Below, you can view and download the eReassign guidelines. This is a reference for our members at facilities which have been identified for excessing in our South Jersey area.
The guide is easy to understand. It is step-by-step, with screenshots, to help you along the process.
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(This information has been provided by Lamont Brooks, Assistant Director (A) Clerk Division)
It is very important that while the Postal Service is reverting and abolishing duty assignments that locals are actively pursuing our work.
When you can identify carriers or other crafts performing clerk bargaining unit work it is critical that we file crossing craft grievances and identify newly created duty assignments using MDAT.
I suggest locals monitor your District offices to identify clerk work.
They are hiding injured carriers at the District level.
All of these hours can be used to create new duty assignments under Article 37.3.A.1.
When supervisors perform work that is non-managerial and non-supervisory it will normally more than likely be Clerk work.
As it pertains to Amazon, other than delivering the parcels, practically everything else from meeting the trucks to closing out the day is clerk work.
We can not sit back and give away work and especially work in an area of Postal Service growth.
With the increase of the parcel volume, Call Center type work will be increasing and their will be an expanding need in the local offices.
This work has always been performed by General Clerks, Claims and Inquiry Clerks and Customer Complaints Clerks.
You will need to file a grievance under Article 1.5, Article 7 Crossing Crafts, Article 5,Article 37.3.A.1., etc.
Please read the Goldberg SRT National Arbitration decision dated 12/8/16 for guidance.
The remedy is for cease and desist, pay the clerk bargaining unit for all hours worked, post newly created duty assignments (utilizing MDAT) and a make whole remedy.
I am advising you to take this action as the Postal Service will argue at this level that this is a local issue. If we are able to establish this initiative was the result of a national directive and we have documents to support it, that would be a different matter.
I will still pursue this at the national level.
Please keep me informed of any future information you have on this subject.
During your investigation I will bet that you will find out that the carrier is an injured carrier. If so, request a copy of the job offer, the carriers home office and interview the employee and their supervisor. Thus would also be a violation of Article 13 and the Rehab MOU.
We have to fight to get our work back.
Please share with your APWU local/state officers and stewards.
If I can be of further assistance on this matter, please don’t hesitate to ask.
I will try to assist from the national level.
(This information has been provided by Vance Zimmerman, National Industrial Relations Director)
The Postal Service’s Request for or Notification of Absence (Form 3971) has been amended to include a new section applicable to those going on leave without pay (LWOP) for official union business. This new section states:
LWOP – Union Official (Required Certification)
By signing this form, I certify this request is not for the purpose of engaging in partisan political activity as defined by the Hatch Act and its implementing regulations
This certification is an overreaction by the Postal Service to the July 14, 2017 report by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC). The Report of Hatch Act Investigation: Facilitating Labor Union’s Political Activity Through Use of “Union Official” Leave Without Pay stated that “The postal unions and individual employees and members are permitted, and should be encouraged, to maintain PACs, endorse candidates, and enlist union members to support their electoral agendas on their own time.”
The Postal Service grossly overreached and is trying to suppress postal employees from exercising their First Amendment rights as protected by the Hatch Act. Furthermore, by changing PS Form 3971 and changing the ELM 514, the Postal Service is violating the APWU/USPS Collective Bargaining Agreement.
APWU has filed a national dispute, a charge with the National Labor Relations Board, and is reviewing other possible legal action to overturn these changes.
APWU members are not second-class citizens! We refuse to be denied or intimidated into not fully using our political voices on issues and candidates who will protect a public and thriving Postal Service.
For information on the Hatch Act, please see below.
What You Can and Can’t Do at Election Time
Your active participation in the political process is essential! As public employees, postal workers need to be familiar with the Hatch Act, which limits how we can participate in party-related political activities.
Postal employees:
When NOT on postal property, in uniform or on the clock, postal employees:
Partisan politics on the clock, in uniform, or on postal property could violate the law, so please keep the rules below in mind.
What is Partisan Political Activity?
Partisan political activity includes any actions that are supporting or opposing a candidate in an election (federal, state or local) when he/she is running as a member of a certain political party (Republican, Democrat, Independent, Libertarian, Green, etc.). On a ballot, if there is a letter after their name, it is a partisan candidate. Most positions in federal and state elections are partisan, for example Governor or U.S. Senator, but there are some local seats which are not, for example a school board member.
Partisan political activity also includes asking for money or volunteers for a candidate and/or political party to utilize in an election. This also includes inviting any co-workers to a rally or event supporting any political party. Making political contributions yourself is also partisan political activity and can not be done while on the clock, in uniform or on postal property.
However, any activity surrounding a piece of legislation or political issue is NOT partisan. Encouraging co-workers to call their members of Congress to support or oppose a bill, like the Postal Service Reform Act (H.R. 756), is allowed while on the clock. For those able to wear buttons/stickers on the job, wearing one that supports a Vote by Mail ballot initiative is permissible.
If you have any further questions concerning permissible activity please contact the Legislative & Political Department at 202-842-4211 or by email at legislative@apwu.org.
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