The Postal Reform bill will place the United States Postal Service on the path toward financial stability by repealing the onerous and financially debilitating pre-funding mandate, ensuring six-day delivery, adding much-needed transparency to postal operations, and maximizing participation in Medicare — a program which the Postal Service and its employees have contributed over $34 billion toward — by enacting prospective Medicare integration. Postal Reform is fair to active and retired postal workers and is a crucial development in the fight to preserve and strengthen our Postal Service. Click here for APWU’s Q&A on Postal Reform to learn more.

“The American Postal Workers Union extends our appreciation to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, and Ranking Member James Comer—all of whom made forward movement on this bill a reality,” said APWU Legislative and Political Director Judy Beard.

APWU’s Legislative and Political Department is proud of the work carried out by APWU members, the other postal unions, community organizations, and our allies for the efforts leading up to House passage of this bill. “Thanks to our collective efforts, we are closer than ever to securing the most pivotal piece of postal legislation in generations,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein.

The bill now moves to the Senate where the “Postal Reform Act (PRSA)” has already received bi-partisan support. It’s taken years of effort to get this far. Now we need to raise our collective voices to make sure the Senate moves quickly to pass the PSRA and send it to President Biden’s desk. The APWU is urging all postal workers and our allies to call our senators and urge them to vote ‘yes’ on Postal Reform to strengthen the public Postal Service.

CALL YOUR SENATOR’S OFFICE AT 844-402-1001 AND URGE THEM TO PASS THE POSTAL SERVICE REFORM ACT.

The 2021-2024 Tentative Agreement that was included in the ratification packet can now be viewed and downloaded here: 2021-2024 Tentative Agreement--Ratification Packet Version | American Postal Workers Union (apwu.org).

Upon ratification, a final print version will be jointly agreed to, reviewed, and proofread with the Postal Service. Once this process is completed official copies will be printed and an electronic version will be made available for download on the website. 

DOWNLOAD THE TA

On January 28, 2022, the American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO reached a settlement agreement with the Postal Service on the Safety Ambassador Program. The case was scheduled to be heard in national arbitration on February 3rd and 4th. However, with the settlement, the hearings were cancelled.

On October 26, 2017, the APWU was informed that the old Safety Captain Program would be standardized into a nationally controlled program called the Safety Ambassador Program. The APWU demanded to meet with the Postal Service over the new program and objected to it. The new program was created unilaterally by the Postal Service in violation of Article 19 and the Union’s Article 1 rights to be the exclusive representative of the bargaining units represented by the APWU.

Specifically, objections were raised regarding how the ambassadors were to be appointed, that “verbal” safety reports be made instead of the PS Form 1767 process, how the program would usurp the contractual Joint Labor Management Safety and Health Committees, and how the ambassadors would be responsible for observing co-workers and reporting their actions to management. In March of 2018, a national dispute was initiated on the program after our meetings with the Postal Service failed to produce any meaningful results. An article on this dispute was posted at the time the dispute was initiated. 

As full and complete settlement of the dispute, the Postal Service agreed to permanently suspend and withdraw the Safety Ambassador Program. This includes any guidelines, manuals, or training that the Postal Service attempted to introduce with the program. 

Thanks to the hard work of the National Officers (Lynn Pallas-Barber, Terry Martinez, and Jason Trier) assigned to Article 14, Industrial Relations Department staff, and our attorneys, the APWU was able to successfully fend off the Safety Ambassador Program.  

A copy of the settlement can be found here: Safety Ambassador Settlement.

The canvasses will open on the 1st and 15th of each month and will remain open for 10 days. Employees are to use their EIN and password to login to eReassign.usps.com and search the My 50-Mile Canvass section. If offices are posted within a 50-mile radius of an employee’s current office, they will be allowed to apply for that specific canvass. At that point, the PTF and/or PSE will be able to apply and then be required to follow the remaining steps in eReassign to complete the process.

It should be noted that this canvass process is based on the current 2018-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and the provisions of the aforementioned MOU, which is on Pages 374-378. If the tentative CBA is approved by the membership, the negotiated changes to this MOU will then be implemented.

Clerk Division Director Lamont Brooks signed a settlement agreement to resolve the outstanding issue of the remedy in Case # Q10C-4Q-C 15174956. This issue remained pending based on the decision of Arbitrator Goldberg’s April 21, 2017 arbitration award. The parties were unable to resolve the remedy issue and the matter was rescheduled for January 19-20 2022 before Arbitrator Goldberg. As a result of the award, the Postal Service posted Level-7 Human Resources (HR) Clerk Craft and Training Technician duty assignments on September 17, 2017. The monetary portion of the award, the ripple effect, and the dispute over the Training Technician jobs posted for application remained unresolved.

This settlement agreement resolves those outstanding settlement issues.

“I congratulate Clerk Craft Director Lamont Brooks and everyone involved in the success of this case,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “It is another important union victory in protecting Clerk Craft work and Clerk Craft jobs.”

“This settlement agreement enforces the rightful gain of the 2010 Collective Bargaining Agreement Clerk Craft Jobs MOU which required the Postal Service to create an additional eight hundred (800) administrative and technical jobs to the APWU bargaining unit”, stated Lamont Brooks. 

Brooks further stated, “It also provides for a minimum of an additional fifty-four (54) newly created duty assignments, involving various government service, which is essential to expanding the craft work opportunities, as it relates to new products and services.”

The settlement agreement memorializes the “ripple effect” issued by Goldberg dating back to August 1, 2013, grants out-of-schedule pay to the successful bidder or employees awarded the bids, make whole in pay levels differences, and a make whole remedy for PSE conversions to career. 

Some of the highlights of this settlement agreement are as follows:

1.    The monetary remedy for the Clerk Craft Jobs MOU will be administered at the national level. Within 14-days the USPS will provide the APWU with the list of employees who were awarded the HR Clerk and Training Technician duty assignments. This list will also include the successful bidders on subsequent vacancies up to an including PSE conversion.
2.    No later than 60 days the parties will identify the make-whole for those employees identified above.
3.    Any reversion grievances that were filed related to subsequent vacancies will be processed in accordance with Article 15. The parties at the national level will identify the appropriate payee and monetary remedy based on cases adjudicated in the Union’s favor.
4.    In accordance with Article 19 within 90 days, the USPS will create new Clerk Craft job descriptions and qualification standards related to handling various government services.
5.    The USPS will establish and post a minimum of 54 new duty assignments as agreed to in #4 above by 9/31/22.

“I would like to thank Assistant Clerk Division Director Lynn Pallas-Barber who was the officer assigned to the initial dispute, Assistant Clerk Division Director Sam Lisenbe, and Michael Barrett of the Buffalo Area Local for their valuable assistance,” stated Clerk Division Director, Lamont Brooks.