“Here are a few key questions that I think the membership should be aware of before they vote on this proposed contract.” By Clint Burelson, APWU President of the Olympia [Washington] Local
NTFT [non-traditional full-time] Questions and Answers on the Contract
The NTFT jobs will significantly affect current workers at the Post Office in a negative manner. Based on my understanding of the proposed contract, I have created a few key questions and answers regarding the impact of NTFT jobs on current workers.
Question: I have a full-time job that is better than most of the jobs in my facility. I am the senior employee in my section. If the tentative agreement passes, can management take my full-time job away from me and convert it to a NTFT job?
Answer: Yes. This answer is based on looking at the whole of the NTFT changes and particularly the change to Article 37, which if passed, will state:
“(5) Any occupied traditional full-time regular duty assignment which is converted to a non-traditional full-time assignment shall be reposted. Any occupied non-traditional full-time regular duty assignment which is converted to a traditional full-time assignment shall be reposted.” (page 190 in corrected copy of tentative agreement)
After your current bid job is converted to a NTFT job, you do have some protection. For example, all the jobs in your section held by junior employees should be posted for in-section bidding. However, the fact remains that the new contract will allow management to take away your current bid job and convert it to a NTFT job.
Question: In my facility, we have 100 full-time regular jobs in mail processing. How many full-time regulars can have their jobs taken away and converted to NTFT jobs?
Answer: Management will be able to convert half the jobs in mail processing to NTFT jobs. If ratified by the membership, the contract will state:
“In Function 1, no more than 50% of all duty assignments in the facility may be NTFT duty assignments of 30-48 hours, unless otherwise agreed to by the parties at the local level.” (page 189 in corrected copy of tentative agreement)
Question: In my facility, we have 25 full-time regular jobs in a station. How many full-time regulars can have their jobs taken away and converted to NTFT jobs?
Answer: Potentially all of them, given that management determines what is “operationally necessary.” If ratified by the membership, the contract will state:
“In Function 4, Management may create as many clerk NTFT duty assignments of 30-48 hours in a facility as is operationally necessary.” (page 189 in corrected copy of tentative agreement)
Please correct me if the information above is inaccurate. Everyone should fully understand the changes in the new contract before voting for their future and the future of others.
If they create jobs but not convert….what if they abolish your position and repost the NTFT with 6 days work week. You have no choice but to bid on NTFT job…what would you say about that. Remember, they can not convert your job but they can abolish yours….and you have to bid NTFT job, otherwise, you are UNASSIGN. I will vote NO on this one.
oh and one other thing gregg 20% is per district yet jobs given back to us that are for PSE’s won’t count towards that 20% cap so we are looking more at a 25-40% pse ratio nation wide
hey gregg read the MOU’s if they want to management can place you in a NTFT job as long as it has 2 scheduled days off and you work no less than 6 hours or no more than 10 hrs. Vote NNNNOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
I have my ballot already to send. I wrote “Positively, absolutely, no feckin’ way. Cut hours and income, you must be joking, or mental! I also cut a paper into a continuous circle,, with a flat part PTF, Office level 21,and will put a post it note saying” I thought you might enjoy watching us get screwed.
Wow! Reading the responses from Greg & Amelia, two thoughts come to mind. Either both of you are among the more ill informed members of our union, or you are both management plants. Either way, you could not be more wrong.
Greg, the House does NOT have carte blanch power over the USPS. They can propose any legislation they want. It would never pass the Senate, and it would be vetoed by the President if it did. They are bound by current law, which, if you’ve kept up on the issues, calls for collective bargaining. Even the Postmaster General openly acknowledges that this deal is the best they could get “under current law”. Do you think it is merely coincidence that various states, ALL with Republican governors, are demonizing collective bargaining??? It is part of the war on labor and union busting.
