PRESIDENT'S MARCH NEWSLETTER ARTICLE
MARCH 2000

Good Faith / Bad Faith

Over the country we see an appalling pattern intensifying.  The Postal 
Service is refusing to honor arbitration award after arbitration award.  
Unions are having to take them to court, but since the other party has deeper 
pockets, why should they care?  The law means nothing to them, just their 
bottom line and bonuses.  In Fargo, North Dakota, it took nearly 15 years to 
see a resolution to the Automation Level 4 / 5 grievance.  Yet, the Postal 
Service refused to honor the arb award and postponed paying the clerks for 18 
months while they contrived delay tactic after delay tactic.  What an example 
of integrity and honesty they set for employees!

Another unfortunate factor, management never listens.  As a union, we have 
given signal after signal, talk after talk, concerning preventative measures 
needed to be taken, equipment needed, jobs needing to be posted, cross-craft 
violations, and programs implemented to safeguard our people.  It's like 
howling at the moon!  I can't think of a thing that they've acted upon 
(except to impose more petty, meaningless directives).  Does it take a fatal 
accident on the corner of Morningside and 15th to wake them up?  Management 
has been encouraged to strongly solicit the state and city governments to 
install a signal light or at least get the ball rolling by conducting 
engineering surveys, etc.  Already one postal employee has been injured in an 
accident there.  How many more will it take?  The signal light issue has been 
brought up at three labor-management meetings since 1998, but where is the 
light?  As stated, I don't expect to see a signal light until someone else 
dies or a mail truck gets squashed scattering letters all over the pavement; 
that's how much faith I have in them.  Safety first?  Huh!  Money first!

It seems their concern lies with their own hides and not with the employees.  
Thus they initiate motivational programs for safety issues for the sole 
purpose of shoring up their accident loss reports (i.e., the basis of 
bonuses).  You can be assured it is not out of concern for employees!  (If 
they were so concerned with the employee, they wouldn't issue discipline for 
carpal tunnel or some other work-related injury, would they?  If they were 
concerned for our safety, they wouldn't threaten us with AWOL when a blizzard 
hits, the highways are closed, and the governor declares a state of 
emergency, would they?)

For a spell they may give employees token opportunities of input to improve 
the work and working conditions.  But you can be assured it's only temporary 
and a knee-jerk reaction to some tragic occurrence.  The Voice of the 
Employee rhetoric is a sham.  One dear union brother wrote a manager twice to 
make suggestions how to improve his work area; management never responded -- 
never would even answer his letters -- never scheduled meeting with him.  Now 
he's gone.  A clear signal to the union that they wouldn't listen was when 
they locked three national officers out of the plant and refused to meet with 
them last month.  (A blatant violation of the law, by the way.)  The national 
APWU president himself felt slighted last October in Fayetteville; we should 
have known right then that more was to follow.  Management may claim it's a 
personality problem, that they only recognize some.  But the truth is some 
managers have a long track record of snubbing unions everywhere they land, no 
matter what state or city.  For the life of me, I cannot understand how many 
in management can lay claim to integrity and honor.

I've said my piece.  Now it's up to management to have a true open-door 
policy like they espouse and start treating people with dignity and respect.  
They can start by opening the door to the very organization that represents 
the workers:  the union!

Where's the Arbitration Award?

The "Casual vs. Career" Arbitration award made last December is again in 
limbo (the "Black Hole," some call it), thanks to the good ol' honest and 
unpretentious tactics of the powers-that-be.  When were they ever obligated 
to honor an arbitration decision?

Our Fayetteville award has instead been thrown back to national discussions 
to work on an agreement to resolve the dispute on appropriate use of casuals 
on a nation-wide scale.  Both parties have exchanged several drafts of 
specific language on the proper use of casuals.  Tentatively, the parties 
agreed to limit the use of casuals only when mail volume is heavy or leave 
usage was high compared to SPLY (same period last year).  The continuous use 
of casuals would have been limited to a one-to-one basis to replace employees 
on limited duty or extended leave in excess of 90 days.  Unfortunately, even 
these discussions have now been terminated, as postal representatives desire 
to take another crack at applying the Zumas award holding that the union is 
restricted to enforcing only the numerical limitations on the use of casuals.

