The Kansas Postal Workers Union Leadership for the 21st Century
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	Kansas Postal Workers Join Teamster Picket Line
	Kansas Postal Worker Union members joined Teamster Union members on the picket line at Associated Wholesale Grocers in Kansas City, Kans., in a show of solidarity during the KPWU Convention May 5. Nearly 60 American Postal Workers Union members joined the picket line, most of whom were KPWU members. Associated Wholesale Grocers, the country’s second largest grocery cooperative, locked out 1,200 employees in March over a dispute about outsourcing, a practice postal workers know as contracting out. AWG is currently enjoying record profits with more than $270 million dollars in gross profits in 1999, said Bobby Davidson, President and Business Agent for Teamsters Local 955. Despite record profits, AWG is replacing workers, many who have dedicated more than 20 years of work to AWG, with leased employees from outside services. The leased services pay their employees substantially less and allow fewer holidays, fewer vacation days, and lower healthcare and retirement benefits, said Davidson. Teamsters are urging consumer boycotts of the following stores supplied by AWG: Price Chopper, Country Mart, Falley’s, Sunfresh, Apple Market, Thriftway and Hen House. Teamsters hope the boycott will pressure AWG to negotiate with the union. Union members have been distributing handbills outside these stores to explain their request to shoppers.
	KPWU President Tom Mayse and Bobby Donelson National Maintenance Representative-at-large at the KPWU Convention.
	Negotiation Preparation on Tap for National Convention
	Focusing contract negotiations on major issues will be the primary discussion topic at the APWU National Convention in July, said Bobby Donelson, APWU Maintenance National Representative-at-Large, at the recent Kansas Postal Workers Union convention. Although all the resolutions submitted by the state conventions will be prepared for discussion, it is unrealistic to expect that all of these issues can be effectively addressed during negotiations. Delegates to the Maintenance Craft Convention will have an opportunity to vote on maintenance craft resolutions to determine priority issues. The Maintenance Craft Convention meets Saturday and Sunday prior to the main convention. The opening day for negotiating the collective bargaining agreement with USPS management is scheduled for August 2000. . In other news, Donelson said there are currently almost 2,000 people on the Maintenance Craft e-mail list. Subscribers receive the most current information. Donelson said the list has been an especially effective way to communicate transfer requests.
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