March 15, 2008

Just before Christmas, we were ordered to implement a new schedule. This schedule was delivered to us from Highgate. Tom Morin brought it over and we were told to start it in pay period #2. We asked why were were not included in the planning of this new schedule, but never received a satisfactory answer. At this same time, our Port Director Rob Millward left us to go to a position in Burlington. Bob Gissel has been the acting Port Director, so in January, Glenn Dockham, Dave Boudreau, Bob Gissel and I met to discuss this new schedule. We were told that if someone wanted to design another schedule that would follow the requirements that had been set up, we could submit them for consideration. We were told this was supposed to have been transmitted to us at the same time we were given the new schedule, but not one word was said to us. Several officers worked on alternative schedules and finally we submitted two for officers' consideration. One was the "winner" and that schedule was fine tuned again, and then given to acting PD Gissel for his scrutiny. The plan was that if it met his approval, he would move it up the chain to Mr. McMillan , then it would move along to Ms. Nott and finally Boston. This was several weeks ago. As of today, March 13 the schedule still has not made it past Mr. Gissel's desk and now we are told we have a new Port Director starting on March 17 so once again we are at a standstill. At this time, I do not know if the schedule submitted by Richford officers will even be accepted, much less implemented during this fiscal year.

Winter has taken it's toll on Richford officers-we have been letting management know of our concerns about the icy primary lanes and driveways and at times it was taken care of but often, not until someone had taken a fall on the ice. One of our officers has been out several weeks due to a back injury suffered in a fall on the ice in West Berkshire.

Our annual Health and Safety Inspection was done at Richford, but so far, no corrections have been made. Many of these issues are the same ones we have been asking to have repaired for the last few years.

Spring is supposed to be coming, so let's hope our picture brightens up a bit.

Our new Port Director is Kevin Coy from Derby LIne, so we welcome him and hope to work with him on several Port issues.

SharonLee Tyler
Chief Steward - Richford, VT