FOR YOUR INFORMATION

This is the twentieth FYI to be released to the membership. As always, I hope this FYI will provide you with relevant information on the Local’s activities. If you have any questions, feel free to convey them to the Local at 455-6400.

Since the last FYI, the Executive Board has met on six occasions and the Council on one occasion. During these meetings the following issues were discussed:

Building Repairs

As stated in my last FYI, the Local is now forced to repair the roof of the Union Hall. A contract has been written with Revelation Roofing on the much need roof repairs. The contract will provide our Union Hall with a rubberized type of roofing. This type of roof has a life expectancy of over twenty years. The total cost of this new roof will run about $12,000.00. The new roof was originally scheduled to be installed in late December. The installation was rescheduled for immediately after the first of the year. The reason for the rescheduling was because of the heating units in the hall. During one of our training sessions in mid December, two of our heating/cooling units went out. When service arrived, we were informed that our units were worn out. After receiving a number of different bids, we selected a contractor who is now in the process of installing new heating/cooling units at the Union Hall. The total cost for replacement of our heating/cooling units is about $7,500.00. The work has been contracted out to Bartels Heating & Air Conditioning.

Arbitration Docket for Local 321

The arbitration docket for Local 321 (cases waiting for an arbitration hearing date) has reached an all time record high of 24 cases. This volume is attributed to two factors; Problems with arbitration dates being assigned; and

An increase in amount of cases appealed to arbitration.

Colorado and Wyoming have both been experiencing problems with the assignment of dates for our pending cases. This is a result of an internal conflict within the Postal Service Area Offices. Our Regional office is currently trying to resolve this problem with the Area offices involved. Our Local has also seen an increase in the percentage of cases being appealed to arbitration. This can be attributed to several factors, ranging from better-prepared cases, to a more aggressive attitude from the members of the Executive Board. This attitude has become necessary as a result of management’s more aggressive attitude toward our craft.

Grievance Activity

At Step 3 of the grievance process, the volume of cases for our Local has declined in the last couple of months. Currently, the Local is prepared to meet on about 25 cases per meeting whereas a few months ago, the figure was well over 50 cases per meeting. The decrease in volume appears to be partially attributed to management’s failure to meet and provide step 2 decisions in a timely fashion. Historically, this problem only existed at the GMF but it now seems to be infecting the BMC. Stewards should be forwarding cases to step 3 if management fails to comply with the time limits at step 2 of the grievance process. The only real exception to this rule would be if there were strong indications from the step 2 rep that the case will be settled. The only reason additional time is allowed is because cases, as a general rule, are apt to be more easily settled at the facility level than at step 3 or even arbitration. It is also probable that the decrease in cases is because of the Christmas rush when management seems to find less time to dish out discipline. It would be nice if we could believe that this decrease is a result of management moving to improve the labor management climate as promised by Marvin Runyun, but I don’t think so.

Training Issues

Expenses relating to training for representatives of Local 321 will exceed $40,000.00 for 1997. This is a large, but much needed expense. We are attempting to improve the quality of representation provided to our members. As indicted in my last FYI, we have rolled out our recently developed training program on Discipline and Discharge. The training is a two-day program, with the focus on how to handle discipline cases and the type of investigation needed. This program has already been given to about 30 stewards in the state and is scheduled for the remaining qualified stewards within the next two months. Several other training issues are being currently being considered for possible implementation in mid 1998.

The National office provided Leadership training in late 1997. Our Local sent Vice President Ron Lucero and myself to this training. The main focus of the training was to provide an understanding our National and Local Constitutions.

The National office will be providing training on Casual usage and tracking as well as how to properly prepare cases for casuals working in lieu of full time employees. This training is scheduled for early February in Washington D.C. We will be sending a total of four representative from this Local for this training, (2 from the GMF, 1 from the BMC and 1 from Colorado Springs). Once these individuals return they will be tasked with developing a training program on what they learn for the other representatives of this Local.

