Let me start by congratulating the newly elected union officials.
Also, I will reiterate, "don't forget about IPR". (see
/m692)
Your work has only just begun.
I have been reading (lurking) this board for a while.
Now I guess it is my turn "in the barrel".
I will start with my main questions:
Can local management make only some of the personnel on one tour in a
maintenance unit rebid on slots for other tours?
Where in the contract is management allowed to reduce the number of
people on one tour and redistribute them across the other tours?
I talked with the local union rep, who sounded somewhat overwhelmed and
under-armed. He told me that Art. 34 section 4 allowed management to do
the above...I read it and did not see the same thing.
Now if you are still reading this, I will post some background
information.
I used eReassign to get a Tour 2 slot at IPR a few years back.
When I walked in the door, Co-workers told me about the "sub-standard"
maintenance routes on DBCS and the ET slots that went unfilled.
I heard about how the routes were being manipulated and the time reduced
so the slots would stay unfilled.
Over the years, the mail volume has been moved out of the facility.
The local newspaper headlines in the spring of 2007 were the direct
result of moving DBCS's in the fall of 2006.
So all last summer, most of the maintenance department was involuntarily
detailed to Cardiss Collins. All 3 tours were affected.
But they had to pay out-of-schedule to those of us who had changed
tours, as well mileage for the travel.
They also moved the facility from Chicago District to Northern Ill. and
have since moved IPR back to Chicago.
The shenanigans continue...
In February this year, the maintenance manager asked for "volunteers" to
give up Tour 2 slots to work on Tours 1 and 3.
This was presented as a permanent move without a chance of returning to
the previous slot or retaining any seniority.
Hardly worth mentioning that there were no takers.
Then a contradictory move back in April, open Tour 2 positions were
posted and filled!?
A couple people moved from Tour 3 to Tour 2...so I guess we don't need
no stinkin' volunteers to move from Tour 2 to Tours 1 & 3, right?
Which brings us up to the current rumblings.
Why did we have enough work earlier this year to fill Tour 2 slots and
now Tour 2 people have to re-bid on whatever is open on Tours 1 and 3???
The problem is that mail volume has been reduced by management, thus
creating overtime at other facilities and causing an artificial need to
re-configure the staffing at IPR.
This is not just a local issue.
Management is using IPR like a Petri dish in an experiment to brew other
diabolical schemes.
Managerial arrogance and ineptitude has already caused major damage.
This must be stopped!
Sorry if I started to ramble...
Any help, advice or kind words will be appreciated, including any corrections or additions to the information I have posted.
If there is any more information I need to provide, please let me know.
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"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up
because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up
because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t
a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one
left to speak up."
- Rev. Martin Niemoller in 1946
