February 19, 2016
Washington, D.C. – The National Labor Relations Board invites the filing of briefs in order to allow parties and interested amici an opportunity to address the issues raised in United States Postal Service (07-CA-142926), including whether the Board may continue to permit administrative law judges to issue a “consent order,” incorporating the terms proposed by a respondent to settle an unfair labor practice case, to which no other party has agreed, over the objection of the General Counsel?
Briefs from parties and interested amici must be submitted on or before March 18, 2016.
Click here to read the notice and invitation to file briefs.
Click here for a list of case participants.
A brief overview of the case filed by NALC 256:
NALC Branch 256 filed a complaint on March 31, 2015. The complaint alleges that USPS violated Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) when a Supervisor Customer Service at its Swartz Creek, MI postal facility, threatened its employees with more vigorous enforcement of rules if they choose to be represented by a union steward or seek support and/or assistance from a union.
The Administrative Law Judge settled the case and limited the remedy to just the Swartz Creek facility.
It’s time to disband the NALC , because our union has allowed this atmosphere to come about. William Young and Fred Rolando are the people that allowed us to be sold out. We would be 100% better with another union representing us. That means us going private so we could be allowed to strike and we would not but this bullshit that is going on with manage and are spineless NALC.
28 years of experience has taught me to respond to management questions the same way: “Do I need a union rep?” Even if they ask me how I am doing this morning. I can count on 1 hand the number of decent managers I have met. This is the only multi-billion dollar business that would put someone with a GED in charge of one of their branches.
President Trump…..2017 US Post Office Deregulation Act! sell the place to UPS and FDX. I want to work in a company that has real educated managers and a employee stock ownership plan.(ESOP) UPS stock $103.00 a share. FDX stock $142.00 a share. believe me slugs you will be better off……stop drinking the socialist kool-aid.
I am a 15 year city letter carrier having issues from postmaster. She threatened me, humiliated me, and forced me into a hospital from traumatic stress mental breakdown. How can management keep allowing this toxic treatment!
Who does management at this office think they are? Wal-Mart executives? I have had to deal with management in the past when I was an NALC officer who truly thought they were above the contract and federal laws. I truly believe most higher level management is so arrogant, so cocksure of their indispensable presence and full of idiocy about their immunity to Handbooks, contracts or MOU’s that they act with impunity and total disregard for the rules and requirements they are supposed to adhere to.
So it’s no surprise this asswipe in Michigan thought he or she could get away with threats of harassment to anybody who dared ask for union representation or asked for assistance. First, when we talk about union representation, we are normally referring to disciplinary situations although that’s not the only issue – there are lots of violations of all kinds – but for the sake of argument I will guess that this supervisor was threatening anybody who dared ask for a steward for a pre-disciplinary interview.
For newer union officers in the NALC, a carrier may ask for representation for an official discussion, but management doesn’t have to comply UNLESS, and this is important, they ask leading questions during that discussion.
Example: a carrier has missed his depart to route MSP in the office two days or more. In an official discussion, the supervisor can say, and should identify the conversation as such, “this is an official discussion about you missing your depart to street MSP’s two days in a row. You need to remember to hit that scan every morning.” Then the interview and order from the supervisor should conclude.
If, though, the supervisor calls it an official discussion but says “why are you missing these MSP’s?” he or she has crossed the line into investigatory territory. At that point you should demand a union rep and tell management you feel you could be disciplined if you answer questions.
This is known as the Weingarten Law. It’s a federal law that guarantees employees in union workplaces the right to representation when being questioned about a certain situation. It’s similar to Miranda rights, and as in law, you don’t have to incriminate yourself without your NALC steward.
I suspect this is the case, and therefore the supervisor would have broken the law if that is what happened. Now they can say something general like “it’s a nice day, isn’t it?” without violating Weingarten but any questions related to the issue are not allowed without the steward.
It’s sad how many branches and carriers don’t know their basic rights in disciplinary situations. I’ve talked to people who simply never took a minute to even glance at their contract/JCAM and management was all over them. I recall one office who didn’t know it was illegal for management to order the city carriers to work through their lunches and then pay only 7 1/2 hours or screw them out of overtime pay, simply because the carriers were lazy and didn’t know the difference. This is just as much the fault of carriers who refuse to educate themselves or listen to their stewards, provided their officers bother to try to teach them anything as it is management’s.
No carrier should ever fail to read Article 8 and 16 of the JCAM, which you can easily download from nalc.org. It’s all important, but know your rights. I’m glad this case is in the hands of the NLRB, who do good work, but they can act only when they know something is wrong. Ignorance in the USPS is not bliss – it’s asking for trouble.
I hope their complaint covers Rolla Mo. as well!
The problems,I recall from my nearly 31-yrs,as a mail-processor; that there r some crafts people,who view both management humans and unions humans;as too personally offensive to even speak 2. At least,with any civility. Both crafts people and supervisors, would occasionly,just go straight 2 EEO. Hardly,an example of well run company.
Fire the thug supervisor. Fire them all.