Amelia, where have YOU been? Yes, business is slower. It is not unique to the Postal Service. But we have a fantastic opportunity to grow our business; we just don’t have a capable or willing postal management. We already offer much more affordable service than ANY of our competitors. Gas prices give us this opportunity. The competition is raising their costs to offset this. We have NO fuel surcharge.
People will flock back to us if we handle this right. But what is happening at a time when we should be offering MORE services? Yup ! Postal management is closing offices and shortening hours. (Perhaps the prime example of why we are struggling). These fools don’t get it. Already, reports have UPS looking into expanding their business in areas we are shutting down. The economy IS growing, albeit slowly. But we are a SERVICE, not a business. We SHOULD be committed to that service, not to mailer discounts.
Your position on potential job losses is laughably misguided. This agreement allows for 50% reductions in jobs immediately. I may lose my bid, but not my job. All jobs in the section will be reposted, and the junior employees will be left out and excessed. Grievances will do nothing to stop this. In fact, the new casual hires in this agreement will potentially have more rights than career employees.
Look, the USPS MADE MONEY during the duration of our current contract. CONGRESS dithered in our finances, wreaking havoc with the bottom line. Having effectively starved our service of revenue, now they want further cuts; cuts in pay. But this is nothing but union busting. It is NOT based in growing our business. Rather, it sends us down the road to privatization, a long held Republican fantasy.
YOU had best wake up and smell the coffee. We the employees of the USPS are committed to service. Our management team, AND certain congressional members have a much different agenda. They are in bed together. Need a clue? How does the outgoing Postmaster General receive over $5 MILLION in bonus money during our worst financial year on record? Was this excoriated in the little “hearing” last week?
Nope! All we heard, is how LABOR is overpaid! We heard the repetative tired mantra of postal LABOR costing the USPS 80% of their budget. Guess what, Amelia? This is another lie, designed to demonize labor. Management salaries and bonuses are part of that 80% figure, but you’d never know that, listening to the grandstanding on display. We are top heavy with incompetent management, and they are driving us to insolvency.
I don’t really have a horse in this race. I’m very senior, and will retire with full pension. But I don’t want to see my fellow union members deprived of their livelihood, and their ability to raise their family. Previous committed union members ensured my opportunity to do that, and I want the same for future members of our once great service. Cutting our jobs and putting more work on a smaller, more inexperienced workforce will ultimately COST the USPS money, NOT save it. Across the country, sick leave usage is up, and injuries are mounting. Does this sound like a path to prosperity? We are trending to understaffing. Service and business cannot possibly grow with this approach.
We CAN be great again, but this contract will stifle any chance to rebound. Anyone with under 25 years of service would be crazy to ratify this contract, as would any senior employee with a conscience. In short, only the selfish and the cowards among us will turn tail and run from this fight. This IS the defining moment of our work history, to spell it out for you. And if you think employees are the problem, YOU need to educate yourself. It wasn’t the employees that saddled the post office with a $5 BILLION anchor.
Where have all you employees been? Have you had your head in the sand? Do you not see the empty lobbies? If you think the post office is thriving and that congress is backholing the money, you had better think again. Just in the past 5 years on the window I have observed our customers dwindle. We get lines once in a while but not like it used to be. Look around the PD&C’s. It ain’t business as usual anymore And if think we will be better off with an arbitrator, you had better think again, and use some common sense this time. And the fear mongers to climb on another band wagon. IT DOES NOT SAY THAT 100% OF RETAIL JOBS WILL BE REPOSTED AS NTFT POSITIONS. IT SAYS WHERE OPERATIONALLY REQUIRED. And it you think the union will allow them to go into every PO and abolish and repost all the bids, wake up and smell the coffee. Okay, so they might try it, but them we just slap them with a grievance and show in a rational sensable way that it isn’t operationally required to upset everyone’s lifes. People, people, get real. I hope you are not the norm because if you are, the Postal Service and the APWU are in serious trouble.
were caught in a catch 22 right now. Vote Yes and we allow management to take control to change a bid on a whim. Vote No and Issa/Ross/McCain and others in congress will tear us down an settle our contract by barring our rights.
