APWU News
APWU President Cliff Guffey has summoned the union’s Rank and File Bargaining Advisory Committee to Washington, DC for an update on contract negotiations, but he was quick to point out that no tentative agreement has been reached and none appears imminent.
“I am increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress in contract talks,” Guffey said. The Collective Bargaining Agreement, which was set to expire on Nov. 20, 2010, has been extended, and numerous meetings and discussions have been held since then, the union president noted.
“However, six weeks later, management negotiators seem unwilling to make the commitment necessary to reach a negotiated settlement,” he said.
The union president and other members of the APWU negotiating team plan to update members of the Rank and File Committee on the status of negotiations on Jan. 4. The committee is expected to remain in Washington through Jan. 6.
In accordance with the APWU Constitution, each member of the union’s National Executive Board names one person to the committee; a 14th member, appointed by the president, is a representative from the APWU Deaf/Hard of Hearing Task Force. The committee provides input to the union’s National Negotiating Team, and any tentative agreement between the union and management must be approved by a majority of the committee before it can be submitted to APWU members for a ratification vote.
The Postal Service doesn’t care about it’s greatest asset, it’s employees. All management cares about is making themselves look good on paper (regardless of reality) at the expense of the employees. As a MPE, I have been excessed because the geniuses in management think they will save money by moving operations elsewhere. But it cost the same to operate those machines no matter where they are, so being able to show savings in an office that no longer has equipment will get some one a bonus, as long as they don’t see the increase in costs in the other office that the machines were taken to. So why uproot employees and disrupt lives when there is no real savings? I wish the union would put an end to unnecessary excessing instead of telling me how much money they got me.
GET RIDE OF THE IMCOMPETENT MANAGEMENT STAFF THAT HELPED PUT USPS IN THE SHAPE IT IS IN! DAH!
Clear out all this deadwood management, starting at the top.
What a waste of money and resources. I had seriously hoped the show was on the road by now, but it was only kicked to the curb. It looks as if the USPS was stalling, waiting for the Republicans to take their seats. With Issa running the show on the oversight committee, it appears USPS will now get a little help. I say, come on in, clean up the act, do what needs done to bring the USPS to higher standards.
To anyone who has been paying attention to what’s been going on in the Postal Service the last few years or has dealt with management , this should be no surprise. The Postal Service has been playing a no-holds barred hardball P.R. campaign against the employees using false numbers,half-truths, distortions and outright lies to push for privatization by getting the public and public officials to believe there are no customers in line at the post office, plummeting mail volume(used to be declining), too many employees and facilities because everyone is using the internet. Remember Potter with the $238 billion dollar loss projected over the next 10 years? That number was found to be’theoretical”, in essence, made up, but is still repeated as fact. Pat Donahoe released the “figures” that show the average wait time in line is 3 minutes? the 80% labor cost distortion, which makes the public think it’s only the current craft employees that account for that. Potter was put in as PMG to privatize the P.O., and Donahoe will continue that process. The “Postal Reform Act” , which was supported by Congress, Postal Service and major mailers, did nothing but create more deadweight at the top, add a $5.4-5.8 billion dollar payment for retiree health benefits which wasn’t necessary It’s time our national union leaders like Mr. Guffey start playing hardball instead of patty-cake. The fight brewing this year with Rep.Issa in charge is for all the marbles, not only with us, but the whole country. The APWU as well as the other unions better band together an 1., wage a P.R. campaign against the USPS using the MAINSTREAM MEDIA, not just the website, to correct the disinformation coming from headquarters, 2., start a push to REPEAL the Postal Act of 2006, put the Postal Service back to what it was years ago and focus on what it’s suppised to do, collect, process and deliver mail, and provide CUSTOMER SERVICE, not reward incompetence with bonuses and no-bid contracts. Now is the time to fight, and I feel we”ll only get one shot at making our case before we’ll be dismantled in the name of “deficit reduction.”
They dangled the consolidation/closing of plants to be put on hold,in front of all the clerks faces.Now their gonna try and blame the union.But hopefully everyone knows that they never planned on having a negotiated settlement.So hopefully the arbitrators will see this,and do the right thing.The workers of the USPS are not to blame for what has happened.It should fall on L’enflant plaza,and the BOG…
As optomistic as I try to be, I think we all new in our gutts that the USPS wouldn’t seriously negotiate a new contract with us. They want to strip our contract of the no lay-off clause, and we all know that the Union and membership won’t accept that. Thier only chance to get what they want is through an Arbitrator. Their just stalling until the 60 days run out and we are all forced to go to arbitration. Hang in there Cliff, just don’t get your hopes up to high!
Jeffrey Jessup:
You have the right idea about the Postal SERVICE.
The Postal Reorg. Act of 1970 established those ideas into law that governs
today’s USPS.
The USPS does not use US Taxpayer dollars for day to day operations…however
it does go to the US Govt. to BORROW FUNDS.
If the USPS were to be “REABSORBED” as you characterize, it would NOT mean
that the “UNIONS” would be gone. Many agencies have unionized employees.
Overall, I do not believe that making the USPS a FULL FLEDGED US GOVT.
AGENCY again is such a good idea….with the current new CLASS OF CONGRESSMEN in mind, it would seem to me that these folks would unilaterally
reduce the wages of all to GS-2 or GS-3 which, in most cases, IS NOT EVEN A LIVING WAGE IN MOST AREAS OF THE COUNTRY.
If YOU work for the USPS in an URBAN SETTING, then you know what a CASUAL
EMPLOYEE is and what they make per hour WITHOUT benefits….and you might
also have noticed JUST EXACTLY THE QUALITY OF EMPLOYEE THAT YOU GET.
Good luck with that….
Just an opinion, but I do not believe that the USPS ever had wanted to have a
negotiated settlement with the APWU this contract cycle.
Looks like we are going to arbitration. They must be summoning the troops together to make the announcement. Too bad the talks failed.
Just end the talks and go to 3rd party! Although, I’m sure the lawyerS$$$ enjoy the extensions.
The USPS should be looked at as a non profit public service division of the government that is expected to raise enough income from selling postage to not be a drain on the tax payer coffers. It requires a certain number of people to process and deliver mail to every household in America whether they have purchased postage or not becomes a non issue to the duty of the postal employees to complete that mission. Do we ask if the military made a profit last quarter or for that matter any other branch of the government that performs a public service? No, it would not be expected that they would because they are paid as any other government agency is and the cost is never debated in any public forum, to be criticized for not being self sufficient. If the public and congress wants the USPS to not show such big losses then they need to change the accountability of the agency. Maybe the day is drawing near that the USPS needs to be put back on the regular government agency status and their payroll plus other overhead expenses be treated as any other government agency and not reported as a profit loss situation. Everyone would have to be moved over to the GS pay scale and the unions would be gone but I think the USPS would continue performing the mission without the burden of trying to pretend to be a business but not having the freedom to be one. As long as they moved the workers parallel so as to not drastically effect pay or benefits, life would continue and the public would be served the same. Currently the agency share of the benefits is contracted at a greater cost to the USPS for each employee but that could be made up to the employee in the pay scale conversion. The feds could decide, as they do already, the correct amount to charge for postage and the public would still be served. Let all the revenue collected in postage go to help offset the deficit and the agency cost would be paid out like any other agency in the government who served the public.