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From: David D. Wigley
Category: General
Date: 12/23/06
Sharon, due to the extensive work Ken and I have been doing on my case, I'm going to give you my answer in a nutshell...short version...expand at a later date. There are a numerous provisions contained in the agreement that will not benefit us locally. The reason behind that is portions of what was tenatively agreed to already exist in New Castle through our LMOU or things we've already grieved and won...an example of this is maximizing PTF's...we only have one PTF left to convert and that will take place by December of 2007 if the tenative agreement is ratified or sooner if we win our outstanding grievance on the issue. The issue regarding the increase of casuals at the expense of eliminating PTF's in the plants is trouble some to me. Additionally, the tenative agreement states that ODL's will be given priority to overtime prior to casuals being used on overtime...and penalty OT was not given up to get it! In the case of casuals, they do not go into an OT status until after they have worked 40 hours. In our LMOU we've had for a few years now we have much better lanuage, then that being agreed to in the tenative agreement. Out ODL get priority to the OT prior to casuals exceeding 8 hours in a day. However, the bigger picture is that numerous postal employees across the country will benefit from these negotiated items...locally we just happened to be a step ahead of the national and some of the other locals in the country, now they'll be afforded an opportunity to close the gap a little. We maintain our COLA as well as getting a step increase, maintain no lay-off clause, get some type of raises, rather than concessions, minimize employee health care increases and numerous other items. Personally, I believe things could have been better, but at least this way we're controling our own destiny to some extent. Arbitration is a total crap shoot...All that being said, I see few reasons we would fair any better in arbitration...thus in my personal opinion the only way we can vote is YES! This is a major change in my thought process, when compared to my thoughts on ratifying the past couple of extensions. Hope this helps some. Dave