Congratulations Kathy Sexton and Dan Dornacher!

Our June 18th Membership Meeting proved to be quite profitable for two of our members. Kathy Sexton, Clerk won the Membership Appreciation prize of $300 and Dan Dornacher, Maintenance Mechanic won the Acer Aspire One Netbook Computer raffle.

The computer raffle was a great success and raised $878 for COPA! This will go a long way toward helping the Local achieve its yearly COPA goal of $8 per member. Thanks to everyone who participated.

If you really had your heart set on that computer, we have another one! It will be just one of many great prizes in our annual 2009 Picnic Raffle so watch for those tickets to go on sale soon!

The Membership Appreciation prize will start over again at $50 with each member receiving one entry automatically. Then, as before, each time a member attends a membership meeting they have the opportunity to complete another entry. Entries continue to accumulate and the prize money continues to grow* until we have a winner, at which time the entire process is repeated. The only catch is you must be present at the time of the drawing to win (usually near the end of the New Business portion of the meeting).

* The Executive Board is considering "capping" the prize amount at somewhere between $300 and $500. If you have thoughts, opinions, etc. on this please let us know.

Congressman Driehaus Tours BMC

Congressman Driehaus visited the Bulk Mail Center this past Monday (June 1st). After a brief introduction and meeting with A/Plant Manager Dave Caproni, he toured the facility walking through Secondary and viewing the SSIU (Singulator), then on to the West end of the building to observe the APPS, High Speed Tray Sorter and De-Palletizer. His visit also included a brief stop in the APWU office where President Craig Fisher presented him with an official APWU Picnic T-shirt and a renewed invitation to attend this year's picnic. We will follow up with his staff as the date approaches. Overall, the visit went very well. Representative Driehaus was thoughtful and interested in all aspects of operations at the Bulk Mail Center. He asked questions about the varying classes of mail and mail volumes and seemed to genuinely share our concern over declining revenues. He commented to Craig and I that he particularly enjoys visits like this; allowing him to see first hand how decisions made in Washington DC might impact the people in his district. He is very personable and made every effort to greet and introduce himself to anyone who came within handshake range. If you missed the opportunity to meet him, be sure to attend the Picnic!

Burrus Calls on Labor DepartmentTo Reverse Bush FMLA Rules

APWU President William Burrus has called on U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to rescind the new regulations governing the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that were imposed by the Bush Administration just days before the former president left office. The Bush FMLA rules “weakened the law and made it more difficult for workers to exercise the rights the legislation was designed to protect,” Burrus said in his June 3 letter to Solis. Click here for the full story or read the letter here: June 3 letter [PDF]