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Recent APWU Magazine Articles
By Cliff Guffey, Executive Vice President
Preference-Eligible Employees Should
Look to the CBA
(November/December 2009)
Federal law grants preference-eligible employees
specific protection from Reductions in Force (RIFs), and gives them
the right to appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) if
they believe their rights under Chapter 35 of Title 5 have been violated.
Those rights do not prohibit preference-eligible employees from being
RIFed; they simply state that veterans will be the last to go, and
only after a series of procedures have been followed.
Fighting Contract Postal Units; Protecting Retail Jobs
(September/October 2009)
The USPS announcement in May that more than 3,200 stations and branches
in Level 24-and-above post offices would be evaluated for possible
consolidation or closure has sparked great concern across the country. Retail
employees are understandably fearful that their jobs will be eliminated, and
many union activists are convinced that management plans to replace the stations
and branches with Contract Postal Units (CPUs), which are owned and run by non-postal
employees.
Fighting to Protect Our Jobs
(July/August 2009)
An arbitration hearing of fundamental importance to protecting
APWU jobs was held June 9 and 10, before Arbitrator Shyam Das.
For many years, the APWU has been successful in forcing management
to establish duty assignments by tracking the regularly scheduled
hours worked in a given facility by employees — including casuals — in
various categories. By charting the total number of hours worked,
we have been able to substantiate our assertions that the hours
worked by unassigned employees could be combined to create duty
assignments.
Court Favors APWU in Latest Round of AMS Dispute
(May/June 2009)
In the most recent legal action in a long-running dispute, a federal appeals
court has ruled that a U.S. District Court must reconsider arguments over
whether postal supervisory personnel or APWU-represented employees should
be performing the work of the Address Management System Specialist position.
Rough Rides Along the Network Realignment Trail
(January/February 2009)
In the fall we learned of yet another example of the failure of the USPS
network realignment plan: The Postal Service announced in November that
it was rescinding two consolidation proposals — both of them nearly
three years old. One was a plan to consolidate a western Iowa postal facility’s
mail across state lines; the other was a proposal to consolidate a South
Dakota facility to a plant 90 miles away.
Four-Day Week Has Finally Arrived
(November/December 2008)
The APWU and the Postal Service have been meeting periodically at the headquarters
level and have finally reached a tentative agreement on a method that will
allow for locally-negotiated four-day workweeks.
USPS Still Ignoring Orders
on EAS Assignments
(September/October 2008)
There is a long history of the AWU challenging management’s practice
of assigning bargaining-unit work to Executive and Administrative Salary (EAS)
employees, and of the Postal Service balking at efforts to resolve the issue.
After several years, the APWU sought relief and, in 1999, we finally achieved
an NLRB settlement on a series of cases.
Politics: Now, More Than Ever
(July/August 2008)
As you read this article, the November elections are fast approaching.
Notice that I say the November elections — not the presidential
election. I believe that both the congressional and presidential
election cycle and the future of postal employees and retirees
are critically tied together.
Why the Courts Are Scaring Me
. . .
(May/June 2008)
When it comes to the U.S. Constitution, there is usually a lot of talk about
the First, Second, and Fourth Amendments. I am also concerned with the Seventh
Amendment: “In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall
exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no
fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United
States, than according to the rules of the common law.”
Arbitration-Case Backlog at
25-Year Low
(March/April 2008)
The cases pending arbitration have been reduced to the lowest number in at
least 25 years — down from nearly 100,000 to less than 15,000. This is
a direct result of multiple meetings between the Postal Service and the APWU.
APWU a Steady Influence in Times
of Flux
(January/February 2008)
I am writing this article just before taking
my oath of office for the third time as APWU Executive Vice President,
and cannot help but reflect on the many changes within our Postal
Service, our union and our lives.
