Is the APWU Contract a Union Giveaway?

In an editorial today, the Pittsburgh Tribune - Review stated that the Postal Service's contract with the APWU does little more than "sustains the stagnant status quo."  The editorial reflects an understanding of the details of the contract that would come from doing no more research that reading the press releases issued by the Postal Service and the APWU when the contract was signed.    As this information primarily was designed to promote the contract to APWU members that must vote on the agreement, the Pittsburg Tribune's impression of the contract is understandable.

The Pittsburg Tribune-Review's editorial illustrates the problem that the Postal Service created because it did not recognize that it had to sell the contract to Congress, influential news media, and its customers.  The Postal Service needs the support of all three if the rest of its restructuring programs are to be approved.  For example, why would a member of Congress acquiesce to the closure of a local processing plant or accept 5-day delivery, or modify the payment terms on retiree obligations if they believed that the Postal Service did not do all it could to reduce its compensation costs and excess employees.

The truth is no one knows whether the contract is good for the short-term and long-term financial health of the Postal Service.  The analysis in the post, Is the APWU Contract Good for Shareholders and Creditors?, clearly shows that the contract will benefit the Postal Service financially if the proportion of APWU members that are working under the new definition of full time and new pay schedules grows quickly.   If turnover is only occurs at normal attrition rates, then the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review may be right, the contract may do no more than sustain the status quo.  If however, the Postal Service can offer sufficient incentives to get older APWU members to retire, and excess APWU members in plants and retail offices being closed or consolidated to retire or seek employment elsewhere, then the contract could reducing its operating costs.

The Postal Service needs to quickly adjust course and explain to the public in detail why the contract is good for them and what they will be doing to accelerate the proportion of APWU members working under the new contract rules.   On March 25th they will have an announcement announcing a limited number of cuts in non-union positions.    While this is a step in the right direction, the Postal Service's presentation will unlikely still its critics that the Postal Service is not moving fast enough to bring costs in line with revenue.     More information is needed soon or the Postal Service will soon find that it has lost control of its destiny.