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Los Angeles is a city that is dispersed over a very wide area (unlike New York, which is much more centralized). The most obvious and visual result of this is that Freeways are constantly packed (even at 3 AM on a Sunday morning), yet the Downtown area traffic is sparse. Architecture tends to the ultra-modern. Pan-handlers abound--seemingly better than one per each city block--and are generally well dressed and extremely polite. The city's legendary "smog" problems have been largely abated. Real Estate values are almost beyond comprehension (a news report during the week claimed that better than 81% of area residents could never afford a home there). During the week, many delegates took a stroll on the Hollywood Walk of Stars, centered at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine.
Approximately 3,000 delegates, representing 406 Locals and 50 State Organizations, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands attended the Convention. Additionally, 84 National Officers and 5 Retiree Department delegates were in attendance (according to the Credentials Committee as of Wednesday, August 14, 2002). 62% of the delegates were attending their first National Convention.
The Red Bank Local was represented by
Maintenance Craft Director Joe Leddy (left), Clerk Craft Director Jeff
Brents (right), and Secretary-Treasurer Martin Johns. Red Bank President Joe
Shevlin and Vice-President Mike Levine were also in attendance as delegates
of the New Jersey State Postal Workers Union.
An attractive city in the summertime, Minneapolis has a unique and distinctive skyline. Modern architecture seamlessly blends with older buildings. Beautiful fountains and sculptures abound. Even manhole covers feature artistic designs. In response to sometimes harsh winters, a series of skywalks connects the city; permitting citizens and visitors to get almost anywhere without ever touching the ground. Within the city limits, there are churches on virtually every corner and there appear to be no gas stations. Delegates were especially amazed at how clean the city is. Even the construction equipment is clean. Minneapolis has a reputation as an anti-smoking city. Sales tax is 10%. The downtown area is bordered by the Mississippi River on one end and a series of lakes on the other.
POSTAL WORKERS ARE HEROES, TOO!
A memorial service was held on Sunday, August 11, 2002, after which delegates placed flowers around the mural. On Monday, the official opening of the Convention, President Bill Burrus and the APWU paid tribute to the widows of the fallen Postal Workers and survivors of the bioterrorism attack. Mary Morris (left), widow of Thomas Morris, Jr. who contracted anthrax at the Brentwood facility in Washington, DC, thanked the Union for their love and support.
Celeste Curseen (right), widow of APWU member Joseph Curseen, Jr. who died in the same attack, said of her husband, "He was a hero, although he thought of himself as living an ordinary life. And he was proud to be a member of the postal family." Additionally, the delegates honored and heard from anthrax survivor Leroy Richmond, who also worked at Brentwood, and Hamilton Township survivors Jyotsna Patel, Norma Wallace and Patrick O'Donnell. President Burrus told delegates, "The terror was equal in the New Jersey facility." None of the victims has returned to work.
Following the tribute to the victims of the terrorist attack on 9/11/01 and subsequent bioterrorism, APWU President Bill Burrus launched into his first ever State of the Union Address. President Burrus acknowledged the contributions of his predecessor, Moe Biller, saying that Biller had established a solid foundation and had left "large footprints for us to follow." President Burrus then turned his attention to the future and the challenges that lie ahead.
Intro Maintenance Conference SMPs TACS MPCs REHABS REC SITES PARS 204Bs UNIVERSAL SENIORITY NEB RECALL ORGANIZING Clerk Craft Director, James McCarthy Prior to the official opening of the Convention, delegates attended craft conferences at which information was disseminated and issues were discussed. National Officers expressed their views on the future direction of the APWU and solicited the opinions of the craft members. Additionally, several announcements were made. The APWU announced a pilot program to test polo-style t-shirts for window clerks. The Union is in charge of the program and promises that the shirts will be comfortable, professional looking and union made. The craft conferences were held on Saturday and Sunday, August 10 and 11, 2002. A central theme throughout these conferences was the need for better contract enforcement and a plan of attack for dealing with the current grievance backlog. At the maintenance conference, it was
noted that USPS management is largely ignoring new contract language on
subcontracting--continuing to do so without prior notification and
negotiation with the Union. Custodial staffing, in light of unilateral
changes
Senior Mail Processors were a topic of
discussion at both the Maintenance and Clerk Craft Conferences.
