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May 2006 Strange and Profound Truths By…Carolyn Pierce, President Here we go again… Hurricane season is less than a month away…. do we care?…are we afraid? Can we remember what happened last year? Yes, yes, and yes…I realized after last year that the largest storm remembered by our country and the national news media will have nothing to do with our personal South Florida lot in life but what plays well on the national screen. Recently, I went to a 3-hour hurricane preparedness meeting with the district South Florida office. During the meeting we all hoped that we would learn from our past mistakes. I will list some of the problems that were discussed. 1. There was not equal water, food, (Mre’s), and ice available to all offices, equally. It seemed that main offices in each city received a good amount and the outlying areas got next to nothing. Coordination and planning will be critical for all to receive equal and fair shares. 2. We must take responsibility on certain aspects of our being repaired…. fill up our own gas tanks, stock up on can goods, ice and batteries, and call the 1-877 # to check in. 3. I know sometimes we do not wish to give management our real home address. After Wilma the postal service sent the postal inspectors to see if we were alive and well. They found us whether our addresses were good or bad. Just give them our address…maybe we will be killed or injured in the next storm and will be glad that the postal inspectors look for us if we do not report for duty. If I’m buried alive, I will be more than thankful for a postal inspector finding me. 4. If you had leave that was taken during the last hurricane fiasco and it was used against you for discipline purposes, call the union hall or a steward for help. No way that will happens during this administration…! 5. When you receive a stand-up talk on the call-in numbers for hurricane season…. listen -up. One of our employees called in last year during Wilma and gave the last 3 digits of the zip code where he worked and it was the box section at South Florida…it was the zip [for the New Jersey area, it was sunny there while we were in Wilma…so the employee was told to report instead of staying home and receiving administrative leave. 6. If you have an office that is not fully repaired from the past season. Call the hall at 954-7932-2161 and tell us the info…we will have them repaired before hurricane season progresses. Most of our problems are from leased buildings and our district manager has been committed to repairing these before the season begins. 7. Generators have been in plane for most offices and some large generators will be in place on trucks for the coming season. 8. The question arose as to what office we would report to if our offices were destroyed. The call-in number will be given better instructions in the future if this happens. Actually, I would hope your station manager; plant manager or postmaster would care enough about you to call as soon as they were able too. 9. We will all be given a magnet with the call-in # on it soon. Okay, so it’s dorkey…put it on your refrigerator next to the magnet form South Dakota. It could help. 10.
The Southeast Area Postal Service will have 4 tractor-trailers full of
immediate supplies to roll wherever it is needed. We will have one in Manasota,
Sarasota, and Jacksonville. Listen up… Our next union meeting is on Sunday May 21 at 9:30AM. The Executive Board Meeting will be at 8:45A.M, on that same Sunday. You are invited to the board meeting without voice or vote but with insight to give impute to your board for the future. We would be honored to see you. We will have reporting on the state of Florida APWU convention and the upcoming national APWU convention in August at the May meeting.
Retirement Seminar… I hope to see you on the 10th at our retirement
seminar with the national APWU officers. I promise you that our seminar will be
better than anything the postal service can provide you. You must be a member to
attend or join up if you are not a member and enjoy the great things that our
local union can provide. You know you are a true Alabamian….you know that the people who complain about the heat in their states are “sissies”…. right Allen Mohl Peace, CJP |
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