the interview, if he has been his supervisor on the work floor, oftentimes comes into the picture, where because of a certain personality conflict he has been given a poor judgment, which we believe was not right. But this again is where the human element comes in and you are going to have it, and I do not know how you could eradicate it. Mr. Nix. Gentlemen, I want to thank you very much for having come here today and for giving us the benefit of your testimony. We are most grateful to you. Mr. KEPHART. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. SILVERGLEID. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Nix. The subcommittee will stand adjourned. (Whereupon, at 12 noon, the subcommittee adjourned.) PERSONNEL PROMOTION SYSTEM OF THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 1968 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON POSTAL OPERATIONS OF THE Washington, D.C. The subcommitte met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in room 210, Canon House Office Building, Hon. Robert N. C. Nix (subcommittee chairman) presiding. Mr. Nix. The subcommittee will come to order. When these hearings began last year, our main concern was the problem of promotion within the postal service. We found that 85 percent of the people within the service are never promoted. What is worse, the nature of the postal service, with its specialized skills prevents persons transferring to other Government jobs. The Post Office is, after all, the only industrialized operation within the Federal Government with over 700,000 employees. The problems are tremendous. The hearings were then broadened to cover all personnel problems in the postal service under the new title of morale. Today we will hear testimony from the United Federation of Postal Clerks and the National Association of Postal Supervisors. Each witness will take up a different aspect of the postal system's morale problems. We will hear discussion today about what is viewed by some as the breakdown at the local level of labor negotiations because the Federal Government reserves the right to decide what is negotiable, and the controversial Seattle project which provides for the transfer of postal supervisors upon promotion to any office within a five-State area. Our first witness today is Mr. E. C. Hallbeck, president of the United Federation of Postal Clerks. He is accompanied by Mr. Patrick Nilan, the legislative director of the United Federation of Postal Clerks. Gentlemen, we want to welcome both of you. I am happy you are here and you may proceed. TESTIMONY OF E. C. HALLBECK, PRESIDENT, UNITED FEDERATION OF POSTAL CLERKS, AFL-CIO, ACCOMPANIED BY PATRICK NILAN, LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR Mr. HALLBECK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, for purposes of identification, my name is E. C. Hallbeck and I am the president of the United Federation of Postal Clerks. The federation is the exclusive representative for the clerical craft in the postal service. I am accompanied today by Mr. Patrick J. Nilan, our legislative director, and I welcome this opportunity to present a brief statement to this subcommittee with respect to morale in the postal service. As the exclusive representative of the clerical craft, our organization is extremely well aware of the problems that today exist in the postal service. As a result of these problems and the failure to achieve satisfactory solutions, there is, to my mind, a definite deterioration in morale. This results from many factors but it seems to me that one of the principal reasons for the dack of a higher morale is the loss of personal dignity. There was a time when postal employees had a very distinct sense of pride in their work. They felt, and rightly so, that they were an important part in a great undertaking. Today, that is no longer true. Current practices in the postal service tend to make numbers out of people. Today, we speak of "bodies" as if these bodies were faceless things without dignity. The time when people had pride in a postal job has long since passed. The esprit de corps of other years no longer exists. Today, the postal service is a factor and the pride of the skilled artisan is no longer important. One of the reasons for the current situation, in my judgment, is the failure in many quarters to observe the principles of good faith collective bargaining. Despite the Executive order issued by President Kennedy on January 17, 1962, many postmasters are today unwilling to admit that: The efficient administration of the Government and the well-being of employees require that orderly and constructive relationships be maintained between employee organizations and management officials. They are unwilling to admit that: Subject to law and the paramount requirements of the public service, employee-management relations within the Federal service should be improved by providing employees an opportunity for greater participation in the formulation and implementation of policies and procedures affectng the conditions of their employment. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, both of those quotations are taken from the Executive order of the late President John F. Kennedy. Instead, many postmasters apparently consider themselves feudal lords, masters of all that they survey: free to operate without let or hindrance: despite the fact that the President of the United States has directed otherwise. This has resulted in failure to negotiate in good faith on matters respecting "the formulation and implementation of policies and procedures affecting the conditions of their employment." It appears rather that many postmasters, with some evidence of support from departmental and regional officials, feel that accepting the form, but not the substance, complies with the Executive order. Violations of the Executive order or of national or local agreements go virtually unpunished or, at best, an offending postmaster receives a slap on the wrist and promptly proceeds to repeat an offense. I can think of nothing more likely to improve morale in the postal service than the enactment of legislation that would provide for the employees of the Federal Government rights similar to those provided by the National Labor Relations Act for employees of private indus try, and with some independent appeals body, such as the National Labor Relations Board, to which appeals might be taken. It is evident that an Executive order, based on our experience of