Management, it was noted, has been slow to convert SMPs to Level 6, as
required by the Goldberg Arbitration award. The recent Memorandum of
Understanding on SMPs between the Postal Service and APWU establishes
MINIMUM staffing requirements only and does not change any of the previous
agreements. Assistant Clerk Craft Director Pat Williams (right) reminded attendees that the only TACS issue pending at the National Level is whether TACS clerks should receive Level 5 or Level 6. A settlement dated 4/13/01 clearly establishes that any other issues arising from TACS, including Bargaining Unit Work issues, are appropriate for local resolution and arbitration. "The Post Office," Williams said, "has spent billions and billions of dollars in taking work away from us." Williams noted that, in many facilities, TACS clerks are training the supervisors. "If our people can train them, our people can do the job." Clerk Craft Director James McCarthy
admitted that some stewards and officers were less than
The APWU is currently challenging, before
Arbitrator Snow, the USPS practice of placing Limited Duty employees from
other crafts into Clerk craft positions. The contract requires that
such placements cannot be to the detriment of the Clerk craft and that the
APWU be a party to any such placement. McCarthy noted that, after
9/11, there has been an increased need for airport "scanners" (the people
with the wands). He suggested that such work
Once slated for extinction, the USPS has been shifting more and more work to the Remote Encoding Centers. The reason for the shift appears obvious--to move Union work to non-Union workers. The keying requirements at the Rec Sites were once much lower than clerk keying standards. However, the Rec Sites have now moved to "real time keying" and added many responsibilities to the positions. The APWU will fight hard, at the next contract negotiations, to have Rec Site work recognized as career clerk work and to have the Rec Site workers paid a salary commensurate with their increased responsibilities.
Among the issues debated and decided on the Convention floor, few were as overwhelmingly popular as Resolution 46. Resolution 46 directed National Officers to negotiate with management new contract language to "freeze" the seniority of employees detailed to Acting Supervisor positions "from the day the 204B detail begins until the day following the termination of the detail, this to include breaks in said detail to supervisory duties in order to perform work in their respective craft." The delegates also voted to prevent 204Bs from issuing discipline and to bar them from participation in the Holiday leave pay/Annual Leave exchange benefit achieved in the Goldberg Arbitration award.
Four different resolutions sought, in different ways, to give members the right to transfer to other facilities without forever forfeiting their in-service seniority. Of these, only Resolution 41, which called for employees to be given a one-time-only transfer-with-seniority opportunity, received a full airing. Maintenance and Motor Vehicle crafts were largely in opposition, as were employees who have already transferred and lost their seniority, and the resolution was defeated. Resolution 108, considered to have the best opportunity for passage, was the favorite among New Jersey delegates. Resolution 108 applied only to the Clerk Craft and contained a retroactive clause. Resurrected from committee attempts to bury 108, proponents were nonetheless forced to withdraw the motion without discussion when it became apparent 108 would not come before the body until the Convention's final minutes, if at all. Many representatives of Southern states remain strongly opposed to free movement throughout the Postal Service without the onerous penalty of total forfeiture of seniority. Such free movement already exists within the Canadian Postal Service. Delegates also voted down a Resolution which would have calculated COLA increases based on area cost-of-living. One of the most controversial Resolutions,
the "Pay Equity" Act, was defeated by the body. The
In perhaps the closest vote of the
Convention, the body voted to remove Recall provisions (Article 14) from the Constitution
and Bylaws. Supporters of Resolution 6, including National
Secretary-Treasurer Robert Tunstall, argued that the Recall provisions
lacked Due Process and
The 16th Biennial APWU Convention officially
opened on
As marchers surrounded the Hilton, covering all the neighboring sidewalks and streets, President Burrus addressed the crowd with a megaphone, criticizing Cheney for his corporate ties and continuing silence.
Though some claimed to spot Secret Service agents in the upper floors of the Hilton, Cheney made no appearance to defend himself against the charges of corporate greed.
On Thursday, August 15, 2002, the over 3,000 delegates at the APWU National Convention demonstrated their solidarity by donning blue APWU t-shirts. On the Convention floor, the delegates engaged in a heated debate over Resolution 12A. Resolution 12A sought to provide continued funding for External Organizing without a dues increase. In the end, the Resolution passed on a very close vote (note: two-thirds majority required for passage).
Delegates then showed their solidarity with fellow Unions in the Labor movement as they marched from the Convention Center with Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 17. Local 17 has organized all of the major hotels in Minneapolis.
The Grand Hotel became an island engulfed in a sea of blue as the APWU workers encircled the block and crowded neighboring streets as well.
by Martin Johns Disclaimer: For many reasons, the subject of External Organizing inspires controversy within the APWU. I, myself, am a supporter of private-sector organizing. It is clear to me that it is not only the best way for the Union to move forward, but probably the only way for the Union to survive. This article represents my reasons for feeling as I do and does not objectively present both sides of the argument. My opinions do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Red Bank Local or its members. The Red Bank Local does consider opposing positions that have been offered by APWU members and will consider opposing positions of its own members, if offered. "In unity, there is strength." "An
injury to one is an injury to all." These are not just hollow slogans.
