THE BULLETIN BOARD
June 2012
[June 1st]2012 McShane Scholarship Winners
The Winners of the 2012-2013 Patrick McShane Scholarship were chosen at the May 19, 2012 membership meeting.
Edward Kremmel — Son of Bruce Kremmel —Clerk NDC
Timothy Marchilena — Son of Anthony & Geralyn Marchilena — Clerks, P&DC
Julia Kubica — Daughter of Thomas Kubica — Clerk NDC
Matthew Graf — Son of William Graf — VMF P&DC
Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all who applied!
[June 8th]APWU, USPS Settle Dispute, Protect Maintenance Work
excerpted from APWU Web News Article 73-2012
The APWU and USPS have reached an agreement that will preserve Maintenance Craft duties for employees in the craft, Maintenance Director Steve Raymer has announced.
The June 8 agreement stipulates that opening of the DBCS-EC machine stacker panel doors to clear jams, etc. should remain the duty of the Maintenance Craft, despite the fact that there is no longer a lock and latch on the rear panel doors.
The agreement was reached as a result of the union's objections to the Postal Service's May 22, 2006, issuance of Maintenance Work Order (MWO) 014-06.
The Step 4 settlement provides that, "This alleged directive is no longer in effect." Local grievances held pending the outcome of the dispute are remanded to the grievance-arbitration procedure for resolution including regional level arbitration if necessary.
Read Steve Raymer's letter of interpretation regarding the DBCS Door Change/Work Assignment dispute.[June 4th]PSEs to Be Eligible For Health Insurance Soon
excerpted from APWU Web News Article 68-2012
As the first group of Postal Support Employees (PSEs) hired by the USPS approaches their one-year anniversary, employees are eager to sign-up for health insurance and have a lot of questions about how and when to do that, reports Organization Director Martha Shunn-King. In accordance with the 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement, PSEs become eligible to participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) after one year of service.
PSEs may sign-up for federal employees' health benefits after they complete one full year (365 calendar days) of continuous employment with no breaks in service of more than five days. To be eligible, they must maintain sufficient earnings each pay period so that premiums can be withheld from their pay after mandatory deductions for Social Security, Medicare and federal tax are made.
In accordance with the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the USPS will contribute 75 percent of the premium costs if PSEs choose to enroll in the APWU Consumer Driven Health Plan. Employees will pay the remaining 25 percent. They are also eligible to enroll in other Federal Employee Health Benefit plans, but will be required to pay 100 percent of the premium costs for other plans.
To find out the details on how to apply, read the entire article on APWU.org.
[June 3rd]Is your TSP account secure?
excerpted a FederalTimes.com article by Stephen Losey
The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which manages the TSP, says the names and Social Security numbers of 123,201 participants were stolen. Some of those participants also had their TSP account numbers, bank account routing numbers and other information stolen.
TSP says there is no indication the stolen data — which includes some victims' routing numbers, TSP account numbers and addresses — has been misused so far. But it is offering victims one year of free credit monitoring to safeguard against any misuse.
TSP is only advising affected participants to sign up for the credit monitoring service. It is not recommending affected members take other actions since it believes no information has been improperly used.
And the number of questions remaining about the hacking — the first in the TSP's 25-year history — far outweighs what is so far known.
For more details, read the entire article at FederalTimes.com.
Past Issues of the Bulletin Board
[May 2012]
[April 2012] [March 2012]
Use our Search function to look up further back-issues of the Bulletin Board.
