United States Postal Service

National Labor Relations Board - Unpublished Board Decisions

Dec 10, 2012

10-CA-077588 (N.L.R.B. Dec. 10, 2012)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BEFORE THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE
and Cases10-CA-077588(P)
10-CA-077593(P)
10-CA-077638(P)
10-CA-077640(P)
10-CA-077645(P)
10-CA-077650(P)
AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION, 10-CA-077655(P)
AFL-CIO, NORTH ALABAMA AREA LOCAL 359 10-CA-078075(P)
DECISION AND ORDER
Statement of the Cases
On October 23, 2012, the United States Postal Service (the Respondent),
American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO, North Alabama Area Local 359 (the
Charging Party), and the Acting 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, as amended, 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.1

1 On August 29, 2012, Administrative Law Judge Keltner Locke issued a Bench
Decision and Certification in the above-captioned case. On October 24, 2012, the
Board granted the Joint Motion of the Acting General Counsel and the Respondent
requesting that the Board remand the case to the Region for the purpose of the parties’
execution of the Formal Settlement Stipulation. The Formal Settlement Stipulation
provides that the Acting General Counsel, the Respondent, and the Charging Party
2
Based on the Formal Settlement Stipulation2 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 material times, 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 facility located at 400 Well
Street, NE, Decatur, Alabama, 35601, the Respondent’s Decatur, Alabama facility, the
facility 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 the Postal Reorganization Act (the PRA), 39 U.S.C.
Section 1209.
2. The labor organization involved
At all material times, American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO, North Alabama
Area Local 359, the Charging Party, has been a labor organization within the meaning
of Section 2(5) of the Act.
3. The appropriate unit
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 91-375, 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.

adopt the judge’s findings with respect to paragraphs 9(a) through 9(f) of the complaint
but it is the intent of the parties that the Board issue an Order as provided for in the
Formal Settlement Stipulation in lieu of the judge’s recommended Order.
2 The Order has been corrected to substitute language applicable to respondent
employers (“officers, agents, successors, and assigns”).
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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, as
amended, the National Labor Relations Board orders that:
The Respondent, United States Postal Service, 400 Well Street, NE, Decatur,
Alabama, its officers, agents, successors, and assigns shall:
1. Cease and desist from:
(a) Refusing to furnish information to American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO,
North Alabama Area Local 359, the Charging Party, or unduly delaying furnishing
information to the Charging Party which is the exclusive collective-bargaining
representative of the employees in the following appropriate bargaining unit:
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 91-375, 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 manner interfering with, restraining, or coercing 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 policies of the
Act:
(a) Upon request, provide the Charging Party with relevant information in a
timely and appropriate manner.
(b) Each information request tendered by the Charging Party, orally or in writing,
shall be recorded in a log at the postal facility in the Respondent’s Decatur Alabama,
facility. The log 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 Charging Party 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 Charging Party in writing, requesting additional time and
explaining the need for the additional time.
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(c) Each manager and supervisor at the Respondent’s Decatur, Alabama, facility
will receive annual training which encompasses how to maintain the log, and how to
tender the relevant information requested by the Charging Party; each supervisor and
manager will sign an acknowledgement 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 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 Charging Party 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) The Respondent’s legal department and its labor relations department shall
conduct semi-annual audits of the logs at the Respondent’s Decatur, Alabama facility to
ensure that the information requested by the Charging Party is being handled in a timely
and appropriate manner, and to ensure the logs are being properly maintained.
Following the audit the legal department shall tender, in writing, a written report that will
be forwarded to the district manager and district manager of human resources.
(e) Within 14 days after service by the Region, post at its Decatur, Alabama,
facility, 400 Well Street NE, Decatur, Alabama, and at its approximately four hundred
thirty-one (431) postal facilities located in the State of Alabama, where the Charging
Party’s bargaining unit members are employed, copies of the attached notice marked
“Appendix 1.”3 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 in each of its Alabama facilities and maintained for 60
consecutive days in conspicuous places including all places where notice to employees
are customarily posted. The manager in each facility will be electronically mailed the
Board’s official notice by the Respondent. Upon receipt of the notice, each manager will
record the date said notice was received and the date on which the notices were posted
at the facility. 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
any 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 Respondent since July 5, 2011.
(f) Within 21 days after service by the Region, file with the Regional Director 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

3 If this Order is enforced by a judgment of a United States court of appeals, the words
in the notice reading "Posted By Order of the National Labor Relations Board" shall read
"Posted Pursuant to a Judgment of the United States Court of Appeals Enforcing an
Order of the National Labor Relations Board."
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the date that the notices were received at each facility, and the dates that the notices
were posted.
Dated, Washington, D.C. December 10, 2012
___________________________________
Mark Gaston Pearce, Chairman
___________________________________
Richard F. Griffin, Jr., Member
___________________________________
Sharon Block, Member
(SEAL) NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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APPENDIX 1
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 representatives 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 fail and refuse to furnish or unduly delay furnishing information
requested by the American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO, that is necessary for and
relevant to the Union’s performance of its duties as the exclusive collective-bargaining
representative of the following appropriate bargaining unit:
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 91-375, 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 manner interfere with, restrain, or coerce you in the
exercise of the rights guaranteed you by Section 7 of the Act.
UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE