The New Collective Bargaining Agreement

As a member of the Negotiating Committee, I had the honor of being involved throughout the entire negotiation process. There was an important difference in these negotiations that involved you, the member.

Many members across the country joined our National Contract Campaign to build union power among our membership and in our communities. Hundreds of thousands of “I Stand with Postal Workers” postcard pledges were signed by our families, friends, and communities, and submitted to Postmaster General Megan Brennan during our negotiations. The pledge stated that people around this country stand with postal workers in the fight to keep post offices open, expand hours, shorten wait times in line, ensure prompt mail delivery, enhance services, offer postal banking, maintain a vibrant public Postal Service, and provide living-wage jobs that strengthen our communities.

Every Thursday, employees on the workroom floor wore APWU T-shirts, stickers, buttons – and smiles – in support of their union, showing our strength at negotiations. Two National Days of Action and other mobilizing activities were crucial.

Without all of you showing your support, our battle would have been more difficult. Progressive unions build activism among their union members and we realize how important it is. Many of our workers are eligible for retirement and we need to make sure there are more members willing and able to carry on in their local and state organizations. We will continue to work at raising our members’ activism around the country; it doesn’t stop with getting a contract.

Before negotiations began, we reviewed all the bargaining resolutions that have been passed by the membership at National Conventions. We conducted committee reviews and had assignments for each article of the contract and all the Memorandums of Understanding attached to it. We called in experts and we met with our sister unions in the Postal Union Alliance – sharing our goals and ideas for the future and planning for possible arbitration.

Management’s efforts to take back established rights could not be taken lightly. The Negotiating Team was definitely up to the challenge and we were successful.

As you may know, one of my primary duties as vice president has been to fight plant consolidations and closures. This fight began before our new Collective Bargaining Agreement was settled and will continue as long as management insists on taking the wrong road – toward dismantling our public Postal Service and failing to fulfill the mission of binding the nation together.

We must note that for the first time in history we actually won language in our CBA arbitration award that addresses stopping consolidations and closures and specifically states, “There will be no further plant closings and consolidations until at least April 2017.” The arbitrator also stated that if plant consolidations resume, the Postal Service must perform new “feasibility studies” prior to the implementation of such consolidations. Coupled with the limits on excessing beyond a 50-mile radius, this is a huge step in the right direction and we should not underestimate its significance. But we still have more work to do, as April 2017 is right around the corner.

Management sought to end the prohibition against laying off career employees who have six continuous years of service. The no-layoff protection remained intact and was even expanded: We won protection for the life of the contract for career employees who were hired by May 20, 2015. As a result, more than 32,000 employees who have not worked for six consecutive years will be protected during the term of the new agreement. The protection against layoffs was in serious jeopardy, but we prevailed.

In these negotiations, the union requested for the first time the formation of a joint “Service Enhancement and Innovation Task Force.” We succeeded in establishing a Memorandum of Understanding, and within 12 months a pilot program will be launched. This is a major win for both parties.

The numerous accomplishments achieved through this fight to obtain a fair and equitable CBA shows that refusing to back down when the situation gets tough works and that we must utilize all of our resources, which includes mobilizing our members.

This time we made sure that our side of the story was made known to the people who benefit from the public Postal Service. Letting the community know what was at stake and exposing the truth about the manufactured financial crisis helped change the climate of negotiations. It let everyone know that we were not alone in our fight. Since arbitrators do not operate in a vacuum, we have to believe that it helped with that too. At the very least, it wasn’t so easy for management to claim that the USPS was broke and couldn’t afford to give us raises.

The workfloor environment needs improvement and we worked hard to make necessary changes. Workers have been short-staffed, overworked and excessed. Unprofessional and hostile supervisors and 204Bs have abused workers; postmasters have performed craft work; management has failed to provide needed full-time jobs, and Postal Support Employees have faced low wages, few benefits, poor working conditions, and frustration awaiting conversion to career. There has been the constant threat of privatizing our Motor Vehicle Service, Maintenance, Clerk and Support Services Crafts. We will continue to address these issues and enforce our new CBA. We cannot be afraid to try new approaches. If we stay strong and stay united, we can win. We have just proved it!

The Nov. 8, 2016, elections are also an important arena that will affect our fate as workers and it is vital that we participate in the process. The APWU has endorsed Hillary Clinton and there are many House and Senate candidates we should support to protect our people’s Postal Service. Please vote and keep updated with our legislative director’s page on apwu.org. Let’s take our movement to the polls. 4