From the President Desk A Tale of Two Arbitrations: How Local 321 Fought, Won, and Lost The Union’s mission is simple: protect the work By Tony Wilson and rights of Mail Handlers. Recently, Local 321 President fought two major arbitration cases. One we won; one we lost. Both cases tell an important story about the continued struggle to preserve bargaining unit work.
A DIVISION OF THE LABORERS’ INTERNATIONAL UNION OF NORTH AMERICA
LOCAL 321 NPMHU
The Case We Lost , RI-399 Arbitration: The Denver NDC Chute Dispute
The first case involved a jurisdictional dispute at the Denver NDC concerning certain chutes on Parcel Sorting Machine 4 (PSM-4) in Areas 11 and 13. Historically, these chutes were assigned to the Clerk Craft. However, after management made some modifications to the equipment, the NPMHU filed a grievance arguing that the modifications effectively converted the work into Mail Handler duties, specifically, container loading, and that this work should now belong to the Mail Handler craft. The APWU and Postal Service disagreed, arguing that there was no significant change to the operations. But more importantly, they raised a procedural argument: they claimed that the NPMHU had failed to follow the proper referral process under the 2018 RI-399 Update MOU, which requires certain disputes to be referred to the National Dispute Resolution Committee (NDRC). Although we made strong arguments that the changes constituted a true operational change, the arbitrator ultimately dismissed the grievance on procedural grounds. The arbitrator ruled that because the NPMHU had not referred the dispute to the NDRC as required, he had no authority to rule on the merits of the case. As a result, the jurisdictional work remained with the Clerk Craft, and the Union was barred from receiving any remedy. Key Takeaway: This case is a painful reminder that even when we believe we are right on the facts, we must strictly follow every required step in the grievance process, especially when dealing with RI-399 jurisdictional issues. Procedural missteps can cost us the ability to even argue the merits. (continued to page 2)
STATE OF THE UNION
SUMMER 2025