WE HAVE A NEW COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT

The 2021-2024 Collective Bargaining Agreement was overwhelmingly ratified by the members. Ninety-Four percent (94%) of the members who voted, voted “Yes!” in favor of ratification. The vote tally was 36,632 votes for ratification and 2,290 against. With our new contract, there are numerous changes, including the following:

• Three-year contract: September 21, 2021 through September 20, 2024
• Three 1.3% general salary increases
• Six cost of living allowances
• No lay-off protection for all employees
• 50-mile limit for excessing
• Juneteenth added to the holidays for career employees
• No change to the Postal Service percentage contribution to health premiums
• PTF’s guaranteed 24 hours per pay period and 4 hours of work when scheduled
• PTF’s guaranteed a minimum of 1 non-scheduled day each service week except during peak season
• Automatic conversion to career for PSE’s
• 2.5% increase to the uniform/work cloths allowance in 2022, 2023 and 2024
• Window training starts within 10-days after posting of the senior bidder

These are just a few of the changes the APWU was successful in negotiating for our membership. Make sure you read your new contract and know your rights.

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LOCAL MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

With the new contract comes an opportunity for the Local Union to negotiate changes to your Local Memorandum of Understanding (LMOU). This document covers many issues that affect how your office operates such as how overtime works, how employees are scheduled for holidays and how you sign-up for vacations. This is your opportunity to let your Local President know if there are items you believe need to be changed or added to your LMOU.

POSTAL REFORM

The Postal Reform Bill has passed!  The bill has four primary pillars:1) ending the crippling retiree health benefit pre-funding mandate, 2) providing for prospective Medicare integration, 3) adding transparency to USPS service issues, and 4) guaranteeing six-day delivery. The legislation will now go to President Biden’s desk, where he will sign it into law. This has been a long and hard-fought battle. Thank you to everyone who made the telephone calls to their Senator’s pertaining to this Bill.

FIGHTING TO PROTECT CLERK CRAFT WORK

We are losing a lot of Clerk Craft work to other crafts and management because we fail to file grievances to enforce our CBA. They are not helping you when they do your work. Last year I settled a $10 Million Lead Clerk grievance because management was performing TACS duties in every office. I know for a fact management is still doing our TACS work. We need this work returned to the Clerk Craft as management has promised. Your National Business Agents have drafted templated grievances for the Local’s to file on this issue as well as for many other issues but we need your statements to be successful. We are committed to do our part, we just need everyone who sees these violations to do their part and report it to your Union Steward. 

Management has placed many injured Carriers, Rural Carriers and Mail Handlers into the Clerk Craft in violation of our Collective Bargaining Agreement. Do you have a Carrier or Mail Handler doing clerk work in your office? If you answered yes to this question, you need to contact your Shop Steward to file a grievance. Since 2010 the language of our CBA clearly states that the only time management can place injured employees across craft lines, is to residual vacancies or to uniquely created assignments consisting of duties that would otherwise be properly performed by non-career employees. Management is also required to give advanced written notice to the Local Union President of such placement prior to it occurring. This rarely happens and is a great argument for the Union. If we continue to allow injured employees to come into the Clerk Craft and perform our work, management will never increase the Clerk Craft staffing in our offices.

Another major problem is management doing clerk work. Supervisors are prohibited from performing bargaining unit work at post offices with 100 or more bargaining unit employees. In Level 18 offices, the postmaster is permitted to perform no more than fifteen (15) hours of bargaining unit work per week. In Level 16 offices, the postmaster is permitted to perform no more than twenty-five (25) hours of bargaining unit work per week. In Level 15 offices, the postmaster is permitted to perform no more than twenty-five (25) hours of bargaining unit work per week. In the event there is a second supervisor in any of these offices, only one (1) of the supervisory employees may perform bargaining unit work as prescribed above (either the postmaster or the supervisor).

Your Postmaster is required to report how much Clerk Craft work he/she does each week. If they are over their allotted work hours, the Clerk Craft is paid for those hours at the overtime rate. Do you believe your Postmaster reports the correct number of hours that he/she actually spends performing Clerk Craft work? If you answered no to this question, you need to see your shop steward and have them investigate and file a grievance.

Let’s Make 2022 the year we take back our Clerk Craft Work!

In Solidarity,

Your NBAs

Erik, Shirley, Sonia & Chuck!