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Hurricane Safety Versus USPS Fantasy By Bill Pick, Maintenance Craft Director "District Manager Jordan Small land the South Florida Performance Cluster are monitoring hurricane recovery efforts. Your safety and well being are their priorities." Direct quote from the USPS Emergency Information Hotline. I don't know what the maintenance craft employees out at the Stations and Branches found when they were told to report for duty at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, October 25th, it was probably the same all over. At the Ft. Lauderdale P&DC there was also no electrical power, which of course meant no lights. It also meant that the fancy automatic toilets would not flush. Then there was the matter of the emergency exit lights, the fire alarm system, as well as, the fire suppression equipment being inoperative due to their battery backup systems were spent. It couldn't have been much better at the Stations and Branches. This did not deter USPS Management from requiring the remainder of the tour 2 craft employees to report for duty at 1300 on Tuesday, the 25th, and then requiring tour 1 and tour 3 to report for duty even thought there was no power, and then keeping those employees sitting around the swingroom, doing nothing, just in case the generator become operational or Florida Plunder and Loot restored the power. As usual management was duped into believing that the contractors they had hired to install a massive generator to power the facility would have it running by noon on Tuesday, but in reality the contractor would not accomplish that goal until 1300 on Wednesday. So strong was management's belief in the contractor's people. You did not see many supervisors or managers show up for work on Tuesday or Wednesday after Hurricane Wilma. They're salaried and will be paid. The only exceptions at Ft. Lauderdale P&DC were South Florida District Lead Plant Manager Jim Hess, Plant Manager Mike Ciruzzi, Maintenance Manager Dave Tindell, Transportation Operations Manager Mike Bianco, Operations Support Specialist Jeff Fallick and they were on duty both Tuesday and Wednesday. The lack of operational sanitation facilities at the plant would not even meet the minimum OSHA requirements for a Migrant Labor Camp! But the most disturbing aspect of this whole disaster is in management requiring employees to report for duty and then keeping those employees in a building without the required operational fire warning/safety equipment! Madness of that kind is borderline criminal behavior. Amid all this degradation management heaped upon the craft employees, it just wasn't enough for some management personnel. One fool of a supervisor suggested making men's restroom A-67 coed, it being the only restroom not remodeled, therefore the toilets flushed manually, never mind that there was no adequate and reliable lighting. The only apparent enlightened Management Official during the whole fiasco present at the P&DC was District Lead Plant Manager Jim Hess, who had the good sense to send the tour 2 employees home at approximately 8 a.m. on Wednesday, after management made the tour 1 and tour 3 employees endure these wretched conditions all night. No human should be expected to endure the hazardous and humiliating conditions that the USPS South Florida Performance Cluster employees were exposed to at the Ft. Lauderdale P&DC. The employees should have been filing PS-1767 forms, giving the Union statements and filing safety grievances. The members are the UNION! The Union Officers and Stewards need your help. If the members don't help the Union hold management's feet to the fire on Contract or safety issues, then Management will keep violating the Contract and your rights. This erodes the Union's bargaining power. All employees, regardless of craft, or union need to hand together and stick it to management when they are wrong! |
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