Burrus: Questions and Answers Defining the 2011 USPS-APWU National Agreement
Questions and Answers defining the 2011 national agreement will be invaluable in the enforcement of the newly negotiated provisions; however they omit a number of important subjects such as those referenced below. Perhaps the language is sufficiently clear that clarification is not required to explain the agreement that:
* Reduces wages up to 60% for newly hired employees for the performance of the same work;
* Permits involuntary reassignment as far as required under consolidations;
* Permits PSEs to bump full time employees from assignments when senior employees do not want to accept the conversion to NTA;
* Permits management to establish the pay rate for employees whose work is assumed by the Postal Service.
Bill Burrus
Burrus Journal – Questions & Answers Defining The 2011 Agreement
APWU,USPS Questions and Answers On The Contract
The APWU and the USPS have agreed to a set of Questions and Answers [PDF] regarding the 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement, Director of Industrial Relations Mike Morris has announced. The Questions and Answers, dated Oct. 20, 2011, cover an array of topics, including Postal Support Employees (PSEs), supervisors performing bargaining unit work in small offices, Non-Traditional Full-Time (NTFT) assignments, excessing, lead clerks, acting supervisors, and the grievance procedure. Read more
Update: APWU Q & A On 2010-2015 Contract
The APWU has posted a series of Questions and Answers [pdf] regarding the recently-negotiated Collective Bargaining Agreement, Industrial Relations Director Mike Morris announced July 6. “We have been meeting with our counterparts at the Postal Service to resolve a number of issues that have caused confusion in the field,” he said. “We have agreement on 65 items and are continuing discussions on the remaining items.
“We also have posted the APWU position on the outstanding questions [pdf] while we continue our conversations with management.
“We expect to reach agreement on many of the remaining items and will issue another Questions-and-Answers document at that time,” Morris said. “We decided to issue the APWU’s position in response to inquiries from union representatives in the field.
The Industrial Relations Department also has posted a map [pdf] that shows staffing for Level 15-and-above post offices. “This tool will help locals monitor compliance with new contractual provisions,” Morris said.
To use the tool, click on the map, select the appropriate state, and scroll down until you find the office you are interested in.
From the American Postal Workers Union: “While there is mutual agreement on most of the new language, there is still ongoing discussion on some of the language. The attached Q&A represents the position of the APWU on the new language.”
Postal Mail Handlers 2011 National Negotiations: Official Call For Bargaining Proposals
Filed under: contract, mail handlers, NPMHU, postal, postal news, usps
From the National Postal Mail Handlers Union:
With preparations underway for negotiations over the terms of the 2011 National Agreement between the NPMHU and the Postal Service, the National Office has issued its official call for bargaining proposals from all members and Local Unions.
To be fully considered prior to the onset of negotiations, proposals must be submitted by March 31, 2011. Although formal bargaining is not scheduled to begin until August or early September of this year, the Union’s Field Negotiating Committee will be meeting for a full week in April 2011 to review all submitted proposals and outline the changes in the National Agreement that should be proposed by the NPMHU.
To be sure, planning for collective bargaining is a continuous process at the National Office, as the National Officers and representatives working in the Contract Administration Department routinely identify and collect proposals for improving the language currently found in the 2006 National Agreement. But an equally important aspect of preparing for bargaining is the collection and review of proposals generated by mail handlers across the country. Thus, National President John Hegarty has issued this official call for bargaining proposals from the membership, the Local Unions, and other subordinate bodies of the NPMHU.
If you have any proposals that you would like to have considered for the upcoming round of bargaining, now is the time to submit them to the National Office. Every proposal submitted will be fully analyzed by the NPMHU’s Field Negotiating Committee and the National Negotiations Team while the Union develops its opening bargaining proposals.
All proposals should set forth the Article, Section, Paragraph, and/or Page of the National Agreement that you are suggesting should be changed; the specific language you would like to see added to, or deleted from, the current National Agreement; and your specific reasons for suggesting the change. If you have supporting evidence or documentation that you believe would support the change that you propose, please submit those materials to the National Office along with your proposals.
The National Office is asking that all proposals be submitted as soon as possible, but in no event later than March 31, 2011. The National Office also has issued a form that can be used to submit proposals. Copies of that form have been mailed to all Local Unions and all Local Union officers and stewards, and can be downloaded on the NPMHU website. (Click here to get PDF of proposal form.) Once again, proposals from any member (or group of members) and any Local Unions or other subordinate body should be submitted to the National Office by March 31, 2011, using the following address:
National Postal Mail Handlers Union
2011 Contract Negotiations
1101 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036
Contract Talks Approach Deadline; USPS Extends Bidding
Union and management representatives continued bargaining Nov. 30, and will meet again on Dec. 1 — the day the contract is set to expire. “The final days of contract negotiations are always the toughest, and that’s where we’re at,” APWU President Cliff Guffey said.
