{"id":15385,"date":"2016-06-27T19:22:19","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T00:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=15385"},"modified":"2016-06-27T19:22:19","modified_gmt":"2016-06-28T00:22:19","slug":"fed-up-with-understaffing-saint-louis-local-pickets-post-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2016\/06\/27\/fed-up-with-understaffing-saint-louis-local-pickets-post-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Fed Up with Understaffing, Saint Louis Local Pickets Post Office"},"content":{"rendered":"
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APWU News – 6\/26\/16 – Fed up with chronic understaffing of mail sorting machines, nearly 100 members of the Saint Louis Gateway Area Local and their allies formed an enthusiastic picket line outside the downtown post office on June 14.<\/p>\n

Normal staffing on DBSC machines<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>is two workers: a feeder and a sweeper. But for close to two years, that\u2019s been a rare exception, reports Local President Fred Wolfmeyer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of clerks on each tour who are working by themselves on the machines,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are working 8-hour days without a partner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Workers\u2019 safety is in jeopardy and service to customers is suffering as a result, Wolfmeyer said.<\/p>\n

When workers stop the machines to sweep the mail, managers complain that their throughput isn\u2019t high enough, he reports.\"\"<\/p>\n

In many cases, newer workers, especially Postal Support Employees, \u201care afraid they will lose their job,\u201d and rush from one end of the machine to the other, trying to keep the numbers up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s even more dangerous,\u201d Wolfmeyer said, noting that no work-measurement system or quota is in place.<\/p>\n

The union brought the issue to management\u2019s attention when the practice began, but has received \u201cnothing but lip service,\u201d the local president said. \u201cI got tired of it. The members got tired of it and decided to take action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Out to the Streets\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Action came in the form of the June 14 rally. Members of the local started organizing in April, by word of mouth at work, passing out flyers, and posting on Facebook.\u00a0 The local also reached out to the Saint Louis Local Labor Council and Jobs with Justice.<\/p>\n

The protest received\u00a0<\/span>media attention<\/a>, \u201cLet\u2019s take it out to the streets, put it out there for everyone to see,\u201d Wolfmeyer said, noting that members were \u201cthrilled\u201d with the rally results. \u201cThey were really happy. They felt like the union backed them up and really stood with them on this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next on deck is a postcard campaign. Members will sign postcards, which they plan to send to the homes of the plant manager, district manager and lead manager of distribution operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to do something. We have to get them to move,\u201d Wolfmeyer said.<\/p>\n

APWU President Mark Dimondstein praised the local for taking a public stand. \u201cI often say that we have to do more than just file grievances \u2013 there are others ways to solve our problems,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a good example of how to take a workplace issue to the public. Actions like this empower union members.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"\"\u00a0<\/span>PDF<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>(114.91 KB)<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

APWU News – 6\/26\/16 – Fed up with chronic understaffing of mail sorting machines, nearly 100 members of the Saint Louis Gateway Area Local and their allies formed an enthusiastic picket line outside the downtown post office on June 14. Normal staffing on DBSC machines\u00a0is two workers: a feeder and a sweeper. But for close […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-apwu-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15386,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15385\/revisions\/15386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}