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Network Evolution’s Challenging Changes

(This article first appeared in the May/June 2008 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)

Management’s plans for our future include $1 billion in cost cutting. Since 2007, more than 11,000 workers have been eliminated, and from November last year to March this year, 10 million work-hours were eliminated.

On top of the management cuts, we also face the consequences of Federal Trade Commission, Government Accountability Office, and Postal Regulatory Commission recommendations on the mail monopoly, the USPS structure, network, and universal mail service.

What does this all mean to you? Change! More change and disruption to your work and home life!

So, what is the union going to do about it? First of all: Remember that you and I are the union! Together, we will fight on three fronts in order to survive Postal Service evolution:

Region

The five Regional Coordinators (Liz Powell, Omar Gonzalez, Bill Sullivan, Mike Gallagher, and me) serve as the interveners/enforcers of contract provisions that relate to principles of seniority and reassignment. We interact with local unions on pending plans to “excess” postal workers out of their craft or installation.

The coordinators sort through impact statements, reports, and withholding notices to determine where there are contract violations. We pick apart inadequate supporting documentation and figures that often are provided merely to justify management’s plans. We always seek local input to help us minimize the impact and defy any postal plans that violate our contract. We need to and will continue to enhance our interaction with local unions and NBAs to address the avalanche of changes to come.

We also co-administer the arbitration appeal process. Grievances that are not resolved locally (at Steps 1 and 2) or on appeal (at Step 3) can be appealed to arbitration.

With the assistance of National Business Agents and arbitration advocates, the coordinators have worked hard to reduce the backlog of grievances. We must re-focus and re-dedicate our efforts, to clear the path to make sure that grievances on violations of seniority or reassignment rules are heard in a timely fashion. Postal evolution will not wait — nor should we.

Coordinators are field officers who serve as extensions of our national union president. We tackle the issues referred to us by headquarters and, in this evolution, we also reverse this interaction to serve as satellites to the national leadership. We help to get resources committed to local unions that want to launch a multi-media campaign against outrageous Postal Service projects.

Regional coordinators are, of course, members of your union’s National Executive Board. We are your voice (and vote) at the highest ruling body of this union between conventions. Just as we voted to fight Area Mail Processing consolidations and Resource Management Database (attendance) abuses, we are resolute in our determination to focus on the need for a concerted, united, and well-funded line of defense to management’s network evolution.

Local Unions

Too often members blame locals for management’s garbage. This is, of course, misplaced rage and fear. Yes, change leads to fear! So local leaders must make sure they communicate the impact of change — beyond bulletins, beyond membership meetings.

Local leaders must be energized work-floor activists. We need “in their” face” challenges to asinine management plans. We must stop infighting and re-focus, reunite, and confront management.

Locals should activate phone banks, engage in media blitzes, and expand their community outreach. Local union resources should be fully utilized to challenge every aspect of postal evolution that threatens the communities’ postal services, as well as our postal jobs. Many locals — proactive locals — are seeing positive results. They are essential to our survival and the APWU’s ultimate success.

You! (The Members)

Don’t blame your union. If it were up to us, you would get a 50 percent pay increase, weekends off, and 100 percent-paid health benefits. Unfortunately, in the real world, you don’t always get what you deserve: You get what you can negotiate. And our union has always done an exceptional job in negotiations. We will continue to do so in the future.

As an APWU member, you have protections that very few workers in this country have — most significantly, job security: You have no-layoff protection!

Just reading the newspapers or watching the news on TV tells you that job losses are a fact of life for thousands of workers every day. Yet our collective bargaining agreement keeps us insulated from that ever-present threat. Though insulated, we are not isolated from what’s happening in other industries and everyday life.

You, the member, can help us in our fight against the dire effects of postal evolution:

Give to APWU COPA, our political action fund. The COPA committee doesn’t merely hand out money to candidates it thinks will win: It supports leaders who support you.

Work with your local union leaders on phone banks, congressional visits, picketing and community outreach.

Do not mistreat or mistrust employees who have been reassigned to your facility, tour, or section. Their lives already have been disrupted and inconvenienced by management’s plans. We are all brothers and sisters in this struggle.

File challenges, interact with your union leaders, and plan for change. Do not follow the misguided lead of postal managers who seek only to undermine and hinder the union. You are the union. Together we will triumph.

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