Last Sunday was excellent! Watching a great game of football between the Denver Broncos and the New Orleans Saints. Witnessing both teams running up and down the field all day long. Both teams have great offenses coupled with poor defensive teams. If we are going to make the playoffs, as the sports commentators keep saying, our defense has to come together as a group or we are in trouble.

Yesterday, via my e-mail, I was asked by our current local APWU president, David Clapman, how my Powerpoint presentation was coming along for our next open local union meeting next month. This has been a slow process for me, but not because of lack of effort.

Our local has a meeting every single month - eight of those meetings are held in the conference room of our public library. The other four are held at the Country Buffet in Englewood. The franchise owner, Larry Horowitz is an ex-union steward for the Teamsters and charges our local a flat rate of $100 for the breakfast buffet. These quarterly meetings normally attract those who would not attend union meetings and show up for the free food.

Our local president, David Clapman, will not be in attendance at this particular meeting. David is one of our workers who is choosing to take advantage of the VERA option at the end of this year. David has 33 years of postal service and is essentially burning up his sick leave for the rest of the year.

I am happy for David because he is in a situation where he can retire. His mortgage is paid off, his children our grown and he has put up with 33 years of the USPS.  My problem here was that David had told our members, "Don't opt for the early-out, the APWU needs more bargaining power" and here he is taking the hypocritical response. Perhaps he should have told us, "I am retiring - but I hope the rest of you stewards win one for the Clapper." Or something to that effect.

But getting back to the Powerpoint presentation. I have been trying to find accurate written documentation about our current situation. The common question I get asked as a steward is, "will we have jobs two years from now?" I am resigned to tell them that I do not know the exact answer. I have been earnestly writing to people within the Colorado/Wyoming district USPS management and with our state union officers of the Colorado State APWU.

I did receive a .PDF letter from District Manager Selwyn Epperson that their plan was "to eliminate 8,000 postal jobs in Colorado through VERA and attrition before July 2009. Our plans are to offer another early-out shortly after July 2009. These positions are not solely in your clerk craft but within the ranks of management and the carrier craft as well" (Someone on here, tell me how to download a PDF document on this page - it ain't working for me.)

While talking to Colorado APWU state president, George Prusak, I was given different answers from those of Mr. Epperson. I believe George to be an honest man. I told him that I would include his radio blog spot on here: http://www.cpwu.org/blog_radio.htm. I am like you George and am a man of my word. I will bet the mortgage to my house when I say that Colorado has one of the best APWU teams representing us. From my phone conversations with George, it appears that our situation changes weekly. From my perspective, it appears that NEITHER side knows our predicament two years from now.

Before I could get a hold of George I talked to a different state union officer. At our next state convention, she will get a resounding NO!! vote from this local steward/acting local president. While talking to this woman (her name withheld)  I told her that I was constructing a PowerPoint presentation for our local's meeting and was trying to obtain written documentation about our current situation. This woman (grumpy's name withheld) told me to check out other APWU websites. I explained to her that most of the APWU websites are not updated and that I downloaded a FSS Implentation Chart from http://www.lunewsviews.com/ and a story from http://www.postalmag.com/ because I am not getting much help in my own state of Colorado.

This woman (bee-yotch's name withheld) asked me how I could be naive as to believe anything written on these websites. She explained that these websites are constructed by non-union officers and possibly light duty employees staying at home. She stated that these are bitter workers who have nothing else to do with their time but to criticize others behind the comforts of their own computers.

Um.......bitter people......yep....it takes one to one I suppose (witches name withheld.) I accepted her response and also noted that she provided me with ZERO information.

There are times that I have learned so much information those websites when I want the latest news about our employer and even issues involving grievances that I am working on. Besides PostalMag and PostalReporter and http://www.21CPW.com I have e-mailed other APWU local presidents like Bill Lewis of Trenton or Dan Sullivan of SW Michigan or Lee Simons of Nashville who also read these websites and I value their opinion VERY MUCH professionally. Collectively, these three men have 70 years of steward experience behind them.

I am thinking this woman (grouchy's name withheld) became jealous while visiting California and took a stroll near Hollywood and Vine and happen to spot these images on the sidewalk:

With our economic woes and our futures being jeopardized by automation that there are a FEW, and only a few,  that will criticize a "non-union officer" for publishing vital information to the rest of us. I remember reading a story about this skinny Jewish kid named David going up against a NFL linebacker sized Philistine named Goliath. David is armed with a slingshot and five stones while Goliath is heavily armed. We all know that David eventually defeated Goliath. From all accounts, David was not a union officer.

But sometimes, that is all we need. Just a common person working with what they have available to defeat those sitting in powerful positions. Goliath was one of the most powerful men in Philistine based solely on brute strength and not intellect. But David, used his intellect to defeat a "giant" and eventually become King.

To obtain accurate and true information, sometimes it is not always wise to seek the truth from those in power.