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Long-Anticipated Cases
Should Soon Be Scheduled

(This article first appeared in the March/April 2006 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)

It’s looking like 2006 will be a good year for resolving several long-standing and lingering disputes. I expect four cases that I appealed to arbitration more than 10 years ago to be scheduled for national arbitration in the next few months.

“ Many business agents and locals boast that almost all of their cases are being heard in a timely fashion. This must become the national standard! ”

Postmaster Relief — For a long period of time, a common Postal Service practice has been to replace career employees in the smallest offices with non-career employees who work on the postmaster’s days off and during other absences. It is our position that these non-career employees are doing bargaining unit work and must be categorized as casuals. Our position has been supported previously in arbitration awards from Shyam Das and Carlton J. Snow that defined our core duties in small offices and made clear that casuals hired in lieu of career employees must be counted as casuals. A decision in our favor in this case would force the Postal Service to count approximately 14,000 more employees as casuals. A win in this case would limit the Postal Service’s ability to utilize casuals in all offices, not just the small ones.

Contracting Window Work — In this case, we are contesting situations in which the Postal Service contracted out only the labor in a so-called Contract Postal Unit: The property used is leased to the Postal Service, and the USPS pays all utilities, but the USPS contacts for labor separately through a so-called Contract Postal Unit. Our position is that these duty assignments must be posted to the APWU bargaining unit. Furthermore, the contract employees utilized in these circumstances were employed in lieu of career employees. Our position is supported by the Das awards on “Kelly Girls” and casuals hired in lieu of.

Limited Duty — We feel that the utilization of a Part-Time Flexible in a limited- duty assignment eight hours a day for six months requires the conversion of that assignment to full-time, and requires posting. An earlier interpretation of Article 7.3.C was made by Arbitrator Richard Mittenthal, who stated that there were no exceptions to the conversion rule.

Contracting Call Centers — Three distinct types of telephone call centers have been grieved.

• In postal facilities where a portion of the workforce is part of the APWU bargaining unit and another portion consists of contract employees (e.g., Kelly Girls), we feel that the contract is being violated because the contract employees are performing “postal operations.” In these situations (e.g., Tampa, Phoenix), the contract employees are being hired in lieu of career employees, a violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
  
  
• In two other instances ( Denver, Portland, OR), the Postal Service leased property, put in its own managers, then contracted for all the labor in the facility. Our position is that these are postal operations and the contracting is “in lieu of” career employees.
  
  
• Following the submission of union grievances on the issues cited above, the Postal Service closed the four operations in dispute, then had contractors re-open them, with the contractors providing the buildings and labor to do call-center work. Our position is that wall-to-wall these are still postal operations and that contract employees are being used in lieu of career employees.

Grievance Arbitration Backlog

For the first time in over 20 years, the arbitration backlog is below 19,000.

Many business agents and locals boast that almost all of their cases are being heard in a timely fashion. This must become the nationwide standard! There are still a few areas where the backlogs are large and the APWU’s regional coordinators and craft directors met recently to identify the districts that still have problems.

We are now in the process of developing a strategy to resolve the outstanding cases in these districts. If necessary, we will schedule multiple arbitrators and dates in trouble areas. Delays must be eliminated everywhere.

Saving Grade

Several years ago, while I was serving as APWU Clerk Craft Director, we negotiated a memo to give saved grade to employees who were involuntarily reassigned into lower-level assignments.

Prior to the signing of that memo, most received a rate protection instead of a saved grade. Rate protection freezes an employee’s salary until the salary rate in the newly assigned lower level catches up with the frozen salary.

Saved grade labels the employee as staying in the higher grade while performing lower-level work. All salary raises and COLAs are added to the higher saved grade and an employee is paid as if there had not been a reassignment to a lower-level duty assignment.

The April 2001 agreement changed the rules and made it far more difficult for management to take away saved grade. Tens of thousands of former LSM, FSM, and other employees then in Level 6 positions are today earning and retiring at Level 6. This has meant thousands in additional income.

The APWU is now in discussion with the Postal Service to eliminate all other rate-protection categories for all crafts.

National Contract: Update and the Future

Headquarters is well into preparations for national negotiations. President Burrus is defining our goals and Industrial Relations Director Greg Bell and staff are building your case for contractual gains. The crafts are focusing on their targets for improvement — we will be ready.

In March, the 1.6-percent will take effect, as will upgrades of several key positions. The raise (as well as the latest COLA increase) and upgrades are part of the contract extension ratified last August. Another gain achieved by that extension was the pilot modified work-week program. We hope to have as many facilities as possible participate in this program: Stay tuned to these pages for updates.

Special Note to Iraqi War Veterans

Welcome home to our brothers and sisters who have been serving in Iraq. We are all proud of your service. Adjustments to the “real world” (a term from my days in the military, the Vietnam Era) are not easy. Be assured that the union will be there to help when management does not seem to understand.

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