Postal Workers, USPS Prove Public Employee Bargaining Works

by James Parks, Mar 14, 2011

While governors and state lawmakers across the country are attacking the right of public employees to bargain, the Postal Workers (APWU) and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) today showed that public employees and government can work together to solve financial problems and provide good service. The two sides have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, which APWU President Cliff Guffey says is “a win-win proposition” for both parties.
In a video to members, Guffey said:

When workers across the country are fighting to protect their right to collective bargaining, our tentative agreement is a testament to a great American freedom: The right of workers to have a voice at work and to negotiate for a better life.

With the USPS in financial trouble, Guffey said negotiators had to be creative to fashion a fair contract. The tentative new agreement, which will expire on May 20, 2015, will safeguard jobs, protect retirement and healthcare benefits, and provide a 3.5 percent wage increase over the life of the contract. The first raise will be in November 2012, Guffey said.
“Avoiding layoffs was a top priority,” Guffey said, noting that more than 100,000 postal jobs have been eliminated in the last three years.
The contract also includes provisions that will return to postal employees a significant amount of work that had been outsourced or assigned to managerial personnel. Guffey said:

This will strengthen job security for our members while it saves the Postal Service money.

There will be no changes to the healthcare benefits of APWU members in 2012. Each year from 2013 through 2016 there will be a slight shift in employees’ share of contributions toward healthcare coverage. This will amount to an increase of several dollars per pay period each year.