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The Process Is Underway

by Steve Albanese 

    The interest arbitration proceedings began in Chicago on August 27, 2001. I attended the hearings and found them to be quite informative and enlightening. Our lead attorney Darryl Anderson gave a long and detailed opening statement outlining the APWU's case and did a terrific job. Anyone in attendance certainly understood where we were going and how we intended to get there. Anyone who had any doubts about why we were unable to reach an agreement so far had those questions answered almost as soon as the USPS began to speak. Their remarks were adversarial and accurately depicted a management team that was arrogant and unreasonable. Their personal attacks on Union Officials were unprofessional and spoke volumes as to why the labor relations climate is what it is.

    From my personal observation one of the more compelling presentations came from the craft members who testified on the second day. Their testimony was genuine and remarkable. I did not know most of them but they all have my total respect and appreciation. They each described the daily circumstances they face on the job. They explained the aspects of their jobs as they can only be told by Postal Workers. Each of them was credible, professional and I believe they all left great impressions on the arbitration panel. We had members from each APWU craft testifying and my words simply cannot express the power of their presentations. Each prepared their own statements and hopefully they will get some national recognition for what they did for all of us that day. Ed Haslem a window clerk from New England is the only one I knew personally but I was proud of them all.     

    The third day was a great day in my opinion. We had two expert witnesses testify about the true financial picture of the Postal Service as well as the legislative history of our bargaining process. Many of the myths and USPS propaganda was dispelled by these witnesses and I believe their presentations laid a great foundation for the rest of our case. I was particularly impressed with the presentation of Letitia Chambers who carefully and methodically explained the financial history of the Postal Service as well as the related legislative history. Joel Popkin explained the true wage earning values of Postal workers, the cost of living indexes and the true impacts we have on the USPS bottom line. I will refrain from specifics but I thought the testimony of these two witnesses was first rate and I was not alone in that opinion.  

    The hearings now move back to Washington DC.

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