Apwu133

HAVE YOU BEEN IMPACTED BY U.S. POSTAL SERVICE DELAYS? Senator Manchin strongly opposes cuts to any USPS services in West Virginia and wants to hear your opinion on this important matter. Please consider taking a quick, anonymous survey to help us understand how future changes would affect you. TAKE THE SURVEY

"American Postal Workers Union Local 133 was informed this morning, by local media outlets, the USPS has finalized its plan to transfer outgoing mail processing operations to Pittsburgh, PA and Warrendale PA. While it is to no surprise the regurgitated language specified in this release seems to be positive, postal employees across the United States know otherwise. The 10-year Delivering for America Plan is failing you the customer. Recent OIG reports show Texas, Virginia, Georgia and Missouri are all facing backlogs and delays with transportation and mail processing. These reports show mail sitting in trailers for up to two months and financial costs far exceeding the original operational plan before its change. These reports are far from the promised streamlined processing and delivery you have been promised by the service. We want to let our customers and union members know; President Brown and I will continue fighting this consolidation to the fullest extent our contractual provisions allow. We request that members of the public continue to contact their Senators, Congressmen and Congresswomen in opposition to this now planned change." Tim Holstein Vice President APWU Local 133 Charleston, WV

The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA or union contract) between the APWU and the USPS sets the wages, hours, rights, benefits, job security, and working conditions of APWU-represented postal workers. The current contract expires on Sept. 20, 2024, and preparations are already underway with the official negotiation period beginning this June. The APWU national negotiating team is guided by formal resolutions that are passed by various local and state organizations, and are debated and voted on at our national conventions. We encourage you to work with your local or state union leadership regarding this formal resolution process. However, we also want to hear from each and every one of you. APWU has opened our contract survey so that you can let us know what your priorities are for a new union contract. Please fill out the survey by visiting apwu.org/survey. Alternatively, you can text the word “SURVEY” to 91990 to receive a link to participate in the survey on a mobile device. Contract negotiations are challenging, as management always tries to chip away at our rights, wages, and benefits. Our union is always pushing forward to improve the well-being and job security of postal workers across the country. Please take five minutes to complete the survey and help the APWU negotiate the best contract that we can in 2024! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Q5YKS6H

March 2024 NPC Report Industrial Relations.pdf

In accordance with the 2021-2024 Collective Bar­gaining Agreement, career employees represented by the APWU will receive a $0.17 per hour cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), effective March 9, 2024. The increase is the result of a rise in the Consum­er Price Index (CPI-W), and will appear in paychecks dated March 29, 2024 (Pay Period 07-2024). The COLA for full-time employees in each step and grade will amount to $354.00 annually, and the hourly rates for part-time employ­ees will be adjusted accordingly. COLAs are separate and in addition to general wage increases. This is the fifth cost-of-living increase under the 2021 contract. The first increase, effective in February 2022, amounted to $0.63 per hour or $1,310.00 annually. The second, effective in August 2022 was $1.18 per hour or $2,455.00 annually. The third, effective in March 2023, was $0.10 per hour, or $208.00 annually. The fourth, effective August 26, 2023, was 0.48 per hour, or $998.00 annually. The total cumulative COLAs received so far during the 2021-2024 National Agreement is $2.56 per hour, or $5,325.00 annually. Though Postal Support Employees (PSEs) do not receive cost-of-living increases, they have received several additional increases beyond the general wage increases for all employees in the APWU bargaining unit under the 2021 contract. However, when PSEs convert to career, the COLA increases are also included in their base wages going forward. Rising inflation underscores the importance of our negotiated Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs) within our union contract, made possible by the strength of our membership. COLAs are our best protection against inflation. Postal Workers are some of the few U.S. workers who receive COLA increases. Even in the postal world, we are the only postal union that has maintained full COLA in our union contract. “Once again, union-won COLAs prove how invaluable our contractual rights are to postal workers and our families,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “We will continue to fight to maintain full COLA provisions in our upcoming contract.” We will update this article with pay chart information as it becomes available.

