2/10/2015 – Our fight for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement has moved to a new phase, APWU President Mark Dimondstein reports.
“We are taking the preliminary steps necessary to proceed to arbitration,” he said. The first step is to select a three-member arbitration panel, which will be comprised of a union-appointed advocate, a management-appointed advocate and a neutral arbitrator agreed upon by both parties.
The neutral arbitrator is the person who will ultimately decide the terms of the contract, so this is a vitally important part of the process.
The APWU and the USPS have exchanged five names each from which we expect to select a neutral arbitrator. As soon as the neutral arbitrator is chosen, both parties will begin scheduling hearing dates, which the APWU anticipates will begin by late January or early February.
source: APWU
The contract should have ended mediation in early Sept and gone to arbitration in late Sept. We will lose 1 and 1/2 years raises and colas be the time it is resolved. Then the incompetent union officials will want praise for their hard work and valiant negotiations to get us a 1% raise!!!! Thanks for nothing.
GIVE YOURSELF A $650 DOLLAR RAISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 26X$25=650
Two things Greg, how about skipping mediation. I’m sure both sides
have to be in agreement to proceed in that manner. With that said,
what a f—— waste of time that was! The other is the Northeast area
rejected that contract here in Boston. Didn’t do much good majority
rules. I’ll wear the T-shirts and do all the rah rah stuff when a more
concerted effort to pin down management , roll up the sleeves and
punch it out in negotiations happens. This is the first mention of the
contract negotiation’s in how long???? There’s a bill going forward to
finally get rid of the 5.5 Billion that sunk us in the first place. Let’s use
these contract talks believing it’s going to happen this time! Packages
are booming, first class letter mail slide has slowed, the economy
has improved, we need an upside here….. COME ON MAN!
Roses are red.
Violets they’d be your blues.
If you ever believed postal stupervision and the lame APWU would ever reach an agreement.
Then I have some Florida swamp land to sell To all of yous!
how dare they not give us our 1% raise. MERRY CHRISTMAS to all postal slugs. (not the liberal ones)
Wear your “union gear” and show “solidarity” or, maybe, a “sympathetic demonstration?” There has been enough time run out on the clock and the arbitration won’t be ruled until after the elections. So, almost everyone should be happy in D.C. – unless, of course, the ruling on the contract comes up within a reasonable time prior to the election – but they are all pretty well insulated and any decision is not their decision and you won’t be able to hold any of them accountable like was done with the last “There goes the neighborhood” negotiated contract. Like some are fond of saying, “Well, it isn’t the Post Office anymore.” Well, it isn’t the APWU, either.
Couldn’t agree with you more wtodd. Why would Mr. Dimondstein be
so gullible to think he could first sent this to mediation and expect
management to “talk it out” and settle a contract! Now that time has
been wasted on that ill advised attempt, it is just now that he prepare
for arbitration. The contract ended back in the middle of May!! As we
continue to be paid from the expired contract I am hopeful that he and
his contract team realizes that any increases we do receive should be
retroactive back to that expired date! We all have a high 3 to think
about for retirement. The sooner we receive a new high in salary the
better it is for all of us. This should be in any agreement the union
makes seeing that management calls on an arbitrator quite often.
If it does not roll back to be included on your retirement then what
the – – – K are we doing waiting around losing money! Let’s go Mark!!
after failing to reach a contract agreement there is a 60 or 90 day time frame for mediation which is required before proceeding to arbitration
Anybody really think this wasn’t going to happen? The nalc will be next. Same story, another crappy contract….. and the game continues
this was an easy one to figure out; my only regret was not finding a few suckers to bet against a pick up some easy tax free coins but I still have time with the NALC deal
The APWU has single handedly tied management’s hands and are bankrupting the Postal Service with all of the burdensome MOUs and side agreements. The original 2010-2015 contract is already an inch thick. By the time you add all of the MOUs and new demands the contract will be as thick as the New York telephone book. They are like a cancer. Cancer eats up and eventually kills the very host it needs to survive. Go ahead and suck the Postal Service dry until there is nothing left and then you’ll all be on the unemployment line and using your contract to have a fire in your fireplace to keep you warm at night.
oh but the Postal Mismanagers who have lost over $90 Billion since 2009 should still get bonus money? get lost you jerk! talk about the creeps who are sucking the place dry. then the po mismanagers game the system and get around the PSE low pay and getting their kids in and putting them up for 204B and higher pay-once again who is sucking the system dry? WE NEED NEW MANAGEMENT PERIOD!
The ” Service” has launched an all out assault on Senior Maintenance Employees (other crafts on hold till after Christmas) to bring in lower pay tiered Personnel and “demonize” Senior Vets and Employees while the Contract is Arbitrated.
Should have gone to arbitration right after the contract expired. Would have saved lots of time! In our country, The United Corporations of America, the workers are just thought of as cheap sources of labor. Nothing more! America will prosper when only the rich hold all the wealth, and the workers know their place. Chained to their work area.
Good luck. THE THUGS are hoping to shove it down our
throats. This could be the beginning or the end of the USPS
as we know it.
This last PMG,outsmarted the APWU national,into accepting the worst contract ever,and then very openly attempted 2 rescind it. Perhaps,binding arbitration,will lead 2 a better new contract?
don’t forget the members approved that contract which proves how uninformed most postal people are; in the end it cost Guffey his job
Not until after management implemented the new giveaways like converting full-time bids to NTFT did those dolts who voted yes realize how Goofy Guffey screwed them over and had to be voted out before he could do more damage.
It’s about time they moved on to arbitration, management was never going to come off of their ridiculous demands in mediation just like in the last contract non-negotiations with the other unions. Good luck Mr.Dimondstein in finding a fair arbitrator.
I have just retired after 32 years with the USPS. What usually happens in these arbitration’s is that pay gets frozen and workers and retirees have to pay more for their health benefits. They also will allow more temporary workers. So their labor costs are down anyways. If management gets any bonuses, they don’t deserve them.
Charles Williams-That is not what usually happens in interest arbitration,in the pre-2015 arbitration awards the status quo was pretty much kept intact,however,since the APWU leaders chose not to fight for their members and go to arbitration and gave the house away to Donahoe, which made the arbitrators see fit to impose some of those giveaways on the other unions.
2 tier pay scale and reduced starting wages for everyone to name a few