This is the twenty-seventh 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 303-455-6400.

Safety Training has been developed by the Local and will be rolled out to the stewards the early part of next year.

Computer training has begun and will continue to be rolled out next year to ensure that the stewards who choose to utilize our computers can do so in an efficient manner.

National provides an advanced stewards training program that they would like to come to Colorado to teach. Based on this being a very large expense, as it would require all stewards to be pulled together at one time, we have decided to evaluate the program first. National is scheduled to give this training in Wyoming in the first part of next year. We have already made arrangements to send two representatives to this class for evaluation purposes. If it is determined this training will offer something outside of what we already developed locally, arrangements will be made to schedule this training here in Colorado.

In the past we have relied upon retirees and our secretary to handle the majority of the open season health fair related issues. With the retirement of our secretary we have decided to allow our union representatives to handle this issue. For this reason no one was sent to the health plan training this year and instead we brought CNA to Denver to train ten new representatives to handle health fairs later this year.

Attendance at Branch Meetings continues to be extremely low. We continue to encourage all of you to check your local bulletin boards for meeting times and dates. These meetings are one of your best opportunities to keep yourself informed and to share your ideas or concerns with the Local.

As our National office continues to struggle through the National Negotiation process, little information is available to the field. This is due largely in part to the fact that the parties will not exchange financial proposals until just weeks before the close of negotiations. In the meantime the parties can meet and agree to many things, but they all are contingent upon the money issues. This means they can agree to everything, but if pay packages are unable to be negotiated, everything is back off the table. A meeting has already been set for the Local’s to review any package that may be developed. This meeting is set for November 21^st in Washington DC. This in reality will probably be the first real information we receive on what has occurred during negotiations. Once this or any other information on the negotiation process is received it will be conveyed to you. Keep watching your bulletin boards for the periodic updates released from our National on the negotiation process.

As many of you have noticed over the last few years the Postal Climate in Colorado has deteriorated greatly. In large part this deteriorating climate was due to the manager from the GMF, Sam Ruden. During Mr. Ruden’s two and a half years as serving as god (in his opinion) over our district he has had a direct impact (negative) on every office and almost every operation within the two-state area. With his recent retirement (as a result of him assaulting a 204-B) it is hoped that some of the trend will now begin to reverse itself. The new acting manager for the GMF will be a gentleman from Portland Oregon named Tal Middleton. (By all current indications he will be a considerable improvement over Mr. Ruden). It is unknown at this point when the actual position will be posted and who will ultimately be given the job but in the meantime it is hoped we can repair some of the damage caused by Mr. Ruden.

On October 11, 2000 we held our second council meeting of the year. During this meeting a host of issues were discussed. The issues covered during this meeting included finances (current year as well as the 2001 budget), needs of the offices, step 3 updates, arbitration update, RI-399 update, FMLA legal action update, local training update, health plan changes, second full-time officer position. Also discussed were a variety of issues at the national level including officer election process and dates, LIUNA convention obligations, national arbitrations and the next Semi-annual Meeting of the Local Unions to be held in December.

In addition to the items discussed (as listed above) all proposed changes to the Local Union By-Laws were discussed and voted on. Below is a recap of the changes accepted:

A change was made as to our designated name in the By-Laws to include Colorado.

Reason: Colorado is utilized as part of our name on many billing issues.

A change was made rearranging our branch order within the Local.

Reason: This was done to make the Branch order more grammatically correct.

A change was made where any reference was made to Administrative Vice-President to Branch President.

Reason: To bring our By-Laws into compliance with a change made to our constitution at the National Convention.

A change was made to exclusions for compensation contained within our By-Laws. Previously we excluded overtime and Membership Meetings. We have now added LIUNA Convention to these exclusions.

Reason: The reason for this exclusion is to reduce costs to the Local. Under the LIUNA rules we are required to nominate, elect and send 1 delegate per every two hundred members to the LIUNA Convention next year. Airfare, per diem and hotel expenses are paid by LIUNA. Leaving two remaining expenses elections process and compensation. The election process will probably cost about $6,000 alone and with the addition of compensation this amount would probably well exceed $10,000. With the fact that nominees who are elected will in essence not be conducting Local related business, the Local will not be compensating lost wages for this event.

A new section was added that reflects that compensation for open season health fairs work would be paid at a rate of $11.00 per hour to non-postal personnel.

Reason: We are bringing back our prior secretary to help us coordinate this years open season as well as train us on all of the specifics since she use to handle the fairs. This provision is intended to cover her compensation during this period as well as any future needs for outside help.

A new section has been added that will allow for an "Exceptional Union Representation Incentive" to be awarded based on exceptional performance. This award cannot exceed $100.00 per year to any given individual.

Reason: On occasion a given individual may go above and beyond the norm to assist in the representation of this Local Union and we previously had no way of rewarding that individual. This will now give us such ability.

A new section was added that requires the Local to maintain a convention fund with deposits of $400.00 per month.

