PAGE 8 | July 21, 2017 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
HOW NALC BRANCH 82 IS SURVIVING RIGHT TO WORK
Letter Carriers Branch 82 keeps
numbers up with shop floor
action
By Alexandra Bradbury
How does Letter Carriers Branch
82 in Portland, Oregon, keep its
membership at 95 percent de-
spite being an open shop?
Postal unions, like all federal
employee unions, are open
shop. That means workers can
get the benefits of union repre-
sentation while opting out of
paying dues.
Yet the postal unions generally
maintain high rates of voluntary
union membership—and Letter
Carriers Branch 82 in Portland
does even better than most. From
90 percent membership five
years ago, it has “slowly up-
ticked,” says Organizing Chair
Willie Groshell, to around 95
percent of the 1,200 represented
carriers.
How did they raise that num-
ber so high? It’s mostly the work
of volunteers like Groshell, who
delivers the mail full-time.
(Three top officers make up the
branch’s full-time staff.)
Most new hires sign up right
away at orientation, where the
branch vice president spends up
to two hours with them—the
union has this right guaranteed
in its contract—talking through
the union’s history and what to
expect. One perk is getting im-
mediate access to the union’s
uniform closet, since the Postal
Service won’t provide a uniform
allowance until your probation
is up.
But beyond that, “it’s an easy
sell for us in Branch 82, because
we defend our contract ex-
tremely well,” Groshell says.
Plenty of Grievances
One key is a robust network
of stewards who involve almost
all members in filing and pursu-
ing grievances. Every year,
Groshell estimates, 98 percent
of Portland letter carriers get the
equivalent of their entire dues
back in grievance settlements.
Short-staffing is the rule in
post offices across the country.
But “we are, I think, the only
place in the country that has spe-
cific language about delivery af-
ter dark,” Groshell says. “If we
have to be out after sunset, it
triggers a grievance payment of
$50 for each incident.” That
adds up, especially in the winter
when the sun sets early and
there are lots of holiday pack-
ages to deliver.
vince them we were just
here to talk,” Groshell
said. “But once they
started talking, in most
cases there were maybe
one or two things in the
past that had upset
them.”
Some were ready to
sign up on the spot.
Others needed to see the
next step: the union fol-
lowing up to address
their problems. “We had
to let them know this
wasn’t just a one-time
thing,” Groshell said.
“The key to any organ-
How does Portland Letter Carriers Branch 82 keep its membership at 95 percent de- izing is communication.
You have to be honest,
spite being an open shop?
(NW Labor Press file photo.)
you have to follow
Enforcing those penalties re- mail plant workers, drivers, and through on whatever you say
quires “eyes and ears on the post office clerks—for a joint in- you’re going to do, and you
work room floor almost every ternal organizing push. Mem- have to tell people the truth,
place, every day,” Groshell says. bers went out in pairs to visit rather than what you think they
The large stations with 100 or non-members at their homes.
want to hear.”
more letter carriers have four or
The point was to listen. “We
Overall, he says, the activity
more stewards apiece, and even weren’t aggressive,” Groshell was fun. It strengthened the re-
smaller stations mostly have at says. “We just started having lationship between the two
least one. “We control the envi- conversations to find out, ‘Why unions, and gave members and
ronment on the work floor.”
aren’t you a member? What are non-members the chance to talk
your concerns?’”
in the relaxed, frank way that’s
Answers ran the gamut. One easier when you’re not at work.
Union in Action
Sometimes exerting that con- or two said they’d never been
trol requires collective action. A asked. Some had transferred in An Everyday Priority
few months ago, for instance, from other parts of the country
Now the union keeps stew-
carriers at Groshell’s station and fallen through the cracks.
ards in each station apprised
Others were standoffish at which of their co-workers are
were told they must deliver
three “full coverages” in a single first. “It took a while to con- non-members, and encourages
day.
A full coverage is an adver-
tisement that goes to every
household, along with the mail.
Two of the three were maga-
zine-thick. That’s a lot of weight
to carry around all day.
There was general “panic and
angst,” Groshell says. So he en-
couraged everyone to fill out a
safety concern form. Some were
nervous, but one by one, people
filed up to drop their forms on
the manager’s desk. About half
the carriers on shift that day par-
ticipated.
And that was all it took.
Within minutes the manager
agreed to postpone the heaviest
item till the next day. Palpable
relief and power zipped around
the work floor.
“It’s moments like that that
really do bring people on board,
that get people to understand
what we can do collectively,”
Groshell says. “You’ve got to
find those opportunities, and
when they’re there, you’ve got
to try and take them.”
One weekend a couple years
ago, Branch 82 partnered with
the Postal Workers local
(APWU)—which represents
them “every so often,” Groshell
says, “to ask them why.”
The idea is to have “respect-
ful, productive conversations,”
he says. “You’re not going to get
people to join by belittling them.
At the same time we want to
make sure they can’t hide in the
shadows.”
It also matters who’s doing
the asking. In annual training on
non-member sign-up, stewards
are encouraged to recognize
workplace social circles. “We
talk about figuring out who the
people in the station are that
have the relationship already
with the non-members, and en-
couraging those people to be the
ones having the conversations,”
Groshell says.
Nonetheless, changing some-
one’s mind takes time; it can
stretch over many conversa-
tions. “Most people don’t just
sign up after you talk to them
once,” Groshell says. “It’s been
made an everyday priority.
Everybody knows who the non-
members are, and everybody
feels empowered to engage
them. We try to weave it into the
culture.”
(Editor’s Note: Alexandra
Bradbury is editor of Labor
Notes. To see that publication,
go to http://labornotes.org.)