Editor

Workers Memorial Day: Stand up For Safe Jobs

On Workers Memorial Day, we are coming together as union members to make our post offices and facilities safer workplaces. Here’s what you can do (click the links for factsheets with more information on each topic):

Know your rights! You have the right to a safe workplace. "It is the responsibility of management to provide safe working conditions in all present and future installations and to develop a safe working force."
Collective Bargaining Agreement Article 14: Safety and Health
Know how to report a hazard or dangerous condition or practice by using Form 1767.
Remember: Your manager has a duty to provide a copy of Form 1767. If there are no forms available or if you face any retaliation or pressure from your manager, speak to your local officers about a possible grievance.
As you look around your workplace, ask yourself, “Is there something here that can hurt you or make you sick?” There are some examples of hazards in safety factsheet #3.
If your manager is not providing a copy of the form you can download a copy of Form 1767 here. Remember, just because APWU National has a copy of the form online, it does not let your manager off the hook for not keeping a copy in the office. You can also get a copy of the form by texting SAFETY to 91990.

Spring is Scholarship season. Membership in the APWU provides a variety of opportunities.

Visit http://www.apw-aba.org to find out about the American Postal Workers Accident Benefit Association (APW-ABA) Scholarship honoring long time union activists T Hartos, M Tosches and E Johnson. The APW-ABW scholarship features 2 $1000 scholarships to be paid directly to the school designated on the application. For application instructions visit the website or call 1800 526-2890 during business hours. Applications are due May 15 2022. Fully completed applications are entered into a drawing to determine the winners.

Visit our local website http://apwumadisonwi.com/ for application guidelines to the Steven G. Raymer Memorial Scholarship named after one of our past Local Presidents who became National Executive Maintenance Craft Director in 2001. Steve was elected to a 5th term as local President when he ran for National office and won. Did you know our local has a history of sending officers into national offices? Maybe it’s in the water?

I encourage everyone to look into the APWU website www.apwu.org/benefit-programs to learn about many benefits we can provide each other through unity.

Remember, you don’t have to be an officer to express yourself in the Flash. If you have an idea and can’t make it to a meeting to share it with your union peers submit an article or even just a few words. Use your voice and start a discourse.

YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

Unions are real and have real power. This quick read offers some perspective as to how we came upon this power. Take a moment to consider the alternative.

From the National Labor relations Board website https://www.nlrb.gov/guidance/key-reference-materials/national-labor-relations-act :

In 1935, Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”), making clear that it is the policy of the United States to encourage collective bargaining by protecting workers’ full freedom of association. The NLRA protects workplace democracy by providing employees at private-sector workplaces the fundamental right to seek better working conditions and designation of representation without fear of retaliation.

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT

Also cited NLRA or the Act; 29 U.S.C. §§ 151-169

[Title 29, Chapter 7, Subchapter II, United States Code]

FINDINGS AND POLICIES

Section 1.[§151.] The denial by some employers of the right of employees to organize and the refusal by some employers to accept the procedure of collective bargaining lead to strikes and other forms of industrial strife or unrest, which have the intent or the necessary effect of burdening or obstructing commerce by (a) impairing the efficiency, safety, or operation of the instrumentalities of commerce; (b) occurring in the current of commerce; (c) materially affecting, restraining, or controlling the flow of raw materials or manufactured or processed goods from or into the channels of commerce, or the prices of such materials or goods in commerce; or (d) causing diminution of employment and wages in such volume as substantially to impair or disrupt the market for goods flowing from or into the channels of commerce.

The inequality of bargaining power between employees who do not possess full freedom of association or actual liberty of contract and employers who are organized in the corporate or other forms of ownership association substantially burdens and affects the flow of commerce, and tends to aggravate recurrent business depressions, by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners in industry and by preventing the stabilization of competitive wage rates and working conditions within and between industries.

Experience has proved that protection by law of the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively safeguards commerce from injury, impairment, or interruption, and promotes the flow of commerce by removing certain recognized sources of industrial strife and unrest, by encouraging practices fundamental to the friendly adjustment of industrial disputes arising out of differences as to wages, hours, or other working conditions, and by restoring equality of bargaining power between employers and employees.

Experience has further demonstrated that certain practices by some labor organizations, their officers, and members have the intent or the necessary effect of burdening or obstructing commerce by preventing the free flow of goods in such commerce through strikes and other forms of industrial unrest or through concerted activities which impair the interest of the public in the free flow of such commerce. The elimination of such practices is a necessary condition to the assurance of the rights herein guaranteed

It is declared to be the policy of the United States to eliminate the causes of certain substantial obstructions to the free flow of commerce and to mitigate and eliminate these obstructions when they have occurred by encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining and by protecting the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self- organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid or protection.

It may seem like we have been comfortable for a long time in our historically vetted postal unions. No movement is healthy in stagnation. The excitement and adrenalin of the AMU victory is a cresting wave of fists in the air we can all celebrate. Congratulations Staten Island for making history this April. We stand with you as Union Brothers and Sisters. The fight will only be over when all people are equal.

The Madison WI Area Local #241 covers the following Post Offices:

Afton, Albany, Arena, Argyle, Arlington, Avalon, Avoca, Bagley, Baraboo, Barneveld, Beaver Dam, Belmont, Belleville, Beloit, Benton, Black Earth, Blanchardville, Bloomington, Blue Mounds, Blue River, Boscobel, Brandon, Briggsville, Brodhead, Brooklyn, Browntown, Cambria, Cambridge, Cassville, Cazenovia, Clinton, Cobb, Columbus, Cottage Grove, Cross Plains, Cuba City, Dalton, Dane, Darlington, Deerfield, DeForest, Dickeyville, Dodgeville, Edgerton, Elroy, Endeavor, Evansville, Fall River, Fennimore, Footville, Fort Atkinson, Fox Lake, Friendship, Friesland, Gratiot, Hazel Green, Highland, Hillpoint, Hollandale, Janesville, Jefferson, Juda, Kieler, LaValle, Lancaster, Lake Mills, Linden, Livingston, Lodi, Loganville, Lone Rock, Lowell, Lyndon Station, Madison, Marshall, Mazomanie, McFarland, Mauston, Merrimac, Milton, Mineral Point, Monroe, Montello, Montfort, Monticello, Morrisonville, Mount Hope, Mount Horeb, Muscoda, North Freedom, New Glarus, New Lisbon, Oregon, Orffordville, Oxford, Packwaukee, Pardeeville, Patch Grove, Plain, Platteville, Potosi, Poynette, Portage, Prairie du Chien, Prairie du Sac, Randolph, Reedsburg, Reesville, Rewey, Richland Center, Rio, Rock Springs, Sauk City, Sharon, Shullsburg, Sinsinawa, South Wayne, Spring Green, Stoughton, Sun Prairie, Union Center, Waterloo, Waunakee, Waupun, Wauzeka, Windsor, Wisconsin Dells, Wonewoc and Wyocena