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Senior Plant Manager Clyde Jones and Local President Alex Cervantes Sign New Local Agreement

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The Three Twenty Times NPMHU Local 320

P .0. Box 64081 Phoenix, AZ 85082

WWW.NPMHU320.COM

Executive Council

President ......... Alex Cervantes Vice President.. ....... Shawn Garey

Treasurer ......... Dave Worhack Secretary ......... Susanna Paniagua State Rep ......... Bernie Gonzalez

Branch Presidents

Phoenix ......... Adrian Alvarez Tucson ......... Steve Montgomery

The Three Twenty times is published quarterly by the

National Postal Mail Handlers Union, Local 320. Opinions

expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the

editor or officers of Local 320. All rights reserved. The Three Twenty Times is published exclusively for

our members. Members are encouraged to submit articles for

future issue.

ART AGUILAR ......... EDITOR E-MAIL .. .... AGUILARL320@LIVE.COM

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RETIREES

Phoenix Robert Sullivan

Dave Stone John Carroll

Martha Begay

Tucson David Kraiss

Socorro Gomez

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President's Report

By Alex Cervantes

On April 4, 2016, Senior Plant Manager Clyde Jones and I signed a new Local Memorandum of Understanding (LMOU) for the Phoenix Installation. Some of the changes made to the LMOU are: New Sections for the West Valley Facility On Tour 2 are: SPSS Operation, APBS Operation and the 110-Belt Operation On Tour 3 are: SPSS Operation, APBS Operation and the Sack Rack Operation. (regular employees working on the APPS operation will not be required to work on the Sack Rack operation or the APBS operation) Management will be posting bid jobs soon within the next couple of bid cycles. Another positive change to the LMOU is leave during December, before the language on the previous LMOU Read in part "during the month of December 5% of the employee compliment will be allow to take December leave excluding the week of Christmas" Problem: Employees were being denied annual during the week of Christmas. Under the current LMOU the new language

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reads "a mm1mum of 5 percent of the employee compliment in each section shall be allowed to take December Non-Choice leave to include the week of Christmas11

Solution: Employees will be approved annual leave during the week of Christmas.

Another really positive change for all Mail Handlers and their families is the Holiday volunteer List. Agreement reads as follows: "Management will provide the opportunity to Non-Scheduled senior mail handlers to volunteer to work on his/her designated holiday in another section. Senior mail handler volunteer will be scheduled and senior mandated mail handler will be given the opportunity to be off on his/her designated holiday. The Union will assist Management in identifying affected employees". This new holiday agreement will allowed employees to spend more holidays with their families.

"A fair day1s work for a faies day pat' I want to make all Mail Handlers aware that recently many employees have sustained injuries and that working safe is your responsibility. Under our National Agreement we are required to provide "a fair day's work, for a fair dais pay" A Mail Handler's work cannot be measured nor can you as a mail handler be compared to another Mail Handler in the performance of your duties nor can a supervisor or manager require you to work faster. Staffing has been cut drastically at the Phoenix GMF, West Valley Facility and at the Tucson GMF. All mail handlers have been working harder than ever doing the work that before was performed by two or three mail handlers. There are fine lines between working hard, having a sense of pride, and working unsafely. Management wants to do more with less people. I am asking you to ALWAYS work safe.

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Do not risk an injury to yourself that will adversely affect your family life, s imply because management decided to short staff every operation. I have always said that nothing gets management 's attentio n like failu re and if the mail handler work force doesn't increase very soon, I believe operations are destined to fa il more than succeed in the near future. Most of our current MHA's have successfully completed their second year as MHA employees. This means that, Management can never place you under a probationary period again! With this in mind, I ask every MHA employee to work safe and lo ok out for each other. You are now one of us as far as discipline is concerned; Management CANNOT jus t fire you any longer. Management must pursue progressive and corrective discipline. This is very important in tha t you should all be aware that you are no longer under the threat of immediate termina tion for any minor infraction. This also means that you should NOT be working unsafe nor should you risk your health and your well -being by working so much harder than you have to. Yo u should not be running around trying to do two or three jobs at once. If you have a fault accident as a result of working unsafe, you could find yourself out of work for a lengthy period of time and without an income. You can also risk managemen t recommendation to deny your OWCP claim if management concludes that you were negligent and working unsafe which resulted in an on the job injury and finally you r isk rece iving disc iplinary action fo r working unsafely. This doesn't just apply to MHA's, this applies to every single mail handler and every postal em ployee.