Financial Issues

The financial status of our Local is continually improving and we will be coming into 1998 with record surpluses. We were able to accomplish this in 1997 while spending $20,000 on our building, $36,000 in back taxes for the IRS settlement, and providing substantially more training than in past years.

In mentioning the IRS settlement, I would also like to state that in about 2 months we will be making our second to last payment. This will leave us with one remaining payment, due in March of 1999, in the amount of $36,500.

Health Plan Open Season

The Union invested a little more money on Open Season advertising this year than. The reason was because some of the other health plans showed substantial weaknesses this year. These weaknesses range from decreased benefits to high increases in premiums. It is hoped we were successful in capitalizing off these weaknesses this year. We won't know how well we did until the beginning of April when the figures are released. Just as a point of information, the Associate Membership (non-Mail Handler Federal workers who are in our Health plan) provides our Local with approximately 50% of our yearly income. Once the results of Open Season are in you will be updated.

Local By-Laws

Several changes were made to our Local By-Laws during the November Council Meeting. Below is an overview of those changes:

The By-Laws previously defined our Local as 12 Branches; this has now been changed to 8 Branches. The reason for the change is to help facilitate compliance with our Constitutional requirement to hold quarterly branch meetings (schedules to be posted shortly). These will take the place of the General Membership Meetings traditionally held by the Local, however, the format of the meetings will remain relatively the same.

The salary for the Vice-President, State Representative and Recording Secretary were increase from $200.00 per month to $225.00 per month. The reason for this charge was to bring those salaries up to the base salary of the Administrative Vice-President positions. Obviously, the other reason is that these positions deserved an increase in salary.

The salary for the Treasurer position was also increased by $25.00 per month from $340.00 to $365.00. This change was to provide an equal increase in base pay with the other officers.

Language was changed which reflects that stewards should make every effort to attend their respective branch meeting. This change is basically a cosmetic change as a result of the change to the Branch structure.

A new provision was added requiring the Local to maintain two budgets. One is intended to be the actual budget for the Local (this we have been doing for the last few years) and one that is based on no Associate Income for the Local (meaning an approximate 50% reduction in income). The reasons for the second budget is to keep the Local prepared in case of any changes in the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program, which could possibly eliminate our Associate Membership.

In addition to these changes, a couple of clarifications were also made on the intent of the By-Laws.

The Council agreed that an employee who has written proof of assignment to higher level detail while on Union LWOP is entitled to higher level pay.

The Council agreed that the By-Law provisions apply to Regular Members and not Associate Members.

The Council discussed and agreed that the Postal provisions allowing for one 5-minute telephone call home per day for out-of-town travel is intended to apply to Union travel as well.

The parties at the National Level have begun presenting cases relating to jurisdictional arguments. No decisions have been released as of yet, but they are expected to begin trickling in soon. Once these decisions are released, the RI-399 activity at the Local level should begin. With the substantial backlog of jurisdictional arbitrations, I expect our Local to be expending substantial effort and money in working through this backlog. Our National Executive Board has adopted (with some modifications) a Resolution that I submitted during the last Mail Handlers convention. The resolution requires our National to create a group of trained advocates on jurisdictional issues. These advocates will be available to assist the Locals that request assistance (subject to National review of the case). The intent of the proposal is to insure that any Local is not harmed by the inexperience of another Local. In a nutshell, we do not want to have to put on cases, which could possibly have been seriously harmed through poor presentation by another Local on a similar issue.

The National Grievance on the Nixon day of morning has been finalized and we are awaiting the decision from the arbitrator. Once the decision is received, it is expected that if the Union prevails the Service will establish a system for pinpointing those affected and payment should follow automatically. If this is not the case, the Local will begin follow-up to ensure proper payment to any Mail Handler affected.

Our national office is currently developing an FMLA packet for use by Mail Handlers. The packet will be an application for FMLA along with other information on FMLA.