General Membership Meeting Minutes

Meeting was called to order at 7:00 Pm at 918 Benjamin NE, Grand Rapids.
Meeting was opened with the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation.

Roll Call of Officers:

Present:

Ray Novakoski, President
Dick Page, Executive Vice-President
Barbara Tubbs, Recording Secretary
Jennifer Amos, Treasurer
Linda Norman, AO Director
Jim Myszka, Maintenance Craft Director
Mike Long, Sergeant at Arms

Absent:

Bill Scutt, Clerk Craft Director Scott Larabel, MVS Craft Director April General Membership meeting minutes were accepted with the correction that the word "reconvention should be "preconvention" and that the word "than" should be "then" in the AO report.

Applications for Membership: None

Officer’s Reports:

Treasurer’s Report: Amos: Treasurer’s report accepted as written and read.

Maintenance Report: Myszka: Meeting with senior plant manager, trying to get developmental training implemented in our office. Their meeting will be April 16th. Hopefully we will get our employees needed training instead of hiring off the street. Filed grievances on casual in lieu of grievance settlement implementation. Custodial positions are under withholding. trying to get our positions filled. Talked to Bob Martin about staffing packages. Need another MOS clerk at annex. ET Fred Febo is retiring soon.

AO Report: Norman: Filed grievances in Ada about reverted position. Management signed off and the job will be reposted. Settled grievance on dual appointee in Lowell. All three employees will be paid. They will not use the dual appointee on days when she has a full time route. Letter of warning in Hudsonville reduced to discussion. Have your doctor fill out your FMLA papers with a minimum and maximum number of days involved. Thank you for sending her to meeting on excessing. Brought up concerns. Hopefully they listened. Another grievance on OWCP. Will ask for Jennifer Amos' help.

Executive Vice-President’s Report: Page: Had steward's training last week. Addressed holiday scheduling and overtime issues. USPS extended lease for P-2 for up to 2 years, in 6 month increments. APPS first article test failed. Second is in progress. Will have those results soon. If USPS accepts the machines, they will get a date for implementation. They will be moving the scan where you band machine from the P-1 to the AMF. Two clerks' jobs will move with it. Hired 8 additional TEs for SPBs with a total of 20 coming. Eight casuals are in training for SPBs currently. Projected APPS problems are equipment space and safety issues. Transportation is hiring 3 PTFs and possibly 1 casual.

President’s Report: Novakoski: Still looking at moving T-1 scheme jobs to the stations. Those jobs probably will be 4 hours in plant and 4 hours at stations.. Will have to determine where choice vacation selection, overtime desired lists, etc will be. Jobs will probably start in plant, and then go out to stations about 4 AM. Went to rally in Greenville on March 28th. Large contingency of UAW workers there. Fifty one people, one from each state plus one from Washington DC, who have lost their jobs are on bus tour telling their stories, showing what effect moving jobs to Mexico is having on this country. At the last convention, we passed a resolution to boycott Taco Bell because of very low wages Florida tomato growers pay their workers. They are paid the same wage as in 1978, with no benefits. Recently met with the Postmaster. She wants to do the step two's instead of labor rep. Scheduled for two arbitration dates: one in May and one in June. Most are AO cases. Main office is installing new security system. It is close to completion. New badges will limit access within building. New early out retirement timeline has come out for those who were denied, who opted to decline, and the newly eligible. Statements of interest for full time employees will be sent out April 16th and must be returned by May 14th. Statements for part time employees will go out May 24th and must be returned by June 14th. If you don't receive one and think you should, let someone know. National has filed a grievance on the automated interactive voice response system. Union plus mortgages are a new benefit available to our members, their parents, and their children. The May general membership meeting will be Saturday, May 8th at 9:00 AM.

Committee Reports:

COPA: $20.00 received from John and Michelle Gregory.

Golf Outing for Diabetes Association: Jim Stoddard: Getting contributions from areas businesses. Need lots of volunteers: Registration, Hole in One monitor, etc.

Retirees: George Hendricks: We need labor support for our cause.

Correspondence: None

Unfinished Business:

There still is no answer from the National on Casuals in Lieu of settlement issue.

New Business:

James A. Sweeney Memorial Scholarships Drawing:

$1000.00 winners: Brett Hermann, Kara Fitzgerald, Douglas Edwards, Jamie Lynn Febo, Danielle Taylor. Alternates: Jordan Fennema, Sarah Walsh, Matt Stachowiak, Julie Smiegel, Jeanette Graham.

Board Recommendations:

MSC to donate $200.00 to state convention hospitality room.

MSC to donate $50.00 to the River City Bass Club for their Juniors' Tournament.

MSC to donate $100.00 for tee sponsorship for the August NALC MDA golf tournament.

MSC to donate tonight's COPA proceeds to the state convention COPA raffle.

MSC to submit resolution to the state convention commending the National Postal Press Association on their 40th anniversary.

MSC to buy $50.00 Meijer gift certificates for Deb Spaulding and Velda Timmer, former A & E committee members for their hard work.

Point of Personal Privilege: Phil Marckini: Tour 2 mail handlers are doing expediter work. ******* start the new station jobs at 4 AM and send them to the plant to finish their tours?

Labor Management:

Meeting not yet scheduled. If you have anything, let an officer or steward know.

Drawings:

Barbara Tubbs $21.00, state COPA fund $21.00

Hams: Mike Long, Nancy Gingery-Merchant, George Hendricks, Jim Myszka, Ed Lesiewicz, Mike Hill, Barbara Tubbs, Pat Hostetler, Jim Stoddard, Linda Yarnott

$10.00 Door Prizes: Richard Fletcher, Linda Norman, Jackie McKenzie, Dan Bourasso, Sally Lesiewicz.

Meeting Adjourned at 8:46 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,

Barb Tubbs
Recording Secretary

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