05/02/2007

Record-Eagle/Douglas Tesner
John Marcotte, president of the American Postal Workers Union Local 4881, says a recent grievance settlement is a major victory for the employees at the U.S. Postal Service mail processing center in Gaylord.

Grievance settlement a good omen

Union members hopeful they'll keep their jobs

BY SHERI McWHIRTER

smcwhirter@record-eagle.com

GAYLORD — Union member Ken Sugden has worked for the U.S. Postal Service in Gaylord for 10 years, repairing and maintaining the processing center's sorting machines.

Whether to keep those machines running at all has been at the heart of a mail efficiency study during the last several years, a project that left union members worried about their jobs.

The USPS has agreed to hire 20 full-time career workers at the processing center as part of a grievance settlement with the American Postal Workers Union Local 4881. Union members said that bodes well for keeping all their jobs in Gaylord.

"It's a really good job. We wanted to stay (in Gaylord) because the kids are in the schools here,” Sugden said.

"It means a lot more stability. We've lived in the unknown for the last three years,” added union worker Amy Owen.

About 70 jobs are at risk of being transferred to other postal processing centers in the state, such as Traverse City and Saginaw.

Only temporary, non-union workers have been hired for the last six years, a violation of the union contract, said union president John Marcotte.

With more career workers coming onboard in Gaylord, it seems less likely their jobs will all be shipped to other mail centers, Marcotte said.

"This is a huge win for the people of northern Michigan. Forget about our union and the jobs,” he said.

The Gaylord center handles mail for much of northern Michigan, from Alpena to Charlevoix and Grayling to Sault Ste. Marie. Keeping that mail sorting work in Gaylord will maintain faster delivery services to those areas, Marcotte said.

He also suggested the larger workforce could allow the Gaylord center to reclaim Saturday sorting, which was transferred to downstate centers months ago.

Jim Mruk, spokesman for the USPS Great Lakes Area, said the union settlement and mail efficiency study are not connected. He also said no decision has yet been made about whether to maintain mail processing in Gaylord.