THE BULLETIN BOARD
March 2013
[March 13th]PSEs Have Rights When Issued Discipline
excerpted from APWU Press Release, 028-2013
The APWU and USPS have reached an agreement that clarifies the rights of Postal Support Employees (PSEs) when discipline is issued, Director of Industrial Relations Mike Morris has announced. In accordance with the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), management has the right to discipline or remove PSEs for "just cause," and PSEs have the right to file grievances protesting such discipline.
The Feb. 27 Memorandum of Understanding clarifies several important points, Morris said.
Removal is not the only option for correcting deficient behavior. Prior to agreement, USPS officials contended that removal was the only form of discipline required for PSEs and lesser forms of discipline were not necessary, Morris said. "The settlement makes it clear that the USPS position was without merit."
Discipline must be corrective in nature. Although the full range of progressive discipline is not always required for PSEs, the agreement stipulates that an appropriate element of just cause is that discipline be corrective in nature, rather than punitive. "Discipline that is corrective must also be progressive. This is an important principle that has been reaffirmed for PSEs," Morris said.
"Progressive discipline is not always required even for career employees," he pointed out. "Some misconduct is so egregious that removal can be upheld, even for a first offense. That is no different for a PSE than it is for a career employee."
PSEs will not be denied work as a substitute for discipline. "Management may not refuse to schedule an employee as a means of punishment for perceived shortcomings," Morris said. "If postal managers believe a PSE is not performing in a satisfactory manner, they have a clear obligation to attempt to correct the problem in an honest and straightforward manner rather than by using the PSEs work schedule as a disciplinary tool."
Read the entire article on the APWU.org website
[March 7th]House Tells Postal Service to Keep Six-Day Delivery
excerpted an article by Ron Nixon at NYTimes.com
A spending measure passed by the House on Wednesday to keep the government operating through September requires that the Postal Service maintain a six-day mail delivery schedule, a potential setback for the agency, which announced last month that it planned go to five-day deliveries to cut costs.
Faced with billions of dollars in losses, Postal Service officials said last month that beginning in August the service would stop delivering mail on Saturdays, though it would continue to deliver packages on a six-day schedule. The agency said cutting Saturday delivery would save about $2 billion a year.
The move to end Saturday mail delivery was widely condemned by some lawmakers, unions and postal customers.
After the House voted to pass the spending measure, Representative José E. Serrano, Democrat of New York, said the legislation made clear that Congress's intent was for the Postal Service to continue to delivery mail on Saturdays.
The post office said last month that it had the authority to end mail delivery on Saturdays because the spending measure passed last year did not explicitly include the postal provision.
On Wednesday, Mr. Serrano said that issue had now been resolved.
"The continuing resolution is clear: there will be six-day delivery for the rest of the fiscal year," Mr. Serrano said. "Earlier this year the Postal Service announced they thought they had legal authority to end Saturday delivery. That analysis was wrong, but now there is no room for misunderstanding."
Read the entire article on the NYTimes.com website
[March 6th]Union Wins Motor Vehicle Subcontracting Case
excerpted from APWU Press Release, 023-2013
The APWU has won an important arbitration case on subcontracting in the Motor Vehicle Craft that has important implications for the entire APWU, Motor Vehicle Craft Director Bob Pritchard announced on March 5.
"This is a big achievement for the union," said APWU President Cliff Guffey. "It confirms that the 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement gives us more teeth to protect APWU jobs."
In the March 4 decision, Arbitrator Steven B. Goldberg ruled:
"The Postal Service can no longer justify contracting out work that would be less expensive to keep in house on the ground that it has given due consideration to cost as well as the other Article 32.1 or 32.2 factors. To be sure, each of those factors must be considered, but if factors other than cost do not rule out keeping work in house, and the cost of keeping work in house would be less than contracting out, both the text and the bargaining history of the Contracting MOU require that the work be kept in house."
Continue reading the entire article on the APWU website.
[March 1st]Scholarships Available to PMAPWU Members
Patrick McShane Memorial Scholarship
- Type: Academic Scholarship
- Current graduating high school senior or college undergraduate whose parent or legal guardian is a current active member in PMAPWU
- A posting to all the station/branches and AO offices will be going out for the month of March.
- Deadline to apply is May 17, 2013.
- Contact PMAPWU at 412-321-4700 for more information and an application.
John T. Boxler Scholarship
- Type: Academic Scholarship
- $1,000.00 for each of up to four consecutive years of college
- Graduating high school seniors, all post secondary students, and affiliated Union members attending an accredited institution, are eligible.
- Deadline to apply is May 1, 2012.
- You can view all the details and download an application from the PPWU website.
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