On June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed into law the S. 475 Juneteenth National Independence Day Act. This law establishes June 19th of each year as a Federal holiday. President Biden then declared it would be observed beginning June 18, 2021, as the 19th falls on a Saturday. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger announced in Galveston, TX the end of slavery in accordance with President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. This […]
» Read moreToday, May 28, Anton Hajjar was confirmed by the Senate to serve on the Postal Board of Governors. He joins two other recent nominees, Amber McReynolds and Ron Stroman, who were confirmed by the Senate on May 12. The Postal Board of Governors now has a full complement of governors for the first time in more than a decade. “Our campaign to get new members on the Postal Board of Governors was about making sure […]
» Read moreIn the May-June 2021 issue of the American Postal Worker, we reported on the Warrior Met Coal Miners’ strike in Alabama, which began on April 1 following the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) filing unfair labor practices charges with the NLRB. During negotiations both before and during the strike, Warrior Met refused to offer good wages and benefits, instead demanding drastic concessions from the workers. The miners vowed to stay on the picket line […]
» Read moreOn Saturday, May 22, 2021, Postal Support Employees (PSEs) will receive a pay increase of 20 cents per hour. The additional pay will be reflected in pay checks dated June 11, 2021. The new hourly rates for PSEs can be found here. This is will be the fifth and final pay increase PSEs will receive under the 2018-2021 National Agreement. The five pay increases the PSEs receive included three general increases of 2.3%, 2.1%, 2.0%, and […]
» Read moreOn June 22, we officially open negotiations with the United States Postal Service for a new union contract. Our current national agreement covering some 200,000 postal employees expires on September 20, 2021. This is the third round of collective bargaining during which I have the privilege to represent you as the union’s lead negotiator. I want to share my perspective on the challenges of negotiations followed by what we hope to achieve in bargaining. First, […]
» Read more(This article first appeared in the May/June 2021 issue of the American Postal Worker magazine) There still are misconceptions with the eReassign process in the field. The Clerk Craft MOU on filling residuals misleads employees to believe that they are bidding on a residual assignment. An application in eReassign is a request to transfer from one installation to another installation. The current contract requires to post the Clerk Craft residuals in eReassign based on the […]
» Read moreOn Tuesday April 27, 2021 postal management informed the APWU of management’s intent to pursue consolidations and operational mail moves in 18 facilities nationwide. These proposed changes are taking place in the context of the Postal Service’s 10-year plan and proposed network and operational changes. The 18 facilities listed are among the 62 Mail Processing facilities whose consolidation was halted in 2015. Management has stated that the proposed mail moves are to be completed by […]
» Read moreIn August of 2018, Arbitrator Stephen Goldberg struck down the Postal Service’s unilateral implementation of changes to ELM Section 510 and to PS-Form 3971 regarding union leave for political activity such as in relation to voter registration and get out the votes efforts. The changes required employees taking Leave Without Pay (LWOP) for union business to certify that they would not be participating in any partisan political activities. (Click here for web news article on […]
» Read moreWhile we all cannot wait to gather together again, the leadership of APWU takes the health and safety of our members seriously. As a result, in an effort to keep our members safe, the National Executive Board voted unanimously to cancel the 2020 National Convention. However, the All Craft Conference will be held virtually. Additional information will be published in the near future. In the meantime, if you should have any questions or […]
» Read moreToday, Postal Service management issued a 10-year plan they are calling Delivering for America. The plan lays out a number of steps management hopes to take to bridge the projected $160 billion financial shortfall projected over the next ten years. There are elements of this plan the APWU will support and there elements of the plan we will oppose. For generations, postal workers and the United States Postal Service have fulfilled the postal mission of […]
» Read morePresident Dimondstein signed extensions on the COVID MOUs today (March 19), through June 4, 2021. The liberal leave policy has also been extended (see letter below). He also signed extensions on the annual leave carryover, which will allow 520 hours to be carried into leave year 2022 and career employees can also sell up to 80 hours of leave for leave year 2022. One MOU that was not extended–but was suspended–was the additional leave for […]
» Read moreMultiple questions have been submitted regarding the recently passed stimulus bill known as the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). Under section Title IV Section 4001 of the bill, funding for Emergency Federal Employee Leave (EFEL) was appropriated. The APWU is monitoring all developments regarding EFEL and will continue to share information as it is received. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is responsible for administering the fund and issuing the guidelines on this […]
» Read moreOn Thursday March 11, President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 into law, providing desperately needed relief to America’s working class and stabilizing communities across the country. Working families have been waiting on this bill, which will provide critical direct payments (up to $1,400 per eligible individual), fund vaccine production and distribution, and provide emergency state and local funding to jumpstart the economy. For postal workers, the American Rescue Plan has […]
» Read more(This article first appeared in the March/April 2021 issue of the American Postal Worker magazine) The mail system is in chaos. Postal workers are tired and frustrated. Customers are angry. Despite the courageous efforts, hard work and dedication of postal workers throughout this dangerous pandemic, service has deteriorated to levels never seen in modern times. On-time first class mail delivery has fallen below 50 percent in many areas. Medicines, greeting cards, holiday gifts and vital […]
» Read moreIn accordance with the 2018-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement, career employees represented by the APWU will receive a 20 cent per hour cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), effective February 27, 2021. The increase is the result of a rise in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-W). It will appear in paychecks dated March 19, 2021 (Pay Period 06-2021).The value of the COLA for full-time employees in each step and grade will increase by $416.00 annually, and the hourly rates […]
» Read moreOn January 17, around 1,400 members of Teamsters Local 202 who work at Hunts Point Produce Market in The Bronx, NY went on strike after management refused to meet workers’ demands for desperately-needed pay raises and additional health care support. Following the six-day strike, workers voted over 97 percent in favor of a new three-year contract that includes a wage increase over the course of the contract that is above the workers’ initial demand and […]
» Read moreCBS New York: Striking workers at the Hunts Point Market in the Bronx reached a settlement.
