Recent editorial on Tentative Agreement by former APWU President Bill Burrus:
In closely guarded statements, postal management has struggled to conceal its total satisfaction with the tentative agreement. In a series of public statements, USPS officials have guardly extolled their unanticipated success in transforming APWU represented workers’ assignments and reducing costs (wages) in the staggering amount of 3.8 billion dollars on the backs of the employees we represent.
Louis Giullano, Chairman of the Board of Governors said “this tentative agreement provides the Postal Service with three important things: immediate cost control, greater workforce flexibility, and long term structural changes.” “Most importantly, we do not believe these vital changes would have been possible in arbitration.”….. “The tentative labor agreement negotiated with APWU is a solid step to reducing labor costs.” “The Board unanimously supports the tentative agreement.”
James C. Miller of the Board of Governors, A President Bush appointee who has never been accused of being a friend of workers opined: “the reason we did not get more, and the reason we agreed in the end to the contract now out for ratification by the rank and file is that the current law governing our labor negotiations is biased against management and in favor of labor.”
And finally, Patrick Donahoe, Postmaster General could barely contain his satisfaction: “One of the most important aspects of this tentative agreement is that it provides significant workforce flexibility.”…Interest arbitration is not going to result in flexibility gains of this magnitude.”
The APWU officers who negotiated these provisions are in good company, and if USPS management had a vote they would vote “Yes” to ratify.
In union solidarity,
Bill Burrus
Last week, all managers and supervisors filed out their evaluation reports for raises and bonuses. These raises can go up to 10%. What supervisor makes less than $70k? So do the math. The billions of dollars from the savings of the contract are going straight to management’s salaries. So why receive a pay cut for them? I HATE management! I would not give them anything. They’re just laughing at us all the way to the bank and they WILL shut down your installation too. All managers received bonuses last year and the bonus Will be even bigger!!!
Newsflash for Burrus – you’re not the president anymore. If you cared that much about the contract, maybe you should have stayed on until after it was negotiated instead of bailing and leaving it up to the new guy. Thanks for your previous service – now STFU and go be retired …
Anon
You missed the point. Of course postal management supports the agreement that they agreed to but can you recall the negotiated provisions in any of the previous contracts that reversed prior gains? In this tentative agreement, wages have been reduced up to 24% and full time assignments have been changed to part time with a ceiling of “no more than 50%”.
My referance to management voting Yes was relative to the provisons that management had secured. I have been directly involved in the past 10 negotiations and was an active participant in the first 5. In all of these contracts, combined, management did not achieve the magnitude of changes included in these negotiations.
As referanced in the subject article, in this ratification process, postal management has something to vote for.
In this ratification, management has something to vote “For”.
Bill Burrus
Why does everyone always compare us to the private sector? The P.O. ain’t moving out of State, nor can they file bankruptcy. Besides, all they are going to do with 3.8 billion is buy some more FSS machines, and give themselves a bonus. Who ever votes yes is a fool. Cliff Guffy is either a traitor or an idiot. We pay are union dues to the APWU to represent our (the memberships) interests. Not the financial interests of National APWU, and the freeking USPS. HOWEVER THIS JERK OFF ONLY LANDED A GOOD DEAL FOR THE APWU AND USPS. What happened to us Cliff. You were paid a salary from us, for us A-HOLE
What the hell does that mean? They just negotiated the damn thing. I guess they would vote for it.
I appreciate all the great things former President Burrus has done for the APWU and his astute perspective on the current tentative agreement, which is worthy of every members full consideration prior to voting. However, the reality of the current moment in history is that our country is broke & many citizens are unemployed. The tentative agreement gives us the opportunity to remain employed with a COLA & APWU Health Plan to help us through a hyper-inflationary economy coming up on the horizon. Every member gets a bowl of rice & a job. I am 55 years old with 35 years government time and I say that if people know what is good for them, they better vote YES on this contract. My dad was a life long unionist at TWA and I remember his viewpoint of what took TWA down. The IAM demanded and received a new contract that was fully lucrative & went too far. TWA immediately moved its hub out of Kansas City to St Louis to save money to help pay the new wage scale. Icahn moved in & sold the company off in big chunks. Now there is nothing left. A few TWA people kept a job when the remainder of TWA was bought out by American, but now American shed most all of the former TWA employees & sold the KCI overhaul base. I don’t think it would be a good idea to be asking for a bigger pay package when we all know that the USPS is close to broke. Vote YES & keep your family fed. Thank you President Guffey & fellow negotiators for this tentative agreement. I hope former President Burrus sticks around cause we need his intense perspective.