It seems that just as everything is about to get back to normal, another setback occurs. Will we get back to living without masks again, or will we go through even another Covid variant once the Delta variant has been squelched? Just last week our local had a membership BBQ at Cantrall Buckley Park just west of Jacksonville off Highway 238 with the Applegate River flowing nearby. It wasn't until right before the event began that the park attendant let us know that the charcoal BBQ pits could not be used because of the fire danger. Now that's a SETBACK! We weren't going to let that stop us though. So with quick thinking and perseverance, we overcame that obstacle, and soon a propane grill was acquired and set up to cook the burgers. The members and their families that showed up had a great time, and Jeremy Schilling prepared a terrific spread for everyone that came. The prizes for the drawings were fun to win and just about every member won something or went home with local t-shirts or water bottles. I surely hope that we have another one next year. Another setback this year was the cancellation of the National APWU Convention in Las Vegas. However, the Craft Conferences are still scheduled to take place at the end of September. And although the Conferences are going to be a virtual event (meaning online on Zoom), the local will save money by not having to pay for travel, travel days, and hotel accommodations. At the BBQ, the local conducted the August general membership meeting, and we approved several members to be delegates to the Clerk Craft Conference. Jeremy was able to set up a group meeting facility through the Medford Cowork Collective in downtown Medford on East Main St. The delegates will be able to watch the Craft Conference from a large screen TV in the Cowork meeting room so that they can interact together while participating in the Conference discussions. Also at the meeting Vice President Robert Rodriguez gave us an update on the constitution changes that the constitution committee were preparing for the membership to vote on. It is imperative for our members to show up and attend the upcoming general membership meeting on September 19th at Twin Creeks Park in Central Point. We will be discussing the constitutional changes, which will include changes to our local officer duties and titles, and we will be preparing for local elections this year. At our October meeting we will need to appoint an election committee, and open nominations for our local officers that will lead the Southern Oregon Area Local for the two years beginning in January of 2022. We have also discussed setting up our meetings so that we can have both online participation as well as members attending at the in-person locations at the same time. When we figure it out, we will have the link made available by email. There have been several setbacks in working conditions both at the Medford installation as well as in the associate offices. Although some situations can be blamed on the realities of changes due to the Covid pandemic, many more issues have arisen because of poor management leadership, disillusioned work expectations and incompetence by management in properly staffing our offices, and they blame everything on Covid when most work related problems are not actually affected by Covid. Management's status quo nowadays is to use it as an excuse to set employees against one another, to single out employees they dislike, and to abuse the work hour limitations set out in Article 8 of our national agreement. If there were a time that more participation and unity were needed in our local union, NOW is the time! Management has essentially ignored the union in bargaining over bid jobs, they have ignored our requests to meet at labor and management committee meetings, they have ignored their responsibility to meet in joint safety and health committee meetings, they have ignored the union's insistence that they implement regional grievance settlements. I continually re-appeal grievances that management refuses to meet to implement. The members working on the workroom floor never get to see the results of your stewards efforts, however, I have not given up on these cases, and have requested more punitive remedies whenever management has thumbed their noses with impunity. My forecast is that these settlements will result in significant monetary awards for our members. In a few weeks, our current national agreement will expire on September 20, 2021. The news offered from the national APWU states that the USPS and APWU National Negotiations Committee will be meeting daily beginning September 7th at the same hotel in order to attempt to hash out their various proposals. Although our last contract was a setback in that it took one and a half years (expiring on September 20, 2018) until an arbitration decision was awarded on March 10, 2020, our national union was able to secure several wins for the membership. With the success of that arbitration award, my prospects are that our negotiators will be able to convince their counterparts that our proposals are reasonable and expected to prevail should we need to proceed to arbitration once again. We handed out several union supporting buttons and bracelets at the BBQ. Talk to your stewards or officers and ask for the approved-at-work buttons showing your support for the union. Also, we still have several local t-shirts for our members, but the sizes that are available are limited. If you want the setbacks at work to end, then don't let this depressing working climate stop us. We can persevere if you will make it a point to show up at our upcoming meetings. We need prospective members to become stewards and to step up and help lead our local as officers in order to fight our way out of the oppressive environment that management has determined to be their status quo going forward. I send out flyers to all of the stewards before our meetings, and some to other members I communicate with by email. There should be an APWU bulletin board to post those meeting notices on and all of our meetings are announced at our local website: apwu342.weebly.com You can always access our local website from the national APWU website as well, by going to the APWU State and Local Links page on that website. Craig Gordon - General President Southern Oregon Area Local #342, APWU |
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April 2024
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