Negotiations: No Easy Victories - the Struggle Continues!

For the fourth time, I am honored to be your lead negotiator for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, also called our union contract. In the last three rounds of negotiations, we have made substantial progress in overcoming the setbacks of the 2010 concessionary contract and generally advancing the well-being of postal workers and our families. Some examples include: maintaining our full cost-of-living-adjustments (COLAs), no-layoff protections, the 50-mile limit on excessing, automatic conversions to career after two years for most postal support employees (PSEs), restoring two of the top steps lost in the post-2010 career pay scale, returning Level 8 jobs to the higher pre-2010 wage rates, eliminating all non-career jobs in maintenance, no subcontracting of existing postal vehicle service (PVS) work, improving PSE benefits, and more guaranteed work hours and rights for part-time flexible employees (PTFs).

Our general goal during negotiations is to continue the progress built over years of struggle and to enhance the well-being of postal workers with good wage increases and COLAs, improve workplace safety, guarantee better staffing, eliminate the divisive two-tier wage scales, and increase more career jobs.

Long before negotiations opened on June 25, we began the intense preparation process. Under the solid guidance of Industrial Relations Director and Chief Spokesperson Charlie Cash and the hard work of the National Negotiations Committee (NNC), and contributions by assistant craft directors, numerous national business agents (NBAs), and staff, the APWU researched our history of collective bargaining, studied economic trends, assessed USPS finances, examined other union contracts, and weighed APWU convention resolutions to develop our proposals and strategies.

Despite the union’s best efforts, including a weeklong “lockdown” before the contract expired on Sept. 20, we have not, as of my writing, reached a new contract. (See negotiations updates on page 5).

Forks in the Road

Without a new contract by expiration, there were three possible paths forward:

• Declare an impasse, meaning negotiations are over. Then proceed with interest arbitration, where an arbitrator dictates our future wages, benefits and conditions of employment.
• Withhold our labor and engage in an unlawful strike. No anti-worker law can deny workers our inherent right to withhold our labor as witnessed by the historic 1970 Great Postal Strike. Until conditions significantly change, strike actions today would clearly lack the needed overwhelming support of the members.
• Continue negotiations striving to reach a voluntary new contract. The reality is that without the hammer of “No Contract, No Work” and the legal right to strike, management has little pressure to get the negotiations done by the expiration date. In 2021, we were able to reach a solid new voluntary agreement within a few months after expiration.

As previously reported, the NNC unanimously voted that it is in the best interests of our members to continue with negotiations since some real progress has been made and it is always better to control our own destiny.h3

No Magic Wands

Negotiations are never easy, even when management comes to the negotiating table in “good faith” as they did in 2021. While the union and management will fi nd some areas of mutual interest, negotiations reflect a “class struggle,” i.e. the bosses versus the workers. Postal workers enter the battlefield seeking maximum gain in terms of compensation, safety, rights, and job security, while management seeks ways to get us to work harder for less. When we declare “Union Proud, Say it Loud” and wear our union gear, sign up non-members, and join rallies such as the October 1 Day of Action, we build our power and send management the message that we are united in our demands for a good new contract. ■

As this is the last magazine before the holiday season, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, or other holidays, I wish all our members a safe and joyous holiday season and a happy and healthy New Year!