Motor Vehicle Craft

Union Mail: UM
Bob Conrad: BC

Astronomical amounts of money are being paid to private con-tractors. This money could be paid to our members, keeping them actively employed, including overtime when necessary, at huge savings for the USPS. Some of these con-tracts border on the criminal. Amounts are agreed upon and then, all of a sudden, a $1.5 million contract becomes $5 million, then $50 million. Money is wasted as they give our jobs away.

UM: What is the difference between USPS employees and those hired by private contractors?

BC: Our members are checked out vigorously by the Postal Service before they are hired. The USPS claims that they do back-ground checks on the private contractors, but where is the proof? If we ask, we are shown nothing. We don't know if they are keeping out convicted criminals from the people the private contractors are using.

UM: What are your goals in the new position?

BC: My goal is to re-establish communication at the local level throughout New York State in the motor vehicle craft. We need to maintain open lines of communication. Our responsibility to the members is to represent and defend them. We also need to serve as a liaison to the national officers in order to protect and preserve our jobs. We must take seriously our responsibility to inform and educate. The sharing of information is a great strength of this union. Our collective action throughout New York State is the best way to represent our members.

APWU President William Burrus

APWU President William Burrus has asked the USPS Office of Inspector General to investigate two important and related issues that affect MVS jobs:

The first involves management’s practice of allowing Highway Contract Route subcontractors to park on postal property free of charge; the second is the policy of allowing subcontractors to alter the price of contracts without re-bidding them — sometimes within weeks of the original bid.

As President Burrus noted in his Feb. 22 request for an investigation, allowing contractors to park their vehicles on postal property without cost is a high-value perk that obscures the true cost of subcontracting.

The contractors get to park for free and the USPS operation gets charged for it. Figure that one out.

Triple the Cost

In his letter to the OIG, the APWU president pointed out that the USPS often awards an HCR contract at one price and then almost immediately accepts escalated costs. President Burrus noted the example of a contract at the Phoenix P&DC, let out for about $150,000, which 17 days later showed a cost of more than half-a-million dollars.

These policies have important implications for postal workers — especially MVS employees — because they tip the scales in favor of subcontractors at the expense of postal employees. They also raise concern for postal customers who must pay the costs, for competing contractors who may be unfairly disadvantaged in the bidding process.

POM, DSI, 943 & 944 Tests

In November, APWU signed a Memorandum of Understanding settling grievances protesting changes to the Postal Operations Manual (POM). But as of mid-April, the USPS had not yet issued Article 19 statements rescinding the changes to Chapters 5 and 7.

More recently, we received correspondence regarding the posting of the Driver Safety Instructor duty assignments. This issue has been a source of irritation for quite some time, with the Postal Service insisting on posting these jobs district-wide.

However, the contract is clear on this point: All MVS duty assignments are to be posted installation-wide only. (In its correspondence dated Feb. 21, 2008, the USPS agreed with APWU that there is no mechanism for a district-wide posting.)

Regarding qualifications for upgraded MVS positions, the APWU and USPS had settled this issue of which exams employees must take to qualify for jobs upgraded in 2001. It seems that the Postal Service has altered its position.

Despite correspondence that offers language to the contrary (e.g., a USPS letter dated Jan. 18, 2006), management now says that the Automotive Mechanic (PS-7) must complete both the 943 and 944 written tests. Although the USPS mischaracterized the Lead Automotive Technician as Lead Mechanic, the correspondence from 2006 lists the levels correctly: The 943 test is for the PS-7, and the 944 test is for PS-8 and PS-9.

We initiated a dispute, and by the time you read this it will most likely have been appealed to arbitration. If you have been denied a promotion to PS-7 because of a failed 944 test, we strongly recommend that a grievance be filed, and a copy forwarded to APWU headquarters.

As a remedy, the grievance should request that the employee be made whole, with his or her seniority adjusted to the date the job was filled. The employee should also be compensated for all lost wages and overtime opportunities.

Insulin-Dependent Step 4

The MotorVehicle Service Division has reached a pre-arbitration settlement with the USPS rescinding the policy that prevented insulin-dependent diabetics with valid Commercial Drivers Licenses from operating postal vehicles that weigh more than 26,000 pounds.

The settlement resolves case #Q00V-4Q-C05069239, which was filed at the national level on March 7, 2005, as an interpretive dispute. It is the culmination of a long-standing disagreement between the APWU and the Postal Service.

The APWU has been fighting for the rights of diabetics — as well as for othe rMVS employees with other medical conditions — for more than a decade. During the 1990s, much of the focus was on establishing appropriate procedures for resolving differing opinions between employees’ physicians and the USPS. Those procedures remain in effect.

APWU