On May 6, 2022, Clerk Craft Director Lamont Brooks and the Postal Service agreed to extend the MOU, Re: Bulk Mail and Mailing Requirement Clerk Position Qualification. The extension will continue through November 4, 2022. The parties had originally agreed to the MOU on April 3, 2020 in order to provide a virtual learning and OJT program for Bulk Mail Techs and Mailing Requirement Clerks (MRCs) “at the location where the Bulk Mail Tech or MRC position is located”.

            The MOU further states, “The parties at the National Level will review the in-person training program offered at the National Center for Employee Development (NCED), including the material content and schedule”. Both parties will not only be able to review the training program but will also compare the training with the actual duties performed in these jobs to ensure Bulk Mail Techs and MRCs are receiving the appropriate training commensurate with their position descriptions.

            The MOU also states, “This agreement is without prejudice to the positions of the parties on any issue and shall not be cited in any dispute resolution proceedings, except for the purpose of enforcing its terms”.

            Clerk Craft Director Brooks stated, “I want to thank Assistant Directors Lynn Pallas-Barber and Sam Lisenbe for their hard work on these important issues”.

The extension of the MOU is linked with this article for easier access.

On May 6, 2022, APWU Clerk Craft Director Lamont Brooks agreed to extend the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding Telework for Clerk Craft Employees at Customer Care Centers, Customer Retention Teams, and the Mailing Shipping Solution Center (MSSC, i.e., Mailing Requirements Clerks) until June 17, 2022. However, the Postal Service would not agree to extend Consumer Affairs employees (Claims & Inquiry Clerks and Complaints & Inquiry Clerks) for inclusion in this MOU. Their duties while working from home could not be tracked accurately by the USPS. Therefore, employees in these two categories will return to their duty stations, effective May 7, 2022.

During this approximate month and a half extension, the APWU and Postal Service will discuss and attempt to finalize a Telework Program Pilot Agreement for employees at Customer Care Centers, Customer Retention Teams, and Mailing Requirements Clerks. The MOU states, “Once the Telework Program Pilot Agreement is finalized, or no later than June 17, 2022, this MOU will expire, unless the parties at the national level agree to extend. If agreement on a teleworking pilot cannot be reached, the parties will work together on a transition plan to return the employees to their official duty stations as soon as reasonably possible”.

            “It is the Clerk Division’s intention, long term, to protect our work from contracting out while also protecting the rights and benefits of all employees,” Director Brooks explained, “while taking into consideration many employees’ desire to voluntarily work from home”. The extension of the MOU is linked with this article for easier access.

The implementation of the 2021-2024 Collective Bargaining Agreement is moving forward. With ratification of the agreement on February 28, the provisions of the agreement went into effect. The membership of the union has already seen the effect of some of those provisions. For example, work or pay guarantees the for Part-time Flexible (PTF) employees to include the four (4) hour daily work or pay guarantee and the 24-hour per pay period work or pay guarantee are in effect. The guaranteed one day off per week for PTFs is also in effect along with many other provisions of the agreement. 

As previously announced, the pay provisions of the agreement are being programmed and will begin to be paid in pay period 13 which starts on June 4, 2022 and show on the paychecks received on June 24, 2022. This would include the 1.3% due to career employees from November 2021, the 2.3% due to Postal Support Employees (PSEs) from November 2021, the $1310 per annum COLA due to career employees on February 26, 2022, extra pay for PTFs due to the Juneteenth holiday, and the additional 50 cents per hour for PSEs. Beginning pay period 14, starting on June 18, 2022, the slotting of the additional steps and elimination of steps for Grade 8 employees will begin as well. Of course, once that is all in place the Postal Service will be able to provide the date of the retro-active pay that will be owed the employees. It is important to note that the retroactive pay will take time to calculate and will be paid later in the year.  

One significant provision of the agreement goes into effect on April 23, 2022. PSEs who have reached 24 months of relative standing within their installation (Level 4 RMPOs excluded) will be converted to career employees. They will be converted to a PTF in Level 20 and below offices or to Full-time Flexible (FTF) in Level 21 and above offices. This is a significant step forward for the non-career workforce. Guaranteed Conversion!  

