President’s Report

President’s Reportorder to excess the 1 employee.EXCESSING UPDATEI went to Tampa’s Suncoast DistrictOffice on May 13, 2009 for thelatest update on excessing. This wasthe 3rd meeting of the year that Ihave attended in Tampa. Here is theupdate:New Port Richey - Originalimpact of 5 employees. They havelost 1 employee through attrition,leaving 4 to be excessed. They arecurrently going through bidrealignment which may reduce theirOT and work hours and possiblytheir impact. PTFs hours need tobe reduced significantly formanagement to be able to excessany employee.Sarasota - Original impact of 7clerks. They have lost 3 throughattrition, leaving 4 to be excessed.The have a couple of residualswithin the installation. If anyLakeland - Finished on 4/11/09. All excessing occurs, it will be within10 excessed employees were senior the installation.volunteers in lieu of an impactedemployee. A new impact letterBartow - Original impact of 3was sent out on 5/7/09 approving clerks. They have lost 1 employeean additional 40 employees to be through attrition. They have 2excessed.employees who will be retiringwhich will close this excessingTampa - Finished on 5/9/09. 54event.clerks were excessed. 11 of the 54were volunteers in lieu of.Port Richey - Original impact of 4clerks. They have lost 1 throughSt. Petersburg - Finished with 10attrition, leaving 3 to be excessed.clerks excessed. A new impactThey are currently going throughletter was sent out on 4/1/09bid realignment which may reduceapproving an additional 40their OT and work hours andemployees to be excessed.possibly their impact. They need tosignificantly reduce the amount ofClearwater - Original impact of 12 PTF work hours to be able toclerks. They have lost 7 throughexcess.attrition. This leaves 5 clerks to beexcessed. They are currently goingPunta Gorda / Pt. Charlotte through bid realignment which mayOriginal impact of 4 clerks. Theyreduce their OT and work hours and have lost 3 through attrition, leavingpossibly their impact. Have 2 clerks 1 to be excessed. They need tointerested in voluntary reassignmentsignificantly reduce PTF workto PTF city carriers within thehours and overtime to be able toinstallation.excess. Management believesthat no excessing will beNaples - Original impact of 9needed.clerks. Have lost 5 employeesthrough attrition, leaving 4 to beManasota - The original letter hasexcessed. They are currently goingbeen completed. A new impactthrough bid realignment which mayletter was sent out on 5/11/09reduce their OT and work hours and approving an additional 41possibly their impact. Managementemployees to be excessed.now looking at excessing 2 clerks. Ispoke with management aboutBrooksville, Ft. Myers P&DC,the current grievances at steps 2 Largo, Plant City, Ruskin andand 3 concerning managementTampa Express Mail Clerks and carriers doing clerk work inAll these letters have been officiallyNaples. They agreed to look into completed and withholding lifted.this further. We may be safe inNOTE: This does not mean aNaples, but I’m still working onnew letter will not be issued justit.as Lakeland, Manasota and St.Petersburg has seen. As youVenice - Original impact of 6 clerks. read this, we may be backThey have lost 3 through attrition,under withholding. Check ourleaving 3 left to be excessed. Theywebsite.are looking to reduce PTF workhours and OT. This may eliminateThe current order thatthe need to excess any employees.management want to excess is:Tarpon Springs - Original impact1)Sarasotaof 1 employee. The office needs to2)Naples & Clearwaterreduce the work hours of PTFs in3)St. Petersburg4)Lakeland5)ManasotaOur APWU members in SouthwestFlorida have been fortunate so farwhen it comes to excessing. Not oneperson has been excessed and weintend to fight to keep things thatway. We may end up havingexcessed employees in the nearfuture, but I intend to keep it to aminimum.At the last meeting inTampa, the Ft. Myers P&DC wasnot discussed, meaning that ouremployees are safe for at leastanother 90 days.NATIONAL REASSESSMENTPROCESSManagement is currently working toforce those employees who havereached Maximum MedicalImprovement (MMI) out of the U.S.Postal Service by claiming there is nowork available (NWA). If you areone of these employees, please makesure that you update your medicalrecords immediately. If you receivenotification of a meeting withmanagement, contact the union officeimmediately so that I can send anNRP Steward. Joyce Kelly, FeliciaGluhareff, Lynne Cram and AnnaJohnson are the only union stewardswho are trained in this area.NOTE: There is a lot of newinformation concerning NRP onour website: http://www.swfloridaapwu.orgRI-399 UPDATEAs of the time of writing this article,there is nothing new on the RI-399front. Our last meeting scheduled onMay 5, 2009 was canceled bymanagement due to a familyemergency. The meeting wasrescheduled for May 20, 2009. Ourlocal is prepared and ready to facethe mail handler’s union. Once again,I would like to thank Dawn Hoferand Paul McAvoy for all of their hardwork. If you get a chance, please tellthem thank you.Sam WoodPresidentLooking for a way to trackhow well you’re doing inmeeting your retirementsavings goal?The Office of PersonnelManagement developed theFederal Ballpark Estimate - asavings goal worksheet - just forthat purpose. It’s available at:http://www.opm.gov/benefits/ballpark/menu.asp

