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.

(This article first appeared in the January/February 2022 issue of the American Postal Worker magazine)

One of the greatest gifts ever given to postal workers was not one delivered by Santa. It is our right to collective bargaining over our wages, benefits and conditions of employment. It was won and passed on to us by the courageous actions of our foremothers and forefathers in the Great Postal Strike of 1970! It is these hard-won rights that laid the foundation for the GOOD NEWS of our new tentative Collective Bargaining Agreement, our Union Contract.

The new “Tentative Agreement” (TA) is very positive and achieves many of the union’s goals: annual wage increases, continuation of full Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA), more opportunities for conversion to career status, addressing the needs of PTFs and protecting job security. It represents advances for every group of APWU-represented workers and every single member.

I am extremely pleased the TA has the unanimous approval of the National Negotiations Committee and the support of the National Executive Board. The TA received the unanimous approval of the Rank-and-File Bargaining Advisory Committee for a membership ratification vote.

Since many of the pages of this magazine will delve into details of the TA, I will simply share some observations. First, unlike management of non-union workplaces who are free to dictate almost every aspect of employment, postal management must meet us at the bargaining table and negotiate over wages, benefits and working conditions. Provided the union leadership organizes, mobilizes and unifies the membership and community allies and refuses to engage in concessionary bargaining, the results of collective bargaining are a "gift" that indeed keeps on giving.

Second, the success of negotiations comes down to building and exercising power and leverage. Our power begins with you, the member, and is amplified through the union activism of thousands of postal workers. The contract campaign many of you participated in included a strong “kick off” rally, union gear days, buttons/stickers, and “talking” union. All these activities helped send the message to management, from the workroom floor to postal headquarters, that postal workers are united in the struggle for a good contract. The APWU and its leadership has established itself as a strong force to be reckoned with. That was reflected in the outcome of these negotiations.

Third, management and the union generally have opposing goals. The union strives to advance the general well-being of postal workers and the cause of all labor. Since we are not negotiating with ourselves, hammering out an agreement is always difficult. This holds true even when postal management comes to the negotiating table in good faith, as they did in this round of bargaining. We should judge the results of any TA in its entirety.

Fourth, planning is vital to success. Led by our chief spokesperson, Industrial Relations Director Vance Zimmerman, immense preparation and coordination went into negotiations. Economic analysis on wage trends, assessing the history of collective bargaining, research of other union contracts, study of Convention resolutions, development of proposals, and much internal discussion and debate within the negotiating committee took place over the last year and more. Throughout this process the Craft Directors, members of the negotiating committee, officers and union staff worked extremely hard and effectively in the necessary planning and preparation, as well as in the negotiations themselves. Kudos to a job well done!

Lastly, I am extremely honored to have been your lead negotiator and proud to have worked alongside the entire negotiating committee. In addition to myself and Vance Zimmerman, the committee included Executive Vice President Debby Szeredy, Secretary-Treasurer Liz Powell, Clerk Craft Director Lamont Brooks, Motor Vehicle Service Craft Director Michael Foster, Maintenance Craft Director Idowu Balogun and Support Services Director Stephen Brooks.

Throughout the battle, you, the member, proudly stayed “Union Strong All Day Long!” The ratification vote is now up to you. Our negotiating team encourages you to let your voice be heard and urges you to “Vote Yes!”

The Biden Administration has announced a program to mail at-home COVID test kits to every household that requests them. These kits could be mailed to as many as 160 million addresses. APWU members will be critical to the success of the program. 

“The APWU is excited and fully supports this plan,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “It is in the interests of the health and wellbeing of the general population as this dangerous pandemic continues. It underscores the invaluable role of the public Postal Service in the lives of the people. It shines a light on the importance of maintaining universal service to every address and person. It opens up the opportunity for similar expanded ‘fulfillment’ work in the future.”

APWU President Mark Dimondstein, Industrial Relations Director Vance Zimmerman and Clerk Craft Director Lamont Brooks jointly worked with the Postal Service to secure a Memorandum of Understanding that defines the project as “new work” and ensures that the “fulfillment” work associated with packaging and labeling the packages for this temporary project is determined as clerk work. At the same time, the MOU gives the USPS the flexibility to keep holiday temporary workers on the rolls so as to increase the workforce capacity to make this project a success.  The fulfillment work will be performed at 43 existing postal facilities throughout the country.

“APWU-represented clerk craft bargaining unit employees boldly accept the ‘new work’ opportunity to fulfill the distribution of the COVID test kits authorized by the Biden Administration’s call to action,” said Clerk Craft Director Lamont Brooks. “This is just another example of clerks, as part of the Postal Service institution, rising to the challenge of connecting the public during these difficult times while still carrying out our mission of processing the mail.”

“This is an amazing opportunity to once again show the American people that we are here to serve them and how important the Postal Service is to this country. This proves we are ready and able to offer expanded services” stated Industrial Relations Director Vance Zimmerman.

The APWU is ready to do our part. It will be up to the Biden Administration to ensure that the necessary number of test kits are quickly manufactured and that the ordering process for these kits is easily accessible for the people.