These are truisms, so called because they are true. Here's another:
The Goldberg Arbitration award. In his Arbitration award on the APWU
2000-2003 Collective Bargaining Agreement, Arbitrator Stephen Goldberg made
it clear
Too
expensive? Internal
organizing first? You've been talking to that scab for 20 years.
Be serious. You think they're going to change their mind now?
Why? They don't get it. They never got it and they never will.
They think they're smart because they don't pay and you have to represent
them anyway. Or they are holding some small stupid grudge over some
wrong, real or imagined, committed against them. They need to view
that grudge in the larger context. Everything we have, everything
they have, could all disappear tomorrow because of non-members and
non-membership. But they'll never see that until its too late.
How many times has a scab told you, "If the Local leadership changes, I'll
join." Then the Local leadership changes and do they join? NO!
They blame the Union for "a lousy contract," yet fail to see the role they
played in that. I'm not saying we shouldn't organize internally.
But the non-union workers in the private-sector want us. They get it.
Of course they do, because they know what it is to break your back for $7 an
hour. Remember the HCR drivers and the Mail Haulers came to us.
Conflict of interest? Look, I really don't want to go there because I might inadvertently say something which offends our brothers and sisters in Motor Vehicle and that is not my intention. I see the conflict. I understand and appreciate what they are saying. We are fighting for jobs internally and externally at many of the same locations. And I honestly don't even know how successful we've been on the internal front. I do know that my facility should have a Motor Vehicle craft and doesn't. And its been 15 years. And nobody seems all that interested in fighting for it. I told you I didn't want to go there. It just seems to me that such issues would be more easily resolved between brothers and sisters than between union members and non-union members. Remember, the HCR drivers came to us. And no argument here should prevent us from organizing the pre-sort houses. It is our only choice. Right
to strike.
Our private-sector brothers and sisters have the right
to strike. If we continue to organize externally, it is not only more
likely that we could win that right but more likely that
Do the right thing. There is one overwhelming reason for continuing to fund our external organizing program and, to me at least, it lords over any argument either side of this debate could make...IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO. At the Minneapolis Convention, I met many off our new brothers and sisters. I may not remember all of their names, but I will never forget their passion and pain. They are living the life we, now, only talk about. They have put jobs and families on the line because they want what we have! Please realize, brothers and sisters, that no greater compliment could ever be paid you. One brother told me of a co-worker who had recently died, and that brother is certain it was this struggle for fairness and decency that killed him. Could any of us let that death be in vain? These APWU members, wearing badges with the completely inadequate designation of "Support Services," are more truly aligned with the labor movement than most of the rest of us will ever be. They feel more deeply and truly what Joe Hill must have felt when the labor movement was young. They are there! When the delegates voted to deny them a voice on the Executive Board, their pain was impossible to miss. It was as if the APWU had just kicked them in the balls. When delegates voted to continue funding, their relief was just as obvious and real. It was certainly not enough, but at least they can go home and tell their brothers and sisters that we did not abandon them. And we, you and I, are responsible for them. We led them out onto that tree limb. We promised them we would always be there--standing beside them. We cannot walk away from them, now. Their lives depend upon us, upon our support. The funding was accomplished without a dues increase, but I would gladly put up an extra 50 cents a pay period, more even, for these fine people--these true believers. Yes, its hard. Yes, its expensive. Freedom is never easy. Democracy never comes cheap. Rights are never given, but must be won. We must continue! IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO! And it is the only choice.
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that the APWU stood alone in opposition to many draconian measures proposed by
the President's Commission and, in the end, successfully removed them from
Postal Reform Bills. Burrus cautioned that, if not passed this year, the
fight over Postal Reform will begin anew next year. When it does, the APWU
will not weaken in their fight.
position), and increasing management accountability were passed without
noticeable opposition.
Union expenditures. It was reported that, while no crisis currently
exists, the continuing decline in membership (through attrition, particularly
voluntary retirements the APWU fought hard to achieve) points to the need for
belt-tightening in the near future.
having
their destiny controlled by Clerks, who represent the largest percentage of APWU
membership.
President Burrus then turned to what may be our greatest challenge--the
future of the U.S. Postal Service itself and the Service's privatization
efforts. "The United States Postal Service faces financial
difficulties unparalleled in its history," he said. "The window for
financial solvency is quickly closing." The APWU President pointed
directly to the huge discounts given to the private mailers.
