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Ask President Burrus

Question:

How does the contract the National Association of Letter Carriers recently negotiated compare to the APWU Collective Bargaining Agreement?

Name Withheld

President Burrus

As president and the chief negotiator for the American Postal Workers Union, my focus in contract negotiations is to achieve the objectives of the membership. In this capacity I do not have the luxury of making comparisons to the success of other unions, and I choose not to justify our achievements to others. However, when workers are represented by multiple unions in the same work centers, contract comparisons are inevitable as individuals evaluate their conditions of employment relative to the conditions governing their co-workers. This is one of the reasons the APWU Constitution affirms our belief in a single union of all postal employees: A single union would deny management the opportunity to set one group of employees against another.

The following chart details the wage increases negotiated by APWU and NALC. While the agreements differ in achieving the objectives, the results are essentially comparable. I anticipate that the NALC membership will ratify their tentative agreement by a percentage approximately equal to or greater than the APWU membership approved our contract.

While the two unions used different benchmarks in the design of their wage packages, for consistency in these examples, I apply the percentage increases to the wages in effect at the expiration of the 2000-2006 Collective Bargaining Agreement, and extend the comparisons for the duration of the APWU National Agreement. It should be noted that the duration of the Letter Carriers’ contract is five years; the length of the APWU contract is four years.

Wage Increases Added to Basic Pay	Year	Percent Increase APWU	Percent Increase NALC
November	2006	1.3	1.4
September COLA	2007	1.52 (Grade 5 Step O) *	- ($686 lump sum)
November	2007	0	1.8
February (Upgrade)	2008	2.6%	0
November	2008	0	1.9
November	2009	1.2	1.9
TOTAL		6.62%	7%
* Currently, the Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) for APWU-represented employees stands at 1.52 percent for Grade 5 Step O wages over those in effect Sept. 2, 2006. The actual COLA will be based on Consumer Price Index figures that will be released in August, and will take effect in September 2007.

The application of these general wage increases plus an estimate of the September 2007 COLA will have the following cumulative affect on various occupational groups (at the top step).

SSAs (New Lev 6)	$3,192
Mail Proc (New Lev 6)	$3,192
Dist Clk (New Lev 6)	$3,192
MPEs (New Lev 9)	$3,406
MVOs (New Lev 7)	$3,248
Ltr Carriers (Grade 1)	$3,487

These wage increases will be supplemented by six additional Cost-of-Living Adjustments for both unions over the life of the APWU National Agreement scheduled for 2008, 2009 and 2010. The COLAs will be of approximately equal value, although there may be slight differences due to rounding, because the base periods for calculating the COLAs are different.

Additional contractual provisions include:

APWU

NALC

Eliminated all Clerk Craft Part-Time Flexibles in offices of 200 work-years or more; Won bereavement leave; Reduced employees’ share of healthcare premiums for members of the APWU Consumer Driven Plan to 5%; Achieved consecutive off days for employees working in mail processing; Limited the employment of casuals by installation, district, and nationwide; Eliminated the “in lieu of” restrictions on the use of casuals in offices of 200 work-years of more; Restricted the assignment of casuals; Negotiated the assignment of overtime to career employees ahead of casuals; Extended casual appointments to 360 days; Increased the number of casuals management may employ from 5.9% to 6%, (approximately 240 additional casuals nationwide); Reduced the employers’ healthcare premium payment by 4% over the life of the agreement; Established a task force to create a Retail Sales Associate program in commercial establishments.

Protected against subcontracting in 3,000 delivery units for the life of agreement; Negotiated a six-month moratorium on all additional subcontracting of delivery; Negotiated a memo on subcontracting; Converted all casuals to TEs with appointments of 359 days; Provides for an additional 8,000 TEs, to be employed consistent with a TE agreement (with no numerical limit by installation or district); Eliminated the “in lieu of” restrictions on the use of casuals in offices of 200 work-years of more; Establishes a task force to study the route evaluation process; Provides a mechanism for Flat Sequencing System Implementation; Includes agreements to resolve national-level disputes; Reduced the employers’ healthcare premium payment by 5% over life of agreement (for a five-year agreement).

It is not my intent to interpret the NALC contract; that is the right and responsibility of the officers of the NALC. Each union strives to obtain the best possible contract for its members. I believe the APWU obtained the best contract for APWU members, and I am confident the NALC leadership believes it received the best possible contract for its members.

July 20, 2007

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