General Membership Meeting Minutes

Meeting was called to order at 7:03 PM at 918 Benjamin NE, Grand Rapids.
Meeting was opened with the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation. Roll Call of Officers:

Present: Jennifer Amos, President
Amy Marcus, Executive Vice-President
Dan Quillin, Clerk Craft Director
Karen Hodges, Recording Secretary
James Myszka, Maintenance Craft Director
Linda Chandler, Treasurer
Scott Larabel, MVS Craft Director
Steve Karbutowski, Sgt-at- Arms
AO Director, Vacant

March General membership meeting minutes were accepted with the following corrections:
Under Drawings: Tammy Byrnes was spelled incorrectly. Under Presidents report should have read some take it personally. Under Retiree’s committee report should have read our entitlements are in danger.

Applications for Membership:
Christopher Fisher GR Clerk
Jeffrey Eigner Grand Haven Clerk
Linda Walwood Grand Haven Clerk
Gregory Wilson GR VMF
Officer’s Reports:

Treasurer’s: Chandler: Read March report MSC

Maintenance Craft Director: Myszka: Nelson is redoing all staffing, doing staffing packages for the mechanics. We are under staff on the building side. Nelson will try to combine the P-1 and P-2 to one facility. Two custodians are needed on Tour One. They should have more but will be filling them only as they vacate the jobs. Al Matkovich will be retiring tomorrow. Don Kramer will be retiring in May.

MVS Director: Larabel: It’s the usual problems with management, passing the buck. Management complains about the stewards’ time. They are always making promises. We have been processing thousand of dollars worth the grievances.

Vice-President: Marcus: Excessing jobs at East Paris. Stewards training went well, Had Linda Turney, The Illinois State President, teach a class on Retirement. Hope to have one more training before we go to the Educational Conference. Labor management meeting, split days off on tour one was brought up. Jerry Kubick was in agreement with the Union to do something about this issue.

Clerk Craft Director: Qullin: Lots of grievances and investigations going on in the clerk craft. Some of the issues are the TE’s on the SPBS, TE’s on the FSM 1000, and manual excessing and postings. Still having problems with personnel putting up proper postings and awards. Talk to National Clerk Craft Director, Jim McCarthy the other day. He gave me some advice and direction on how to handle some issues. We also talked about the OCR operation being out on the AFC’s. It is supposed to be completed everywhere in August of this year. It will eliminate 1,900 jobs between clerks and mailhandlers. It is being challenged at the national level that this should be clerk work, I also need to file a grievance here locally. Labor management meeting went well on March 21st. Management will look seriously into getting consecutive days off on those bid jobs on Tour one Automation. Another thing was that no discipline should be put in anyone’s personnel file ever. If you have current discipline or past discipline that has expired, you need to look into your personnel file to see if it is there. If it is, see your steward. Jennifer Amos has been working very hard the past few weeks on the restructuring of jobs at the East Paris Station. There is a meeting on Monday morning to inform the employees out there of the changes. I plan to attend. The Postmaster, Jennifer and I had a meeting just this afternoon and they presented to me everything that they had done over the past few weeks and answered some questions of concern I had. It is my position that Jennifer has done a very good job creating as little impact as possible to the employees at the East Paris Station. To some employees, it may not seem that way, but the only real difference I can see is time changes, SDO changes and only one employee being excessed and Jennifer has done a good job in keeping that to a minimum.

Legislative: Hodges: Legislation to over haul the Postal Service is on track to be presented in the Senate soon, and discussions between the White House and key Capitol Hill committee members are ongoing. Representative John McHugh (R-NY) did not waste any time introducing postal reform legislation when the 109th Congress got under way: On Jan 4 he introduced the H.R. 22, a postal reform bill that is very similar to legislation approved last year by the House Government Reform Committee. With so much at stake in postal reform debate, USPS employees may not be paying a lot of attention to the Social Security reform discussions taking place on Capital Hill. That would be a mistake, because changes to the current system will likely affect us all.

