How to navigate the website
Webmaster's address is ekjackson@comcast.net

Branch Meetings: First Wednesday @ 8:00 PM of every month

Executive Board Meetings: Last Thursday of every month @ 7:30 PM

Schedule of Branch Meetings & Events

Phone # (610) 461-8333
Fax # (610) 461-1283

President's Report
Vice President's report
Scribe's corner
Stay Safe! The Safety Annex
Health
Health Benefits
Legislation/Political Action
Route Inspection
MBA report
MDA report
Retiree's report
Worker's Compensation
Shop Steward's Corridor


Nic at the Bowl-a-thon



Uncle Ray ...aka "smart Ray"



Bill Bottinger ...Isn't it nice without him?

The Villanova Photo Lounge


The FoodDrive was Saturday, May 10th 2008. Many thanks to all who participated. Your dedication is phenominal!


Primtime vacation week of 08/25/08

  • Martin Ferris
  • Diane McGuire
  • Dan Broderick

Primtime vacation week of 09/1/08

  • Marriane Nic
  • Nic Marchesani
  • Diane McGuire

Primtime vacation week of 09/08/08

  • Dave Nolty
  • Nic Marchesani
  • Eric Jackson

Primtime vacation week of 09/15/08

  • Richard Davis

Primtime vacation week of 11/24/08

  • Bill Bottinger
  • Marriane Nic
  • Hector Carrasco
  • Steven Morgan

Primtime vacation week of 12/1/08

  • Marriane Nic
  • Steven Morgan

Primtime vacation week of 12/22/08

  • Bob Miller Jr.
  • Diane McGuire
  • Bob W.


NALC e-Activist

Join together with tens of thousands of other letter carriers to make your voice heard!

NALC will send you e-mail alerts when it's time to act on issues affecting active and retired letter carriers and the future of the Postal Service.

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For any union cornerns this week, see Alternate Shop Steward Dan Broderick............ Have a great week!......Protect your route!---------- Fill out Forms 3996 and 1571 when needed.---------- Become an E-Activist/Contribute to COLCPE! Sign up today at www.nalc.org ; Be Involved! "I Can't Do It For You, I Can Do It With You but I Can't do it Without You!"- President William H. Young

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Overtime Desired List

1. Beasley, F
2. Broderick, D
3. Jackson, E
4. Kerins, M
5. Milanese, R
6. Miller, R
7. Miller, JR

Work own assignment

1. Martin Ferris


Carrier rotating calendars are being ordered by the branch. The following people have ordered them so far:
  • Mike Kerins
  • Ray Milanese
  • Dick Davis
  • George Farley
  • Martin Ferris

The cost is $4.00 each. You will receive them after the branch fulfils their order of 500 calandars. They go fast, so please let me know if you want one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Villanova Inn

Shop Steward: Nick Palasch





This is a sample page. You get to make this page your own!



09/07/08

We just completed another long week at the Bala office. You guys worked your tails off (as usual) and we still managed to make it fun in the office. I had preliminary talks with the new OIC and all went well. When new management arrives at an office, they meet with the union rep and their concerns are expressed. My issues are (an always has been) the people issues. The ODL, forced work days , etc. These items greatly effect our lives. I also will be holding our 204-B's to the contract. I checked the rules with reguard to our newest 204-B and it checked out. I only have one other question that i'll get resolved (a 204-B can't work overtime on a day that he/she is spliting). Any other items are pretty clear in the contract. As usual, i'll keep you informed when I return.

Her main issues are attendance and DOIS. So I'd like explain how I will address them to her or anyone from the union's perspective;

Attendance

The contract is the contract. By that I mean I will enforce the contract to protect your right to use your sick leave. No carrier should be intimidated into coming to work.

Article 10 LEAVE addresses this. Sick Leave: Article 10, Section 5 provides for the continuation of the sick leave program, whose detailed regulations are contained in ELM Section 513. Section 513.1 defines sick leave as leave which "insures employees against loss of pay if they are incapacitated for the performance of duties because of illness, injury, pregnancy and confinement, and medical (including dental or optical) examination or treatment."

ELM Section 513.65 provides, "If an employee becomes ill while on annual leave and the employee has a sick leave balance, the absence may be charged to sick leave."

Medical certification.ELM Section 513.361 establishes three rules:
  • a. For absences of more than three days an employee must submit"medical documentation or other acceptable evidence" in support of an application for sick leave ("three days" means three scheduled workdays; see Step 4 H1N-5B-C 3428, November 3, 1983, M-00489); and

  • b. For absences of three days or less a supervisor may accept an employee's application for sick leave without requiring verification of the employee's illness (unless the employee has been placed in restricted leave status, in which case verification is required for every absence related to illness reguardless of the number of days involved); however

  • c. For absences of three days or less a supervisor may require an employee to submit documentation of the employee's illness "when the supervisor deems documentation desirable for the protection of the interests of the Postal Service."


My theory to everyone (including management) is that with the increase in pivoting and forced overtime (brought on by management decisions), carriers will become more exhausted, injured on duty and prone to illness because our resistance to germs will be lowered.

