Convention Update
8/12/08 - Tuesday

National Postal Mail Handlers Convention Summary - Day 2 - Tuesday August 12, 2008

• The day started with an invocation by Local 320's Ace Balderrama.

• A tribute to our Armed Forces was presented by the National Office.

• The Credentials Committee presented a revised report with 361 Delegates now seated on the convention floor.

• The Election Committee results were as follows: James Bell, Thomas Ruther and Local 320's Susanna Paniagua was elected to run the election for our National Officers with James Bell as chairperson.

• Nominations for the National Executive Board were taken from the convention floor with the results as follows: National President John Hegarty was unopposed, Treasurer/Secretary Mark Gardner was unopposed, Eastern Regional Vice-President Sammy D'Ambrosio was unopposed, Central Regional Vice-President Jefferson Peppers was unopposed, Northeastern Vice-President Paul Hogrogrian was unopposed, Southern Regional Vice-president Bruce Z. Miller and Terry Cordell are running for this office, while the Delegates must decide between Western Regional Vice-President Rudy Santos of Local 320, Dot Henderson of Local 302, and Local 301's Eddie Cochran. Voting for this run off election commences @ 8 AM tomorrow morning.

• The report of the National Officers started with National President Hegarty talking about among other things: The state of the Union (It's good), We expect a COLA of more than $1,300 for Mail Handlers at top step coming in September of this year.

• A comprehensive report is being prepared on the impact of the Contract Interpretation Manual for our craft.
  LMOU training, FMLA training, RI-399 training, Casual training, Financial training for all Locals all by the National Office was discussed.

• National Secretary/Treasurer Mark Gardner gave a report on more of the Union's activities: He spoke about: Wages increases over the length of our current contract.

• Communications to our members (The Mail Handler magazine, & Union Time, our National Website (npmhu.org).
  He spoke about the participation by all the locals and the National Office in the Juvenile Diabetes Fund (JDF), the Mail Handlers Benefit Plan, Postal Employee Relief Fund and the Committee on the future.

• For a comprehensive report on each and every issue touched on please see the convention report by our National Office on NPMHU.org

• We had several speakers to our convention today and they were as follows: Special Guest, AFL/CIO Executive Vice-President Arlene Holt-Baker, Congressman Danny Davis, (D- Illinois), LIUNA President Terry O'Sullivan.

This ended our 2nd day of convention. I look forward to sending you another update tomorrow.

Ace Balderrama
State Executive Board Member
Mail Handlers, Local 320

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