“But we are determined to meet the challenge and negotiate a contract that is fair to postal workers and that will strengthen the Postal Service. We will continue our efforts to reach a just settlement.”
In the meantime, the Postal Service has extended the timeframe for bidding under the terms of the 2006-2010 Collective Bargaining Agreement [PDF]. Employees will be permitted to continue to bid, and where they are designated successful bidders after Nov. 20, those bids may be counted toward the bid maximum for the next contract.
APWU Contract Negotiations Resume
APWU Web News
Contract negotiations between the APWU and the Postal Service resumed Nov. 29, with a Dec. 1 deadline fast approaching. Talks will continue on Nov. 30.
The union and management discussed returning subcontracted work to USPS employees and issues related to workforce structure, as well as pay and benefits. “The APWU is seeking an agreement that will benefit our members and the Postal Service,” APWU President Cliff Guffey said.
The 2006-2010 Collective Bargaining Agreement was scheduled to expire on Nov. 20, but the union and management agreed to extend it twice – first to Nov. 23, and then to Dec. 1.
The union will continue to provide frequent updates on bargaining table. For the latest news, please visit www.apwu.org often. Members are also encouraged to follow the union on Twitter and Facebook to receive up-to-the-minute alerts by e-mail or text message.
NALC: USPS News Release On Contract Negotiations Full Of Spin And Distortions
Filed under: contract, NALC, postal, postal news, press releases, usps
The NALC responds to a USPS press release regarding its contract negotiations with two unions
A press release put out Sunday by the United States Postal Service is full of spin and distortions aimed at influencing public opinion. The National Association of Letter Carriers wants its members to know that we are responding to press inquiries regarding the USPS release as follows:
The release, which addresses the status of negotiations with two unions, contains significant misinformation in a variety of areas. We recognize that the USPS faces major challenges that need to be addressed to secure its future, but this cannot be done responsibly if one party engages in blatant and self-serving attempts to mislead people.
While we have no involvement in these particular negotiations, on a broader level misinformation about important issues must be addressed, lest people accept it as valid. Here are a few examples of the misleading statements.
In what is presented as an objective depiction of the negotiating process with the American Postal Workers Union and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, the Postal Service writes that in the event of an impasse, “An arbitrator determines the final outcome and is not legally required to consider the Postal Services financial obligations when rendering a decision.”
This is nonsense, because arbitrators are required to consider all evidence presented by the parties. Since the USPS always presents information on its financial situation, its finances always are considered. The press release phrasing is a thinly disguised attempt to prompt congressional meddling in the traditional labor-management process by legislation that would insert one-sided language favoring the Postal Services positions a terrible precedent. We don’t think it’s the role of Congress to get involved on behalf of either side, including ours.
The Postal Services spins the issue of eliminating Saturday delivery by claiming that the public favors 5-day delivery over using taxpayer funds and other alternatives. In fact, as the USPS well knows, the Postal Service has not used a dime of taxpayer money for 25 years, and no one is proposing that it do so now.
What is being proposed, both by us and by the Postal Service, is an internal transfer of surplus pension funds to cover the $5.5 billion in annual pre-funding of future retiree health benefits, resulting from a 2006 congressional mandate. No other institution in America, public or private, is obligated to pre-fund future benefits at all, let alone at the aggressive schedule imposed on the USPS by Congress. Nonetheless, if Congress allows the Postal Service to make this transfer of its own money realized from the sale of products and services the financial status of the USPS would improve markedly. How much? Instead of losing money, the Postal Service would have realized a net profit of $700 million the past four years, even with the worst recession in 80 years.
How would the public respond if the question was whether people would rather lose a day of mail service and see 80,000 people thrown into unemployment, to realize a relatively meager savings of at most $3.1 billion annually — or instead see the Postal Service simply transfer money from one account to another, thereby coming up with $5.5 billion at no cost to taxpayers, and not slashing services or engaging in mass layoffs?
The release says, “The drop in the economy coupled with the shift to digital communications has created the greatest loss in mail volume since the Great Depression. Mail volume peaked at 213 billion pieces in 2006 and plummeted to 170.6 billion in the fiscal year (FY) ending Sept. 30.”
Inexplicably left out is the fact that the Postal Service itself projects that mail volume will begin to increase again next year. Just 10 days ago, the USPS stated that it projects mail volume to rise next year, by 1.1 percent, for the first time in four years. Neglecting to include this in the press release is explicable only if the aim is to spin the truth in an effort to achieve other aims.
The Postal Service release also says, “To remain strong into the future, the Postal Service needs to control costs through a flexible workforce to adapt to the nations changing mailing trends.”
We all know what this means – a decrease in quality through transforming the workforce into a collection of temporary employees, rather than maintaining the current high standards of a workforce the very same press release says has led the public to regard the Postal Service as the most trusted government agency six consecutive years.
