Article 12 – The Excessing Article… 6 Sections and 23 Pages of an Entangled Web of Contractual Gibberish. Or is it?
Article 12 takes up 23 pages of the 2021-2024 APWU Collective Bargaining Agreement, otherwise known as the CBA, or the National Agreement, or simply the NA as so many arbitrators refer to it in their lengthy written award decisions. The largest Article in the NA, in number of pages the language appears on, is Article 37, the Clerk Craft, which encompasses the definitions, the process of posting and assigning duty assignments, and the application of Article 12 reassignments which are unique to the Clerk Craft. Article 12 and Article 38 (the Maintenance Craft) are the next largest Articles of the NA in number of pages in which they appear. When members and stewards of a local hear the words “excessing”, many times a feeling overcomes them as gut wrenching emotions invoke the uneasy task of opening up the contract to the pages of Article 12, and someone must ask the question… “What do we do?” Fortunately, Article 12, titled “Principles of Seniority, Posting, and Reassignments” is broken down into 6 sections. And by isolating those sections to the principles that apply to your circumstances at the installation for the type of excessing you will be representing the membership, you can eliminate the sections that will not apply, so that you can focus on what does apply. Article 12, Sections 1 through 3 establish the principles for applying seniority and probationary periods for new employees in APWU crafts. It also provides the language that shifts seniority rules and posting provisions to the individual craft Articles of the NA. For the most part, Sections 1, 2, and 3 will serve as minimal importance in the excessing procedure. We can put half of Article 12 away for now, and move on to Sections 4, 5 and 6…… Section 6 deals with transfer requests into an installation. Lets toss that section aside as it has little importance to the excessing procedure. We’ve eliminated 2/3 of Article 12 so far. Now, its time to dive into Sections 4 and 5…… Section 4 establishes timelines that the Postal Service must follow in notification to the APWU at the national level when there are MAJOR plans affecting APWU crafts nationwide. This section also established the 6 month advanced notification period in which the Postal Service is required to meet with the APWU Regional Coordinator (Omar Gonzalez for the Western Region) when the Postal Service is planning to excess employees from one location to another. This is called excessing OUT OF CRAFT OR INSTALLATION. For the most part, the Regional Coordinator represents the local members while communicating with the local president to gather information to verify or correct the mis-information that the Postal Service usually provides to the Regional Coordinator. So the major nuts-n-bolts we need to fix our attention to is Section 5. Basically, Section 5 is split into two types of excessing events; 1. excessing OUTSIDE of the employee’s installation; and 2. excessing WITHIN the employee’s installation. As stated above, when 1. applies, then the Regional Coordinator must be notified 6 months in advance. And he/she will notify the local president of the local as he/she receives the information regarding the excessing event. In 2. excessing WITHIN the installation to the needs of a section , only the local president is notified unless there will be excessing to other crafts within the installation, and the notification must occur at the Local Level (as much as six (6) months in advance when possible), pursuant to Article 12.5.B.4 (also in the JCIM Article 12.5.C.4). The identification of assignments comprising a section is determined through the local LMOU. When it is proposed for the Postal Service to excess employees WITHIN an installation and the reduction is anticipated to be fulfilled by attrition, then excessing OUT OF CRAFT will not take place. This type of excessing is the least inconvenient to the dislocation of employees, and also happens to be the least inconvenient for local union officials to navigate. This is covered under Article 12, Section 5.C.4(a, b, c, and d). Note: When the Postal Service notifies the union that it is necessary to reduce the number of regular workforce employees WITHIN an installation other than by attrition, then the Regional Coordinator is notified. This type of excessing ( Article 12, Section 5.C.5) intends to reassign an APWU craft employee to another craft WITHIN the same installation, and requires that the other crafts WITHIN the installation withhold residual vacancies in their craft so that the excessed craft employees will have a duty assignment to be reassigned into. So, the only excessing event in which the local president is the sole primary notification individual is when Section 5.C.4 is implemented. Otherwise, all other excessing events will first be addressed to the APWU Regional Director. Now let’s look at the process that a local follows under 5.C.4 (a little less than 2 pages worth of contractual gibberish). The JCIM provides the simplest layman’s interpretation of the excessing process when eliminating duty assignments from one section into another. Section 5.C.4 begins on page 107 of the 2022 JCIM. Page 108 pretty much sums up the entire sectional excessing process followed by the retreat rights process on page 109. The sectional excessing process can be pretty much isolated to just 1 page (108) of the JCIM, and of course, the local’s LMOU to determine the sections for excess. That’s not too bad is it? Coming Next….. When the Regional Level Gets Involved (Sections 5.C.1,2,3,5 & 6) Comments are closed.
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