National Support Technicians ET 11 LMOU Negotiation

(This article first appeared in the November/December 2020 issue of the American Postal Worker magazine)

The Local Memorandum of Understanding (LMOU) below was discussed and developed by the APWU and USPS pursuant to the 2015 National Agreement, Article 38.7.F and the MOU Re: Electronic Technician PS-11 (NTSN Technician).

The LMOU is applicable only to the employees of the Electronic Technician PS-11 (or ET-11) occupational group of the Maintenance Division, APWU and the Maintenance Technical Support Center (MTSC):

The parties at the Headquarters level agree to further extend the deadlines for negotiation of the terms of the Local Memorandum of Understanding, under the 2018 National Agreement. Due to the unique nature of the Maintenance Technical Support Center’s installation. The undersigned agree to an extension of the timeline for negotiating LMOU as follows:

• January 12, 2021 – Negotiation Period Begins
• March 15, 2021 – Negotiations Period Ends
• April 6, 2021 – Appeals to Impasse Due
• May 14, 2021 – Completion of Impasse Discussions
• July 6, 2021 – Completion of Impasse Arbitration

Initial proposals must be exchanged within the first twenty-one (21) days of the thirty (30) consecutive day implementation period. Each party reserves the right to determine the method and location of meeting when they alternate hosting of the other party. During the year, the parties have agreed to amend the Leave Requesting Procedure in Section V, Item 9, as follows:

9) A copy of the approved PS Form 3971 will be returned to the employee via postal-provided email should the request be within the annual leave slots determined above. The highest preference selection available will be granted to each employee, by seniority. After the initial round of selections, a second round of selections will be conducted, in the order submitted, provided two or more selections were submitted by the employee.

a) Choice period selections shall be submitted by the employee no later than 1600 CTZ on December 1st.

b) These selections shall be acted on and returned to the employee as soon as possible but no later than five (5) business days after December 1st. The parties agree that this process will be implemented for Choice Leave Selection for Leave Year 2021, and incorporated in the LMOU.

Finally, the parties agree that this agreement may not be cited in any forum for any purpose, except for its own enforcement, and may not be used as precedent or to show either parties’ intent in other matters.

We currently have three ET-11 Technicians, two National Busines Agents and Director Balogun preparing internally for the upcoming negotiation. If you are an ET-11 Technician, we would like to hear from you regarding the success and shortcomings of the current NST LMOU for the Negotiations Team to consider. Please email us at Maint-HQ-Update@apwu.org.

Thank you in advance for your correspondence.

Promotion Pending Qualification extension expired on October 27

Due to the Postal Service’s COVID-19 travel restrictions and the temporary closing of the National Center for Employee Development (NCED) in response to the pandemic, the time between March 18 and ninety days following the reopening of NCED will not count towards the Article 38.5.C.3 one year period for Maintenance Craft employees to be in a promotion detail assignment pending the satisfactory completion of the necessary training.

NCED started offering classes on July 27, 2020. Based on the above agreement, October 27, 2020 is the conclusion of the ninety days extension. Please make sure that Form 50s are processed accordingly.