It has been a long time in the waiting, but  as  you  know  we  finally  have  a new  National  Contract.  It  has  many improvements  for  PSE’s  and  keeps the many protections that the current career  work  force  has  had  in  previous contracts.
There is no doubt that the PSE’s received  many  enhanced  benefits  in this new agreement. One of the main goals that National APWU President Mark Dimondstein was to chip away at  the  disparity  between  the  career and non career work force. He did just  that.  He  was  successful  in achieving an all career workforce in Maintenance and MVS. That was a huge  accomplishment.  Those  two crafts no longer have PSE’s. In Milwaukee this created over 30 new career positions within those crafts.In the Clerk Craft, we had an additional 60+ PSE’s converted to career status. This contract is a life changing event for those PSE’s who will now enjoy the benefits that the rest of the career workforce have.  Some of the other highlights for career employees in our new contract include; a 3.8% pay increase over the life of the 40 month contract; retention of COLAs; retention of No Lay-
off  Protection;  the  elimination  of NTFT  assignments  in  Function  1 (Plant and Annex) and Function 3 (MVS); retention of language that  limits  any excessing  to  no  more than 50 miles.  If you want to know more  about  specific  changes  in  this  contract, feel free to talk to a union officer or steward, call the union hall or come to one of our monthly union meetings. We will be happy to explain the changes to you.All-In-All, the contract, as a whole, is  a  good  thing  for  our  APWU members. It continues to provide us with a decent living, good benefits and great job security. Our National Contract is one to be proud of as it is envied by many other unions.