In a victory for the APWU, Arbitrator Stephen Goldberg issued an award [PDF] on July 25 that will help protect our members’ interests if the Postal Service proposes to increase hourly rates for Postal Support Employees (PSEs) when it is necessary to do so to recruit or retain them. 
The Memorandum of Understanding Re: Postal Support Employees contains the following sentence:
Should it be necessary for recruitment or retention of PSEs, the Postal Service may pay higher hourly rates, with the concurrence of the Union.
The parties negotiated the language because the union believed that PSE rates might be too low to attract and retain employees for skilled positions, especially those in the Motor Vehicle Service Craft.
At the hearing, the Postal Service contended that this sentence precluded the union from conditioning its concurrence on issues other than the amount of the hourly rate proposed by the USPS.
The union asserted that the APWU has a right to decline to concur on a proposed exception to PSE wage rates and is free to propose other demands as a condition to concurrence.
Arbitrator Stephen Goldberg rejected the Postal Service’s position and ruled that the APWU’s authority to concur — or not — with a USPS proposal to increase PSE wage rates may be conditioned on “matters reasonably related to the Postal Service’s proposal, including, but not limited to, the amount of the proposed increase.” Goldberg remanded the matter to the parties for discussion of an appropriate remedy.
The decision makes it possible for the union to address circumstances where the Postal Service has set hourly rates of some more recently-hired PSEs higher than rates of previously-hired PSEs with greater seniority as well as where salary rates of certain PSEs are higher than the starting rate for new career employees in the same classifications.
Source: APWU
This is not a win for the APWU, it’s just the union attempting to portray it as a win to it’s members. Why don’t the union work on real workroom floor issues for a change? I’m sick and tired of the non-representation!!
It is a stretch to claim that this is a victory for the union. Goldberg essentially awarded that the discussions must be limited to the USPS proposal which in this instance was to increase PSE rates. The additional question of paying recently hired PSEs at a greater rate than more senior PSEs was not an issue in the USPS proposal and has been rejected as being covered by the Memo. Goldberg essentially said that the parties are free to agree or disagree to lower the PSE rate but the Memo does not require discussion on the relative wage rate for newly hired or previously hired PSEs.
This is a race to the bottom and pits USPS employees against the lowest paid contractors. If the contractors propose a lower non union rate, the union will meet it. This turns on its head the philosophy that unionized workers uplift the working class by setting higher wages that non union companies must follow or lose their workers. The union makes a mistake in making wage equity the sole comparison and ignoring the historic factors of increased productivity through job satisfaction, less attrition and innovation. The purpose of a union is not to lower wages to maintain the work by a specific group of employees and engage in this continuing downwards comparison. In a country of 7.5% unemployment there will always be qualified workers who will work for less. APWU has adopted a policy that growing the union is the prime objective and when necessary they will meet the wage rates of the lowest paid non union employers.
Can you imagine the repercussions of the union position that they will adjust the wages to meet those of a bidding contractor If applied to mail distribution or retail? The standard has historically been “comparability” which combines wages and benefits of all private sector workers including union and non union so we were able to use UPS and Fed Ex as comparisons and when we were found to have exceeded comparability, we convinced the arbitrators to apply moderate restraint. The standard has been changed to competing with the lowest bidder. Every duty performed by postal employees can be performed at a cheaper rate and APWU has agreed to a standard of direct comparison. Can you imagine USA manufacturing competing with China on the basis of wages?
How ironic. The union went to arbitration to deny management the right to pay PSEs more than the negotiated rate because they would be making more than other PSEs. If the duties demand higher pay why did the union agree to the reduced rate?
This is a dangerous mindset and encourages management to focus on reducing wages because other workers will do it for less. The danger is that you establish a climate where management focuses on reducing wages vs increasing wages and while the union can blame management in the future, it was their acts that began the travel down this road. What is their principle?
I have read the award thoroughly and I find the APWU news release false in its characterization of the award. The arbitrator used the term “reasonably related to the Postal Service’s proposal”. This is a far cry from the union’s proposal to condition it’s agreement on addressing “desirable duty assignments”. You cannot reasonably relate desirable duty assignments to PSE wage rates.