial Relations, Greg Bell, has just issued an explanation of changes to both the DOL forms and the APWU forms for FMLA certifications.  He has also included correspondence from the Postal Service, regarding the changes, and the USPS service talk given to employees.  Please see the Steward Resources page for full information.

Finally!!  The long-awaited remedy for Part-Time Regular Custodial employees whose work hours were reduced because of the '2001 revision' to the MS-47 has been finalized.  On February 17, 2009, the parties completed the agreement on the MS-47 remedy that had been executed January 29, 2008, setting aside $1.75 million for distribution to these PTR employees.  Please see the Maintenance Craft page for further details and a copy of the new sign-off.

The APWU office of Industrial Relations has just informed us that Industrial Relations Director Greg Bell has initiated a Step 4 dispute over the Postal Service's announcement that it is revising portions of the Employee and Labor Relations Manual (ELM).  The Service claims to have a right to revise parts of ELM 512, 513 and 515, in spite of the prohibitive language of Article 10 of the National Agreement.  These changes would affect submission of PS Forms 3971 for call-in absences and some procedures relating to employees' use of FMLA to cover absences.  A copy of the Step 4 exchange is posted on the Steward Resources page, under National Disputes Update.

Although much effort has been taken at our headquarters level to support legislation addressing Postal Service subcontracting in general, the campaign to attack the Postal Service plans aimed at the Bulk Mail Centers is largely a grassroots effort.

The Mail Network Protection Act (H.R. 4236), is a bill that would limit detrimental subcontracting practices by the U.S. Postal Service and would require the Postal Service to bargain with postal unions before it engages in significant contracting-out.

There is no legislation presently directed toward stopping the subcontracting of the BMC network.  However, a campaign spearheaded by Philadelphia BMC Local President Vince Tarducci and aggressively supported by Eastern Region Coordinator Mike Gallagher is building steam.

National support, in the form of recruiting members of Congress to address the issue, is being encouraged.  Appropriate letters may be modeled after that of Representative Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania and as reflected in the letter of Iowa Representative Bruce L. Braley (see attached).

Your participation in this effort will be greatly appreciated.  It is not only critical to our brothers and sisters working in the BMC's, but will also be essential in our continuing fight to preserve the Postal Service as we know it and halt the rising tide of privatization.

With the shift of personnel work out of local and district offices into the centralized Human Resources Shared Services center, more and more matters for Postal Service employees must be handled electronically, over the internet (or intranet from inside the Postal Service computing environment).  Employees interested in reviewing their own Official Personnel Folder (OPF) are now required to view it in electronic format, not in hardcopy.

Everyone should be aware that there are times when material in the OPF is incorrect, outdated or incomplete and that the individual employee has certain rights to assure that the OPF information is correct and up to date.  The Postal Service recently issued a form for the purpose of assisting employees in obtaining corrections to the OPF -- or eOPF in the new terminology.  This is the PS Form 8043.  It allows the individual employee to request amendments, for specific reasons, to be made to his or her eOPF.  Please see the attached file for a copy of this form.