The following articles by Former National APWU President William Burrus (2007) and Oakland California Local #78 President Fred Jacobs (2004) addressing the issue of non- members.
April 6, 2007 – In an article that appeared in the March/April 2007 issue of The American Postal Worker Magazine, National President William Burrus stated that despite successes, nothing that the APWU has done has significantly reduced the unacceptable high percentage of workers who continue to receive the benefits of union efforts but refuse to join the organization. He also stated that one solution would be to make non-members pay their fare share . Burrus stated further:
But because 21 states have laws banning agency shops, postal unions and the U.S. Postal Service — which employs workers in every state — are prohibited from negotiating such an agreement.
These prohibitions against charging fees to non–members or denying them our services require that we try to find other ways to get them to pay their fair share. It is morally wrong for postal employees or workers in any industry to receive all of the benefits of union activity without contributing to the cost of representation.
I have not surrendered to the view that “free-riders” have an inalienable right to receive union services, and I intend to continue our efforts at outreach, to continue to try to convince non-members to voluntarily make a fair contribution.
President Burrus made a solemn pledge that if there is a way to require that non-members share in the financial burden of improving condition for postal employees, he would find it.
In December 2003, Fredric Jacobs, President of the Oakland (California) Local APWU # 78, believed he had found a way for non-members to pay their “fare share.” During an invitation-only gathering in Oakland, President Jacobs received a commitment from Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) to sponsor a bill that would require Postal Service bargaining unit employees to pay fare-share fees negotiated by the unions .
In March 2004, President Jacobs submitted a proposed bill for Congresswoman Lee to sponsor.
According to a letter written to Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Ca), the Oakland CA. APWU Local #78 is requesting that she sponsor a bill, “to provide negotiated fees to labor organizations that represent Postal Service employees.” Oakland Local President Fred Jacobs said, “No other bargaining unit employees in the country receive the kind of free ride non-union members in the Postal Service have been enjoying.” Jacobs added that “this is the kind of measure Republicans should love : it’s about paying your way and not getting something for nothing. (via PostalReporter.com March 19,2004)
However, according to the April 2004 edition of the Oakland Postal Worker newspaper, Ms. Lee’s office could not sponsor the bill without approval from National APWU.
Perhaps now is a good time for Mr. Jacobs to make a second request to Ms. Lee to sponsor this bill.
Read full article from President William Burrus
The affair of loaf am canarvo had alot to do with it
Remember the post office pays you and me to work on grievances. The union doesnt pay for my time so the only free loader is the upper union tring to double dip.
South Coast Area Local is ran by a chief steward that doesn’t do anything for the employees who pay dues. Management runs Anaheim P&DF. The plant manager own our union. Why should employees join. Members have a right to get out of this mess.
A union is only as strong as it’s membership….start going to the meetings and for those who don’t, shut up!
Maybe it’s the union leadership that should not be getting the “free ride” on it’s members dues.
Duh that makes sense…NOT!
A-PEE-U 29 years for a write off on my taxes. burrASS was a bum like barry, dinkins, nagin, obama- big republican house, $1000 suits, party harty in Vegas on our dues, most I have ever seen was a 1% raise. NO time 1/2 for holiday, no dental, no 10% night diff, no locality pay, no longevity pay……. no nothing in added value-apwu’s moe biller rode the back of vince sombrotto’s 1970 strike. Liz Powell sold out mid-island 117/119 so she could get her 3 kids into postal mismgt jobs……all while crying about evil 1%ers………typical communist party usa clap trap. but hey, they get two hour lunches on L Street in DC……so all is well. Diamonstein go after Sen Feinstein and hubby Blum and there no bid contract to sell off po real estate, instead of Staples you clown. and don’t even go there telling me to vote for Hilderbeast to save my crummy bottom of the barrel fed civil service job. cops on li,ny have a base of 142K because they have a real union. its all just a big joke………maybe the illegal aliens will fall for the apwu crap…….I doubt it! 1% raise, 6% true inflation….you do the math!
the non union members aren’t “scabs”…… they are simply smarter than the rest of us paying dues and we all get the same benefits….. I am actually a shop steward for my local branch, but I am completely disappointed in my national union- NALC…… the only thing our union is after is getting it’s membership numbers higher= more $ in their pockets…… I have asked national leaders and state leaders for answers on certain issues and discussed things with them that I don’t agree with, and I have been told to “not question the leadership of this union” and to make sure all of our members give to COLCPE…… those were the 2 main responses I received…… our regional office has helped me with some grievances, but for the most part it has been a complete joke….. if this next contract isn’t any better for us, I think my time in this union is done…… I truly believe more members will get out as well…… a lot of us are tired of paying several hundred $/ year for not much in return
I have been with the Postal Service for 29 years & has been & still a member of NALC & now I’ve been a clerk for 8 years & just joined APWU in July 2014. As soon as I can I will come out of this union because the shop steward used me in a negative way to save another clerk her job. It was awful what this shop steward had put in her grievance & I wished now that I had brought some kind of charges against her. It’s people like her that turns employees against joining the unions. Just because I come out of the APWU does not mean I’m taking a free ride, I still pay union dues to the NALC.
