Tom Strapkovic
President
During the last two years, we have been meeting with local managemnet to discuss the impact of the closure of the REC site, the arrival of the AFSM100s and the FEDX agreement. The end result has been the managementhas decided to restructure the current jobs at the GMF. ALthough the union provided input, managemnet, under the FEDX agreement, mail arrives much later than it use to be and as such, jobs had to be changed to match the arrival times. I'm sorry, but I just don't buy into this agreement. Every district in the Southwest Area is going through this same situation. In Dallas, for example, the Postal Service abolished all tour 2 jobs at the P & DCs. All of those employees were moved to tour 1 & 3. The only jobs left on tour 2 are window/distribution and a few administrative positions.
In San Antonio, tour 2 has taken the hardest hit and the local has still not recieved accurate number of the postitions that will remain. There are still many issues that have not been resolved and it seems like management does not care. At every meeting we have had, I have informed management of our intent to grieve all unresolved issues. This so-called resource pool was tried in Austin and faile, just as it will in San Antonio. Management has shown no compassion whatsoever for the employees whose lives are going to be turned upside dow. The onlt thing they think about is productivity. It's ironic that PMG Potter praised all the postal workers for doing such an outstanding Job since the September 11th, attacks and now all he wants to do is give us the shaft.
Employee And Employer
RelationShip
At the last union meeting, I found myself explaing why a stop stewadr cannot be fired at will. For those members who could not attend the meeting, I will repeat what I said. In January 1997, the Presidentterminated 8 Stewards in one day. One of the terminated stewards filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commision (EEOC).
At the time this happened, the union contacted our attorneys at National and requested assistance. Through our atorneys we took the position that eh EEOC did not have jurisdiction, because shop stewards are not employees of the union and therefore cannot be terminated "at will" and appealed the EEOC's intial decision. EEOC than requested copies of the union's paroll records. In the appeal, the EEOC argued that because shop stewards recieved rebates and, at times, LWOP from theunion, then by our own definition, shop stewards are employees and the union is the employer. We countered their argument by stating that the rebate was purely a refund of the steward's union dues. Our appeal was rejected citing that wheter we called it a rebate or a refund, the bottom line was the stewards were being paid compensation, and that compensation is a form of salary. The only other option is to file a lawsuit in Federal Court against the EEOC over their findings, The cost of the lwasuit was too much to bare.
The only way I know to reverse the above ruling is to cease the payment of any kind to the stewards or have just cause to terminate stewards.