Our craft alone, the letter carriers, not only delivers mail in an efficient and professional manner, we look after the elderly on a daily basis, save the lives of customers in medical difficulty, rescue people from fires or automobile accidents, stop crimes and conduct the largest annual food drive in the country. Reducing the quality of the federal governments most trusted workforce, coupled with slashing mail delivery, would be huge mistakes that would damage the USPS.
These various spins, half-truths or outright distortions are no way to inform the public and to have a rational discussion about the best way to secure the future of a great national institution on which 150 million households and businesses rely for mail delivery six days a week. We stand ready to engage in a serious discussion that considers the best interests of the American people.
U.S. Postal Service Labor Negotiations Fact Sheet
Filed under: APWU, contract, NALC, NPMHU, NRLCA, postal, postal news
Overview
* The Postal Reorganization Act authorizes collective bargaining on wages and working conditions, generally under laws applying to private industry. As the Postal Service is an essential service to the nation’s economy, Congress mandated that employees represented by unions cannot strike. Impasses in collective bargaining negotiations may ultimately be resolved through arbitration.
Current Operating Environment
* Mail volume peaked at 213 billion in 2006. Since 2007 mail volume plummeted 35 billion pieces — 20 percent. By 2020, mail volume is expected to decline to 150 billion.
* Many mail processing plants previously operated three, eight hour shifts, seven-days-a-week. Today, many facilities have reduced operations to two eight-hour shifts operating five- or six-days a week.
* Seventy-eight percent of Postal Service costs are linked to wages and benefits.
* To remain relevant while meeting today’s changing mailing trends, the Postal Service must manage its labor costs by matching workforce to workload.
* The Postal Service’s goal is to negotiate a contract that’s fair to its customers and its employees while meeting its financial and operational needs.
Negotiations Process
The collective bargaining process for the Postal Service may entail a three-step process: negotiation, mediation and interest arbitration. The parties may negotiate a contract at any of the three steps in the process.
Step 1: The negotiations period begins approximately 90-days prior to the expiration of the contract. During this time, the parties try to reach agreement themselves. If they reach a tentative agreement, it must then be ratified by a vote of the union membership.
Step 2: If they cannot reach agreement, a federal mediator is appointed by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), unless both parties waive mediation. If no agreement is reached with the mediator, or if the parties waive mediation, the contract goes to impasse.
Step 3: The impasse proceeds to final and binding interest arbitration. In interest arbitration the dispute goes before a three-member panel. The panel consists of a neutral arbitrator serving as chairperson and two arbitrators representing each party. The neutral arbitrator may be selected by agreement of the parties, or from a list provided by the FMCS.
Employee Unions
Most hourly employees are represented by four unions. The American Postal Workers Union AFL-CIO (APWU) represents employees who work as clerks, mechanics, vehicle drivers, custodians and some administrative positions. Employees represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO (NALC) deliver in metropolitan areas; National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association (NRLCA) employees deliver primarily in rural and suburban areas; and, employees represented by the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, AFL-CIO (NPMHU) work in mail processing plants and Post Offices.
Union Employees Contract Expiration
APWU 211,000 midnight, Nov. 20, 2010
NALC 207,000 midnight, Nov. 20, 2011
NRLCA 67,000 career
48,000 non-career midnight, Nov. 20, 2010
NPMHU 49,000 midnight, Nov. 20, 2011
In addition to the four major unions, five other bargaining units collectively cover more than 1,100 employees representing nurses, police officers, Information Technology and accounting services, headquarters maintenance employees and machinists.
Contract negotiations for the NRLCA begin Sept. 13, 2010. The NALC and NPMHU begin negotiations next year approximately 90-days prior to the contract expiration date.
USPS, Rural Carriers Union Contract Talks Reach Impasse
Filed under: APWU, contract, postal, postal news, press releases, rural carriers, usps
USPS Press Release
WASHINGTON — Contract negotiations with the American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO (APWU) and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association (NRLCA) expired at midnight Sat., Nov. 20. While negotiations with the NRLCA resulted in an impasse, the Postal Service and the APWU agreed to extend the negotiation deadline until Tue., Nov. 23 at noon ET.
Should APWU negotiations fail as they have with the NRLCA, a process begins which could result in a third party determining contract terms and work rules for more than 324,000 employees whose wages and benefits exceeded $20 billion last year.
Unlike the private sector, when negotiations come to an impasse, Postal employees are not permitted to strike. That’s because Congress designated the Postal Service as an essential service to the nation. An arbitrator determines the final outcome and is not legally required to consider the Postal Service’s financial obligations when rendering a decision.