President: Amos: I would like to thank all of you that are here tonight. Steward’s training went well with Linda Turney, Illinois State President teaching a class on retirement. AO Director Ronda Payne resigned. Posting will be sent out to the AO’s. Excessing at the East Paris Station and on tour three, manual section at the main office. Four jobs were removed. The postmaster, Dan Quillin and I will be going to East Paris in regards to the excessing. They are bringing a PTF to work 4 hours. I will be monitoring this closely. Have to tell the employees that these jobs are being abolished by management not the union.

Committee Reports:

A&E: Stoddard: Golf Charity outing is May 22nd. Our goal is to raise $5000. We still need volunteers. We have one prize valued at $600 and plenty of other prizes too.

COPA: Pike: cans for COPA $20 collected from NE station.

Retiree’s: Hendrickson: I attended the meeting at 622 Godfrey on March 22nd, Debbie Stabenow was unable to attend. I would like to see more people here at these Kent Ionia Council meetings here at the Union hall on the second Thursday of the month at 7:00 PM. Social Security and Postal Reform. These are critical issues especially when our contract expires this year. Get to know your legislative staff.

Correspondence:

West Michigan Union Label Coalition is having a breakfast, Saturday May 22, at the UAW Region 1D 3300 Leonard NE, Grand Rapids. Time: 9:30AM to 12:00 PM. At a cost of $5.00. Children under 10 free.

Unfinished Business:
None

New Business:

Five $1000 Scholarships winners are as follows:

LeCretia Beurkens Daughter of Kristen Earvin Kentwood Office
Jeremy Novakoski Son of Raymond Novakoski P-1
Andrea Pepper Step daughter of Joan Pepper AMF
Angela Novakoski Step daughter of Glenda Novakoski GR Main Office
Katie Herbert Daughter of Kathy Herbert Fennville

The five alternates are as follows:

Robert Hundley Son of Rick Hundley GR Main Office
Allison Tabor Daughter of Richard Taber Eastown
Ashlee Golladay Daughter of Cheryl Golladay AMF
Jonathan Natte Son of Steve Natte GR Main Office
Danielle Taylor Daughter of Roslyn Taylor BMEU

Board Recommendations:

To rebate Glen Peebles dues of $258.30, overage from the dental program. Carried

To send Scott Achterhoft to the Retirement Seminar in Elmhurst, IL, with 2 days LWOP, lodging. Registration, mileage, per diem and applicable taxes. Carried

To send the President to the President Leadership Training in Detroit, either July 17-24 or October 23-30, with lost time, registration, mileage, per diem, lodging and applicable taxes. Carried

New Business:

Motion Long, Second Pike, to donate $300 for the Educational Conference hospitality room Carried

Motion Stoddard, Second Matkovich, to give a $500 sponsorship for the golf outing in May. Carried

Point of Information: Hendricks, Update on the Labor Monument, statues are being built.

Motion Tubbs, Second Long, Make it a policy to pay mileage for the Editor to make necessary trips to the printer and to the BMEU at the current rate as of January 2005. Carried

Point of Information: Aranguren gave Amos a letter asking to rotate the times that the General membership meeting is held. She will look into it. Also was suggested to do a survey in the newsletter in regards to the time change of the meetings.

Labor Management:

Meeting was held on the 25th of March, next meeting is scheduled for April 20th. Chanski agreed that the flags will be lowered. P-1 is not doing it on a regular basis. Grand Haven is not lowering flags unless emailed to do so. Need more nixie jobs at the P-1. MVS being ignored (ask why we are being singled out) the PTF’s 4 hours

Point of Privilege: Don Kramer thanked the local for letting him be a member of it.

Drawings:

COPA $11.00 Rose Jerrills $11.00

VOE

Hattie James $50.00

$10.00 Door prizes:

Amy Marcus. Linda Chandler, Jack Fryling, Dessa Long, Lou Kintigh, and Linda Norman

Meeting Adjourned at 8:28 PM.

Respectfully Submitted

Karen Hodges
Recording Secretary

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