Thursday, May 31, 2012

President's Message

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for the trust you have placed in me to represent you. It is my goal to use the Contract to defend your rights. We need to hold Management accountable. There are 3 simple steps that can help us avoid problems with Management; Be here at work every day, Be productive by doing our job and Be safe by being careful in all that we do. Your Union leadership has been challenged with 3 additional steps; Connect with our members by realizing that we are the same as you, Respect our members by showing appreciation for who you are and what you do and Protect our members by using the Contract to defend your rights. Help us do our part by doing your part. We aim to be transparent in what we do and allow you a voice in your Union. We are fully staffed and qualified with years of Contract negotiation experience. We are ready willing and able to represent you and defend the Contract . Please let us know when you need our help.

As you all know we are engaged in a battle to keep the Postal Service alive. Congress is where the Union is focusing its efforts to stop consolidation. We are asking Congress to save our service standards. If our standards are saved Network Optimization and plant consolidations won’t happen and 32,000 postal workers keep their jobs. We are asking Congress to give us relief on our future retiree health insurance payments.

We are in this fight together. The Postal Service’s financial crisis has been building for years, and we continue to face an uphill battle. We are asking for a call to arms of you and everyone you know to contact Senator Orrin Hatch, Senator Mike Lee and Congressman Jason Chaffetz. Tell them to pass legislation that will resolve the financial crisis and strengthen the Postal Service, not dismantle it. We need to emphasize the following points:

•Provide adequate relief from the retiree healthcare prefunding requirement.
•Set strict standards. (The Postal Service is planning to degrade delivery standards in order to eliminate more than half of all mail processing facilities.)
•Allow the USPS to recover overpayments the Postal Service made to its retiree pension funds.
•Establish new ways to generate revenue, such as providing notary services, issuing licenses, contracting with state and local agencies to provide services, and allowing the USPS to offer services that mail systems in many other countries provide, such as digital services.
•Prevent the closing of small post offices by giving the Postal Regulatory Commission binding authority to prevent closures based on the effect on the community and employees.
•Protect six day delivery.
•Eliminate the provision that would drastically reduce the compensation of workers who are injured on duty once they reach retirement age.
•Repeal the provision that would require arbitrators in postal contract negotiations to consider the financial health of the USPS. (This requirement is an attempt to skew contract negotiations in favor of management.)

We need all of you to participate and help “Save our Service!”

Call the Capitol switchboard at 888-863-6103 or 202-224-3121

Or send an e-mail message via www.capwiz.com/apwu/home

I hope you will feel the need to take action on the information we shared and begin to look at what the future may hold for you and your job at the Postal Service. The future may not look perfect, but together we can make the future look bright.

Thanks for your support,
Nick Webb

Monday, April 30, 2012

APWU Utah State Convention April 13-14, 2012 Reports

Dear Union Brother’s and Sister’s,

I was only able to attend the final day of our Utah State Convention this year due to prior commitments. It was informative and passions seemed to run pretty deep at this year’s convention over the predicted future of the Post Office. The most important thing right now is contacting your local congressmen and letting them know what Amendments to support so that we will have a future here as a Postal employee.

We had a gentleman from Aflac speak to us about their protection in case of illness and another man was there to go over our benefits, to see if we are contributing enough now in order to retire when we want to.

Three of the NBA’s re-enacted different scenarios that we as Stewards may have to deal with. We had to find the mistakes in them, such as violations in filing grievances on time, management not offering representation when employees are being talked to and other things of that sort. If any of you as employees are approached by an OIG, you need to demand to have representation with you at all times. NEVER talk to them by yourself!!! This is something that you must always remember, no matter what!

I think all of us as employees can make a difference if we work as a team. We are all on the same side, and we need to remember that. It doesn’t matter if you are a carrier, a mail handler, a clerk, or in Maintenance we all need to be unified! I value my Position in this Union and thank all of you for entrusting me to be your Vice President!

Yours in Solidarity,
Jennifer Tatton


Fellow Union members,
I would like to thank you for the opportunity to attend the Utah state convention as your delegate. I attended the meetings on Friday which were all business rather than training. I worked as part of the resolutions committee where we approved half a dozen resolutions 4 of which cleaned up some language in the state constitution, and the other 2 were resolutions that will be sent to the national convention. These resolutions will suggest a pay raise for our lobbyist in DC and will allow the President to wait to fill vacancies at the national level until the convention where they can be voted on by the membership.

After the work committees were finished it was time to vote for state positions. All the delegates from the Provo local were there to show support for Herb Clayson, and Janalee Banks who are both members of our local and have served the unions interests for quite some time. Herb was re-elected as a vice president, but Janalee was narrowly defeated. Rather than lose the vast experience that Janalee brings to the table, the state President appointed her state maintenance steward.

After dinner, I spent some time visiting with our national business agents Mo Merrow, and Chuck Sungaard as well as the National Maintenance Asst Director Greg See. They all seem to feel that the consolidation of the Provo office will not take place for at least 18 months. This gives us some breathing room and with any luck Congress will work something out before then.

Jon Turner


I was chosen as a delegate to the Utah Postal Workers Union state convention in Park City. I arrived in time to hear all of the committee reports. All reports were accepted as presented. After that we voted on state officers. Herb Clayson was voted in as Vice President for the state. Voting for delegates to the APWU national convention was also done and Herb was designated as the alternate delegate should someone not be able to attend the national convention. There were three national officers in attendance and gave short speeches on how the APWU may be changing in the future to better serve its members. Chuck Sungaard gave an impassioned presentation about the changes that he and many other national officers would like to see happen.

Christer Johansson