So when you need a grievance filed, make sure you talk to the NALC!
i agree. as an NACL shop steward i would do NOTHING to help any freeloading scabs we had. screw em’!
” to continue to try to convince non-members to voluntarily make a fair contribution”
Maybe if they would stop supporting all the slugs that don’t want to work, and giving millions to liberal politicians who want to destroy the country, they might get more that would willingly join.
That makes more sense than everything Burrus stated in his entire life!
Get rid of these unions and put the so called leaders back on the floor working the mail like they were hired for and the USPS would be in great shape..
Great idea!
Before the APWU tries to pull of such an indignant argument, they’d better make it easier for legitimate members to cancel their affiliation without having to jump through hoops like submitting a Certified letter w/return receipt to the local offices in a TEN-DAY around their original joining date. This nasty little policy has always sucked and if the union had any integrity at all they wouldn’t require such a protocol.
And: YES, I am an APWU member.
They would lose too many members.
I was in the APWU for years and and everything was good untill the last 3 presidents ago in Indianapolis. I’m in an associate office and we have not been able to get any representation in maintenance since that third president. There was an incident in Plainfield where the union and management got togeather and excessed a clerk into a Level 5 position, Level 5 positions were not with held for excessing only level 4’s. For that level 5 position you needed to know electrical, plumbing, some heating and ac, boiler maintenance, mechanical, carpentry. You have to take the test and pass it to get into the position. So I turned them into the union. Found out later from that third president that union was in on it. After he let it accidently slip. They excessed her into it any way but instead of doing maintenance work she done clerk work. She just kept someone else from getting that position. Now there is an ET excessed into that position that know one is suppose to be excessed into. The craft director finally admitted to me that know one should be excessed into that position after arguing with me for years that they could. I believe he knew they couldn’t all along. I told him there should be a level 5 maintenance person holding that position and he agreed but the union won’t do anything about. Why would they they were in on it. My self and the retired maintenance employee have tried to get grievances filed for reasons such as other crafts doing are work. The union would not even contact the office this went on for a few years so the retired fellow and myself decided to get out of the union. No since paying an organization for representation were not getting. They would say they would but didn’t at all for those last few years. So you see that free ride stuff goes both ways They got free money off of me for years. Oh yes years ago I had to go to the national labor relations board twice to get the union to do there job they were suppose to. On another grievance. Which by the way I ended up getting $30 some thousand dollars out of schedule pay but wouldn’t have a got a dime had I left it up to the union and not took them to the NLRB. They were trying to let it fizzle out. But I wouldn’t let. I even got all the evidence and done all the leg work for them. So I don’t want to hear this free riding stuff when the union free rode off of me for years
SF NDC, APWU stewards are totally out of touch with the employees and don’t care about employees’ concerns, and contractual violations as long as they get their own personal privileges from his/her supervisors and MDO(s), so that many members are quitting and planning to quite more from the union. We are strongly believed that our union dues are being wasted and are being neglected by our own union and stewards for their own personal privileges from management.
We want you to know almost all of SF NDC (former SF BMC) stewards have conflict of interests in performing of steward duties; personal own interests versus steward duties. Stewards who cooperate with management receive personal own privileges, such as: (1) eight hours union time automatically, don’t even need to report to supervisor to get his or her union time (2) steward are watching TV, and playing dominoes on the clock, during the work hours, no problem whatever steward wants to do, management is turning a blind eye on stewards, (3) steward can request and get annual leave and/or sick leave anytime (4) Stewards should have been working on grievances not watching sports and playing dominoes on the clock. In return, management gets reciprocal benefits from steward(s) such as: (1) steward doesn’t voluntarily file contractual violation grievances, (2) management receives advice from steward regarding grievances, stewards should have known better than that management is opposing party regarding grievances (3) stewards automatically grant grievance extensions, even untimely requests by management (4) management gets favorable grievance settlements (5) stewards turn a blind eye to contractual violations, such as: supervisor performing bargaining unit works on a daily basis, Mail Handler are performing machinable parcels, in NMO unit (just across the aisle from the union office), at least 30-40 percents are machinable parcels, which should have been performed by clerks but APWU stewards are turning a blind eye on it. Mail Handlers are performing clerk duties in front of APWU stewards on a daily basis. APWU stewards often make very bad grievance settlements, for examples: grievance settlements do not address grievant’s concerns/issues, contractual violations, settlement letters don’t contain the remedy union and/or grievant is seeking, often employee gets very bad grievance settlement.