It’s Official! APWU, USPS Sign New Contract

APWU Web News Article 062-2011, May 23, 2011

APWU President Cliff Guffey and Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe have signed the 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement. Their signatures formalize the new contract, which was ratified by APWU members on May 11.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe and APWU President Cliff Guffey sign the union's 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Postal Service.
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe and APWU President Cliff Guffey sign the union’s 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Postal Service.

“I am pleased that we were able to negotiate a contract that will strengthen the Postal Service for the future and protect the job security of union members,” Guffey said.

A permanent printed version of the contract will be finalized soon. The union will post a notice on www.apwu.org when it is available. Two chartsshowing the effective dates of various provisions of the contract are posted. One chart is organized by topic [PDF]; the other is organized by date [PDF].

“Now it is time for the members of Congress to do their part and correct the funding inequities that are driving the Postal Service toward insolvency,” Guffey said. “I encourage every APWU member to contact their senators and representative and ask them to take action now.”

Pending Legislation

The APWU supports H.R. 1351, a bill introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), which instructs the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to recalculate USPS payments to its pension accounts using updated methodology. Independent actuarial studies have concluded that as a result of improper funding formulas, the USPS has overpaid the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) by $50 billion to $75 billion. Overpayments to the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) are estimated at $6.9 billion.

Under the terms of H.R. 1351, if overpayments are found during OPM’s recalculation, the surplus would be transferred to the Postal Service. OPM would also be required to refund the USPS any money it overpaid to its FERS account. The Postal Service could then use this money to meet its pre-funding requirements.

A similar bill, S. 1010, introduced by Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), would permit the USPS to use overpayments to its pension accounts to meet obligations to pre-fund the healthcare liabilities of future retirees, but it also contains several negative provisions. The proposed legislation would give the Postal Service authority to close post offices solely for financial reasons, and would require arbitrators to consider the financial health of the USPS when contract negotiations end in arbitration. The APWU will continue to work with senators and their staff to address the issues in this measure that are of concern to our members.

source: APWU

9 thoughts on “It’s Official! APWU, USPS Sign New Contract

  1. @ Zack, you know why you will never get a physically crippling injury from your job that you do? 1st- most clerk jobs are- pussy work!! 2ND – don’t do much physically, how do u get hurt pushing a damn button?/ loading a ledge?? sitting on your a$$.. I think most of you clerks are over paid for what u do/don’t do. Who really MOVES the MAIL?? Just saying!! in one sentence u bash the USPS, then u change your tune.. you’re so anti-Government! why do u work for the Government????

  2. The USPS and APWU wrote a CBA that would preserve their own financial futures. They were not concerned about the financial burdens of the employees. That is America in this time and age. Everyone for themselves. Get used to it! Everyone believes were overpaid. To some extent I must agree. Having worked in the construction industry prior to the USPS, a laborer would get minimum wage (approx. $7.00 per hour) to dig ditches with a hand shovel, in the blistering sun. In the USPS you get about $25.00 per hour to process mail, in an air conditioned building, with decent working conditions in place for the employees. That’s why I took this job. Were else could I get paid that much without physically crippling myself over a short period of time. I voted “No” on the new CBA because we “GAVE” too much away. But at the end of the day, I still live good! It’s all in your perspective. Think negatively all the time, and you will be miserable. I’ll will try to continue to focus on the positives rather than the negatives, and flow with the punches.

  3. Wish Burrus would have been in office until the last contract was done. It is great to hear his feelings and I agree with him, the APWU sold members out without caring enough to fight more, and hold onto what they could. Seems like APWU negotiating reps were either only out for themselves and or working both sides of the fence. Who better to have on USPS side, than union reps working together on their side. Things can never be put back and will only get worse from here. What is USPS really saving, more money for other crafts, more money for higher management? Makes me mad how stupid people are voting for things they didn’t understand more about and only taking what certain APWU union reps say at face value. When APWU showed “they settle for less” whether it got passed or not, we were royally screwed no matter what because APWU showed their loyalty was taking less. No matter what we gave them, which was way too much in this case, Issa and his henchman say it was too lenient. No matter what, they would say it was too lenient.. They don’t care and do not have to have their wages cut, lowered, reduced

  4. We gave up COLA’s for 2011, a year with $4 gas. That was $862 this month and more in Nov.
    We’ll be the lowest paid Craft starting next year, and the future looks worse.
    If Burrus was so concerned about our future then why did he retire just before the beginning of our most difficult Contract negotiations of our Unions history.

  5. This contrsct is the most one sided selfish giveaway in the history of labor negotiations. I don’t know how the membership could approve this as it is the end of the Postal Service as a career job.
    Who can live on a $12 dollar an hour salary?
    Who can live with a daily work schedule that forces you to work anywhere fromn 4 to 12 hours a day in one day? What kind of a life is this?

    How did the AFL-CIO appoint Cliff Guffey to be their Vice-Pres. with a contract like this?

    The APWU has given away their future and the future of all the possible future employees and the union as a whole will not survive into the future with this.

    The membership shoule have listened to Bill Burress when they had the chance!

  6. This contract will be viewed in 2015, when the APWU goes back to the table, as the good old days. In 2015, there will be no guarantee against layoffs, no pay raises or COLA of any kind, TSP matching funds will be eliminated, we’ll pay much more for health care. This is not doom and gloom but a sober look at the state of the USPS.

    Truth is brothers and sisters, we are all part of a business model that is being passed by the communications revolution sweeping the whole world…passed by like the invention of the automobile left those in the horse and buggy business bankrupt.

    Be grateful for this contract. Thank your APWU for getting all the positives in it and understand why some of the negatives were inevitable.

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