Article 32 Subcontracting NA2022

Article 32 Subcontracting

§ 32.1 General Principles

1. The Employer will give due consideration to public interest, cost, efficiency, availability of equipment, and qualification of employees when evaluating the need to subcontract.
2. The Employer will give advance notification to the Union at the national level when subcontracting which will have a significant impact on bargaining unit work is being considered and will meet with the Union while developing the initial Comparative Analysis Report. The Employer will consider the Union's views on costs and other factors, together with proposals to avoid subcontracting and proposals to minimize the impact of any subcontracting. A statement of the Union's views and proposals will be included in the initial Comparative Analysis and in any Decision Analysis Report relating to the subcontracting under consideration. No final decision on whether or not such work will be contracted out will be made until the matter is discussed with the Union.

§ 32.2 Special Provisions

1. The Employer and the Union agree that at processing and distribution facilities or post offices where mail handler craft employees are assigned and on duty on the platform at the time a star route vehicle is being loaded or unloaded exclusively by a star route contract driver, a mail handler(s) will assist in loading and unloading the star route vehicle, unless such requirement delays the scheduled receipt and dispatch of mail or alters the routing or affects the safety requirements provided in the star route contract.
2. At offices where this Section is applicable, the schedules of mail handlers will not be changed nor will the number of mail handlers be augmented solely on the basis of this Section.

Section 32.3 Committee

Subcontracting is a proper subject for discussion at Labor-Management Committee meetings at the national level provided in Article 38.
(The preceding Article, Article 32, shall apply to Mail Handler Assistant employees.)

MOU Article 32

In addition to the cap on MHAs set forth in paragraph 7.1B3 above, the parties may agree upon the use of additional MHAs in other circumstances when new or contracted work is brought in-house. In addition, whenever contracting-out or in-sourcing is under consideration, the Union may propose different hourly rates for such MHAs to ensure competitiveness with outside services.

Under the 2022 National Agreement, the parties commit to re-establishing their Subcontracting Committee and continuing their discussions about the possibility of returning mail handler work from Surface Transportation Centers (STC), Mail Transport Equipment Service Centers (MTEC), and the bedloading project. The Committee will consider all relevant factors when discussing the issue outlined above, to include cost, operational efficiency, availability of equipment, and qualification of employees. In addition, any MHA employees utilized as referenced in paragraph 1 will not count against existing non-career caps.