The Postal Service has provided approximately 1,200 names of PSEs who will be converted on April 23, 2022. During negotiations, it was estimated that the conversions under this provision would be closer to 2000, however, through the other conversion mechanisms of the Clerk Craft Residual MOU, conversion agreed to through national MOUs, and through the hard work of dedicated representatives in the grievance process, many of the PSEs estimated to be converted were converted prior to April 23, 2022. This proves that the contract is working well to get conversions prior to the 24-month provision that is a stop-gap to ensure PSEs are converted.  

The APWU believes more than the 1,200 conversions should be taking place and we have provided a list of names to the Postal Service that have been identified in the data we have that should be converted. We are seeking clarification on those names and making sure that no one who should be converted is missed. Data review and conversations with the Postal Service are continuing to take place to make sure everyone due to be converted is converted.  

The 2021-2024 Collective Bargaining Agreement took a big step forward for the wages, hours, and working conditions for hundreds of thousands APWU members. It is a contract that can be built upon in the future and a contract that protect rights and benefits fought for over decades of collective bargaining. 

The Union victory today of Amazon workers in the Staten Island, NY warehouse is exciting and great news. In addition, the too-close-to-call election results at the Bessemer, Alabama Amazon warehouse is also encouraging news 

The 8,000 workers at the Amazon Warehouse in Staten Island NY voted “union yes” by joining a new independent union, the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). 

In an outstanding example of independent self-organization, workers prevailed against a massive, multi-millionaire dollar anti-union campaign of coercion, threats and intimidation.  

The Amazon workers, led by Christian Smalls, who was fired for leading a walk out over lack of COVID safety protocols two years ago, were not to be denied. They drew important lessons from the pandemic – workers must organize to have dignity, respect and safe working conditions.  They were undoubtedly encouraged by the wave of new worker militancy around the country as well as growing public support for unions. And they were rightfully fed up with a company raking in billions in profits while refusing to share the wealth created by the workers’ labor.  

The APWU welcomes this news - the first union beachhead in the battle for workers’ rights against a massive, anti-union company and their greedy billionaire executives. It is a powerful first step which will undoubtedly serve as an inspiration to the one million U.S. Amazon workers who need a union to win better wages, benefits, workplace safety and a true voice at work.   

The organized labor movement should unite and build a multi-union crusade to help organize Amazon workers throughout the country. We should help propel the movement forward, whether Amazon workers choose to join an established union such as the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) in Alabama, or others, or if they organize new independent initiatives such as the ALU in Staten Island.  

We salute the determination of the Amazon workers in Staten Island and Bessemer, AL in standing up to their bosses.  

Unionization at Amazon holds a special significance for postal workers who work in the same mail/package/delivery industry.  When one group of workers rises, we all rise. 

The APWU stands ready to assist the newly organized workers in Staten Island in any way we can in the coming and challenging battle to win a good first union contract and stands ready to work with all Amazon workers and all unions in building Amazon workers’ power at Amazon.

APWU President Mark Dimondstein has announced the winners of the union’s tentative agreement ratification participation contest. The challenge, intended to encourage participation in the ratification process, offered rewards to locals that were most successful in mobilizing APWU members to vote. 

The contest provided that the top three locals in several categories would be rewarded, with the categories based on the size of the local. The program stipulated that any local that achieved 100 percent participation would be rewarded, and to be eligible, locals must have reached voting levels of at least 50 percent. 

In the category of 1-49 members, four (4) active locals had 100% percent participation, and each will be awarded $200. They are: 

In the 500–999-member category, there was only one (1) local eligible for the $2,000 award:

Trenton Metropolitan Area Local 51.1%

Unfortunately, no other category qualifies for an incentive award.

Results can be found at this link in the Member’s Only section, and were provided by the American Arbitration Association, which conducted the balloting under the supervision of the Rank-and-File Bargaining Advisory Committee.