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Excessing and Article 12

Getting excessed and reassigned is one of the most traumatic and unpleasant experiences members endure during their career. It means you lose your bid job, get reassigned to a new schedule or tour, and possibly to a new craft or installation, resulting in disruption to your home and work life.

Article 12 of the National Agreement governs reassignments and provides safeguards to seniority and placement rights.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the USPS Corporate Automation Plan (CAP) disrupted the lives of thousands of postal workers throughout the country. Management reported that 75,000 jobs were eliminated during the first phase. But not one postal worker was laid off in those 20 years!

We have now entered phase two, and management is using many computer-assisted staffing models that promise to downsize even more postal operations. We must make sure that not one postal worker is laid off during CAP 2!

What the Union Does

The contract requires management to set aside - or withhold - sufficient assignments to accommodate employees who are displaced by automation and/or operational changes.

Notice of withholding must be sent to the union's regional office, which forwards them to locals for review and input.

The Area offices of the Postal Service also are required to inform the union's regional offices of anticipated excessing, deployment of equipment, and its impact. This is done through a Site Impact Report.

The Joint Contract Interpretation Manual (JCIM) requires management to meet with the union at the regional level to discuss the contractual provisions that must be complied with when such events take place. Often times these meetings are successful in lessening the impact and minimizing the disruption and inconvenience to postal workers.

Comparative Work-Hour Report

Article 12 permits the union to request a comparative work-hour report on the losing installation 60 days after employees are excessed. This report can be a critical factor in challenging improper excessing and enforcing retreat rights. According to the JCIM, these reports should be requested by locals to the union's regional coordinator, who will secure the data from the USPS Area.

The JCIM also requires management to generate a report and provide it to the union's regional coordinator, showing who was excessed, the employees' status, and where they were excessed to.

Moratorium

The 2000 Contract Extension MOU imposed a moratorium on excessing employees beyond 50 miles, unless the employee is reassigned to an assignment vacated as a result of VERA, the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority. The moratorium will end six months after the issuance of the plant consolidation list, now called the Integrated Network Plan.

The moratorium has reduced the number of employees being excessed out of their installations.

Attrition

Retirement, terminations, transfers, etc. (attrition) also lessen the number of impacted employees. Other actions by local automation committees, as well as the Area and local offices lessen the number of impacted employees.

From 1998 to 2003 we lost 51,553 clerks, 248 MVS drivers, and 52 VMF employees, but we gained 415 maintenance employees. Work hours were reduced by 54 million in 2003 alone, with another 25 million work hours to be cut in 2004.

The other crafts are not safe! There are 11,409 fewer carriers, and 5,471 fewer mail handlers, but the rural letter carriers increased by 9,370.

Of course, withholding positions limits the conversion of part-time flexibles (PTFs). However, if PTFs work on assignments that are not backfilling withheld vacancies, they can be converted to full-time flexibles. Although management resists, on appeal we have been successful in getting conversions.

Remember, not a single member has been laid off in the APWU. If it wasn't for the union protections, more than 50,000 postal employees would have been laid off.

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