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Nurses Achieve Raises, Job Security
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Departments & Divisions Support Services Postal
Nurses Achieve Raises, Job Security 
Departments & Divisions Support Services Postal
Nurses Achieve Raises, Job Security Support Services Division |
Postal Nurses Achieve Raises, Job Security
Bill Manley
Support Services Division Director
(This article was first published in the July/August 2009 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)
An arbitration panel finalized a five-year contract for postal nurses on April 28 — the first since the National Postal Professional Nurses merged with the APWU. The ruling came more than 20 months after the nurses’ independent Collective Bargaining Agreement with the USPS expired.
Neutral Arbitrator Stephen B. Goldberg rejected USPS proposals for lump-sum raises for the first two years of the contract and no raises thereafter, and awarded annual pay increases in the amount of the annual rise in the Employee Cost Index (ECI) for each year.
The nurses received retroactive raises of 3.3 percent effective Aug. 18, 2007, and 3.1 percent effective Aug. 16, 2008.
The arbitration award created a Memorandum of Understanding that maintains the status quo regarding the complement of nurses and the number of Medical Units. The Postal Service had sought to close all such units, and to reduce the complement of nurses from more than 130 positions to 41.
The Memorandum is in effect until the parties reach agreement on a new staffing plan; it will be returned to the Goldberg panel if they do not. The APWU wants to keep the units open and maintain the current number of positions.
The panel retained the provisions of Article 6, which grants protection against layoffs for nurses who have achieved six years of continuous service. In addition, the new contract contains a Memo that extends the prohibition on layoffs for nurses who were on the rolls as of Aug. 18, 2007.
The decision includes new language that limits the use of contract nurses to a three-month term, provided that when a nurse is out of work on disability, the period may be extended to six months.
APWU President William Burrus praised the award. “In the face of the Postal Service’s financial crisis, Arbitrator Goldberg rejected management’s assertion that the USPS is unable to grant the nurses fair pay. Our negotiating team did an excellent job.”
The Collective Bargaining Agreement between the National Postal Professional
Nurses Union and the Postal Service expired on Aug. 17, 2007. Shortly
thereafter, the NPPN merged with the APWU.
