APWU Shop Ratifies Two-Year Extension

The nine-member WBNG unit at American Postal Workers Union headquarters ratified a two-year collective bargaining agreement June 9 that gives salary increases of 1.2 percent each year.

The new contract is an extension of the 2012-2015 agreement that expired May 1 and that itself had been extended one year ago.

“The two-year extension keeps everything in place,” said APWU Guild unit chairperson Tim Fitzgerald, “including four cost-of-living-adjustments,” with the first one taking place next month. “The extended deal also locks in insurance premiums at 2012 rates.”

Wrapped up in matters such as an upcoming national convention, APWU management sought a one-year extension. “But we insisted on at least two,” Fitzgerald said. “There were two new members in the bargaining unit whose vacation time was affected by last year’s extension. The APWU agreed to restore their vacation time and earning rate.”

The APWU bargaining team was composed of Fitzgerald (WBNG’s vice president since January 2012), Jackie Anstead-Bullock, Biola Jeje, Barbara Zibordi, and Local Representative Rick Ehrmann. The new pact, signed June 14, runs through April 2018.

The Local 32035 NewsGuild unit was organized at APWU in 2000 and signed its first CBA in 2001.