Burrus accused management of being too closely aligned with the private
mailing industry, stating, "Postal management, other Postal labor unions,
are oblivious" to the dangers of Postal discounts. "APWU has
waged an ongoing and lonely battle over postage discounts that rob the
Postal Service of needed revenue. Our cry is 'eliminate the
discounts and save the Postal Service'!" 
succeed
in the challenges that face the APWU and the Postal Service, every member
must be active in the upcoming November elections. The President
said we must all pay close attention to the candidates who are running,
listen to their words, evaluate their records, review their commitment to
working people, register and, above all, vote. "The special
interests will invest hundreds of millions of dollars into the political
process to rig the results. They have been increasingly successful
because too many individual citizens voluntarily void their right to vote
or vote their emotions instead of their interests." Even though
Postal Workers are somewhat restricted in their political activities
because of the Hatch Act, Burrus reminded delegates that the APWU's
Legislative Department maintains a Congressional Voting Record scorecard.
Nothing prevents a Federal worker from so educating themselves.
Again, the APWU President noted that too many members remain unregistered
or, if registered, do not vote. To exert any influence with our
political leaders, "We must vote!"
to Postal manual MS-47, continues to be an issue at the National
level, with the Union maintaining that the changes "are not fair, reasonable
and equitable." In this regard, Maintenance Craft Director Steve Raymer and Assistant Director Gary Kloepfer noted that cleaning directives
issued since anthrax was unleashed in the mail stream require more time, not
less. Management in some locations has told custodians that new, less
stringent, directives have been issued; however, no such "new" directives
have been issued, and the APWU will oppose any attempt to do so.
Management has also attempted to justify reduced staffing by subtracting the
space occupied by automation machinery, even though their own manuals
prohibit this practice. Additionally, a National Level Dispute has
been initiated on the process by which management selects employees for
training following the Goldberg Arbitration award. "It is a
significant change of working conditions to have employees changed from a
selection process based on their seniority to one that is management whim."
This means, for example, that one SMP may not be used to service two
machines simultaneously and that all clerks acting as SMPs "SHALL" be
paid Level 6. The APWU promised to pursue this issue aggressively
though the grievances should be filed locally.
thrilled with the National MOU establishing the Mail Processor Clerk, or
"Universal" Clerk, position. McCarthy defended the agreement, noting
that the Postal Service had threatened unilateral imposition of scheme
training for all Level 5 clerks, new and old, as well as management's own
brand of Universal Clerk. In negotiating the settlement, he said, the
Union not only avoided total upheaval and a prolonged grievance struggle,
but secured written commitment for Day-to-Day seniority application while
preserving the Locals' rights to negotiate sections. 
may
be an appropriate assignment for Limited Duty personnel which would not
adversely impact the Clerk craft while still fulfilling the Service's
obligations under the law.
Resolution,
if passed, would have raised the salaries of National Maintenance and Motor
Vehicle Craft Directors and their Assistants to equal the salaries of their
counterparts in the other Divisions. While delegates seemed supportive
of the Resolution philosophically, many felt they could not justify an
additional 7% raise for National Officers when the same could not be
achieved for their membership. The New Jersey delegation was split on
this issue. Another Resolution, which sought to give the Support
Services Division a voice on the Executive Board, without any increase in
salary or cost, was defeated in a close vote. The New Jersey
delegation was almost unanimous in their support for the latter Resolution.
Delegates also defeated a resolution which would have extended National
Officers' terms to four years and one that would have limited the number of
terms retired Postal employees could serve in elected Union positions.
that a small disgruntled group (25%) could trigger a
costly recall election. Charges against officers, they said,
were better filed under Article 15. Those speaking in opposition argued that the Resolution was an attack on
democracy and that, under Article 15, a single disgruntled member could
initiate charges. Red Bank Local's Martin Johns, speaking against the
Resolution, pointed out that Article 15 is a filtered process dealing only
with charges of misconduct while Recall was direct democracy that allowed
for un-electing officers who had ceased to serve the membership, whether or
not their actions were "offences" of a chargeable nature. Las Vegas
delegate Jim Lingberg argued that Recall could be modified, rather than
abolished. The Resolution, which required a two-thirds majority
for adoption, passed by 7 votes.
