United States Postal Service

National Labor Relations Board - Unpublished Board Decisions

Jan 12, 2015

10-CA-124311 (N.L.R.B. Jan. 12, 2015)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BEFORE THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE
and Cases 10-CA-124311
10-CA-124317
AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION, 10-CA-124324
GADSDEN AREA LOCAL 537 10-CA-124330
UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE
and Case 10-CA-125481
AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION,
NORTH ALABAMA AREA LOCAL 359
DECISION AND ORDER
Statement of the Cases
On August 5, 2014,1 the United States Postal Service (the Respondent),
American Postal Workers Union, Gadsden Area Local 537 (Local 537) and American
Postal Workers Union, North Alabama Local 359 (Local 359), and the General Counsel
of the National Labor Relations Board entered into a Formal Settlement Stipulation,
subject to the Board’s approval, providing for the entry of a consent order by the Board
and a consent judgment by any appropriate United States Court of Appeals. The
parties waived all further and other proceedings before the Board to which they may be
entitled under the National Labor Relations Act and the Board’s Rules and Regulations,
and the Respondent waived its right to contest the entry of a consent judgment or to
receive further notice of the application therefor.
The National Labor Relations Board has delegated its authority in this proceeding
to a three-member panel.
The Formal Settlement Stipulation is approved and made a part of the record,
and the proceeding is transferred to and continued before the Board in Washington,
D.C., for the entry of a Decision and Order pursuant to the provisions of the Formal
Settlement Stipulation.2

1 On Sept. 30, 2014, the parties reached unanimous agreement to amend the Notice to
Employees. Those amendments are incorporated in the appended Notice.
2 Chairman Pearce and Member Hirozawa note that the remedy to which the parties
have agreed differs in some respects from previous broad orders that the Board has
issued against the Respondent in cases alleging that the Respondent has violated Sec.
8(a)(5) of the Act by failing and refusing to provide relevant information. See, e.g.,
2
Based on the Formal Settlement Stipulation and the entire record, the Board
makes the following
Findings of Fact
1. The Respondent’s business
The Respondent is and has been at all times material herein, an independent
establishment of the Executive Branch of the Government of the United States and
operates various facilities throughout the United States in the performance of its basic
function to provide postal services to the Nation, including its facilities in Gadsden,
Alabama and Huntsville, Alabama, the facilities involved in this settlement and the
underlying proceedings.
The Respondent is now and has been at all material times an entity subject to
the Board’s jurisdiction by virtue of Section 1209 of the Postal Reorganization Act (39
U.S.C. § 101 et seq.).
2. Labor organization involved
At all material times, Local 537 and Local 359 have been labor organizations
within the meaning of Section 2(5) of the Act.
ORDER
Based on the above findings of fact, the Formal Settlement Stipulation, and the
entire record, and pursuant to Section 10(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, the
National Labor Relations Board orders that
The Respondent, United States Postal Service, Gadsden, Alabama and
Huntsville, Alabama, its officers, agents, successors, and assigns, shall
1. Cease and desist from
(a) Refusing to bargain collectively and in good faith with American Postal
Workers Union, Gadsden Area Local 537 (Local 537) and American Postal Workers
Union, North Alabama Area Local 359 (Local 359), by unduly delaying in furnishing
information to Local 537 and Local 359 that is relevant and necessary to the
performance of their duties as agents of the American Postal Workers Union (National
Union), the exclusive bargaining representative of the bargaining unit employees in the
following nationwide unit at its Gadsden and Huntsville, Alabama facilities, respectively:

