Joe Wrobel

Motor Vehicle Craft Director

jwrobel@apwu480.org

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Wheels and Wrenches

July 2009

As we move into the second half of this year we are once again facing issues that may very well change the future of MVS. In the last couple of articles I talked about the Pilot program that the national agreed to (MOU signed by Burris) that alters the schedules of our drivers. I have been in contact with all of the local presidents that are currently on the list and they all agree that we do not want this program in this state. At the recent Michigan educational seminar in Bay City our NBA (Merlie Bell) and National Assistant MVS Craft Director (Mike Foster) told us that management has now been given a directive that if the chosen area locals don't go along then the possibility of contracting these runs out will be the alternate course of action. It seems that this volunteer program is now a "take it or else" program. This program that the national officers told us that it should only affect 3 areas is now turned into 11 areas. I have said it before and I will say it again that we need to fight for our jobs by showing the work that we perform by filling out our logs, scanning our loads (or making sure that they are scanned properly), stop at all offices on your schedule and so on. We need to stop letting other crafts do our work. Management is looking at all down time that our runs have and we know that most of the time we are doing other work within our craft (spotting, loading straight trucks and so on) we should document that work. On the other side the mechanics need to write everything down on their work orders, document the road calls and all of the tags that you do.

Excessing has hit a couple of our districts; Our national officers offer the following on our National website as your contractual rights. The entire article is worth reading but I have taken the part talking about art 12 for MVS out to include it in this article:

As MVS employees, when you are excessed, you have the right to be placed in any available MVS position for which you are qualified, anywhere in the country. But the USPS has been very reluctant to identify vacant MVS positions throughout the country that are outside the areas where they are currently withholding jobs.

If you should happen to be an impacted employee and receive notification, you can go on eReassign and apply for jobs in different locations, but you must make sure you have been identified as an impacted employee. This will give you priority over workers who have applied for the same position but are categorized as "regular voluntary transfers." Being properly identified is critical to securing a job and keeping your seniority.

Nobody wants to face excessing, but if you find a vacancy in a location you would not mind moving to, you are entitled to do so. We suggest that after you have been identified as an impacted employee, you make requests not only in the eReassign system, but in hard copy so that you have a paper trail to show that you have sought these positions.

We have had some negative experiences involving people who were "told" they were going to be classified as impacted employees; however, the USPS excessed them prior to the transfer, so they were classified as regular voluntary transfers and lost their seniority.

Preserving your seniority is critical for a number of reasons. Most importantly, it appears inevitable that all crafts will be impacted as the USPS downsizes. Maintaining your seniority may be the only way to prevent being excessed a second time. This is certainly the case for employees who volunteer to be moved in place of junior employees. If you preserve your seniority, it will more or less ensure that as long as the installation survives, you will have a place in the Motor Vehicle Craft.

Joe Wrobel