Read the agreement and make an educated choice.
Vote for what you feel is the lesser of the two evils.
FOLLOW THE MONEY ! This contract calls for employer provided health benefits ONLY to those that join the APWU health plan.(They’ll pay around 75%). If any new hire opts for ANY OTHER health plan, the employer will pay NADA, ZILCH, ZERO ! And to be eligible for the APWU plan, new hires MUST join the union. This gives the union two new revenue streams. Our union management team is in bed with the postal management team to preserve THEIR wallets, not ours.
But voting NO on ratification is just the first step necessary. The same fools who sold us out will sit on the arbitration hearing. Guess how hard they will fight for a more favorable contract? They will roll over and deliver a big kiss to the USPS. If at all possible, we must enlist retired President Burris to sit in and negotiate arbitration. Guffey is in way over his head, and needs to step back. He was out-negotiated big time. This was a fleecing. Burris has a lifetime of negotiating experience; Guffey apparently has none.
But that’s not enough. Guffey needs to feel our pain. He should admit his huge mistake, and immediately denounce the deal, and opt out of the agreement. He needs to know the membership will inflict pain on the union if he fails to align himself with our best interests. The only way to get his attention is this; IF THIS CONTRACT IS RATIFIED, ALL MEMBERS VOTING NO MUST ALSO CARRY THE ADDED THREAT OF QUITTING THE UNION.
WE are the union. And we are being unequivocally sold out. Nobody is happy about this agreement. Guffey is not following the will of the union. He is in bed with postal management. He MUST face a huge potential drop in revenue from career employees. This is THE ONLY WAY he will come to his senses and represent us as he was elected to do. If he refuses, every means available to throw him out of office must be on the table. To be honest, it’s high time we all combined into one strong union, instead of 4 separate entities.
This contract, if ratified, will destroy your postal career. It will also grease the skids for more cutbacks in future contracts. It offers no appreciable salary increase at a time when expenses are through the roof for working families. What happened to fighting for what we deserve? WE run the best, most affordable delivery system on the planet; in spite of a modern management team that always seems to be out of step with common sense solutions.
Don’t fall for the slight of hand nonsense concerning postal finances. The Post Office is making money. CONGRESS is financially ruining the Post Office, NOT US ! But follow any postal story in the news, and it is full of lies, deceit, and false information. Why? So they can create the perfect storm to sell the type of contract we are being asked to ratify.
And just whom are they bastardizing? Working class families, that’s who. Anthrax victims, that’s who. Military veterans, that’s who. Working men and women from all walks of life, that’s who. Shame on them, and shame on Cliff Guffey for turning his back on us when we need him most. Who will speak for those of us who toil nights, weekends, and holidays to deliver mail? Not our union president; that much is painfully obvious.
We must rise up together, and take back our union, before there is no union left to take back. There is more bad news. Congress and the President want to raise our retirement criteria from a high 3 to a high 5 years of earning, to further weaken our rapidly deteriorating ability to maintain our standard of living. This is an all out attack on our union, our livelihood, and our dignity. And playing the role of useful idiot is our union president. How could you Cliff, how could you?
Switch to the mail handler craft before everyone else does
All APWU represented Employees: For Heaven’s sake, please “VOTE NO”. Either we swim together or we all sink together in this “Titanic”. Your “Yes” vote would sink the entire ship including you. If the contract is ratified, we better start looking for a job right now. Here is why.
The new Tentative Contract if ratified is a perfect recipe for a total disaster and a tsunami to all APWU employees regardless of the current status and job title. It gives the management so much power that no local would be able to withstand and protect employees from this tsunami.
