APWU Clerk Craft Wins Jurisdiction On New AFCS 200 Operator Position

(Updated Oct. 12, 2012) The Clerk Craft will be the primary craft for the operator position on the new Advanced Facer Canceller System (AFCS), the Postal Service has announced.

In a letter dated Sept. 28, 2012, the Postal Service wrote, “After reviewing the input from the APWU and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union … the Postal Service has determined that on the AFCS 200, the duties performed by the operator are similar to the duties performed by a Mail Processing Clerk. Accordingly, the primary craft for the operator position on the AFCS 200 is the Clerk Craft. The primary craft for the induction activities on the AFCS 200 will continue to be the Mail Handler Craft.”

The existing AFCS is a high-speed machine that culls, faces, and cancels letter mail through a series of automated operations. The AFCS 200 will perform the same functions as the existing system while also providing “significant additional capabilities,” such as processing thicker mail than the existing AFCS, increased depth-of-sort capabilities, and printing a POSTNET barcode that allows mail to be directly sorted on the Delivery Barcode Sorter (DBCS), the USPS wrote.

“I am pleased by this decision,” said APWU President Cliff Guffey. “I am optimistic that it will present additional job opportunities for our members.”

In an undated letter to the field, the USPS has instructed managers that operator work can be assigned to clerks “at the present time” and that “Mail handlers should be reassigned pursuant to the Collective Bargaining Agreement.”

Locals with an AFCS200 are advised that the AFCS200 Operator work is Clerk Craft work effective Sept. 28, 2012. “Where Mail Handlers are utilized to perform Clerk Craft work, appropriate crossing-craft grievances should be initiated,” said Clerk Craft Director Rob Strunk.