APWU Bargaining Update - Day 4 of Lockdown

APWU President Mark Dimondstein checks in from negotiations. The negotiating team is still in lockdown with a little over 18 hours left before the contract expires. 

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Greetings APWU family.
This is APWU president MarkDimenstein leaving you a quick
update on the status of negotiations.
Today is Thursday, September 19th.
I'm recording this in the AM.
So we have about two more days ofnegotiations before our contract expires
at midnight, Friday, September 20th.

(00:23):
The parties, both union and managementare still engaging in many meetings.
The union's also engagingin our own meetings.
We're exchanging proposals.
We're exchanging counter proposals.
We're having debates and discussions.
While I'm not going to lie toyou, negotiations are going slow.
They're slower than I would like.
We are beginning to get some initialagreements on some issues, and we're

(00:46):
having a lot of productive discussionand conversation, which often then.
Results in progress.
So you all know how importantthese negotiations are.
These are wages, hours and workingconditions for 200, 000 hard work
and postal workers that have earneda darn good new union contract.
So we're going to continue to push onour side as the negotiating team and all

(01:11):
the folks that have been assisting andworking, and we're going to certainly
give you a message of where things are at.
Tomorrow evening, so stay strong.
What do we say to this round?
Union proud, say itloud, solidarity forever.