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Mike Gallagher Eastern Region Coordinator 1401 Liberty Place Sicklerville, NJ 08081 Telephone: 856-740-0633 Fax: 856-740-0742 Hearing Impaired: 856-740-0715

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Downsizing, Excessing
And the Collective Bargaining Agreement

(Updated 09/08/09)Getting "excessed" is probably one of the most unpleasant experiences postal workers endure at work: It means losing your bid and being reassigned to a new position, tour, craft, or installation. It can force you to rearrange your home life as well as your work life.

But Article 12 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, which governs reassignments, safeguards both full-time and part-time employees who have lost their positions as a result of downsizing.

In the 1980s, when automated equipment began to replace Letter Sorting Machines, USPS management concluded that many employees would be excessed to the needs of their section, craft, or installation. Since that time we have seen one generation of automated equipment after the other reduce the number of employees needed to process mail for each product line that is handled in our industry.  

In accordance with Article 12, the Postal Service is required to withhold residual vacancies (jobs that remain vacant after they have been posted for bid) when excessing is anticipated — rather than convert part-time flexibles to full time and assign them to the positions — in order to accommodate career employees who may be reassigned because their duty assignments were abolished.

What the Union Does

Whenever management anticipates excessing will take place from an installation, USPS Area management provides the APWU's Regional Coordinator with an Impact Statement.  Each time the Eastern Region Coordinator’s office receives an Impact Statement I along with involved National Business Agents meet with local union and management officials to discuss the contractual requirements involved and to get input from the local officers in order to attempt to reduce or eliminate the potential for excessing.

As a result of these meetings, we have been very successful in reducing the number of employees excessed outside of their installation and in some occasions we have succeeded in eliminating the event completely.

We discuss every impact.  We have Regional/Area excessing meetings regardless if the impact is a single employee or hundreds of employees.

Comparative Work-Hour Report

Article 12 states that when employees are excessed out of their installation, the Regional Coordinator may request a comparative work-hour report (CWHR) from Area level management for the losing installation 60 days after the excessing of such employees.

The CWHR can be a significant document in challenging an improper excessing.  If the report fails to substantiate that business conditions warranted the action, Article 12 requires that the retreat rights of the employees shall be activated, and they will be returned to their former installation.

I have negotiated an agreement which requires a meeting take place after receipt of the CWHR between Area management and my office in order to discuss whether the report justifies the excessing.  The agreement goes on to state that if we cannot resolve our differences on whether the employee returns to their former installation, the matter will be placed at the top of the arbitration docket, thereby skipping Steps 1 and 2 of the grievance process.  The Eastern Region has been very successful at arbitration concerning excessing and having employees returned to their original office along with monetary remedies.

Pros and Cons

Although staffing has been reduced at virtually all facilities due to reduced revenue and mail volume as well as automation deployment, we have done well in regard to keeping employee dislocation to a minimum.

In the last eight (8) years the USPS has c ut million s of work hours and we have lost 115 ,000 jobs in our industry (this number includes all crafts and management associations) and while there has been some excessing outside the installation the majority of the job loss has been absorbed via attrition rather than relocation.

I realize that these factors have severely limited the conversion of part-time flexibles to full time in under 200 work year offices, but conversely, I recognize that the contractual provisions that made all PTFs in over 200 work year offices full-time have saved the PTFs from those offices from having their work hours severely reduced.

Not a Single Layoff

With all this downsizing, not a single APWU member has been laid off. We are part of perhaps the only industry in the country that can make such a claim – that we have protected our membership with the no layoff clause.

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