the past 6 years, does not do the job and I suggest that a law which, perhaps, could eventually be tested in the courts, might have a far better long-range effect. In the clerical craft, there are many factors which contribute to a loss of morale. One is the lack of opportunity for advancement. Such opportunities as are available, and they are few in number, are bound up by regulations which make a farce out of the examining process. Nonsupervisory positions providing for higher level pay are all too often awarded on the basis of the best qualified, which leaves it up to the postmaster to determine who is best qualified and, as a result, many of these positions are awarded not to those most deserving, but to those fair-haired boys who, for personal or political reasons, are in favor with postmasters. There is an almost complete lack of recognition of the seniority principle. I submit that, all other conditions being equal, the senior employee is entitled to consideration based on the fact that he has, over the years, performed good service. However, in application, this is almost entirely unheard of in the postal service. Another contributing factor to the loss of morale is the present trend in the postal service to abolish day tours. Despite the fact that work performed between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. requires a differential or premium pay of 10 percent, many of our people with long years of service are being relegated to undesirable tours of duty that require them either to start their work in the middle of the night or to end their work in the middle of the night. These are hours not ordinarily considered desirable and deprive the employee of the opportunity for family and other associations enjoyed by employees of private industry. Another factor that contributes to loss of morale in the postal service is the constant downgrading of jobs. The skilled craftsman, who was, and is, a scheme distributor, finds himself replaced in many instances by people with lesser skills, paid at lower rates; whose only objective is to receive a day's pay. They care not whether mail is handled in accordance with regulations or whether mail is promptly and accurately handled. Today, in all of our large cities particularly, employees work in outmoded buildings and the only way the work areas can be described is to call them depressing. Many of them lack elementary facilities, are poorly lighted, poorly ventilated, cold in winter and hot in summer, overcrowded, dirty, and a very far cry from modern establishments in private industry. Added to all these things, there is, to my mind, a lack of competent supervision. Postmasters and supervisors all too often are selected on the basis of who they know rather than what they know, and a good many of them at least ought to take a course of "How To Win Friends and Influence People." Postal workers are no different than anyone else. They resent injustice. They resent a lack of recognition. They resent a loss of dignity, and their morale suffers accordingly. I have enumerated briefly some of the causes for discontent and loss of morale. If this subcommittee, in its wisdom, can discover ways and means for improving the current situation, it will perform a service both for the employees and the American people whom they serve. I appreciate this opportunity of expressing our views, and I believe Mr. Nilan, who is accompanying me, will add something further at this point, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Nix. We will be very happy to have Mr. Nilan proceed. Mr. Chairman, I would appreciate it if you would give us an opportunity to submit, for the record, a tabulation of a questionnaire which we have developed concerned with recent negotiations by our local unions with postmasters which I believe would be enlightening to the committee, pointing up the most frustrating experience we have ever had in trying to negotiate local agreements with postmasters. Mr. Nix. Without objection, that will be included in the record. (The tabulation referred to follows:) The final tabulation of the negotiations questionnaire sent by the United Federation of Postal Clerks to local union affiliates provides the following statistics: (1) 500 questionnaires mailed out to UFPC local unions; (2) 271 questionnaires returned to the Legislative Director at UFPC national headquarters; (3) Local postmasters unilaterally decided 2,204 union proposals were nonnegotiable; and (4) Of these 2,204 union proposals, 995 were provided for in previous local agreements in the 271 post offices where UFPC local unions responded to the negotiations questionnaire. Mr. NILAN. Thank you very much. If I may, in order to indicate the frustration and disappointment our organization has experienced in local negotiations during the past 60 days, I would like to present today a preliminary report on this questionnaire which points up major problems which are resulting in deteriorating morale in the postal service and particularly among our local unions, our officers, and our members. We sent out, approximately 3 weeks ago, a negotiating questionnaire to 500 of our largest local unions. As of last Thursday, June 20, we had 231 of these 500 questionnaires returned. It is interesting to note, Mr. Chairman, that of these 231 responses which we have received only 79 of these 231 local unions had signed contracts with postmasters as of May 17. In other words, approximately only one-third of this very representative sampling of our local unions were able to sign contracts as of May 17, which was the closing date for negotiations in local post offices throughout the country. In the most critical area we have encountered in negotiations at the local level, we find that in the 231 largest UFPC local unions, 2,091 items referring to our clerical craft were declared nonnegotiable by the postmasters. Of these 2,091 items, 906 or almost 50 percent of the items declared nonnegotiable during the recent negotiating period had previously been included in agreements between our local unions and the postmaster. Mr. Chairman, to have postmasters who agreed 2 or 4 years ago the items were negotiable and then suddenly tell the local unions they are in a nonnegotiable area with the postmasters retaining them in their so-called management areas, prerogatives, and unilateral management rights is certainly very damaging to labor relations in the postal service. I say again, half of the 2,091 items declared nonnegoti |