October 17, 2022

Three locals will receive $200.00 each for achieving at least 50 percent participation:

October 11, 2022 

The official results [PDF – Members Only] of the APWU Election of National Officers have been tabulated and were certified by the American Arbitration Association on Oct. 7. A summary will be published in the November-December issue of The American Postal Worker. 

The results will also be separated by local. These will be posted to the Members Only section in the coming days. Uncontested offices are not shown in the web posting, but will be listed in the magazine.

October 6, 2022 

APWU President Mark Dimondstein was elected to a fourth term as votes in the APWU National Officer Elections were tallied on Oct. 6. Also re-elected were Legislative and Political Director Judy Beard, and Retirees Department Director Nancy Olumekor. Human Relations Department Director Daleo Freeman was elected to a first full-term.

Yared Wonde will become the new Southern Region Coordinator and Arrion Brown will become the new Support Services Division Director.

Election results are not official until verified by the American Arbitration Association (AAA). Unofficial results for all races are printed below. Certified results are expected in the next several days and will be posted on apwu.org and in the next issue of The American Postal Worker.

"I am honored by the strong vote of confidence from APWU members for my re-election and the election of every APWU Solidarity Team member,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “As candidates, we proudly ran a campaign focused on our collective accomplishments and our vision for the future of our great union.”

“I congratulate all those officers who were re-elected and welcome those who are newly-elected,” Dimondstein added. “Now that the election is behind us, let us all unite in APWU solidarity to continue building union power as we face the many opportunities and challenges to come.”

September 30, 2022

Message from APWU President Mark Dimondstein, Executive Vice-President Debby Szeredy and Secretary-Treasurer Liz Powell on Hurricane Ian and Fiona.

In the past two weeks, two disastrous hurricanes have caused massive devastation and hardship, including the loss of life. Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are still recovering from the damage of Hurricane Fiona. Hurricane Ian continues to sweep through the Southeast United States after delivering massive damage in Florida.

These storms have deeply impacted our APWU family.

Our hearts and thoughts are with all those affected by these storms, especially APWU members and their families.  First and foremost, our primary concern is for the wellbeing and safety of all those in the path of these terrible storms. The APWU leadership has reached out to and been informed by postal management that postal employees are thus far safe and accounted for. 

We understand that for many the recovery process will be long and difficult.

Postal workers are encouraged to continue donating to the Postal Employee Relief Fund (PERF), which provides relief grants to assist qualifying active and retired postal employees impacted by natural disasters, to help re-establish residence and replenish necessities in the aftermath of a devastating loss.

Secure donations to PERF can be made by credit card using Pay Pal or through payroll deduction by designating #10268 during the Combined Federal Campaign, which is set to kick-off on October 2nd. PERF is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. All contributions are tax-deductible. More information on disaster relief funds is available here.

Affected postal workers may also contact the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) (800) 327-4968. EAP is available around the clock to provide free, confidential counseling and referral services to help employees and their families to obtain resources and cope with their current challenges.

With natural disasters becoming ever more frequent and devastating – wildfires, floods, extreme heat and storms – we are reminded that it is the public Postal Service and dedicated postal workers who are on the frontlines of beginning to bring normalcy back to our communities. And postal workers return to performing our mission of serving the people often while facing their own hardships and recovery efforts.

The APWU leadership continues to monitor the impact of these storms and we encourage all our affected members to stay strong in the face of the adversity. Know that your APWU family stands with you!

September 19, 2022 

For years, APWU has been fighting to end the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO), which dramatically reduce the Social Security benefits of many retirees. On Tuesday, Sept. 20, the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82), is scheduled for a vote by the House Ways and Means Committee. The vote is an accomplishment for APWU’s long-running campaign to correct this injustice.

The Social Security Fairness Act would repeal the WEP, which penalizes many APWU retirees who receive a civil service pension but paid into Social Security in previous employment. It also repeals the GPO, which unfairly penalizes many spouses and widows with prior employment pensions.

This vote means that we are closer than ever to removing the GPO and WEP. However, we must continue fighting to make sure that the bill is voted out of committee with a bipartisan majority. That bipartisan majority is key to making sure it does not stall in the Senate, where it will likely need broad support to pass. Similarly, we must keep pressure on the House of Representatives to guarantee that the bill receives a floor vote before the end of the month.

