{"id":11013,"date":"2015-05-21T07:58:08","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T12:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=11013"},"modified":"2015-05-21T07:58:56","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T12:58:56","slug":"apwu-contract-talks-extended-one-week-to-focus-on-economic-package","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2015\/05\/21\/apwu-contract-talks-extended-one-week-to-focus-on-economic-package\/","title":{"rendered":"APWU: Contract Talks Extended One Week to Focus on Economic Package"},"content":{"rendered":"
Provisions of Old Agreement to Continue<\/strong><\/div>\n
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APWU – 05\/21\/2015<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>–\u00a0<\/span><\/span>The APWU and the U.S. Postal Service agreed to continue bargaining for an additional week after they were unable to reach agreement on economic issues by the May 20 expiration of the current contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were unable to\u00a0reach a negotiated settlement tonight,\u201d Dimondstein said\u00a0just before midnight. \u201cWe were too far apart on wages and benefits. But we are going to work hard over the course of the next week to see if we can narrow the differences.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThe terms of the 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement will continue until a new contract is reached,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cIn the meantime, all the old contractual protections remain in full force and effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the extended bargaining fails to lead to an agreement, the APWU will seek mediation, Dimondstein said, and proceed to arbitration if attempts to mediate a settlement are unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made progress in negotiations on many important work-floor issues,\u201d Dimondstein said, \u201cbut in the end, we were unable to negotiate a complete agreement. Management scuttled the prospect of reaching a deal before the deadline by insisting on a permanent, new lower pay scale and reduced benefits for future career employees as well as givebacks in pay and benefits for current career workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe union\u2019s job is to fight for those who are part of the workforce today — both career and non-career —\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>for those who will be part of the workforce in the months and years ahead,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we fail to do that, over time we will undermine the wages and benefits of all our members.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keep the Heat On!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dimondstein praised the activism of APWU members throughout negotiations. \u201cYour actions are having an effect,\u201d he declared. \u201cManagement takes note of how many of our members are wearing buttons, stickers and union shirts, and how many members participate in rallies and other events. They take it as a measure of the union\u2019s strength.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I urge every member to stay involved and keep the momentum going as we enter a new period in our struggle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last few months, management also took note of the tremendous support we received from our sister postal unions, the labor movement and from civil rights, religious, environmental, good government and women\u2019s organizations. I encourage every member to take our message to your family, friends, neighbors, and the organizations you participate in outside of work,\u201d Dimondstein added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018I Stand with Postal Workers\u2019 postcards are a great way to let the Postmaster General know that the people of the country want what we want:Good Postal Service! Good Jobs! Good Contract!<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>Let\u2019s keep collecting signatures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur struggle continues,\u201d Dimondstein said. \u201cStay strong, stay united and keep Standing Up and Fighting Back!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"1-APWU-New\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Provisions of Old Agreement to Continue APWU – 05\/21\/2015\u00a0–\u00a0The APWU and the U.S. Postal Service agreed to continue bargaining for an additional week after they were unable to reach agreement on economic issues by the May 20 expiration of the current contract. \u201cWe were unable to\u00a0reach a negotiated settlement tonight,\u201d Dimondstein said\u00a0just before midnight. \u201cWe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apwu-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11013"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11015,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11013\/revisions\/11015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}