In an effort to further unify our membership during these difficult and uncertain times, the NPMHU Committee on the Future has renewed a nationwide organizing campaign that will be rolled out on January 1, 2014. The theme of this campaign is a familiar one, “Join the Union, Join the Fight—It’s a Career Decision!” As all Mail Handler union members know, there are some who take for granted the hard-fought salary and benefit packages that Mail Handlers enjoy. Many of those individuals do not recognize and value the hard work that NPMHU representatives provide, day in and day out, to secure, maintain, and improve upon our wages, benefits, job protections, and working conditions.
This organizing campaign will empower members to work together to make these non-member holdouts understand that they have their mail handler jobs only because of the strength and commitment of the NPMHU—and that the time has come for them to join and support the National Postal Mail Handlers Union.
To help facilitate this campaign, the National Office has developed an updated NPMHU organizing brochure, which describes many of the benefits of union membership. Copies of this brochure, along with other organizing materials, will be mailed to thousands of NPMHU officers and shop stewards across the country in the coming weeks.
As a special incentive, the National Executive Board has reinstituted, for a limited time, a program wherein the National Union will pay a $50 “bounty” to each Mail Handler member responsible for signing up a nonmember, consistent with the following provisions: To qualify for payment, the current member, steward, or officer must (1) sign up a mail handler who was hired prior to September 1, 2013, (signing up newer employees— those hired since September 1, 2013 is encouraged, but, will not qualify for payment) and (2) send in the newly-developed sponsor card (copies of which will be mailed to all officers and stewards) to the National Office no later than March 15, 2014. The National Office will monitor the dues check-off report, and will send a $50 check to the organizer once the eligible new member appears on dues check-off. Remember, a separate $50 bounty will be paid for each recruited nonmember, consistent with the provisions detailed above, and therefore members who are effective organizers can earn multiple payments.
We encourage all members to monitor union bulletin boards, National publications and the website at www.npmhu.org for additional information on this upcoming organizing campaign. Organizing campaign literature will be mailed to every NPMHU steward and officer in the country in the coming weeks. Please review these materials, and feel free to use the documents during recruitment discussions with all non-members.