Reason: For a number of years devoted we budgeted money into a convention fund for the intent of ensuring that our Local is represented at each National Convention every 4 years. This just moves this from a practice to a mandate so this practice continues.

It should be noted that all changes adopted are subject to approval of the National President prior to their implementation. This approval normally takes a few weeks and at that time copies will be distributed to all offices and will be available to all members if they would like a copy.

We have developed and been making available a representation form for possible FMLA legal action against the Postal Service. A copy of this release will be reprinted in the next local newsletter to go out in early November. We have been meeting with various legal advisors to determine what kind of a case can be developed and filed to defend our membership to the abuse they receive if utilizing FMLA benefits. The Postal Service has made utilization of the benefits almost unobtainable by mandating numerous un-needed trips to the doctor and a host of other headaches, all of which appear to be nothing more than harassment that violates the law.

Local 321’s Homepage at http//www.npmhu-local-321.org has been on-line for over two years now and offers a host of information and updates for the Mail Handlers around the country. In fact many Local’s members have conveyed to us that our Homepage is probably the best Mail Handler Homepage that there is. We encourage all members who have Internet access to take the time to research our homepage. Our Homepage has so many resources available that I could not mention them all here but a few include various postal manuals and publications, step 3 grievance reports for every case since 1994, pay information, all of the FYI’s release by the local, Council and Executive Board Meeting minutes, newsletters, arbitration tracking system and a host of links to pages which contain information on issues which relate to your employment with the Postal Service. More importantly our Homepage contains all of the essential items necessary for a Union Steward to process and write grievances.

Recently a case was appealed to step 3 on the subject of management maintaining a variety of record systems, which includes personal data on employees. Management takes the position that they are not keep information away from the employees and that they are just not informing employees when new record systems are created. Under the law employees are entitled to have full knowledge of all record systems that contain personal information about them. Based on the game it appears management is playing, the Union recommends that all employees who are even vaguely interested in knowing what record systems management is maintaining personal information in, should request from management this information. One example would be that the attendance control office has access to a record system, which gives them detailed information relating to FMLA absences.

For many years we have offered access to a supplemental dental plan, which piggybacked onto the Mail Handlers Benefit plan’s dental schedule at a reasonable price. Unfortunately this is the last year this plan will be offered as the underwriter has decided not to continue with this plan. His reasoning is that our benefits have remained unchanged while medical expenses have increased making the option of providing this benefit through this company obsolete. Hopefully over the next year we will be successful in finding a replacement that can be offered to employees who carry the Mail Handler Benefit Plan. If future information becomes available on this issue it will be conveyed to you.

Well it has been approximately 6 months since the decision was made to add a second full-time position to our Local. That decision was based on our growth and the needs of the membership. Don Gonzales was selected to fill this position based upon his qualifications for the job and willingness to work the unusual schedule that comes with the position (long hours and fluctuating report times). Since his appointment he has been very busy performing a host of duties to include but clearly not limited to; meeting on step 3 grievances on some occasions, filing and processing grievances for some of the outlying facilities, advocating cases in arbitration, developing a Safety Training Program as well as a Computer Training program for our representatives. Don has also provided me more time that is being devoted to those things that in the past could not be done because of lack of time. Additionally his assistance has provided me with more time to spend in the various facilities around the state. I have slowly been getting freed up from some of the backlog and am finding more time to be in the facilities as each week passes. Unfortunately most of my time in the facilities seems to get tied up more on day shift than on other tours. This is caused by the fact that managers make employees work nights but they themselves choose not to. As we finalize the backlog of work it is expected that I will find more time to devote to tours 1& 3.

Based on the recent campaign material released by our current National Secretary Treasurer I feel compelled to clear the air on the issue of why Jeff Morgan our Local Treasurer was not the one appointed to this second full-time position. Jeff, Don and several other individuals were evaluated for this position. At the time that the decision was finalized, Jeff indicated that he felt Don wanted the job more than him and would have no problem if that were the decision. The issue was distorted in the campaign material distributed by National Secretary Gardner. The final decision was never based on Jeff’s abilities or inabilities. It should be understood by our membership that Jeff has served our Local above and beyond any expectations I, or anyone else in the Local could have. Jeff has in the past, and continues to, devote considerable time to the Local for which he frequently does not seek compensation. I feel the campaign attack on Jeff’s ability to do his job is unjust and totally unfounded.

I have received information from several employees who indicated that there are members who feel that I am only in the Local President position as a stepping stone and have intentions of moving on up in the union organization. I would like to try and clear the air on this issue a little. I have had several inquiries (from National) asking if I desired to move up within our organization and I have declined any attempted offers in this area. I honestly think it would be interesting to deal with things higher up in our organization but this is not my goal. I have a wife and two young daughters who love it here. I am happy in Colorado and have no intentions of leaving anytime soon, if ever. (By the way I could never get my wife to move away from her mother anyway.)

As always, I can be contacted as follows: Office 303-455-6400, Pager 303-767-8293, Cell 303-520-7619 or at home at 303-451-7562.

David E Ross

President Local 321

NPMHU

10/13/00