So please protect your body (an mind) by using ALL the benefits of the contract that your Union Leaders fought so hard to attain.

As far as DOIS? The Union does not recognize DOIS as the sole measure of a carriers performance For more on DOIS...Click on "I Hate DOIS". Enough said. They have correct your action in the office if you are doing something wrong.

It is management's obligation to provide you with a reasonable schedule (reguarding pivoting). It is our responsibility to notify management when we feel we are unable to complete our assignment or won't be able to complete our assignment

Finally, we all talk and observe each other in our office. That's normal, but let's not let them divide us. Because in the end, that will conquer us!

Family First!

SOLIDAIRE!!!!

Eric K. Jackson
Shop Steward




08/28/08

I have heard today that we will get our "new" OIC next Wednesday. I know a lot of people who know her, worked with her, and the way she does business. But let me tell you again brothers and sisters; It's not about whomever walks through our doors. It is about us! Some of us will learn the hard way, some of us will learn the easy way. But the only way to do things nowadays is the Union way. And that is by the book. You know the old school saying, "Do it our way and you get in trouble, do it their way and get payed a lot of money and less work". That way gives us no stress. No worry about discipline and no looking over our backs. Whatever the story may be. You guys work your a$$#* off everyday! I just want all your rights protected. No matter what, let's think about two routes that are coming up in the next calendar year. The clock starts on the first route at the end of Sept. What we do will determine if Diane, BoB or any combination become full time regulars. It will determine if another (or two) route gets reverted and spread amongst us. So please think. Think about your families, your love ones, and anything but this place. But please, please, when you are at work, think about protecting yourself and your route.

Solidaire!

Sincerely,
Eric K. Jackson
Shop Steward



08/12/08

We are at another crucial time at the Bala office. The current local management is (by his account) retiring "soon, really soon". Why that's a big "secret", i'll never know. But whomever comes to replace the current regime won't matter much to us. Because we have to focus on what we are doing. My main concern, right now (and usually is), is to get the next carrier made regular. That would be Diane. We are currenly under an Article 12 restriction for making regulars (for info on that go to the Presidents report). Dilella is projected to retire on September 30th. You can bet that whomever takes over as postmaster will (as pressured by downtown) elect to consider the route for reversion (they have 30 days to consider that). If they elect to try and revert the route we will fight that decision. We will have to look at their TACS reports (the computer files showing who worked what). That will be a big fight. Because I can't get anyone to clock to another route when you are casing on it or carrying on it, it will make the argument much harder.

That's what I mean by focusing on what we are doing. For example, if you are in the office and are told by a supervisor to case for 2 hours on another route and don't go to the clock and clock your office time on that route, they (most likely) will go back later and change the office time to reflect what they want. They may put some of that time in training or something other than casing. So when your route shows that you case so much more mail in a much shorter time, it will be harder to prove for us. If you had showed that you cased 2 hours on another route, that cannot be erased from that computer. Why leave it up to them to give you figures that do not reflect your work. And when they say stupid things like "the time is the time" then it's not true in any sense of the word.

So please, try and clock to whatever assignment they give you. Any questions feel free to ask me.

Remember this, it's our office! They can try to make us uncomfortable but they can't determine if we are going to laugh , make fun of each other (as usual), and keep our existance positive.

Final note: look for them to try and push back our start times again. Yes, they screw up and can't get the mail to us with no clerks(maybe that's because they are all 204-Bs) and we have to change our lives! This will surely cause a lot of grievances with regard to the ODL. But they make the rules, we can only try to apply what's in the contract. If anything else comes up, I'll let you know. Again, any questions, please feel free to ask me.

SOLIDAIRE!!!!

Eric K. Jackson
Shop Steward



Coming Attractions:

NEW

  • Pedro's Movie Ratings- Pedro will reveal his reviews of in theater movies
  • Ray's Ipod list- Ray Milanese will list what he is currently listening to on his Ipod
  • Bob W's Flyers Update- Bob W. Gets us ready for his Flyer's talk all year
  • Mr. Black Hockey- Eric will reveal his prognostications for the upcoming Flyers and NHL hockey season

Anyone interested in getting in on the fun that we have daily, and putting it on the site, contact me. Let's keep fun alive!


Bob W. Dorothy Krysiuk ... The Inside Story
By Eric K. Jackson


NEW

One day while talking to coworker Bob Warwzynek, I mentioned that Dorothy Krysiuk, on-air traffic personality at Fox 29 had moved onto my route. Since Bob sometimes covers my route when I'm not there, I usually update him on changes on the route.

For more from this article.............................Click Here!

LEFTOVER/SURPRISE BABY SHOWER
By Eric K. Jackson


On Saturday June 21,2008 the letter carriers at the Bala Cynwyd post office held a cookout/surprise baby shower for letter carrier Kathleen Rannali. But what started out as a day we looked forward to almost became a big disappointment.

For more from this article.............................Click Here!


We are looking for information unique to our office. Birthdays, fun stories, pictures or anything positive that will help us deal with the stress of the job. So please submit (via email) or in person any items to Webmaster!