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29 Arb. J. 1 (1974)

handle is hein.journals/dsptrjr29 and id is 1 raw text is: Almost four years have elopqed since Congress passed the Postal Reorganization Act. It was expected that, with some exceptions, union-management relations would follow the pat- tern that had evolved over the years In private industry. This did in fact occur, and national agreements with major postal unions in 1971 contained customary grievance and arbitration procedures. After a slow start, caused in part by the need to educate a vast labor and management establishment in new procedures and in part by litigation of union jurisdictional disputes, arbitrators began hearing many cases of both local and national importance. By the time the 1973 agreement was negotiated, it became necessary to modify procedures to ex- pedite discharge cases and prevent a backlog of unsettled grievances. An experimental system, based upon a rotating panel of arbitrators, has been established for the parties by the American Arbitration Association. In short, arbitration is alive and well in the Postal Service, the authors conclude. GRIEVANCE ARBITRATION IN THE U. S. POSTAL SERVICE: The Postal Service View by Eugene B. Granof and Stephen A. Moe* Introduction On August 12, 1970, Congress enacted the Postal Reorganiza- tion Act (hereafter the PRA) (Public Law 91-375) establishing as an independent establishment of the executive branch of the United States, the United States Postal Service. 39 U.S.C. §201. Chapter 12 of the PRA, titled Employee-Management Agreements, brought the Postal Service and its employees under coverage of the National Labor Relations Act and within the jurisdiction of the National La- bor Relations Board. The intent of Congress, as reflected in Chapter 12, was that labor relations in the Postal Service essentially should correspond to the pattern of the private sector, with these basic ma- jor exceptions: postal employees are still prohibited by law from * Eugene B. Granof is a member of the bar of New York and the District of Columbia. He has been Deputy Assistant General Counsel in the Labor Law Division since May 1972. Stephen A. Moe is a member of the California Bar, and an attorney in the Labor Law Division of the Postal Service since September 1973. The statements and views contained in this article are solely those of the authors in their individual capacities and not as spokes- men for the Postal Service.