Category: News Around the Country

Vaccination Mandates by President Biden

(This article originated from the APWU website: https://apwu.org/news/vaccination-mandates-president-biden)

On September 9, 2021, the White House released two Executive Orders on vaccinations for COVID-19.

The Executive Orders on Requiring Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination for Federal Employees and on Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors do not expressly apply to Postal Service Employees.

In addition, in President Joe Biden remarks, he stated, “…tonight, I’m announcing that the Department of Labor is developing an emergency rule to require all employers with 100 or more employees, that together employ over 80 million workers, to ensure their workforces are fully vaccinated or show a negative test at least once a week.”

Until this emergency rule is developed, the APWU will not know if it applies to Postal Service employees. Once the emergency rule is released it will be reviewed and discussed with our attorneys and additional information on how it applies will be released.

As the APWU has continually stated, all employees are encouraged to wear face coverings at work and are encouraged to voluntarily receive one of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Washington Judge Ruling on USPS

On September 17, 2020, Chief Judge Stanley A. Bastian, from the Eastern District of Washington, granted request from 14 states to temporarily block the operational changes Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has overseen since taking over as PMG. 

We should all be heartened by this decision. From the moment PMG DeJoy implemented his plans the APWU stood up and lead the push-back on these changes. It was the hard-working members of the APWU who lead the charge. The APWU members– who are dedicated to critical mission and to every customer of the Postal Service– obtained, shared, and notified the public about what was happening to the American People’s Postal Service.

It was your reports, images, public actions, letters to the editor, interviews in the press, and other activities that brought the interest of many state attorney generals around the country. Without your work, this temporary block would not have been issued.

Every member should be proud of the work they did and should be applauded. We must also thank our Lead Counsel from Murphy Anderson, PLLC, Mindy Holmes and all the attorneys working on this for the APWU for all the work they did to assist the Attorneys General on this lawsuit. Our attorneys advised our members who were contacted by the AGs and advised the AGs involved in the case.

Here is link to a story on the judge’s order from the Washington Post. It also includes a video the Post put together on the actions that DeJoy took that slowed the mail down. It showcases members of the APWU who helped educate the public on what was going on. This is just one example of what we have done in our fight against delayed mail and to save the USPS.

Today is another small victory in our fight for the People’s Post Office. It could not have been done without you. Thank-you for all you have done. Keep up the fight. Keep sending items to our delayed mail email box, keep up the pressure, and keep our fight for the Post Office in front of the public. Today is only one victory of hopefully many more to come.