NPMHU REJECTS USPS REQUEST TO REOPEN NEGOTIATIONS

           In April 2013, Postmaster General Pat Donahoe and the Board of Governors asked the NPMHU, as well as the other postal unions and management associations, to reopen negotiations in order to identify additional cost savings for the Postal Service.  Although the NPMHU understands that USPS officials are frustrated with the lack of action by Congress, which is blocking the Postal Service from dealing with its continuing financial problems, there is no chance that the NPMHU will reopen its 2011 National Agreement. 

          National President John Hegarty responded directly to PMG Donahoe, writing the following:

 The NPMHU must politely decline your request.  As you know, the NPMHU and USPS just concluded a lengthy round of collective bargaining, ending in binding interest arbitration.  The arbitrator (as always) took into account the financial condition of the Postal Service, and awarded a contract with substantial cost savings to the USPS.  The Postal Service has just begun to implement the award, and as it does the savings will increase over time.  The NPMHU therefore believes that to reopen negotiations only two months after issuance of a binding arbitration award would send the wrong message to the dedicated mail handlers working for the Postal Service, and would corrupt the collective bargaining process for future rounds of bargaining.

 While we are always willing to work with the Postal Service to achieve cost savings, and to find new revenue streams, we cannot accommodate your request to reopen contract negotiations.  Mail handlers already have contributed to the recent financial restructuring of the Postal Service; it is now up to Congress to authorize additional rate increases, to return the Postal Service’s pension overpayments, and to eliminate the onerous financial obligations imposed by the PAEA.

 Since the Great Recession of 2008, as the economic downtown and electronic diversion have continued to reduce mail volume, mail handlers have contributed significantly to the reduction of USPS costs.  The productivity of mail handlers is at an all-time high.  Moreover, during the past 5 years, the Postal Service has reduced its complement of career mail handlers by more than 26%, from 55,800 to 41,200.  And in its 2011 National Agreement, the NPMHU has a two-year wage freeze, a lower wage rate for new employees, and a future workforce that is comprised of 20% non-career employees who are paid considerably less and receive no pension and limited benefits.  When fully implemented, this new workforce will save the Postal Service more than $500 million per year in annual costs.  It therefore is not just rhetoric when the NPMHU says that mail handlers already have contributed to the financial future of the Postal Service, and it is now time for others (including Congress and USPS ratepayers) to do their share.