The Postal Service notified the APWU on June 20, 2022 that they are going to be realigning the Field Maintenance Operation (FMO) reporting structure from Maintenance to Retail and Post Office Operations to better position management officials that the FMO directly supports.
The notification also stated that the Postal Service anticipates new supervisor and manager positions will be established to oversee the work of bargaining unit maintenance personnel.
Immediately after receiving this notification, we sent the Postal Service a request to meet and discuss this, as well as multiple information requests, to discover exactly what was happening, and when.
Two meetings were held (and additional meetings are ongoing) to discuss these changes in which management continued to explain that the changes are internal for EAS employees and that the restructuring will have no effect on bargaining unit field maintenance employees, except that they might have new supervisors or managers overseeing field maintenance operations.
The Postal Service spent the vast majority of their presentation sharing updated EAS positions that are being created, posted, and filled to facilitate field maintenance operations.
In addition, the APWU was told that affected bargaining unit employees will include all Area Maintenance Technicians (AMT), limited Level 7 Maintenance Mechanics that fall under FMO, and limited Custodians that fall under FMO (stations, branches, area offices). At the conclusion of our last meeting, management notified the APWU that they were going to begin stand-up talks to affected employees the following morning.
Mandatory Stand-Up Talk for Field Maintenance Personnel September 23, 2022
Over the past few years, as part of the Delivering for America Plan, the Postal Service has made significant changes to its organizational structure to better align functions in support of our core business operations.
In continuation of these efforts, as of this week, Field Maintenance Operations has been realigned from under the Chief Processing and Distribution Officer to a newly established structure reporting to the Vice President of Retail and Post Office Operations under the Chief Retail and Delivery Officer.
As a current field maintenance employee, you may be affected by this change. However, your current job, duty station, work hours, days off and current bidding installation will not change. The organization will be creating new field maintenance supervisory positions and some current field maintenance craft employees will begin reporting to a new supervisor or manager over the next few weeks. We will share additional information regarding your reporting structure as it becomes available.
Within the next few weeks, you will receive a Form 50 with a different finance number. This new Form 50 is for administrative purposes only. Your work will continue as normal.
In the event that local or district management is changing FMO bargaining unit duty assignments, or anything else that seems improper, please contact your local president and/or maintenance craft director immediately and provide as many details as possible about what changes are occurring and which postal officials are enacting these changes. Additional inquiries can be submitted to Maintenance Division National Business Agents.
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