June 2009Southwest FloridaArea Local, APWU11000 Metro Pkwy, Unit 8Fort Myers, FL 33966239-275-1007800-793-2798Open 9-3, Mon-Fri.PRESIDENTSam Wood 823-APWUSWoodFla@aol.comVICE-PRESIDENTJoyce KellyVP a GluhareffSecTreaSWFAL@aol.comCLERK CRAFT DIRECTORDawn E CRAFTDIRECTORKeith McGeeMaintdirswfal@aol.com239-834-2900The Eagle’s EyeSecretary-Treasurer’s ReportbyFelicia Gluhareff5/17/2009Call To Order:Time: 9:30 a.m.There were 23 members inattendance.Pledge of Allegiance:The pledge of allegiance was led byDale Eller.Roll Call of Officers:EDITORMOTOR VEHICLE CRAFTDIRECTORJim SommersTRUSTEESPat FraserHelen Brillhart SkinnerIsaac YostSAFETY & HEALTHCOMMITTEEDavid GrantWendy SkaffCONSTITUTION COMMITTEECathy CobbMark HamiltonDarla HowardAnna JohnsonJoyce KellyWendy SkaffWEBSITE ADDRESSwww.swfloridaapwu.orgNat’l Mailing Address:Per Capita SectionAPWU, AFL-CIO1300 L Street NWWashington DC 20005For the FL Postal Worker:The Florida Postal WorkerP.O. Box 8363Fort Lauderdale FL 33310to work mail coming down the noread line. If this is witnessed, astatement also needs to be written.Jim Sommers spoke on issues in themotor vehicle craft.Discussed was a new computer forKaren, our wonderful officesecretary.Dan Gray submitted an article lastmonth for the Eagle’s Eye that waslost in cyber space. Since LynneCram claims it was her fault shemade a motion that Dan get creditfor his article. The motion passed.Update of Grievances:NoneOld Business:Sam says he can’t thank DawnHofer and Paul McAvoy enough forall their RI-399 work. They arehelping us save our jobs. If we can’tget our work back that waspreviously signed off on, we need toline up and file grievances.New Business:The roll call of officers wasperformed by Felicia Gluhareff.Present were Sam Wood, JoyceKelly, Felicia Gluhareff, Lynne,Cram, Dawn Hofer and JamesSommers. A motion was made toexcuse Keith McGee due to hisbeing on annual leave. The motionpassed.MAP Report:Lynne CramEd SWFAL@aol.comPage 2Sam led a moment of silence tohonor Charles Glennon.New Members:NoneExecutive Board Report:Felicia Gluhareff read the executiveboard minutes. Sam Wood went toTampa last week to attend a meetingon excessing. Tampa excessed 54people and did it wrong. St. Peteexcessed 10 then got anotherexcessing letter for 40. Manasotagot another letter for 41 clerks.Lakeland excessed 10 or 11 clerksand just got a letter for another 40.Punta Gorda got a letter for 5 clerksto be excessed but there probablywon’t be any due to PTF overtime.Naples started off with 9 clerks tobe excessed; now it is down to 2.There are over 2 grievances filed outof Naples due to supervisors andinjured letter carriers doing clerkwork so we hope to get theexcessing number down to 0.There are three offices that have bidsthat need filling, Labelle, Lehigh andEstero, possibly by excessing.At the prior meeting in Tampa, theP&DC was the 3rd on the list forexcessing. This time we weren’teven mentioned in the top five.To preserve our jobs, we need to filegrievances every time mailhandlersspread mail by zones because that isconsidered distribution work.Mailhandlers are also not supposedSecretary-Treasurer’s Report:Joyce Kelly made a motion toaccept the secretary-treasurer’sreport as printed in last month’sEagle’s Eye. Felicia Gluhareff readthe treasurer’s report. I was alsovery impressed with the amount ofVOE surveys we received. Contraryto Dorinda’s speech, the union ISNOT on board with filling out theVOE survey. Management hasALWAYS turned those around andused them against us. Even thoughmanagement tries intimidation tactics,you ARE NOT required to fill themout. Give them to your unionsteward and we will send you acheck for 5 or better yet, donateyour 5 to COPA.Report / Selection ofCommittees:NoneReport of ConventionDelegates:NoneReport of Trustees:NoneCommunications:Sam Wood read through thismonth’s correspondence. All areinvited to do so as well.We received a card from Lindysaying thank you. She will be backaround the end of May.We received a thank you card fromKathy Hartman.Letter from Bill Nelson regarding theEmployee Free Choice Act.Letter from Sue Carney aboutorganizing baskets for our troops.Reposts at Naples. Moreabolishments at plant. Excessing andredoing bids all over Florida.Tom Hervey from AFLAC came inand spoke about a cancer and anaccident insurance policy that isoffered to the members.Theresa from Costco came in andtalked about a special deal for unionmembers. You can get 2membership cards, one for yourselfand one for someone in yourhousehold for 50 a year. The dealthey are making for us is that we geta 10 gift card back when we signup. There is also an offer that if yousign up a friend, you and your friendboth get a 10 gift card. Sherequests that you call the store andask for her before you come in tosign up. Sam has the phone numberto reach her.Grievances are being filed on level 7jobs being abolished.The union feels that the use ofclickers at the station to countpackages is a good idea and mayhelp to save our jobs.If you are a window clerk andforced to rate a fellow clerk, givethem 100%, why not?Dawn Hofer would like to submit aresolution to national in the name ofour local for the upcoming contractnegotiations. Her idea is that if youwork overtime you are given thechoice of overtime pay or annual.Just like we do when we workholidays. Sam asked if anyone hasideas, let him know and he will helpwrite a resolution to be presented tothe membership to be voted on.Labor / Management:Management wants to meet with theunion about bid abolishments.RI-399 meeting on Wednesday.Good and Welfare:The winner of the COPA 50/50drawing was Joe Fracek who won 56. The total netted was 112. Thewinner of the of the attendance(continued on page 3)