TUCSON Last year the Postal Service came extremely close to making a fi nal decision to close the Tucson GMF. It was so close that local 320 was in the process of negotiating bid job positions

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for our Tucson bro thers and sisters. The Postal Service has decided to defer all plant closers and consolidations that were previously scheduled to take place this year 2016. This is great news for our members and their families in Tucson. Local 320 will continue to oppose these unnecessary and detrimental closures, consolidations and reductions through Grassroots efforts and rallies to oppose any future consolidations and closures that would adversely affect our Tucson Members and their fam ilies.

ANNUAL PHOENIX BRANCH MEETING On Saturday April 30th, 2016, Local 320 held its annual meeting. National President Paul Hogrogian gave an extensive update on the National Co ntract negotiations. We payed a tribute to Rudy Santos for his long representative union career. Tucson Steward Mr. Steve Mitche ll was presented with the Steward of the Year.

CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS Our contract expired on May 20, 2016, On February 25, 2016; our National Union began bargaining negotiations with the Postal Service. Our National Union is very close to reaching a new contract agreement with the Postal Service. As a matter of general interes t, the APWU was unable to r each a negotiated contract agreement with the postal service and was forced to go to interest arbitration. We are waiting the fi nal decision from the arbitrators which will have a significant impact on our contract with the Postal Service. Decision should be made within the next couple of weeks.

NPMHU NATIONAL CONVENTION On March 1st, 2016 the election to select six additional delegates was held. The following elected delegates will be traveling with me to the 2016 National Convention: Shawn Garey,

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Bernie Gonzalez, Adrian Alvarez, Art Aguilar, Madelyn Puricelli and Susanna Paniagua. Congratulations ! !! ! !

LABORER"S INTERNATIONAL UNION OF NORTH AMERICA (LIUNA) CONVENTION

On June 7, 20 16 the election to select one additional delegate to the LIUNA Convention was hel d. State representative Board Member Bernie Gonzalez was elected and will be going with me to the Convention. Congra tulations 11111

NEW STEW ARDS On Tuesday June 14 and Wednesday June 15, 201 6, Local 320 provided stew ard training. The followi ng mai l handlers became brand new stewards: At the West Valley Facility: Robert Ybarra, Kenneth Gammage and Carlos Romero At the GMF: Leonard Smith and Edward Cecetca I would like to thank all of the above new stewards fo r taking the di fficult and unselfi sh task of representing their fell ow co-workers. It is because of people like the above mentioned individuals that this Union co ntinues to ho ld management accountable fo r their actions and the union continues to improve the working conditions of all Mail Handlers on the workroom floor including the working con ditions fo r sel fish Non-Member mail handlers.

UNITY I, like you, find that certain employees are a challenge to get along wi th. Some of these employees would rather live their lives filled wi th resentment, anger, b itterness, hatred and dis like. Their favo rite pastime is gossiping, spreading non-founded rumors and not getting along with other employees. I say that these types of mindsets and viewpoints have no place within the Postal Service and life is too short to be carrying

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those ugly feelings . There is nothing worse for the Union than to be in the middle of two Mail Handles that cannot get along. We have to defend both employees and places the Union in a very difficult pos ition. As Mail Handlers and Postal Service employees w e must remind ourselves that we are liable fo r actions and that we must comply with the Postal Service directives pertaining to violence and verbal t hreats in the workplace. We must learn to set our feelings aside, learn to better communicate and get along with each other as we perform our duty assign men ts. Collectively, as Union brothers and s isters, we must respect on e another, t reat each other with dignity and respect and be UNITED as Mail Handlers. Unity is the biggest tool that we have against Management. Management is always trying to divide us; they know that if we are divided they can easily defeat us. We must unite and show management every single day that we are a strong and united Mail Handler fami ly. Our unified goal is to NEVER allow management to divide us. As a unifi ed un ion we MUST be strong and resolute. We MUST and we WILL continue to file as many grievances as necessary to protect, represent and defend our Mail Handler brothers and sis ters no matter what!!! In closing, as grow n men and women that we are, we must try to get to know people before we judge them. Who knows, that person who you think you dislike now, may one day turn out to be your best friend. Please, if you have any ideas to improve this Union, send me your recommendation, advice, comments or criticism at acervantes007@cox.net Or if you have any questions, feel free to call me at my cell phone number (623) 670-0 314, leave me a message, and I will return your call.

