APWU announces plan for filling new clerk positions

The American Postal Workers Union said that it has come to an agreement with the U.S. Postal Service on a "pecking order" plan for filling new positions in the wake of a recent arbitration award that created 9,000 new clerk slots.

The new clerk craft positions will be in the six-hour and four-hour post offices affected by the Postal Service's POStPlan. An arbitrator in September concluded that in those post offices, jobs that require no administrative duties must be assigned to clerks—not to part-time postmasters or postmaster relief employees.

The union expects current part-time flexible employees to fill about 3,000 clerk craft positions in the six-hour remotely managed post offices (RMPOs). The shift also will provide many postal support employees with the opportunity to convert to career status by moving into the vacated part-time flexible slots, APWU said.

Clerks in the six- and four-hour RMPOs will be the only employees working in those offices.