About the American Postal   Workers   Union

The APWU is the world's largest postal union, representing more than 220,000 USPS employees and retirees, and nearly 2,000 private-sector mail workers.

For more than nearly four decades, APWU has fought for dignity and respect on the job for the workers we represent, as well as for decent pay and benefits and safe working conditions. As an AFL-CIO affiliate, the APWU supports the struggle for social and economic justice for all working families.

Depending on their occupation, APWU members belong to the Clerk, Maintenance, Motor Vehicle, or Support Services divisions.

Our union is a democratic organization comprised of dues-paying members who belong to more than 1,000 state and local unions and retiree chapters in every state and territory. APWU officers are directly elected by union members.

The union's state and local affiliates are autonomous organizations that rely on the national union to represent their interests in contract negotiations and in national-level grievances. The union negotiates a national Collective Bargaining Agreement and fights for our members' interests on Capitol Hill. The APWU also has many Retiree and Auxiliary chapters so that former postal workers and postal families can remain active in union affairs.

History

Postal unions, dating back to the nineteenth century, have gone through a number of transitions paralleling the growth of the former Post Office Department and its transformation into the U.S. Postal Service under the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970. Under the PRA, postal unions first won the right to bargain collectively over wages, hours and working conditions.

APWU was founded on July 1, 1971, the result of a merger of five postal unions: the United Federation of Postal Clerks, the National Postal Union, the National Association of Post Office and General Service Maintenance Employees, the National Federation of Motor Vehicle Employees and the National Association of Special Delivery Messengers.

Structure

APWU's top officers are the president, President Mark Dimondstein; the executive vice president, Debby Szeredy; and the secretary-treasurer, Elizabeth Powell.

The union's organizational structure reflects its separate craft origins. There are four craft divisions: clerk, maintenance, motor vehicle, and a support services department. Other headquarters departments are industrial relations, legislative, research and education, organization, human relations and health plan. Craft divisions and departments are each headed by a director.

The three top officers, the directors of the departments and divisions, other craft division and department officers, five regional coordinators and 59 national business agents are all elected by mail ballot referendum of the membership every three years. The next election of officers will be in 2013.

The APWU has more than 1,600 locals located in every state and territory of the United States. Its top governing body is the biennial national convention, the next to be held in 2014. Between conventions, a 12-person national executive board sets union policy. Members of the NEB are the top three officers, three craft/division directors, the director of industrial relations and the five regional coordinators.