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Guaranteed Jobs

(This article first appeared in the November/December 2007 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)

I am of the opinion that APWU members have the only labor contract in the country that guarantees them a job if a reduction in the workforce occurs. A prime example of the value of the Collective Bargaining Agreement can be seen in the handling of union-represented employees at the Beaumont (TX), Texas Remote Encoding Center.

In April, the Postal Service announced that the Beaumont REC site was going to be shut down. An initial letter called for the excessing of 164 Full-Time Regular and 167 Part-Time Flexible employees.

An ironic twist to this situation was that at the time of this announcement, the most-senior PTF in Beaumont had less than 10 months of service, and approximately 67 of the PTFs were still in their probationary periods.

The National Agreement, however, does not distinguish among career employees when it comes to job security. Upon completion of the probationary period, every PTF was guaranteed a position and — if excessed — had to be given the opportunity to select a position (based on seniority).

To have to go through an excessing is very difficult for anyone, as well as for everyone in their family who may be faced with a move to a different city, with different schools, different churches. And for any family member not employed by the USPS, it may mean starting over in a new job or a new career.

In most of the private sector, a layoff is just that: a layoff. There is no seniority system, no guaranteed job, and no requirement to help place former employees in new jobs. So, while the excessing process can prove disruptive, APWU-represented employees are guaranteed a job with their same salary, rights, privileges, etc.

Residual Vacancies

One of the biggest problems that the APWU encounters during large-scale excessing is the identification of residual vacancies. In my experience as an NBA and a coordinator, I have found that on occasions, postmasters — and even some local union officials — agree to hide or even revert their residuals in order to protect the option for their own PTFs to convert to regular.

But there are no contractual provisions to revert a residual. So the effort to hide these vacancies not only violates the contract, it can mean the PTF will not be converted: When Article 12 is lifted, the residual vacancy is gone.

Local officers who help to hide a residual are depriving a brother or sister the opportunity to continue their postal career.What has happened in the past is that an impacted employee ends up resigning because there is no known residual within a reasonable commuting distance. A vacancy right down the road maybe be hidden due to the efforts of someone trying to circumvent the contract.

Everyone is familiar with the old expression, “What goes around, comes around.” If you’re within an impacted area and you’ve been made aware of residual postings, make sure that you contact the NBA or the coordinator’s office so that they can be available for the affected employees.

The Hot Sheet

The coordinator’s office periodically will post on the APWU Web site a “Hot Sheet” of all excessing activity in the 11 states of the Southern Region. The posting will detail the installation that caused it, the radius impacted, and the number of employees affected, by status and level.

As most of you may know, a 500-mile radius could cross over into another region. Feel free to contact me with any information that could result in the addition, deletion or correction of excessing activity in your area.

Many APWU members are becoming familiar with a not-so-old expression: “There are three things that are guaranteed in life — death, taxes, and excessing!”

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