Arbitration Hearings and Testimony Conclude

The American Postal Workers Union and United States Postal Service management conducted a final three-day session of interest arbitration Nov. 13-15. The week’s proceedings saw the conclusion of evidence submission and witness testimony in the interest arbitration hearings for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

With the hearings complete, the Arbitration Panel will now begin its deliberations. 

APWU Responds to Management

The majority of the final three-day session was spent on APWU’s rebuttal of management’s attacks in earlier hearings.

The APWU presented testimony from Motor Vehicle Service Craft Director Michael Foster, Clerk Craft Director Lamont Brooks and Maintenance Craft Director Idowu Balogun.

The national craft directors refuted management’s efforts to reinstate PSEs into Maintenance and MVS, subcontract out more work and add more management “flexibility” that would undermine seniority bidding rights, hours of work and set schedules.

Motor Vehicle Service Director Michael Foster responded to management’s regressive proposals for PVS operators. Among those proposals was a management attempt to do away with bidding on specific schedules when bidding on duty assignments, and allow supervisors to substantially modify duty assignments on a weekly basis.

Clerk Craft Director Lamont Brooks addressed USPS management’s attacks on clerks’ work and our demand for better staffing in the Clerk Craft. Director Balogun rebutted Postal Management’s attempts to carve out exceptions to Line H. “APWU members are rightly outraged at postal management’s attacks on them,” said Industrial Relations Director, Vance Zimmerman. “In these final interest arbitration sessions, we showed exactly how highly skilled and dedicated our members are.”

APWU Members Deserve Raises

Our main witness was a renowned economist who not only strongly rebutted management’s argument that APWU members are overpaid but also provided powerful justification that we are deserving of good solid wage increases based on our skills, jobs and general wage trends.

While management focused on comparing postal wages with the private sector, our economist went back to the 1970 Postal Reorganization Act, which mandated collective bargaining for postal workers.

He showed that the law created a duty for USPS to be a good employer, as well as to maintain wage increases comparable to the private sector. He also highlighted the serious flaws in the data that management relied on to calculate its comparison with private sector wages. He presented statistics which showed that, across the board, APWU members deserve a solid and substantial wage increase and that they are not overpaid and under-skilled, as management had argued.

A Huge Effort All Round

The close of the hearings represented the culmination of a huge effort by members at every level of the union.

“I thank our team, our witnesses, and all those who did so much work in preparation under the guidance of our Industrial Relations Director Vance Zimmerman,” said President Dimondstein. “While there is no guarantee of victory in interest arbitration, we delivered a well-prepared and argued case that APWU members of all crafts have earned and deserve a good new union contract that protects job security and rewards dedicated postal workers.” The Arbitration Panel is expected to issue a final and binding award early in the new year.