The APWU website claims, “Not a Single Layoff….despite management’s aggressive approach to excessing and downsizing, not a single APWU member has been laid off.” Tell that to the hundreds of Postal Support Employees that have been laid off since 2011! The Postal Service has failed to mitigate the impact of mail processing facility closures and consolidations on its employees as required by Section 302(e) of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act:
REEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE AND RETIREMENT BENEFITS. The Postal Service plan shall include —
(1) a comprehensive plan under which reemployment assistance shall be afforded to employees displaced as a result of automation of any of its functions, the closing and consolidation of any of its facilities, or such other reasons as the Postal Service may determine; and
(2) a plan, developed in consultation with the Office of Personnel Management, to offer early retirement benefits.
Where is the reemployment assistance for PSEs? Why is the Postal Service hiring City Carrier Assistants off the street when impacted PSEs are available internally? USPS Recruiting More City Carrier Assistants
The Postal Service should be offering career employees early retirements. Congress used the word, “shall.” The Postal Service promised Congress in its PAEA Section 302 Network Plan, “It is the Postal Service’s policy to request such voluntary early retirement authority from OPM even for impacted employees covered by collective bargaining agreements that do not contain voluntary early retirement provisions.” The APWU and USPS negotiated an early retirement offer to minimize employee dislocation in 2002. See the “MOU Re: Excessing” attached.