Preamble:
Per Article 10 of the NALC Constitution, the following represents the official charges being levied against President Brian L. Renfroe. We are charging him with negligence as the NALC’s chief negotiator and decision-maker on all matters related to the collective bargaining process with the United States Postal Service that began on February 22, 2023. He has also violated his duties as our President by not abiding by 2024 National Convention General Resolutions 12 and 22.
We are making this charge for one sole purpose, and that is to ensure that President Renfroe is not our chief negotiator and decision-maker in the next round of collective bargaining. The current round has been an absolute disaster for the active letter carriers that are directly affected by President Renfroe’s negligence.
We intend for this process to be transparent to the members of the union at every step. Per the terms of Article 10, EVP Paul Barner will appoint an investigator upon receipt of the charges and after sending a copy of the charges to Brother Renfroe. The investigator will develop the facts for us to consider. Some of those facts are currently unknown, and some of those facts pertain to details of collective bargaining that are not in our interest to disclose at this time. Therefore, the instant letter of charges will be brief and general in nature. However, the investigator’s report will be shared with the membership immediately once it is provided to us.
We are bringing these charges on behalf of every currently active city letter carrier that is a member of the NALC. As our Executive Council goes through the decision-making process that is outlined in Article 10, any member that is aggrieved by their decisions has the right of appeal to the convention body in 2026.
These charges are not intended to be punitive against Brother Renfroe. If he agrees to remove himself as our chief negotiator during the next round of collective bargaining, we will withdraw these charges immediately. We are also open to discussing this matter with him, and the elected members of the Executive Council. He need not take the submission of these charges as a reason to “lawyer up”. The absolute worst outcome of this process for him would be that he returns to his letter carrier duties, and that is not a punishment at all. We are all letter carriers, and our officers serve at the pleasure of the membership.
Charges:
President Renfroe, you have been negligent in the manner by which you have conducted collective bargaining discussions with the Postal Service since February 22, 2023. You have also conducted these negotiations in “secret”, not disclosing any details, proposals, or tentative agreements with the Executive Council of the NALC, or with the members directly. These actions have left us vulnerable to having to accept what the employer wants, and is not in the interest of the members of the union. As of today’s date, more than 600 days after the start of negotiations, we have no Tentative Agreement and we have no arbitration dates set. It is known by both parties that a new contract will include raises for the city letter carriers that you represent, and thus any delay in the implementation of a new contract favors the Postal Service. Additionally, due to the lack of transparency, we don’t even know if you are negotiating the contract that we, the members of this union, want. We are left with the choice of accepting whatever final offer the Postal Service is willing to give us or vote the Tentative Agreement down and force arbitration. Due to your negligence, our choices are to continue to work under the terms of an inadequate contract and delaying the raises that we so desperately need, or just accept whatever terms the employer is willing to offer us. Simply put, you have not acted in our best interests throughout the collective bargaining process.
Specifically, we charge you with the following:
1. Failing to assign arbitration dates as soon as the law allowed you to, on July 20, 2023, or at any time thereafter.
2. Failing to adhere to the terms of General Resolution 12, which calls on the NALC to, in part, “Post monthly bargaining updates of issues, wages, hours, and working conditions (or more frequently, as necessary) on the website in the Members Only section”.
3. Failing to adhere to the terms of General Resolution 22, which states (in part) that, “the NALC must provide an update on the state of National Agreement negotiations on the NALC website on the first and third Friday of every month.”
4. Any other acts of negligence related to the collective bargaining process uncovered by the investigator that are either unknown or not in our interest to discuss publicly at this time.
Respectfully submitted,