It is more important than ever to let your member of Congress know that you support this bill. APWU is holding a National Day of Action to call House members on Tuesday, Sept 20. We encourage everyone to participate. Contact your representative by calling our legislative hotline at 844-402-1001 and urge them to support the Social Security Fairness Act.

To learn more about the Social Security Fairness Act, and how GPO and WEP reduce Social Security benefits for many retirees, please click here.

Mark Dimondstein

September 16, 2022  

Lamont Brooks

September 10, 2022 

Where We’ve Been

Since 2009, the USPS has wanted to cut our workforce and reduce the retail footprint using Contract Postal Units (CPUs), approved shippers, and reducing or closing retail operations, which, if successful, would have reduced mail processing and retail/customer service clerks to under 50,000 clerks in each case. However, the clerk complement was 154, 061 in 2011; as of 2022, there are 155,895 employees in the craft -- an increase of 1,834 clerks.

We fought off plant consolidations, attempts to contract-out retail operations, the subcontracting of mail processing, and attempts to reduce or close retail operations. We must face the reality that we are not writing letters, mailing bills, or buying postage like we used to and must shift to customer service, packages, and alternative products and services. We must take back non-managerial and non-supervisory work from EAS employees to create more work opportunities and higher paying jobs.

Where We Stand

Article 37.3.A.1 states, “Every effort will be made to create desirable duty assignments from all available work hours for career employees to bid.” This language has resulted in the creation of new duty assignments, the maximization of PTF clerks, overturning reversions and abolishments, the creation of more desirable duty assignments, and defeating the excessing of clerks.

Article 37.3.A.1 has changed the way the USPS performs Function-4 audits based on earned hours. The USPS is relying on clerk observations. It is very important for clerks to properly perform all of the duties in their position description. The USPS is switching from the timeclock method to utilizing sensor technology and scanners, for more accurate operational moves.

It is important that we apply the Enhanced and Expanded Services MOU, Job Audits MOU, Clerical Work MOU, New Positions and New Work MOU, and the Clerk Craft Jobs MOU to expand our work opportunities. The new 2021 CBA resulted in the Article 8 Task Force MOU, which provides the necessary language to challenge understaffing. The Filling Residual Vacancies MOU provided for all the improvements requested by the delegates at the 2018 convention. PSEs now have automatic conversion rights in all offices except level-4 RMPOs in POStPlan. In exchange they were given 26 hours of additional annual leave. PTF clerks received a one-time opportunity for full-time conversion.

Currently, there are no national-level RI-399 disputes. The parties are waiting on an arbitration decision for the final dispute involving the Automated Delivery Unit Sorter (ADUS). And with the assistance of NBA Bernie Timmerman, we have developed a training manual to assist locals with RI-399 jurisdictional matters.

In Function 7, we negotiated a pilot Telework Agreement at the Customer Care Centers, Customer Retention Team sites, and for the Mailing Requirement Clerks (MRCs). We are pursuing pay upgrades for MRCs and other work opportunities for BMEU clerks, resulting from the reduction of work from Seamless Acceptance.

In Function 4, we are pursuing additional products and services, including passport duties, where we have been negotiating for a higher-level duty assignment. The USPS proposed a new retail clerk position to perform these duties, however it was for level-6 pay. We will challenge the pay-level under sections 233 and 234 of the ELM.

We have also enforced crossing-craft grievances related to injured employees from other crafts, have won Lead Clerk and TACS grievances, including the return of TACS work to the clerk bargaining unit, and were successful with the Jobs MOU, where the USPS failed to post 400 duty assignments, for the PMR/PSE violations in the small offices, Postmasters in level-18 offices, and the improper use of the End of Day button. We will continue to work with Industrial Relations to provide a good, safe, and healthy work environment, free of hostility and harassment, and with dignity and respect.

October 18, 2022

After meeting with the Postal Service again and scheduling an NCED site visit, we can announce that the implementation date of the per diem MOU is November 7, 2022 and will be piloted for three years for all Crafts.