02/15/2016 – 
With arbitration for a new contract set to begin on Wednesday, Feb. 17, the union’s negotiating team, attorneys, economists, workers and other experts are busy making last-minute preparations.
“We’ve worked many long hours preparing to testify and present a strong case,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “We’re ready for the challenge.”
As the hearings get underway, the union is asking APWU members to wear stickers bearing the message, “Opening Day – Fighting for Justice.”
“Management takes note of how many APWU members wear union stickers and other gear, and sees it as a sign of our strength,” Dimondstein said. “So, sticker up!”
Deeply Dissatisfied
Negotiations began a year ago, on Feb. 19, 2015.
“Our members are deeply dissatisfied with the current state of affairs,” Dimondstein said when negotiations began. “We want an end to the three-tiered structure that pays workers very different amounts for performing the same work. We want an end to the situation where new hires can barely make a living wage and where full-time career workers are replaced.”
Postal workers should be fairly compensated and enjoy a dignified retirement when their careers end, he said.
Major concessions were made in bargaining in 2010 amounting to over $4 billion in savings to the Postal Service directly from the wages and benefits of postal employees. “Enough is enough! The union’s objective now is to stop the bleeding turn things in a better direction,” Dimondstein said.
The APWU is seeking to:
- Win good wage increases for all union members;
- Protect cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs);
- Defend the no-layoff clause;
- Gain a career workforce
- Redefine “full-time” so that it once again guarantees 40 hours of work per week:
- Limit subcontracting,
- Gain a singular pay scale and end the multi-tier workforce.
We currently have a three-tier workforce, Dimondstein noted:
- Pre-2010 career employees
- Post-2010 career employees, who earn lower pay than their pre-2010 counterparts
- Post-2010 PSEs, who earn lower pay and fewer benefits
The Postal Service demanded a fourth tier – a new career tier with even lower pay and fewer benefits – no COLAs, virtually no protection against layoffs, and a reduction in annual leave and sick leave.
Management didn’t limit the outrageous proposals to future employees. The USPS wanted to gut the COLA provisions for current workers and made other egregious economic demands, he said.
“There’s no way we were going to engage in that kind of concessionary bargaining,” Dimondstein said.
source: APWU
Wildcat Strike and a sit in at the white house. bus em in from all fifty states.jackson, sharpton- lets see what the democrap, marxist, maobamma will do. no justice no peace. postal lives matter more than 1%. give em hell harry……er mark! whatever lol. enjoy your 1%.
I’m in the NALC but it is always a good idea to see how the other unions are faring. I wish Dimondstein was our national president – at least he has some real guts and the fighting spirit it takes to deal with management, who are getting worse and worse all the time. I was not really surprised but disappointed to see the NLRCA actually reach an agreement with management for incredibly insulting pay increases and not much else. I’ve always supported my union, but I’d scab out of the NLRCA.
If Mr. Rolando and the NALC doesn’t want to see a similar exodus, especially after the terrible CCA program started and made service ten times worse, I’d suggest fighting to get them all promoted to unassigned regulars and try to eliminate the CCA program altogether. If management wants an even lower classification for clerks, they’ll want one for city carriers, too.
I’ve never seen the NALC less visible, less proactive or even effective than the last couple of years. I used to be a branch president, but like a lot of other former officers out there, we feel that Region and National are operating in a different world than we are, and have their pay in mind, little attention to again, the CCA debacle, management abuses and grievances.
May I remind you higher level NALC officers, NBA’s, RAA’s, etc. that we PAY your salary, and will react accordingly if you do not heed our concerns. You better be ready to take the gloves off when we go to contract talks or you’re likely to see a huge amount of members ditch you.
Does seem as though Rolando is becoming another Goofy Guffey,who was in his position for the big salary and perks on top of his USPS retirement and sucking up to the PMG and giving him more contractual giveaways and allowing them to screw with our health care bennies than looking out for the best interests of the members.And the Rural Carriers president Jeanette Dwyer is a joke and they should have merged with the NALC years ago,much of those wonderful 1.3% raises will be offset by the increase in their contribution to their health care premiums.The NRLA members need to wise up and vote that tentative agreement down.
We have been going backwards not forward
Give em hell, Mark!
May the APWU kick the hell out of the absolutely absurd and ridiculous proposals set forth by our employer at a time when we are operationally making money hand over fist. Why bother to recognize the people who make sure the mail (and packages, AHEM!) get sorted day in and day out? And may APWU also make as much hay as they can out of the service standards being cut which have currently squashed service and made being a mail carrier a daily opportunity for embarrassment!!!! 10 thumbs down til they who are allowing that stupid idea to continue are brought to the realization of making a change back to getting the mail from A to B in a more timely fashion is they way to go. As a former insider, and a “sick and tired of being sick and tired” outsider, it makes ya want to hide in a corner and cover yer eyes and ears head and hope to awaken from this reallybadunservicewardrobemalfunctionbaddream…Demand Good Mail Service and Demand Justice for all of “they who work”…
Let’s get it on!!
Pat yourself. …. not pay yourself
Yes Mark…… management shakes in their boots when clerks wear stickers. Really?? Do you really think anyone buys this bs anymore? Another 1% is coming just like every other contract. And then you will pay yourself on the back for another outstanding job. And the game continues. ……
This contract talks that are all craft employees are going through it should be crossroad moment. Because if pay and working conditions don’t change for the better . We should vote every bum out.