All Craft Conference Report - MVS 2023

Hundreds of MVS officers and delegates from around the country attended the All-Craft Conference, Oct. 2 – 4 in Las Vegas. We had excellent training, and we hope that attendees will utilize it to create winning grievances.

The MVS Division officers reported on several resolved issues.

Postal Vehicle Operator (PVO) Pilot Alternative Dispute Resolution Process (ADRP) MOU

We previously reported on the ADRP. We successfully obtained an agreement to use the ADRP for PVO pilot programs. It is extremely important that local union officials know and understand this process if their local has one of these pilots in the facility. Items that may be referred to the ADRP for the pilot are: complement/ staffing, seniority list, creation/posting of bid duty assignments, and work rules identified in the memorandum that established the pilot program, when unresolved at the local level. Other items may be added by mutual agreement to the ADRP at the headquarters level.

All other issues will continue through the normal Article 15 grievance/arbitration process. Disputes may be initiated at the Step 2 level within 14 days of the date on which the employee or the union may reasonably have been expected to learn of its cause. The dispute, if unresolved at Step 2, will receive a special GATS number and then be assigned to Area Level Labor Relations to be discussed with the appropriate National Business Agent. If the dispute is still not resolved, the parties will exchange all appropriate documents and position papers at the area level and moved to the national level. This will hopefully allow for quick resolution of concerns and missteps by the Postal Service related to the implementation of the pilot program.

Level 8 Pay Anomaly

Shortly after the 2021-2024 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) was signed on Feb. 28, 2022, the APWU began working on pay anomalies created by the changes made to the grade 8 pay schedule. Anomalies are nothing new and are expected when pay schedule advancements are made. Elimination of the AA through FF steps were not necessarily the root of the problem, as much as retaining time in step credit was. Allowing employees to carry their current next step in grade wait time forward allowed junior employees to advance beyond senior employees.

To remedy the situation, the payment process itself remains the same as in previous pay anomaly circumstances in terms of using a lump sum settlement payout. However, unlike some previous occurrences where affected employees were automatically identified within the payroll system, employees in this case need to be identified manually and agreed upon by the parties.

Senior employees who were jumped over need to have their step, and/or next step in grade time adjusted to the level of the junior employee who advanced beyond them.

Once all impacted employees have been identified, advanced to the proper step, and have the proper next step wait time adjustment, a one-time lump sum payment will be made to affected workers.

The APWU and USPS are jointly going through the employees who were in grade 8 as of June 17, 2022, the day prior to the implementation of change. Unfortunately, when two different systems are used (finance and operations), they often provide different results in which comparisons and edits must be made. Many other changes to employees’ steps and grades can also complicate these corrections.

Those corrections are being reviewed.

We enjoyed seeing all the attendees and are glad that we could see everyone in person. ■