January 29, 2000This is almost unbearable news to announce. Tonight a postal worker and friend, JOEL GARRIOTT, took his life. He was an active young man; his whole life in front of him. His family must be totally grief stricken. Joel had just called me last week with concerns about the Post Office trying to fire him again. Last year his father had a severe heart attack; Joel as a result had to care for his father for a lengthy time. Then his father had to undergo multiple heart surgery. A few months passed, then Joel and his mother were hit by an uninsured motorist, totaling the car and putting his mother in the hospital several weeks. The doctors reported they didn't know whether the mother would make it or not, but she finally pulled through, though permanently disabled. Joel also suffered serious injury with broken ribs, etc.. His mother was driving him to the post office to work when the accident occurred. These absences as a result of family tragedy added up. Though he was a veteran of Desert Storm, sustaining the Gulf War Syndrome with commensurate disability payments, the Post Office refused to extend his FMLA and counted absences resulting from the car accident and father's heart attack as "unscheduled," thus, subject to discipline, which they did. Last summer, the post office served him a letter notifying him that he would be removed from the postal service as a result of these absences. Naturally, the union went to bat for him, but the only thing the post office would settle for was a "last chance agreement," which allowed only 3 unscheduled absences in 6 months for a period of 18 months. The plant manager later interpreted this to mean "moving" absences, a very obscure term which means 6 months from the first unscheduled absence...... NOT from the actual date of signing. I told her I thought this to be unfair since it wasn't fully explained to me or the grievant, especially (I told her) since he had faced multiple family tragedies, besides suffering from the Gulf War Syndrome and injured legs from the war. I told her just last week I thought the postal service was totally out of line and unfair in Joel's case, because he had risked his life for his country and gets nothing but harassment in return? They had charged him with AWOL when the traffic accident happened because he was unconscious in the hospital and unable to call in. I told her that this was ridiculous! She only could reply that "being regular in attendance" was all that was required. I rebutted that what if tragedy struck her family; especially after serving your country with honor in a foreign war and suffering permanent injury????? I strongly replied there's no standard, no yardstick to go by if every manager and supervisor who comes in sets their own rules and arbitrarily disciplines whoever they please. There's so much more I argued with her about the attendance policy or lack thereof. But it was like howling at the moon! They never listen. Then the snow this week. Joel realized this was it. Fayetteville was snowed in; wrecks all over town. He lived on one of the steepest hills and couldn't make it down. The postmaster, (the one who sued our 4 local & national unions + 6 local union leaders, then sued the postmaster general), sent a directive to all her supervisors that anyone who called in because of the snow would not be allowed emergency annual but would be counted as AWOL, subject to severe discipline. The floor supervisors, I understand, pled with her to change her mind, which she did for the Thursday ONLY, but not the Friday and Saturday when we received 3 more inches on top the 7. (Since Fayetteville is VERY mountainous, the highway patrol and city police actually closed the highways down; postal service trucks did not make it in for most of the 2 days. In other words, there was no mail to work anyway, even if the people could make it to work. But that didn't convince some in management, of course.) So, Saturday night, Joel called in for the last time. He realized he would be fired because of this one last call.... but he had the courtesy to call anyway. He asked the 204B if he could take emergency annual. I can only assume the 204B had to follow Postmistress' orders and tell him that it would not be allowed, that he would be counted as AWOL. That could have been the last straw. A few minutes later, he drew the revolver and shot himself. What we had feared about tension on the workroom floor as a consequence of autocratic, insensitive management has surely come to pass. We did our best to stop it, but postal upper management poo-pooed us all the way and claimed we just imagined everything. They sent the postmaster back to Fayetteville without even the courtesy of notifying the unions. The former district manager, Ranft, claimed in writing that I had just "exaggerated" the whole situation here in Fayetteville, and then he lied about the Threat Assessment Team's evaluation (July 1998) and the Crisis Management Assessment taken in the spring of 1998. It is heart wrenching to report such, but this is the way it is. Any of you union leaders across the country who have or are facing similar situations, please e-mail me to share with our people here. Joel is the son of TOM & MARTHA GARRIOTT. Tom has been with the Postal Service 32 years. JOEL was born November 14, 1966. He served in the Army in Desert Storm and has served with the Post Office since 1995. Joel enjoyed all kinds of sports, but especially enjoyed scuba diving. You may wish to send cards & flowers to his home: TOM & MARTHA GARRIOTT 2862 Hyland Park Road Fayetteville, AR 72701 Please send comforting words to the family. Loren Adams, President, Fayetteville Arkansas APWU Local 667 BunkAdams@aol.com Fayetteville APWU P.O. Box 654 Fayetteville, AR 72702 Phone: (501) 521-0356 FAX (same #; switchbox recognized) |