Safety Ambassador Settlement

On January 28, 2022, the American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO reached a settlement agreement with the Postal Service on the Safety Ambassador Program. The case was scheduled to be heard in national arbitration on February 3rd and 4th. However, with the settlement, the hearings were cancelled.

On October 26, 2017, the APWU was informed that the old Safety Captain Program would be standardized into a nationally controlled program called the Safety Ambassador Program. The APWU demanded to meet with the Postal Service over the new program and objected to it. The new program was created unilaterally by the Postal Service in violation of Article 19 and the Union’s Article 1 rights to be the exclusive representative of the bargaining units represented by the APWU.

Specifically, objections were raised regarding how the ambassadors were to be appointed, that “verbal” safety reports be made instead of the PS Form 1767 process, how the program would usurp the contractual Joint Labor Management Safety and Health Committees, and how the ambassadors would be responsible for observing co-workers and reporting their actions to management. In March of 2018, a national dispute was initiated on the program after our meetings with the Postal Service failed to produce any meaningful results. An article on this dispute was posted at the time the dispute was initiated. 

As full and complete settlement of the dispute, the Postal Service agreed to permanently suspend and withdraw the Safety Ambassador Program. This includes any guidelines, manuals, or training that the Postal Service attempted to introduce with the program. 

Thanks to the hard work of the National Officers (Lynn Pallas-Barber, Terry Martinez, and Jason Treier) assigned to Article 14, Industrial Relations Department staff, and our attorneys, the APWU was able to successfully fend off the Safety Ambassador Program.  

A copy of the settlement can be found here: Safety Ambassador Settlement.