PREPARATION FOR
Paul V. Hogrogian National President
THE 2016 NATIONAL AGREEMENT
As everyone knows, the NPMHU’s 2011 National Agreement expires in approximately three months, on May 20, 2016. Negotiations with the Postal Service will formally commence on February 25, 2016, and preparations at the National Office have been ongoing for many months. The Postal Service continues to claim, both publicly and privately, that it is in dire financial condition because it currently has almost $100 billion in unfunded liabilities, including – in the view of the Postal Service – $15 billion in debt to the U.S. Government, $28 billion in unmade payments to the Retiree Health Benefits Fund, another $5.7 billion in future payments to the RHBF, unknown billions in future interest payments and net pension shortfall in the CSRS and FERS systems, $26.2 billion in unfunded workers’ compensation, and approximately $14 billion in other obligations, including employee leave. Many of these amounts are contested, of course, and subject to future legislative changes. In any event, the National Office planning for negotiations has included the following: • A bargaining strategy session was conducted with all Local Union representatives at the August 2015 Semi-Annual Meeting of the Local Unions in Boston, MA. • Bargaining proposals were solicited from the membership and Local Unions through September 2015. Each and every one of those proposals was fully analyzed by the NPMHU’s Field Negotiating Committee and the National Negotiations Team to allow the Union to develop its opening bargaining proposals. • During the third week of October 2015, a Field Negotiating Committee met at NPMHU Headquarters in Washington, DC to review and issue recommendations with regard to all of the proposals submitted from the members and Local Unions. Attending the meeting – in addition to the
Mark A. Gardner Secretary-Treasurer
National Executive Board and the National CAD Representatives – were the following Local Union officers: •
Pervous (Andy) Badalishamwalimu of Local 310
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Ernie Grijalva of Local 302
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Jim Haggarty of Local 307
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June Harris of Local 306
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Woody Hendrickson of Local 332
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Cindy Hoehl-Rinker of Local 321
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Randy Krueger of Local 333
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Jeff Larsen of Local 323
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J.R. Macon of Local 329
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Nick Mosezar of Local 318
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Kevin Tabarus of Local 300
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Javier Valencia of Local 303
The CAD expresses its deep appreciation to all members of the Field Negotiating Committee for their invaluable work on these proposals. Since February 2015, both the American Postal Workers Union and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association have been negotiating over the terms of their expired 2010 National Agreements. They both have reached impasse with the Postal Service. The APWU and the USPS tried mediation through the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, while the NRLCA and the USPS did not. More recently, the APWU and the Postal Service have just begun interest arbitration hearings before a three-member Arbitration Board chaired by Professor Stephen Goldberg, who also served as the APWU/USPS interest arbitrator in the 2000 round of national negotiations. When the NPMHU enters bargaining, so too will the National Association of Letter Carriers, representing the city carriers, as its National Agreement also expires in May 2016. As negotiations start, there will be many communications from the National Office as the bargaining process takes shape. So every mail handler should watch the bulletin boards throughout the coming months.
HANDBOOK PO-408 The Postal Service has temporarily suspended most of its plans to close and/or consolidate up to 82 additional postal facilities as part of Phase II of its Network Rationalization plans. One part of the NPMHU’s opposition to this plan is the processing of a National-level grievance, claiming that the Postal Service has violated Handbook PO-408 when it attempts to close and/or consolidate facilities without complying with the various provisions of that handbook.
In short, it is the NPMHU position that the Postal Service’s current plans to close or consolidate 82 mail processing facilities during 2015 are based on untimely AMP processes resulting in essentially meaningless AMP studies and reports. The Postal Service implementation of these closings or consolidations during 2015, therefore, would violate Handbook PO-408 and the National Agreement.
In the NPMHU’s view, it is clear that Handbook PO-408 requires decisions made as part of the AMP process to be based on current and meaningful data. Since the earlier AMPs were issued in 2011 or earlier, there have been major changes in mail volume (both in amount and in the mix of the mail), major changes in the workforce (for example, through retirements and other forms of attrition and through contractual changes allowing for less costly employees), major changes in both the mail processing and transportation networks, and many additional changes in each of the other factors or criteria that must be examined when performing an appropriate study under Handbook PO-408. On this basis alone, the 2011 and earlier AMP studies that the Postal Service currently claims to be relying on do not and cannot reflect a reliable basis on which to make closing or consolidation decisions. Moreover, the timing of the AMP process and its relationship to any eventual closing or consolidation is obviously a crucial factor in properly implementing the guidelines contained in Handbook PO-408. The AMP process is defined to encompass a period of approximately six months, from initiation of the feasibility study to final approval by the SVP Operations. One obvious component of this process is to ensure that the information and data relied upon, and the consideration given to comments from managers, unions, and other stakeholders, is as current and timely as practicable.
In early December 2015, Arbitrator Das issued his Interim Award, concluding that Handbook PO-408 is properly enforceable in the National Agreement’s grievance-arbitration procedure, to the extent that the PO-408 directly relates to wages, hours or working conditions of mail handlers and other postal employees. Following the issuance of this Interim Award, the CAD acted to schedule the merits of the PO-408 for a prompt hearing. The first day of that hearing was held on January 27, 2016. During that hearing, the NPMHU argued that any additional closings or consolidations based on AMP studies completed in early 2012 based on data from 2011 would be a violation of the PO-408 Handbook, and therefore that Arbitrator Das should issue a cease and desist order prohibiting the Postal Service from implementing any further closings and consolidations without performing new AMP studies. In addition, the NPMHU is arguing that any closing or consolidation that may have been implemented between September 2014, when the National-level grievance was first filed, and April 2015, when the Postal Service issued a one-year moratorium on closings and consolidations, should be reviewed and possibly reversed.
Please Post!!
More hearings days will be scheduled, as the NPMHU has kept the record open for additional evidence and argument, and both the APWU and the Postal Service have not yet had an opportunity to present their respective cases.
February 2016