United States Postal Service, 28-CA-017383 et al., unpublished order issued November
4, 2002, enfd. Case 02-9587 (10th Cir. 2003); and United States Postal Service, 345
NLRB 426 (2005), enfd. 486 F.3d 683 (10th Cir. 2007). These broad orders, as
enforced by the United States Courts of Appeals, remain in effect, and the Board’s
approval of this stipulation does not modify these orders in any respect.
3
All maintenance employees, motor vehicle employees, postal clerks, mail
equipment shops employees, material distribution centers employees,
operating services and facilities services employees, excluding managerial
and supervisory personnel, professional employees, employees engaged
in personnel work in other than a purely non-confidential clerical capacity,
security guards as defined by Public Law 91-275, 1201(2), all postal
inspection service employees, employees in the supplemental work force
as defined in Article 7, rural letter carriers, mail handlers or letter carriers.
(b) In any other like or related manner interfering with, restraining, or coercing its
employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed them by Section 7 of the Act.
2. Take the following affirmative action necessary to effectuate the purposes of
the Act.
(a) Upon request, provide Local 537 and Local 359 with necessary and relevant
information in a timely and appropriate manner.
(b) Each information request tendered by Local 537, orally or in writing, shall be
recorded in a log at the Respondent's Gadsden, Alabama facility. Each information
request tendered by Local 359, orally or in writing, shall be recorded in a log at the
Respondent's Huntsville, Alabama facility. These logs shall include the following
information: a brief description of the information requested; the name of the individual
who is making the request; the name of the supervisor who received the request; the
date the request was made; and the date that the Respondent's manager or supervisor
provided the Local with the requested information. If the manager or supervisor, having
reviewed the documents requested, believes that the Respondent will need additional
time, the manager or supervisor will inform the Local in writing, requesting additional
time and explaining the need for the additional time.
(c) Each manager and supervisor who is designated to receive union requests
for information at the Respondent's Gadsden, Alabama and Huntsville, Alabama
facilities will receive annual training which encompasses how to maintain the log and
how to tender the relevant information requested by the Local; each such supervisor
and manager will sign an acknowledgment form attesting to the fact that he or she has
completed said training. A copy of this acknowledgement form shall be maintained in
the supervisor's or manager's training and history files. Union stewards will be granted
access to the log, upon request. Supervisors or managers who fail to reasonably
supply relevant information to the Union will have this fact mentioned in the "corrective
action" column of the semi-annual audit report provided to the district manager and
district manager of human resources. A repeated violation could lead to discipline of
said supervisor or manager.
(d) Union stewards at the Respondent’s Gadsden, Alabama and Huntsville,
Alabama facilities must be notified when the manager or supervisor who is designated
to receive Union requests for information at their particular facility has changed.
4
(e) The Respondent's legal department or its labor relations department shall
conduct semi-annual audits of the logs at the Respondent’s Gadsden, Alabama and
Huntsville, Alabama facilities to ensure that the information requested by the Union is
being handled in a timely and appropriate manner, and to ensure that the logs are being
properly maintained. Following the audit, the legal department or labor relations
department shall tender, in writing, a written report that will be forwarded to the district
manager and district manager of human resources.
(f) Within 14 days of service by the Region, post at all of its facilities located in
the State of Alabama copies of the attached notice marked "Appendix A." Copies of the
notice, on forms provided by the Regional Director for Region 10, after being signed by
the Respondent's authorized representative, shall be posted by the Respondent and
maintained for 60 consecutive days in conspicuous places, including all places where
notices to employees are customarily posted. In addition to physical posting of paper
notices, the Respondent shall distribute notices electronically, by email, posting on an
intranet or internet site, and/or other electronic means, if the Respondent customarily
communicates with its employees by such means. The Respondent will take
reasonable steps to ensure that the notices are not altered, defaced or covered by any
other material. In the event that, during the pendency of these proceedings, the
Respondent has gone out of business or closed either of the facilities involved in these
proceedings, the Respondent shall duplicate and mail, at its own expense, a copy of the
notice to all current employees and former employees employed by the Respondent at
the closed facility at any time since January 24, 2014.
(g) Within 21 days after service by the Region, file with the Regional Director for
Region 10 a sworn certification of a responsible official on a form provided by the
Region attesting to the steps the Respondent has taken to comply. The Regional
Director shall be supplied a copy of the documents signed by the district manager of
labor relations, attesting to the dates that the notices were received at each facility, and
the dates that the notices were posted.
Dated, Washington, D.C., January 12, 2015.
___________________________________
Mark Gaston Pearce, Chairman
___________________________________
Philip A. Miscimarra, Member
___________________________________
Kent Y. Hirozawa, Member
(SEAL) NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
5
APPENDIX A
NOTICE TO EMPLOYEES
POSTED BY ORDER OF THE
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
An Agency of the United States Government
PURSUANT TO A STIPULATION PROVIDING FOR A BOARD ORDER
AND A CONSENT JUDGMENT OF ANY APPROPRIATE
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FEDERAL LAW GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO:
Form, join, or assist a union
Choose a representative to bargain with us on your behalf
Act together with other employees for your benefit and protection
Choose not to engage in any of these protected activities.
WE WILL NOT unduly delay furnishing information requested by American Postal
Workers Union, Gadsden Area Local 537 and American Postal Workers Union, North
Alabama Area Local 359 that is necessary for and relevant to the performance of their
duties as the exclusive collective-bargaining representative of the following appropriate
bargaining unit at our Gadsden, Alabama and Huntsville, Alabama facilities,
respectively:
All maintenance employees, motor vehicle employees, postal clerks, mail
equipment shops employees, material distribution centers employees,
operating services and facilities services employees, excluding managerial
and supervisory personnel, professional employees, employees engaged
in personnel work in other than a purely non-confidential clerical capacity,
security guards as defined in Public Law 91-275, 1201(2), all Postal
Inspection Service Employees, employees in the supplemental work force
as defined in Article 7, rural letter carriers, mail handlers or letter carriers.
WE WILL NOT in any other like or related manner interfere with your rights under
Section 7 of the Act.
WE WILL, upon request, provide Local 537 and Local 359 with necessary and relevant
information in a timely and appropriate manner.
WE WILL record each information request tendered by Local 537 at our Gadsden,
Alabama facility and by Local 359 at our Huntsville, Alabama facility, in a log at the
facility where the information request was made. If our manager or supervisor, having
reviewed the documents requested, believes that we will need additional time, the
manager or supervisor will inform the requesting Local in writing, requesting additional
time and explaining the need for the additional time.
6
WE WILL conduct annual training with each manager or supervisor designated to
receive union requests for information at our Gadsden, Alabama and Huntsville,
Alabama facilities, on how to maintain the logs and how to tender the relevant
requested information.
WE WILL notify union stewards when the manager or supervisor designated to receive
union requests for information at their particular facility has changed.
WE WILL conduct, through our legal department or labor relations department, semi-
annual audits of the logs at the Gadsden, Alabama and Huntsville, Alabama facilities, to
insure that the information requested by Locals 537 and 359 is being handled in a timely
and appropriate manner, and that the logs are being properly maintained. Following the
audit, our legal department or labor relations department shall tender, in writing, a
written report that will be forwarded to the district manager and district manager for
human resources.
UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE
The Board’s decision can be found at www.nlrb.gov/case/10-CA-124311 or by using the
QR code below. Alternatively, you can obtain a copy of the decision from the Executive
Secretary, National Labor Relations Board, 1099 14th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.
20570, or by calling (202) 273-1940.