Memorandum of Disapproval of a Bill To Restore Seniority Rights to a Postal Service Employee.

I HAVE withheld my approval from S. 889, a bill "To restore the postal service seniority of Elmer Erickson."

Under this bill, Mr. Erickson would receive special benefits denied other postal employees who lost seniority rights under similar circumstances or who made decisions and choices based on then existing rules. Such action by Congress would be discriminatory and without justification.

The seniority rules in question here represent the result of bargaining between the postal unions and postal management. They are not a matter on which Congress has legislated in the past. The seniority involved has to do with preferred assignments, eligibility for promotions, and similar matters covered by agreements between the Postal Service and the postal unions. Employees displaced on the seniority list by Mr. Erickson certainly would have good cause to complain if this bill were to become law.

In my opinion, if seniority rights are to be retroactively restored to postal employees, it is for postal management and the postal unions to negotiate an equitable solution which covers all employees similarly situated.

RICHARD NIXON

THE WHITE HOUSE,

August 29, 1972.