» Read more2020 was a tough year – on our health, our families and the economy. While the rich have ridden the pandemic to get even richer, unemployment, poverty and hunger have drastically increased. Our own federal government failed to properly protect us during this terrible pandemic. Completely unfounded claims of election fraud and the refusal to accept the election results are inciting violence and deeply threaten our democratic rights. But the year ended with two major […]
» Read moreThe Postal Service recently notified the APWU of its plan to separate Logistics from Mail Processing and Maintenance. As a result, all Expeditors and Ramp Clerks will report to a designated Logistics management official. In addition, a January 12 Stand Up Talk was to inform these employees that unique finance numbers were “created for each newly stablished Logistics operation”. The Postal Service also developed a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), among which included responses […]
» Read moreAPWU President Dimondstein as he reports back to members on the work and challenges we face as we move into 2021. Topics will include the campaign for a pro-postal majority on the USPS Board of Governors, the recent creation of 5,000 new union career jobs and the upcoming opening of bargaining on the APWU/USPS Contract.
» Read moreOn January 6th and 7th, members of Congress carried out their Constitutional responsibility and certified the state-by-state election results of the 2020 presidential election. The path has now been cleared for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to be inaugurated on January 20, 2021. Congress completed its duty despite the seditious and violent assaults on the U.S. Capitol, which sought to stop the certification, disenfranchise tens of millions of voters and overturn the […]
» Read moreFor APWU members planning on retiring at the end of the year, you may be affected by limitations to the annual leave carryover. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the APWU worked to negotiate various MOUs that would be beneficial to all of us during the pandemic. One of those MOUs was to increase the amount of leave that an employee could carry over into leave year 2021. This MOU allows for a maximum of 520 […]
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By: National Business Agent “Chuck Locke” Saying Goodbye to 2020 2020 has been one roller-coaster of a year but we made it! We have endured more in 2020 than most of us have seen in our lifetimes. We survived a worldwide pandemic with COVID-19, huge increase in package volumes with little to no increase in staffing, a new Postmaster General trying to sabotage the Postal Services mission, and we elected a new President of the United […]
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Sign the Petition Longtime APWU Retiree, Byron Denton, age 92, was a postal worker. As an old timer, he has experienced some tough times, but nothing compared to the hardships faced by today’s postal workers. They have delivered through an unprecedented global pandemic and they deserve support. Show you will stand with postal workers and a public US Postal Service: sign the petition to #SaveThePostOffice www.apwu.org/petition
» Read moreWorkers Continue March on Delhi On November 26 and 27, an astonishing 250 million people took to the streets in India for a two-day general strike. The strike, by some estimates the largest in world history, was an extreme show of worker solidarity across all job types, as 10 national industrial trade unions joined with over 250 agricultural groups to advance their demands. Workers in nearly every major industry joined the strike – including […]
» Read moreA salary increase that was negotiated as part of the 2018-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement will take effect on November 21, 2020 (pp-25). Career employees will receive a raise of 1 percent and Postal Support Employees (who are not eligible for cost-of-living allowance adjustments) will receive a raise of 2 percent. Coinciding with the raise will be a dues increase, in accordance with Article 16.2 (a) of the APWU Constitution and Bylaws. Union dues for career […]
» Read moreOn November 17, APWU members and community allies came together in virtual and in-person events across the country to reaffirm our demands for $25 billion in immediate COVID-19 financial relief from Congress and a permanent reversal of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s delays. During the election, postal workers processed a record number of mail-in ballots, moving “heaven and earth” to make sure all 65 million reached their location in time to be processed. This success would […]
» Read moreWBUR: U.S. Postal Service workers are uniting for a national day of action Tuesday in cities throughout the country to call for more support from Congress. The service experienced one of its greatest challenges — shepherding of millions of presidential mail-in ballots — while under political, financial and operational challenges only amplified by the pandemic. From WBUR’s Here & Now.
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