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Vice Presidents Report By Shawn Garey

Greetings fellow mail handlers,

A couple months ago our local had elections in order to select which members of 320 would have the opportunity to attend and participate in our National Convention in Chicago Illinois. I would like to thank all the members who participated in the election. The more active our membership is, the better our local will be. I would like to congratulate all those selected to attend and also thank the membership for allowing me to represent our local at the convention as well. Recently we also had an election to determine who would attend the Laborer's International Union of North America. I would like to congratulate State Rep Bernie Gonzalez and I know he will represent us well at the LIUNA Convention along with Local President Cervantes.

As you may know I am the Arbitration Advocate for this Local. At this time we are current and have no cases scheduled. There are a few cases with the potential to be appealed coming up. I am hopeful that our Representatives at step 2 and step 3 can resolve these issues but should no resolution be reached I will be ready.

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In May, President Cervantes designated me as the representative for the Local Dispute Resolution Committee (LDRC). My responsibilities in this position include attempting to resolve any craft work disputes between the mail handlers, clerks and management, create a building inventory for each facility to clearly document craft work assignments and attempt to resolve existing LDRC cases. This is a big challenge and I will do my best to accomplish this task to the best of my ability. President Cervantes and I have met with the APWU Representative and Management on several occasions and have made positive steps in establishing an inventory for the West Valley. I am optimistic that we may have an inventory for each facility in Phoenix and Tucson by the time I write my article for the fall newsletter.

In April I bid from the West Valley to the P&DC on tour 2. Prior to my bidding over I had members express concerns that there were insufficient stewards at the P&DC on all tours. In mid-June Branch President Alvarez and I conducted new stewards training. 2 of the stewards trained are working at the P&DC. Ed Cecetka on tour 3 and Leonard Smith on tour 1. I would like to thank them for getting involved and look forward to continuing to work with them. Though I work on tour 2 1 am also now the Chief Steward on tour 1. I report to work at 330 AM every Thursday to discuss any tour 1 issues with the Stewards as well as any members who might have questions or concerns. We also trained 3 more Stewards for the West Valley. Cesar Romero, Kenny Gammage and Robert Ybarra. Training went very well and I am confident that they will all do a great job!

STAY STRONG FEAR NO ONE!

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Recordin1: Secretary's And Le1:islative Director's Report By Susanna Pania1:ua

YOU HAVE RIGHTS DURING INVESTIGATIONS

Many mail handlers do not know of the basic rights that they possess when they are being accused of wrongdoing. I will give you a breakdown of your rights and a summary of the actions you are entitled to take.

WEINGARTEN RIGHTS The right to a Union Representative

Whenever you are interviewed by a supervisor, Postal Inspector, or other management official and you believe that discipline may result from what you say, you have the right to request the presence of a union representative before or during the interview. Once you ask for a union representative, the interviewer must either:

• Allow a union steward or

representative to attend the interview

• Stop the questioning or cancel the

interview

• Ask you, if no union representative can

be located, to continue the interview

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unrepresented. (This is an option that

is advised to always refuse.)

After you have asked for union representation and if the interviewer goes on with the interview without your representative, they have committed an unfair labor practice. It is imperative that you assert your right to union representation. The Postal Service is under no obligation to inform you about your right to representation. The Weingarten right belongs to you, the individual employee, so please use it.

GARRITY AND KALKINES WARNINGS The right to be free from intimidation

If you ever find yourself in behavior that could lead to criminal prosecution and punishment, you need to know about the legal rights that could protect you from having to answer questions that could later be used against you in criminal proceedings. There are two options that the Postal Service or any other investigators can use while conducting their interview. There is the Kalkines warning; it is the Postal Service instructing you to give answers to their investigatory questions and any answers you give may not be used in later criminal proceedings against you. This does not mean that you cannot still be charged with a crime; it means that the statements made by you cannot be used against you to assist in the prosecution of the crime. The second option is the Garrity warning where the Postal Service tells you that you are not required to answer the investigator's questions and you cannot be discharged or disciplined for failure to cooperate with the investigation. Under Garrity, anything you say may be used in criminal proceedings against you, therefore you have the right to remain silent and be free from intimidation. This may give you time to talk to your union representative or lawyer about your situation. It is in your best interest to remain silent and consult first with the union representative or an attorney.

