Two long-term Rochester drivers, Larry Marangoni and Tom Kelly, were just fired for allegedly falsifying logs and "stealing" time from the company. Larry is a union leader and negotiating committee member. Both were instrumental in filing pay violation complaints with the Department of Labor and both recently gave testimony for the scheduled DOL hearing at the end of this month. Both drivers were logging the way the company expected and neither stole anything. These are continuing company scare tactics directed at our union struggle. The APWU has already moved into action to defend these brothers and we will be asking all of you to do the same in the appropriate way and at the appropriate time - "An injury to one, is an Injury to All".

In the meantime....Real Theft Continues.......

George Rood has illegally "picked our pockets" and used our pension contributes for his personal profit. Have no doubt about it - he and RTC made plenty of money off our money. After being in business for decades the company claims that they did not know that they had to make pension contributes to our personal accounts at least every calendar quarter. Yet referring to another complaint a few years ago the DOL stated, "the employer [RTC] was notified of the problem and agreed to make quarterly deposits in the future".

The living proof that our money was used for RTC's personal gain is that the money is not currently available to be paid in to our accounts - they spent it! And hundreds of thousands of it!

The APWU has tried over the past few months to settle this case with the company. The Union asked for all the money to be restored with retroactive interest of 9%. This figure is based on what the Federal government uses for delinquent payments (in fact it was the company attorney who initially raised the delinquent payment rate with the union). The company insists that they simply pay back the money when they can (they have begun to do so based on union pressure) and figure up what our accounts would have made had money been properly deposited on time. This is not acceptable since the company illegally took an interest free loan and made money off our money. We should recoup what they made. The current DOL complaint and other avenues will be vigorously pursued. This is but another example where the company will spend far more legal fees than it would cost to come clean with us, the drivers - Looks like Enron's come to RTC - Shame on them!

So there you have it. On the one hand RTC reaches into our pockets and illegally takes and uses our money. On the other, in an effort to intimidate the rest of us, they fire union leaders, and activists hoping we will "get back in our place". Our place is standing firm with our Union and the continuing struggle for respect, dignity and justice.

And at the Bargaining Table.....

Along with the refusal to come clean on the pension issue and the targeting of Union leaders the company is now negotiating in bad faith with the drivers at the bargaining table. RTC's response to the fair and reasonable union demands for improved benefits is thus far a big fat zero. RTC says they cannot afford to improve our benefits. We challenged them to open their books. They refused. If they were telling the truth they would have nothing to hide. Furthermore, RTC acknowledges the can pass the cost of improved benefits onto the USPS, but still refuse our reasonable demands. They are intent on keeping us at the lowest level allowed by the Service Contract Act.

-The RTC Drivers Union Committee