The drop in the economy coupled with the shift to digital communications has created the greatest loss in mail volume since the Great Depression. Mail volume peaked at 213 billion pieces in 2006 and plummeted to 170.6 billion in the fiscal year (FY) ending Sept. 30. Revenues shrank from $72.6 billion in 2006 to $67.1 billion. The 2010 FY net loss was $8.5 billion. By 2020, mail volume is projected to drop to 150 billion pieces.
To remain strong into the future, the Postal Service needs to control costs through a flexible workforce to adapt to the nation’s changing mailing trends.
The Postal Service operates solely from the sale of stamps and related services without taxpayer subsidy. As a quasi government agency, it deals with the challenges of the private sector while continuing to operate under federal regulations and Congressional oversight.
Reasonable wages and benefits are just one element needed to help the Postal Service fully meet its financial obligations and remain strong in the future.
- Survey data reflects that the public favors 5-day delivery over using taxpayer funds and other alternatives. Adjusting delivery days to better reflect current mail volumes and customer trends can save the Postal Service $3.1 billion annually. The Postal Regulatory Commission is expected to announce its recommendation within the next month. Congress has yet to consider this concept.
- Created in 2006 under stronger economic conditions, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act requires the Postal Service, unlike the private or public sector, to prefund retiree health benefits. This equates to an average of $5.6 billion in cash flow every year through 2016, in addition to the $2 billion it annually pays for current retirees. The Postal Service has asked Congress to restructure retiree health benefits payments to “pay-as-you-go,” comparable to what is used by the rest of the federal government and the majority of the private sector.
- According to an audit conducted by the Postal Service Office of Inspector General, the Postal Service has been overcharged $75 billion to its Civil Service Retirement System pension fund.
The APWU represents 209,000 employees who work as clerks, mechanics, vehicle drivers, custodians and in some administrative positions. Employees represented by the NRLCA primarily deliver mail in rural and suburban areas. The NRLCA represents 67,000 career employees and 48,000 non-career employees who substitute for career employees on their days off.
Two other unions represent most other postal employees. More than 205,000 employees represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO (NALC) deliver mail in metropolitan areas and 48,000 employees represented by the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, AFL-CIO (NPMHU) work in mail processing plants and Post Offices.
The NALC and NPMHU begin negotiations next year approximately 90 days prior to the midnight Nov. 20, 2011 contract expiration date. For additional background information on labor negotiations and the Postal Service’s workforce, please click on these links: Labor Negotiations and Workforce.
APWU Negotiations Contract Extended to Nov. 23; Union, USPS to Continue Talks
APWU President Cliff Guffey announced that the union and Postal Service have extended their Collective Bargaining Agreement through Tuesday, Nov. 23, at noon. The contract was scheduled to expire Nov. 20.
“We do not have a new contract,” Guffey said, “but we believe there is still potential to negotiate an agreement. The union and management will continue to discuss the topics that remain in dispute.”
“Throughout the collective bargaining process, the APWU has sought to protect our members’ jobs,” the union president said. “Restoring work that has been outsourced or assigned to managerial personnel will bring stability to APWU members who have suffered extensive excessing and reassignments,” he said.
“Every proposal we have made to preserve jobs for our members will also benefit the Postal Service, because APWU members can perform the work more efficiently and less expensively than subcontractors,” he said.
“Our proposals are good for the Postal Service and for the American people.”
The terms of the 2006-2010 Collective Bargaining Agreement remain in full force and effect until a new agreement is reached, either through negotiation or binding arbitration.
Under the terms of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, if the union and management fail to reach agreement on a successor contract and do not agree on an alternate procedure, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) appoints a mediator. If agreement is not reached within 60 days of the expiration of the contract, both parties submit all outstanding issues to binding arbitration.
Guffey said the negotiating team is hopeful about the possibility of reaching an agreement.
If arbitration becomes necessary, the APWU will appoint an arbitrator, as will the USPS. The two party-appointed arbitrators will work with a neutral arbitrator to ensure that each side’s interests are clearly understood.
Members of the Rank and File Bargaining Committee, who arrived in Washington, DC, Nov. 14 to be on hand for any late-breaking developments at the bargaining table, will return home, but they will be summoned back to Washington in the event a tentative agreement is reached between the union and the Postal Service.
“The committee serves as an important link between union negotiators and members,” Guffey said. Although the national negotiating team has full authority to negotiate an agreement, the Rank and File Bargaining Committee has the power to veto any tentative agreement between the parties.
If the Rank and File Committee approves a tentative agreement, every APWU member will be given the opportunity to vote to ratify or reject it.
“Important issues are at stake that will affect the more than 220,000 postal employees the APWU represents,” Guffey said. “The negotiating team is committed to achieving a beneficial contract, and asks for the continued support of union members.”
The APWU will continue to provide frequent updates regarding negotiations. For the latest developments at the bargaining table, please visit www.apwu.org. Members are also encouraged to follow the union on Twitter and Facebook to receive up-to-the-minute alerts by e-mail or text message. Click here to learn how.