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MIRANDA WARNINGS The right to remain silent

You have the right to remain silent, for goodness sake, USE IT. If you find yourself in custody, don't become intimidated. Exercise all the rights that are in your power. You are innocent until proven guilty.If you have any

questions or comment for me, please email or call me at slpsoleil@yahoo.com or (602)481-7316 I am here to assist you in any matter you may have.

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PHX Branch Presidents Report By Adrian Alvarez

Hello Brothers and Sisters, I would like to thank everyone who attended the annual meeting on April 30, 2016. It was a great meeting. We received updates on the contract negotiations from our National President Paul Hogrogian and some very good information on benefits that are available for the Mail Handler Craft from Al Dileo the Vice-President for the Union Member Benefit Plans. If anyone is interested in more information let your Steward know, and we will get you the contact Info for Al Dileo. This annual meeting was the last meeting for Western Region Vice-President Rudy Santos as he is on his way to retirement. At the meeting the Union provided Rudy Santos a very nice farewell with a slide show of pictures throughout his years of Union Service, a Dallas Cowboys cake, an authentic NFL Dallas Cowboys helmet and a beautiful longtime friendship award for all his service to the Union. For those of you who don't know Rudy is a big Dallas Cowboys fan. Now let's back up a couple of years to the election when our Local President Alex Cervantes was running for the position that he now currently holds . For those of you who were around I'm sure you remember the nasty letter that Rudy Santos sent out to all

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members. For those of you who weren't around Rudy Santos had sent out a really nasty letter to all members on reasons why not to vote for Alex. The letter was long, well thought out and very personal towards Alex. Not to get into any details but the letter was so disgustingly nasty that a lot of members were mad that not only was this letter written but it was written by a National Officer and they were very upset that this letter was mailed to their homes. Needless to say, the things written in the letter are false and there were many members who called and sent letters of complaint to National Headquarters. Now back to present time, all that is done is history. Alex came to me and said the previous administration didn't do anything for Rudy when he retired from the Postal Service and now that he is retiring from his National Position I want to do something special for him at the annual meeting. I said ok, do you have anything in mind. Even though Vice-President Shawn Garey and myself played a small role in this, everything the Union did for Rudy at the annual meeting was Alex's idea. All this coming from the person who had a nasty letter written about him and now is willing to forget and forgive and do something special for the person who wrote the letter. In my opinion it takes a very big person to do what Alex did . It shows what kind of leader and person he really is . I want to thank our Local President Alex for setting the example and steering Local 320 in the right direction of becoming a strong and proud Union. Thank yo u all for hearing me out. I just feel like it needed to be said.

Adrian Alvarez PHX Branch President

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Tucson Branch Presidents Report By Steve Mont~omery

This year the union has been off to a great start with seven MHA conversions to full time regular. Congratulations to all! As of 6/25/16 the Tucson area will have 51 full time regular mail handlers and 6 MHA's. That is 6 more full time regulars than last year at this time. We are currently caught up with grievances and plan to stay that way. Plant management put the union behind by months with it's denial of union time. Much thanks to President Cervantes who came to Tucson and met with plant manager Chaney Jones. The denial of union time has greatly diminished. Group leaders for all tours have been awarded bid jobs. Please give them the dignity and respect they deserve as they will do the same in return. The union faught hard to get these positions posted. On a sad note, I am sorry to report the passing of retired mail handler Ronald Busboom. Ron passed away at the young age of 69 on 5/12/16. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

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BEAT THE HEAT

As the temperature soars higher we need to take extra precautions on taking care of our bodies. Whether you are at work or home always drink plenty of fluids. It is a good idea to have water with you at all times. Pace yourself with the task or duties you are doing. If you feel dizzy or flush, STOP and seek shade immediately! Always have someone nearby in case of an emergency or in case an accident happens so they can call 911.

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Special Report on Elections By Michael Ferrer Chairman Judge of Elections

Hello fellow members of the local 320 NPMHU. Let me start by thanking the members that took part in the Delegate Election for the 2016 NPMHU Convention and the Judges (Brian Dungey and Aaron Hernandez) that helped me, (Michael Ferrer) with the process. Also I'd like to thank the executive council that selected us to be judges and me Chairman. This was my first election process as the chairman and yes minor mistakes were made ( causing more work for me) however, the process was done in accordance with the rules established by the National Executive board. I'll address the class of delivery method problem we had later in this article.

