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Ask President Burrus

Question:

How long are we going to participate in RI-399? As far as I can see, it is a worthless program. Clerks are losing more jobs to the Mail Handlers every year, and nothing is being done about it. It is a black hole. If nothing is ever done, we should get out of this program.

Jeff, Omaha (NE) Area Local

President Burrus:

Thank you for your inquiry.

The RI-399 Dispute Resolution Process has been a source of tremendous frustration throughout the APWU. The Dispute Resolution Process, created in 1992 by the USPS, the APWU, and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU), was intended to establish a method to expedite settling disagreements over which craft would have jurisdiction over work assignments.

Regrettably, the Postal Service and the NPMHU have worked in tandem to obstruct the three-party process: In the 15 years since the procedure was established, only two national arbitration awards addressing RI-399 disputes have been issued. In a lawsuit filed earlier this year, the APWU noted that the Postal Service and Mail Handlers Union have hindered the process, at least in part, because 12 of the 14 pending disputes “concern claims by the APWU that the Postal Service has erroneously assigned work to the Mail Handler Craft which should have been assigned to the Clerk Craft.”

Dissatisfaction with the RI-399 Dispute Resolution Procedure was a subject of intense debate at the union’s national convention in 2006, and withdrawal from the process was discussed. Although a resolution requiring the union to withdraw was considered, delegates instead adopted a resolution which instructed the national APWU to “pursue all options available, to include, but not limited to, the filing of a lawsuit to compel arbitration.”

I favored this approach for a simple reason: I did not and do not believe withdrawal from the procedure would help us accomplish our objective — protecting work for crafts represented by the APWU. Nor would it eliminate the disruption our members experience when mail processing procedures are changed and new equipment is installed.

The APWU is pursuing legal options, seeking to compel the Postal Service and the Mail Handlers Union to participate in the RI-399 arbitration process on disputed assignments.

April 3, 2007

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