MHV11-01

This year’s grievance tracking started with the first filled grievance of Jan. 4, 2001, and is recorded till May 25, 2001. For the first Five (5) month period of this year 295 grievances were filled, in contrast to 267 filled for the first five months of last year. We have made a commitment to keep our members informed of grievance activity in this facility, please excuse our lateness, and we will try to do this as often as possible. This is one of the functions of a newly formed Grievance Committee by Branch President Fitzgerald, the following is the breakdown of the up to date grievance activity. By definition, grievances run from Letters of Warning to Removals, which includes EEO, LABOR BOARD, MSPB, WORKERS COMPENSATION, FMLA as well as needed services outside the normal grievance filings and procedure.

As you all know there are two (2) types of grievances, contractual and discipline, the first refers to violations of the contractual language of our National Agreement, (i.e. overtime by-pass, holiday scheduling, re-assignments) the second is discipline(s) that lead to possibilities of lost time, wages or job due to punitive and often unjust actions by facility management (i.e. Low’s, suspensions and removals). The aforementioned does not include discrimination (sex / race / age), or harassment that usually are filed and heard in a Labor Board forum. There were a number of Class Action cases filed locally related to the collective issues of mailhandlers.

The following is a break down of our buildings grievance activity, from the beginning of this year.

Report prepared and submitted by Tour II Shop Steward Steve Megargel. Thanks Steve!

The Local Executive recently approved an equipment request for a new computer for the Branch. We received the new computer on June 17, 2001.

This will enable us to better serve the members. Files can be backed up more easily and it will enable us to do more for you the members. More and more stewards are using the computer. A membership database has been established and soon a second database will be established so we can transfer the overtime-desired list to the computer for easier storage and access. We also hope to transfer our case files to the computer for easier storage on disk.

In case you have not seen the bulletin boards lately. The National Union has announced that the Postal Service has elected to arbitrate the APWU contract first. Then our Union will go. An arbitrator will be named by the end of this month. This of course will delay any resolution of our National Agreement. More details on this issue were discussed at the Semi-annual meeting of Local Union which was held in Boston from June 21-June 23, 2001. Local 300 officers attended this meeting hopefully they will update us on what transpired at that meeting.

NEW YORK CITY CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL

SUMMER CAMP APPLICATIONS

ARE AVAILABLE IN THE LOCAL 300 UNION OFFICE

ANY MEMBER OF LOCAL 300 IS ELIGIBLE FOR PARTICIPATION.

WILL SOON BE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE. WE HAVE TWO COLORS, ASH WITH MAROON LETTERING AND BLACK WITH GOLD LETTERING. PRICES WILL VARY ACCORDING TO THE SIZE.

You can e-mail your stewards. Check out the Mail Handler Voice Achieve. We have links to other Mail Handler Locals websites as well as the National Unions. We also have a community bulletin board where you can post comments. Want to look something up in the ELM? You can do it at our site. Need a phone number? We will continue to update it as we go along.

Anyone wishing to submit an article to be published in the MHV can do so by submitting it to either John Helbig or Draeke Waller on Tour III or you can give it to Branch President Grady Fitzgerald. If you can give it to us on disk it would be greatly appreciated. Hand written articles will also be accepted. Please sign the article and tell us how we can contact you if we have any questions. Letters to the Editor are also welcomed.

If you’d like to be on the Newsletter Committee, let us know, we can use the help.

The recent election to select Delegates to the LIUNA Convention was hotly contested here at the Bulk. Many candidates participated in the process. A lot, of literature was distributed by the various candidates. The more participation we have in these elections the healthier it is for our Union. It tells us that the membership is active and willing to get involved. This is good. Now that the election is over and the Delegates have been elected.

We should make an effort to try and harness some of that energy and interest and put it to work building our Union. There’s plenty to do and our Union will only be as strong as we the members make it. Some of our younger members need to be trained and prepared for the day when the leadership responsibility will be passed to them.

Good leaders are not afraid to prepare others to assume leadership. It’s our responsibility to do so!! In any election you get some good ideas put forth, as well as some mud slinging. We should now try and get the good ideas and do something with them.

That’s what I’m going to try and do. So you will see some changes, hopefully for the better. It’s time to lick our wounds and mend some fences and work together for the benefit of the Union.

A Union is the coming together of workers for the purpose of forming a unified group to deal with management, as a group, rather then as individuals.

To all of you who voted in the election, we thank you for taking the time to do your part by participating in the democratic process that strengthens our Union. Democracy is the foundation on which all strong Unions are built.