Monday,
August 12, 2002. On that same afternoon, the Vice President of the United
States, Dick Cheney, was in Minneapolis attending a GOP fundraiser. APWU
President Bill Burrus determined that "an APWU welcome" for the Vice President
was in order. Burrus recessed the convention in mid-afternoon and the
delegates, more than 3,000 strong, poured out of the Convention Center and
marched to the site of the fund raiser, the Hilton Hotel, a few blocks away.
that
we will never see another respectable raise so long as workers in the
private-sector perform similar work at less than half the wage. We all
know that we are NOT overpaid. Yet Arbitrator Goldberg concluded that
we ARE. And, under the law, he was right. Under the terms of the
Postal Reorganization Act (PRA), the Arbitrator was required
to base our wages upon a comparison to wages earned by others doing
"comparable" work. In the old days, the Postal Service had to stretch
to concoct twisted comparisons--for instance, comparing window clerks to
McDonald's cashiers. Arbitrators could reasonably see through such
smoke. But in the age of automation and pre-sort houses, we are
screwed! The Postal Service has, for more than a decade now, subsidized the
private mailing industry through unconscionable rate discounts.
Postmaster General John Potter estimated before Congress that there are
roughly 9 million jobs in the mailing industry. The APWU, the largest
"postal" Union, is dwarfed by the huge numbers of non-union laborers in our
industry. In large part, the Postal Service has "created" these
non-union jobs, in competition with itself, by selling their services to
private mailers at a loss. The worst case scenario for the USPS is
that OUR wages will remain flat or decline against the dollar. That is
their worst case and OUR best case scenario. Even while we fight to
end outrageous discounts, so long as an Arbitrator can look to the pre-sort
houses for "comparable work," our wages will decline relative to inflation.
Unless we organize them! The wages of a Union pre-sort house
worker will undoubtedly be higher than non-union labor. This, in turn,
betters our bargaining position. It is our
only choice.
Declining
membership.
APWU membership is declining. Its nobody's
fault. The fact is the Postal Service is cutting jobs. Fewer
jobs means fewer members. Do the math. Furthermore, good, solid,
strong Union members--many who remember the Strike and the struggle that got
us here--are retiring or nearing retirement. They
are being replaced, if at all, with workers who may not understand that
their wages are not willingly surrendered by management but rather
hard-fought victories which must be guarded in continuously harder fights.
If we "stay inside," it is inevitable that membership will spiral downward,
leaving us too weak even to maintain what we now have. To survive, to
thrive, we must increase membership. And to do that, we must look to
where the non-members are. No, I'm not talking about the hard-core
scabs in your office; I am talking about the non-union workers at the
pre-sort houses and the contract driving companies. Their bosses will
frighten them, intimidate them, threaten them. But they want us.
Because they know the Union will
provide them with a better life. And we should know that they will
provide us with a better, more secure life as well. "There is safety
in numbers," but we must go get them.
It is our only choice.
Ultimately, it would be too expensive to NOT organize. However, let us
look at the record. The APWU has spent about 5 million dollars over
the last three years and has organized about 2,600 workers. Many
simply look at what appears to be the "cost per member" and declare our
efforts a failed enterprise. But we were starting from scratch.
Many of the costs were "start-up" and "organizer training" costs. When
the rest of the labor movement faced declining membership in the eighties,
they invested multiples of our measly 5 million dollars. They built a
training complex in Nevada and trained their organizers for three years
before attempting to organize a single worker. Their game plan has
worked and is working and their members are, today, reaping the rewards of
that investment. For all intents and purposes, the APWU is ahead of
the game. We did something we had never done without knowing if we
would succeed...if we could succeed. We can and we did.
The first step is always the hardest. We took that step and did not
fall down. If we continue, the effort will become increasingly easier.
Think of this effort as a teeter-totter--the climb is steep at first, but if
you keep it up you'll get to the point where you can coast down the other
side. We will only have wasted our initial investment if we stop now;
the Postal Service and contractors will freeze our
new
members out, move the work elsewhere, and we'll lose the gains we've made.
Only by continuing can we exert the pressure the other way. Like
dominoes, when we get one we can get the surrounding ones as well.
Gee, they got better pay and benefits by joining the APWU; why not
us? If we stop now, we lose it all...in more ways than one. We
must continue. It is our only choice.
And
do you know why? Do you think they wanted higher pay and more vacation
time. Well, yeah. But what they REALLY wanted was JUST CAUSE!
Now there's a concept. Boy, do they get it! It is to our mutual
benefit to organize these brothers and sisters. It is our only choice.
any
strike would have the desired impact (rather than being an easy way for
management to fire us all). With enough private-sector members, we
could even have the effect of a strike without having the right. Think
about it. But if we want the right to strike, we must support our new
brothers and sisters when they need to strike. It is expensive, yes.
But it is our only choice.