The arbitration decision reinforcing Zumas' prior award has emboldened postal 
officials that there may still be hope in prevailing on the use of casuals.  
They saw a loophole and jumped at it, the upright souls they are.  
Discussions at the national level have now been terminated on this issue 
pending the resolution of the impact of the Zumas award.  Meanwhile, all 
national casual vs. career arbitration awards (including Fayetteville's) have 
been deferred (put on hold) until a decision is rendered.  Another Black Hole.

Many in postal management thrive on playing games rather than being 
straightforward.  This is where the casual issue is at present.  Apparently 
the casuals vs. career arbitration award rendered for Fayetteville by 
Arbitrator Katy Durham last December will be deferred along with all the 
others from across the country.  Our long fight of 11 years will be decided 
in Washington.  (Doesn't that make you feel confident?)  All the work done 
throughout that time hinges on these national negotiations and our leaders' 
willingness and ability to insist that the arbitration awards be honored.  
This could take a long while, but the good news is we could see a larger 
award if we win in the long run, especially with the continued use of casuals 
in Fayetteville.

Automation -- Level 4 / 5

Following the Clerk Craft Conference, APWU Vice-President Bill Burrus 
initiated discussions with the Postal Service on implementation of the Fargo 
decision upgrading Mail Processors to Level 5.  Agreement was reached that 
the national parties would finalize a memorandum including the application of 
the award to locally filed grievances (including Fayetteville's).  Agreement 
could not be reached on whether or not Arbitrator Mittenthal required 
employees to "verify piece by piece" or merely required "riffling" as a 
condition of upgrade.  Management also insisted that the requirement of 
"dispatching" required accountability, including the threat of discipline for 
failure to perform.  The union disagrees with these interpretations of the 
Mittenthal (Fargo) award and the parties have agreed to submit the 
disagreements to Mittenthal for clarification of his award on his first 
available date.  He has been solicited for an available date and has 
presented April 28th.

Again, as with any "award" issued at arbitration, we shall see if the 
management has the integrity to honor the law.

Pay Scale Issue

Discussions are continuing on a modification to the slotting process into the 
new pay scale.  The discussions center on the slotting of employees who were 
in Steps B and C after November 20, 1999.  If successful, employees who were 
in Steps B and C who were not scheduled to slot until after November 20, 
1999, will return or remain in the old schedule until April 2001 and receive 
the step increases pursuant to the old schedule until that date.  If 
agreement is reached, the payroll system cannot be modified until March or 
April 2000 and employees will be adjusted retroactively for employees who are 
slotted after November 20, 1999 and the date of the correction.

State APWU Convention

Fayetteville is hosting the Arkansas Postal Workers Convention at the Hilton 
Hotel, June 1 - 3, 2000.  National and state officers will be featured.  A 
lot of work goes into these conventions and we'll need your help.

Thank You to Vickie Alves

Vickie has devised a new "Grievance Tracking System" that is proving quite 
helpful.  Stewards and alternates are keeping better records of their 
activities as a result.  Vickie will be bringing the "Grievance Tracking 
Charts" to union meetings in the future to give us a clear view of where 
we've been and where we're going.

State President Dennis Taff

A big THANK YOU to Dennis Taff, State President, for holding our Steward 
Training on February 12th.  I must tell you -- it was one of the best classes 
I've ever attended.  Dennis is both personable and interactive in a class 
setting.  He, above all, has supported this Local and me through thick & 
thin, and we will never forget it.  In all, 21 stewards and officers showed 
up for the training lunch at the Clarion from several towns:  Bentonville, 
Rogers, Springdale, Harrison, Hot Springs, and Fayetteville (13) -- many more 
than expected.

Remembering Joel Garriott and Family

Please keep in your prayers and thoughts the family of Joel Garriott -- Tom 
(father), Martha (mother), and Kathie (sister).  Joel lost his life on 
January 29th.  He was a friend to most all of us and will be greatly missed.  
Please see page in this newsletter on Memorial Fund set up in his honor.  
Donations are being taken at the Veterans Medical Center in Fayetteville, 
Friends of the Chapel Joel Garriott Memorial Fund.

Words cannot express the agony and sorrow we all have experienced the last 
few weeks.  We only can hold each other up during this sorrowful time.

Let us continue to unite by standing up for one another and caring for our 
fellow workers.  Let us be vigilant in upholding the Contract and promoting 
union.  Hope to see you at the Union meeting Sunday, March 12th.

"If there is such a phenomenon as absolute evil, it consists in treating 
another human being as a thing."

-- John Brunner

In Solidarity,
Loren Adams