The process started with a Notification of Nomination Meeting Letter being mailed out to each member with 1st

class postage. In the past, this letter was written into this newsletter, eliminating the need for the Nomination Meeting Letter being mailed to each members address. Some members were confused by the nomination letter but after I explained why they never received a letter like this in the past they understood why they were getting the letter for this election. 515 letters were mailed out and 6 were returned for incorrect address. I was able to contact 4 of the 6, Ralph Meza contacted 1 for me and the 6th is

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now a supervisor so no contact for an updated address was necessary. The results of the nominations were:

1. 6 letters were received nominating 7 people (there were duplicate nominations)

2. 3 members attended the meeting and nominated 10 members, (again some were duplicate nominations)

3. Total nominations was 14 4. 2 were disqualified for not "being a

member in continuous good standing"

5. 1 nominee withdrew his nomination

6. 11 nominations were put on the ballot

The ballots were then mailed to all members, using the same printing company and mailer that was used for the Nomination Meeting Letter; however, there was a miscommunication between them and the mailer who a month earlier used 1 st class postage for our mailing now used standard postage. In order to meet the timeline established by the National Executive Board I had to send the letters out with this postage, there wasn't enough time to reprint the envelopes. Using standard postage is allowed but it caused me to change the due date and the counting of the ballots to allow enough time for the letter to get to each member and for them to return it to the judges. The biggest issue with using standard mail is the fact that it is not returned to the judges if it is undeliverable, it is destroyed. The judges have no way of knowing if all letters were delivered. However, there is a system in place to catch this problem and correct it. Prior to the mailing of the ballots a notification of nominees is posted in every facility where Mail Handlers are employed. This notification has the date of the mailing

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and instructions to notify a steward if you do not receive your ballot after 7 days of the mailing date. 6 members notified me and were sent new ballots within a timely manner, the 7th member notified me on Friday before our Tuesday deadline, since they were in Tucson there was no way the mail delivery system would get it to them and back to me before the deadline, so this member did not get to vote. I did meet this Mail Handler in Tucson as I was posting results and he did let me know how unhappy he was. He was very respectful while doing it, and I thank him for that. The results of the ballot mailin~ were:

1. 514 ballots mailed 2. 159 ballots returned to the judges for

counting 3. 3 ballots did not have names so they

were not opened 4. 156 ballots were counted

Some members wrote their disapproval with the lack of nominees on the ballot. All I can say is that if you want a member on the ballot then nominate them. It cost $3. 94 to send a certified letter to the judges (at the address in the notification letter) with your nomination.

I can assure you that the voting process is secret. We check the envelope for a name to verify you are a member and are only voting once, (a ballot was returned in another envelope without a name so it was not opened) it is too easy to copy a ballot and use other envelopes. Another ballot had NOYB as the name, this ballot was not opened. After the names are verified the envelopes are opened and the secret ballot envelope is thrown in a pile on the table. Once all secret ballots are in the center of the table and the outside envelopes are in a box for storing, the pile is thoroughly mixed up so we can't match it to any envelope with a name on it. Then the secret ballot envelopes are opened and the ballot is placed on the table waiting to be counted. The counting process is simple, one judge calls out the vote

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Judges ('lflhc 2016 I'klel.rat.: f::lccw.m P.O. Box 66792 Phoenix. AZ S508!

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and the other two judges ( each has half of the nominee names in front of them) then puts a tick mark beside the name of the person being voted for. After all votes are called out and marked off the votes are counted.

These results were very close for the nominees who finished 4th thru 7th so we did a recount for these 4 nominees. A different judge called out the votes and the names were changed between the other judges so none of us was doing the same thing the first time votes were counted. There was one nominee whose vote count dropped by one and all others stayed the same so the order did not change. Since a count dropped by one we counted his votes again.

What could have made a big difference in this election are the 3 envelopes that were not opened, they could have changed the order of spots 4 thru 7 and different members could be representing us as delegates at the convention. So please next time we hold an election, vote and put your name on the outside envelope as stated in the instruction.

If you are still skeptical about the process, you are welcome to attend the meeting and observe the counting of the ballots. A nominee can submit your name to be an observer and you will be able to observe us picking up the ballots from the PO Box, stay with the ballots for the car ride to the meeting and watch the entire process that was explained above. You can even stand behind the judges and watch as the votes are called out and tick marks are placed next to the nominee's name.

On June 7th the judges will count the votes for another election process, the LIUNA International Convention. I hope you were able to get your ballot returned because your vote does matter. If you don't think so look at the close results of the last election. Thank you; Michael FerrerChairman Judge of Elections

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