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APWU Magazine Articles
By Cliff Guffey, Executive Vice President

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.

USPS Must Do More For Veterans
(November/December 2007)
Although the Postal Service employs large numbers of veterans, not enough is being done by our employer to help qualified veterans secure jobs.

Vote by Mail: Where’s the Downside?
(September/October 2007)
The responsibility of processing, delivering, and returning the completed ballots would be a great source of honor and pride.

Agreement Reached on Contract Postal Units
(July/August 2007)
We have been battling the creation of contract postal units for many years, and we recently reached an important pre-arbitration settlement. While the May 17 Memorandum of Understanding does not eliminate CPUs, it does spell out three restrictions.

Joint Training Programs
Explaining the Contract Gives Us Resolve
(May/June 2007)
In a two-month period beginning in mid-February, the APWU held joint training programs on the new contract in each of the regions, with management and our National Business Agents taking part. The series of discussions helped us resolve 45 “Questions & Answers” on the new contract.

Good News in What’s New in CBA
(March/April 2007)
The new Collective Bargaining Agreement is filled with good news. I am most excited by the conversion to regular of thousands of part-time flexible employees. I suspect that all of the APWU members who will be directly affected share my enthusiasm.

Negotiating Team Deserves Your Support
(January/February 2007)
By the time you receive this magazine, you will have received an important mailing seeking your participation in the referendum process concerning a proposed 2006-2010 APWU-USPS contract. More than 220,000 ballots were distributed to union members covered by the Collective Bargaining Agreement...

Collective Bargaining and the COLA Factor
(November/December 2006)
After negotiations for a new national contract during which we have reached an agreement, I have heard remarks such as: “The raise is only 1.5 percent; they should have gone to arbitration.” Such commentary not only pays short shrift to the negotiation process, but ignores the Cost-Of-Living raises that we have to fight for during contract talks....

Will It Be Money Well Spent?
(September/October 2006)
It’s nice to see that two of the world’s richest men — Bill Gates and Warren Buffett — have come to realize that they have accumulated so much they now can give most of their fortunes away. Gates chairs the largest philanthropic foundation in the history of the world, and Buffett, who used to run the second-largest, recently announced that he would give the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation $30 billion....

Our Action Plan to Fight Consolidation
(July/August 2006)
The specter of excessing has loomed large in postal workers’ lives seemingly forever, and its possibility is always a source of anxiety to the rank and file. That’s why management’s concerted effort to consolidate postal services in every corner of the country could be — unless we step up to the plate to battle it — a form of institutional excessing, with the lives of thousands of postal workers and their families disrupted....

USPS Jobs, Relevance Threatened
(May/June 2006)
Your job and livelihood are under attack by the postal Service consolidation “plan.” Your facility may not be specifically targeted, but a large number are, and if these consolidations are implemented, there will be a huge cost-savings for the biggest mailers, and the communities we serve will find the USPS to be less relevant. When the service to the average citizen is reduced, the ease with which your job can be contracted is increased....

Long-Anticipated Cases
Should Soon Be Scheduled
(March/April 2006)
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. ...

Discontinued Service Retirement
Is an Option for the Disrupted
(January/February 2006)
In light of management’s determination to disrupt the lives of thousands of postal employees with its plans for “network consolidations,” it is time for workers to examine all the options, including one that is not well known: Discontinued Service Retirement....

APWU Health Plan Makes Good $ense
(November/December 2005)
In what industry analysts are calling a bold move, the APWU Executive Board transferred some of the surplus from the APWU Health Plan reserve fund to make sure that members’ insurance costs would not go up next year. In fact, while almost all other health plans will be charging more in 2006, the cost of the APWU High Option is going down. Active employees on this plan will be paying $300 less for their healthcare insurance next year....

An Open Letter to President Bush
(September/October 2005)
I hope this letter finds you and yours well. Please say hello to your father and Barbara. I am writing today to offer a friendly reminder about some recent events on the world stage. It has now been four years since OSAMA BIN LADEN pierced the consciousness of our nation. Here is what so many of us have since learned about OSAMA BIN LADEN....

To Enforce National Awards, We Need Local Help
(July/August 2005)
In the recent casuals-hired-in-lieu-of-career-employees arbitration victories, locals had to have filed grievances in order to benefit from the remedy. And before we could obtain the nationwide upgrade of Mail Processors from Level 4 to Level 5, we needed to have locals pursuing the issue....

The Postal Service’s Biggest Blunders
(May/June 2005)
In the 1970s, the Potal Service established bulk mail centers. The concept was to create centralized locations for sorting sacks and parcels, using huge machines that featured hundreds of separations that made it possible to sort and dispatch mail directly to hundreds of destinations....

‘Why Did the Union Help Him?’
(March/April 2005)
Over the years I’ve been asked many times why the union represents workers who have bad records, and many of you have either heard or asked the same question. I’ll try to give you the short answer....

'We, the People' May Be Losing Our Way
(January/February 2005)
“We, the people….” This is a great phrase from a truly remarkable document, the Constitution of the United States of America. I have always understood this sentiment to be all inclusive – not divisive....

Better Wages and Conditions Aside,
What Else Does the Union Offer?
(January/February 2004)
It covers more workers than any other labor contract in the United States. But the National Agreement isn't the only thing the American Postal Workers Union "negotiates" on behalf of its members....

USPS Told That It Must ‘Follow the Rulings’
(November/December 2003; excerpt)
As part of its never-ending effort to avoid implementing rulings in national-level cases won by the APWU, the Postal Service has gone to the National Labor Relations Board to try to overturn an arbitrator’s decision....

Keeping Work In-House
(July/August 2003)
In a major victory for our union, Arbitrator Carlton J. Snow ruled in late April that Address Management System Specialist positions belong to the APWU bargaining unit....

Addressing the Grievance Backlog
(March/April 2003; Updated excerpt)
The grievance backlog continues to be a problem. We have tens of thousands of grievances in the system and we are scheduling thousands of arbitration cases: But the backlog is not diminishing as quickly as we would like. What’s the problem?....