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Motor Vehicle Division Officers |
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Managers Hire PSEs,
Rather Than Career VMF Employees
(12/02/11) Managers in Vehicle Maintenance Facilities are attempting
to circumvent the contract by hiring 740 new VMF employees as Support
Employees (PSEs) rather than career employees, as we agreed during
negotiations for the
2010-2015
Collective Bargaining Agreement. [PDF]
The agreement is unambiguous. The 740 new VMF positions must be career positions. The third line in a Aug. 1, 2011, notice from the USPS vice president of Delivery and Post Office Operations [PDF] to Area Vice Presidents confirms this fact. He wrote, “The new agreement provides the flexibility to hire Postal Support Employees (PSE) and contains a requirement to hire 740 career employees (Level 8, 9 and 10 Technicians).”
The APWU intends to strictly enforce the agreement. We will take all necessary steps to ensure that 740 career VMF employees are added to the rolls.
Tool List Dispute Settlement
(11/15/11) Motor Vehicle officers settled
a dispute with management on Nov. 3, 2011 [PDF], concerning
the new tool list. While
the new list reduces the total number of tools, many of the eliminated
tools were antiquated and rarely used. The settlement requires
the Postal Service to provide employees all the tools that are required
for a job — either in
a tool kit or on a sign-out basis. The agreement also reaffirms
that estimated repair times (ERTs) are not a gauge of work pace and
cannot be the basis for issuing discipline.
Bad Faith Undermines Contract
Union Continues Fight for New Jobs
Bob Pritchard
Motor Vehicle Division Director
Mike Foster, Assistant Director
(This article was first published in the January/February 2012 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)
The 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) brought many opportunities. Unfortunately, the display of bad faith by the Postal Service in implementing the new contract is unprecedented.
As part of the CBA, the Postal Service agreed to hire 330 more drivers and 740 Vehicle Maintenance Facility employees, with more new jobs mandated. Yet to best of our knowledge, not a single employee has been hired as a result of the new contract.
Under the terms of the CBA, the new positions are being created so that members of the APWU bargaining unit can perform work that was previously done by contractors. The conversion of 330 Motor Vehicle duty assignments will return more work to our craft than has been converted from Highway Contract Routes (HCR) to the Postal Vehicle Service (PVS) in the entire history of the APWU. And 740 new VMF jobs is a major accomplishment by any standard.
Total Disregard
VMF managers at the field level have totally disregarded the direct order of the USPS Vice President of Operations to post and fill the jobs. Their excuses are far ranging and very imaginative, from, “We disagree with the negotiations, so we are not going to post the jobs; we can hire at a lower level,” to, “We do not need these employees,” or, “We do not have authorization from the complement committee,” or, “We do not have a job number.”
These ridiculous rationales demonstrate that the Postal Service is dysfunctional: Postal management at the national level is either unable or unwilling to exert its authority to ensure that managers in the field follow the hiring guidelines. In some areas, district managers have just out-and-out refused to comply with directives from USPS headquarters.
This is no way to manage an organization. Rest assured, we will continue to do everything possible to enforce the contract and ensure that we get all the jobs we were promised.
Beyond Dysfunction
However, our fight goes beyond management dysfunction. Our fight is with the U.S. Congress. There are those on Capitol Hill who support our cause, but there are others who seek to destroy the USPS as we know it. That is why we need every member to engage in the political process to help preserve our jobs.
By now you should have received several mailings from President Guffey asking you to contact your representatives in Congress.
Hopefully, the Save Our Postal Service rallies, along with the TV and print ad campaign, have helped educate the public and every member of Congress about the true cause of the Postal Service’s financial difficulties.
Ironically, prior to the television commercial that began in July, some of our own members didn’t realize that the USPS is not funded with tax dollars, but by the sale of stamps and postage. Since we are quasigovernmental, many people just assume that we have our hand in the pool of tax monies, but that is not true.
Less Than a Year
Less than one year is left until the 2012 Elections. If the APWU members do not rise up and realize that it is time to elected leaders who will support USPS employees, then we — and the Postal Service — are doomed.
We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted by the divisive issues that do not deal with the problems we, as middle-class people, are facing. We have a situation where many people actually vote against their own self-interest based on their views on gun control, abortion, and gay rights.
Brothers and sisters, at some point we must understand that these issues are secondary to our economic survival. In the last 10 to 15 years, we have seen the demise of the middle class. We have seen other unions fall by the wayside; we have witnessed a decline in the number of union members, and we have watched salaries and wages fall dramatically. It is not uncommon for people to have multiple jobs just to maintain the standard of living that they were once accustomed to enjoying on one salary.
We must set aside divisive issues and ask our U.S. representatives where they stand on postal matters. We urge you to vote for those who support our cause. If we do nothing, then we are destined to suffer a slow and agonizing death. It is critical that we take an active part in the political process. We cannot allow the ultra rich to amass more and more of America’s wealth at the expense of the middle class.
A Fallacy
One of America’s most prosperous times in history followed the Great Depression. This was a time when the gap between the rich and the working class was much smaller than it is today.
The idea that jobs can only be created by making the rich richer is a fallacy. The rich received $1.75 trillion in tax breaks in 2001, yet the jobs they created are in Mexico, India, China and other off-shore places, certainly not the United States of America. The theory that the government should avoid taxing the rich to encourage job growth is unfounded.
So, wake up, and get out and vote for those who support your quest to support your family. Do your part to support those who will help us to create a better America.
USPS Attempts to Negotiate with Locals Several locals have informed us that managers have approached them seeking to raise the wages of non-career Postal Support Employee (PSE) drivers. This is because the USPS has encountered difficulty filling the positions at the current pay rate. During contract talks, we told management negotiators to expect problems filling the PSE jobs because of the low pay, but at the time they wouldn’t budge. Therefore, the APWU and USPS management agreed that if the negotiated rates were insufficient to attract enough PSE drivers in a particular area, the parties at the national level would negotiate an alternate rate that would be sufficient. Since then, management has unilaterally raised the wages of PSEs in at least two districts, Minneapolis and Sacramento. However, changes to the pay scale can only be negotiated at the national level. If the Postal Service changes the pay of PSEs at your facility — or attempts to do so — please contact us immediately at 202-842-4240. |