Ask these to yourself: Has the management ever followed and complied with all provisions of the contract in the past-let us say last 20 years? If they did, then there would not have been any grievances filed at all. According to the Postal Worker magazine, USPS paid out about $250 million for contract violations nationwide in 2008 and about $140 million in 2009.
New contract if ratified puts the USPS in driver’s seat folks and the new driver will wreck the ship.
I have a close friend of mine who was a clerk with me about 12 years ago. He is a supervisor since last about 5 years. He tells me all “inside” details of USPS.
In August 2009, he met me. He told me that USPS was talking about destroying all unions. Guess what folks? He was right. I did not believe him at that time. Now I believe him. APWU would be its first casualty if contract is ratified. APWU employees would become Wal-Mart employees. Vote NO. Let the arbitrator decide our fate. There is NOTHING left in the new contract for us.
HEY YOU ALL NEED TO WAKE UP!!!!!!! Management will convert, re-asess, re-define, re-assign, not ‘force’ you out but eliminate, all traditional 40 jobs. Do you see any ‘language’ in this contract that prevents that???? The plain and simple answer is NO. Ratify this and kiss your ‘good senior position’ GOODBYE! Postal management has no scruples, no heart, AND, they could care less about your lifestyle. No arbitrator in the world would ever dream this kind of crap up!!! Pay concessions and health contributions yes, but killing your job as you know it???? Not a chance!!!!!!!!! VOTE NO OR START PLANNING YOUR RETIREMENT SPEECH!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t see anywhere in that paragrapy it talks about converting after being vacated. it says occupied … which is converted.
It says convert. It uses the word “convert” twice in that paragraph. convert
vote yes or you will be sorry. arbitrator will have 50% layoffs.
Greg must be part of management.
This should convince all to vote NO!
piss of you company hack vote nooooooto this bullshit contract
or maybe the illigitimate son of potter
or he is a putz that goes schleming around for our nonunion trying to convince us to screw ourselves
who the hell is greg ? oh director of postal dick headedness
Question: I have a full-time job that is better than most of the jobs in my facility. I am the senior employee in my section. If the tentative agreement passes, can management take my full-time job away from me and convert it to a NTFT job?
Answer: Yes. This answer is based on looking at the whole of the NTFT changes and particularly the change to Article 37, which if passed, will state:
“(5) Any occupied traditional full-time regular duty assignment which is converted to a non-traditional full-time assignment shall be reposted. Any occupied non-traditional full-time regular duty assignment which is converted to a traditional full-time assignment shall be reposted.” (page 190 in corrected copy of tentative agreement)
In this section, they are talking about converting a job after it has been vacated, now while an employee is working in the position. You cannot be converted involuntarily to a NTFT job.
I agree that they will hire up to the 20% max for non-career assistants, and they should. That was why they agreed to give us raises and let us keep our COLAS. There had to be a give and take. Chrysler and GM workers both made concessions on their last contract, the economy is still poor, so in taking all these things into account, I think this is a fair contract. It’s not a good contract, but under these conditions, I think it was the best we could get. If your office in not following the contract then file grievances. If you local is not doing its job, contact Washington DC and complain.
Referring to the answer Gregg gave, when has management followed the contract? In our office, they consistantly go against the contract. I don’t believe they would follow this one either. It definately gives all the power to management and we would become even more abused than we are now. I’m hoping everyone reads this thoroughly before voting yes or no. And put yourself in the equation and ask yourself if this contract passes would it benefit your or make your job very vulnerable for being eliminated or changed etc.
In my office they never follow the contract as far as working the casuals 12 hours when a holiday rolls around and they force people in on their holiday. Sometimes we feel as if they get treated better than those of us who are career.
If this does pass it states that they can have a 20% increase in “casuals” and can hire the newly established career at the reduced wage. What do you think will happen? They will only hire the 20% with no benefits and never get around to hiring anyone career.
It says “create,” not convert. They can create new NTFT positions as needed, but not convert from regular full time positions.
Why in the world would anyone vote yes?