“The Postal Service recently decided to change the Public Meeting date to February 14, at 6:30 pm at the Charleston Civic Center. APWU Local 133 has been inundated with support from local businesses and customers. We have received numerous calls with questions asking why the Postal Service chose this day, when Feb 12 and 13 were available to have the meeting in the same location. The only answer we have is THEY DONT WANT YOU THERE! The union has said from the very beginning, the publics voice is strong, and the postal service does not want to hear it! Please join us at the informational picket at 5pm Tuesday Feb 13 at the Charleston Main Post Office and AGAIN on Valentines Day at the public meeting! We will have over $500 in gift cards to give out in a drawing for all that sign up and attend the meeting. Please feel free to share the above flyer with as many people as you can, and once again, Thank You for helping us fight to keep YOUR mail in West Virginia!” Tim Holstein Vice President APWU Local 133 Charleston, WV

Initial Findings Document Mail Processing Facility Review Charleston P&DC in South Charleston, WV 1/30/2024 As part of a $40 billion investment strategy to upgrade and improve the Postal processing, transportation, and delivery networks, the U.S. Postal Service announced that it is conducting an evaluation of current operations and potential future uses of its Charleston Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC) facility in South Charleston, WV. The USPS ten-year Delivering for America (DFA) plan includes initiatives to improve organizational and operational processes and actively make the Postal Service an efficient, high-performing, world class logistics and delivery provider. Improvements to Postal operations will enhance the level of service provided to the public; drive innovation and enable a broader array of postal products and services; enhance organizational competitiveness; improve efficiency and lower the cost to operate; and provide better workplaces and careers for Postal Service employees. This specific facility review will inform the best allocation of resources and strategies to improve customer service and to achieve significant cost savings through operational precision and efficiency. Business mail entry, Post Office, station, and branch retail services are not expected to change, and delivery services will be unaffected throughout this review. The evaluation is a first step in the Postal Service review and investment process in this facility and will not result in this facility’s closure or career employee layoffs. This ongoing review was initiated to evaluate what role the facility will take in the redesigned postal network and to assess potentially moving some of the mail processing operations from the Charleston P&DC to the Pittsburgh P&DC in Pittsburgh, PA and Pennwood Place P&DC in Warrendale, PA. Below are initial findings from the study: Facility Future The initial results of the facility review support the business case for keeping the Charleston P&DC open and modernizing the facility as a Local Processing Center (LPC) with simplified processes and standardized layouts. The South Charleston LPC will be a critical node to the unified movement of mail and packages across the regional processing and transportation ecosystem in a logically sequenced manner and will benefit from the expanding services the Postal Service plans to deploy to increase its revenue and enhance its role in this community. The facility will offer expanded and streamlined package processing and distribution capabilities in the local market and new workplace amenities for USPS employees. It is anticipated that the facility will maintain the following destinating operations once converted to the LPC: · Destinating Packages · Destinating Letters and Flats · Manual Letters and Flats · Express · Business Mail Entry Unit (BMEU) The LPC will also be fitted with state-of-the-art sorting equipment that will improve delivery services. We plan to operate the following sorting equipment in this facility: · 10 Delivery Bar Code Sorter (DBCS) · 2 DBCS Input Output Subsystem (DIOSS) · 1 Automated Flat Sorting Machine 100 (AFSM 100) · 1 High Speed Tray Sorter (HSTS) · 1 Low-Cost Reject Encoding Machine (LCREM) · 1 Single Induction Package Sorter (SIPS) · 1 Flex Rover Sorter (FRS) The improvements for this facility will result in up to $11 million in investments for modernization efforts and deferred maintenance investments. On the workroom floor, lighting will be upgraded with LEDs, flooring will be repaired and refinished, impediments to open process flow will be removed, and dock areas will be generally rehabilitated. Employee amenities will be refreshed with renovation to restrooms, lockers, and break areas. Parking lots will be repaired and renovated in preparation of both Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDVs), as well as Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs). Where BEVs will be deployed, we will be upgrading and developing the electrical infrastructure necessary to power the rollout of BEVs into our delivery fleet. New mail and processing equipment investments totaling $7M: · 1 Flex Rover Sorter (FRS) · 1 High Speed Tray Sorter (HSTS) · 1 Single Induction Package Sorter (SIPS) Additionally, the business case supports transferring mail processing outgoing operations to the Pittsburgh P&DC and Pennwood Place P&DC. Currently, a majority of mail and packages are destined outside of the Charleston area to the rest of the world. Finally, the consolidation of plant operations will allow the South Charleston LPC to be collocated with a Sorting and Delivery Center (S&DC). These new facilities are comprised of repurposed facilities and will provide faster and more reliable mail and package delivery over a greater geographic area. S&DCs will be fitted with new package sorting equipment and enable customer service and local commerce opportunities for Same Day or Next Day delivery. They will also have renovated bathrooms and breakrooms for Postal Service employees. In addition, S&DCs will have the infrastructure needed to support the deployment of the Postal Service’s new electric delivery trucks and the charging stations needed to power them. Replacing the Postal Service’s more than thirty-year-old vehicles will allow the organization to significantly reduce carbon emissions, increase safety and reliability, and provide more comfortable delivery vehicles to letter carriers. The S&DC that will be collocated with the South Charleston LPC will have 138 delivery routes that are eligible to be serviced by BEVs. Based on the average deployment numbers at S&DCs, new vehicle investment in BEVs and infrastructure is approximately $5M per site. The Postal Service plans to invest between $20M and $30M into the South Charleston LPC as we prepare the facility to serve as an important contributor to operations in today’s economy and far into the future. Postal Employees NOTE: There will be no career employee layoffs as part of this initiative. The numbers presented here reflect data available as of October 6, 2023, and are subject to change until the completion of the facility review. Our ongoing analysis will include quantifying the time it will take to refurbish the facility and prepare it for the services and functions as an LPC and quantifying the appropriate workforce necessary to efficiently staff the LPC. We expect that the increase in these services and functions may require additional employment positions which could mitigate some of the reductions identified below. Due to the transfer of outgoing operations, an estimated net decrease of 24 craft and 1 management positions are projected once the initiative is completed. All bargaining employee reassignments will be made in accordance with the respective collective bargaining agreements. The Postal Service has made a commitment to ensuring there is a clear path for our pre career employees to obtain fulltime positions, as evidenced by our newly negotiated contract provisions and making automatic conversions to stabilize our workforce. This has culminated in 165,798 pre career employees being converted to career over the past three years. Our pre career workforce is a valuable employee category that provides us necessary operational flexibility leading to efficiencies. Like all employers who have a flexible employee category, there is a higher turnover rate with these employees, providing us the opportunity to both capture savings by rightsizing our workforce when making long overdue operational changes and avoiding any career layoffs. Estimated Cost Savings Proposed savings in the draft MPFR analysis are ultimately projected to be $6.5M - $8.9M annually once the initiative is completed. Below is a breakdown of this savings estimate: · Annual Transportation Savings $4.9M - $6.6M · Annual Maintenance Savings $1.0M - $1.4M · Annual Mail Processing Savings $590K - $790K · Annual Management Savings $90K - $120K Local Customer Considerations · Retail and other services currently available will not change · Business mail acceptance will remain the same · A local postmark will continue to be available at retail post offices · Delivery times of mail to residences and businesses should not change because of the review Commercial Mailers · Mailers who presort mail will continue to receive appropriate postage discounts · Mailers who drop ship to a Destination Sectional Center Facility (DSCF) can expect no changes, if the MPFR is approved Please go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/mpfr-charleston-wv to submit written comments. All written comments must be received by February 29, 2024.

LettertoPostMAsterDeJoy.pdf

“Today, members of the public and the media were able to witness what Postal Service workers across America face every day. A lack of respect for its employees, and now YOU, the public! Local union officials have persistently reached out to the Postal Service in efforts to obtain information they were to release on January 23, 2024, to no avail. Numerous grievances have been filed throughout this MPFR process due to the Postal Services inability to abide by their handbooks and manuals that govern such movement. We will continue to work with our elected officials, the AFL-CIO and affiliate unions in the state to fight the Postal Service plans on moving your mail to Pittsburgh to be processed. The public survey is still available to take, and we encourage everyone to do so.” Tim Holstein Vice President APWU Local 133 Charleston, WV