Opinion ID: 204770
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Contracts.1) RI-399's Tripartite Dispute Resolution Procedure

Text: On April 16, 1992, USPS and the two unions representing its employees APWU and NPMHUentered into a Memorandum of Understanding called Regional Instruction 399 (RI-399). RI-399 is a national dispute resolution procedure, designed to resolve disputes over jurisdictional work assignments in any postal facility. [1] Pursuant to RI-399, as of the date of its signing, all jurisdictional work assignments that were not then under dispute were deemed as a proper assignment for that facility, and both unions agreed not to challenge[ ] jurisdictional work assignments in any operations as they existed at the time. (App. at 195.) Those undisputed work assignments were then to be listed in inventories of work assignments maintained at the local level. Going forward, any disputes over work assignments were to be resolved through the process outlined in RI-399, and those work assignments were then to be added to the inventories. While RI-399 foreclosed the filing of new disputes over existing work assignments, it recognized three situations where new disputes could arise: (1) new or consolidated facilities; (2) new work in existing facilities; or (3) operational changes in existing facilities. It is undisputed that only the last of those situations is relevant to this case. RI-399 prohibits USPS from engag[ing] in operational changes for the purpose of affecting the jurisdictional assignments in a facility, but recognizes that, nonetheless, operational changes may result in the reassignment of functions from one craft to another. [2] (App. at 201-02.) Where operational changes do result in reassignment, USPS is required to present those changes, thirty days before they go into effect, to a Local Dispute Resolution Council consisting of representatives from each party to RI-399. The adversely affected party is then permitted to appeal the changes to binding tripartite arbitration, which must be held within sixty days after the changes go into effect. If, at any point, the dispute is settled, the resulting settlement agreement must be tripartite. Six months after the execution of RI-399, an explanatory document called a Q & A about the RI-399 procedures (the Q & A) was issued and signed by each of the three national parties. Item 3 in the Q & A clarifies that RI-399 applies even to grievances alleging violations of contracts other than RI-399, so long as one of the parties believes that the grievance relates to a jurisdictional dispute. In such situations, the question of whether the grievance relates to a jurisdictional dispute must itself be subjected to the RI-399 procedures (culminating in tripartite arbitration) prior to any resolution of the merits of the grievance. Item 4 states that any bilateral settlement agreement arising out of a jurisdictional dispute is not a proper settlement and is considered null and void. (Supp. App. at 55.)