In his first national-level arbitration Article 19 award for the APWU and the Postal Service, Arbitrator Homer LaRue reviewed the Postal Service’s new Dispatch Coordinator position to determine whether it complied with the National Agreement and was fair, reasonable, and equitable. APWU and USPS, Case No. 6X21C-6X-C23174015 (LaRue 2026).
Arbitrator LaRue took testimony from postal witnesses that the Postal Service “needed to create a position that reported through Function 3, Logistics, for 24-hour coverage and visibility within logistics control centers due to the amount of truck traffic moving on and off the yards of Regional Processing and Distribution Centers (“RPDCs”).” This position was the Dispatch Coordinator which the Postal Service initially assigned to the Clerk Craft, but reassigned to the Motor Vehicle Craft in its final version of the position description. In reviewing the propriety of the craft assignment of the new position, Arbitrator LaRue first addressed the process for creating the Dispatch Coordinator, PS-8 and found that the Postal Service “…followed the proper procedures for evaluating and creating a new position.” Arbitrator LaRue determined that the Postal Service adequately demonstrated that the work of the Dispatch Coordinator was “meaningfully different” from the work of comparable clerk craft positions. Particularly when comparing “the functional purposes” of the clerk General Expeditor and the motor vehicle Dispatch Coordinator, Arbitrator LaRue found “a clear and substantive distinction between their roles.” The Dispatch Coordinator, he found, is “responsible for the movement of trucks” while the General Expeditor “primarily handle[s] the movement of mail.” Arbitrator LaRue noted that the Postal Service explained that the Dispatch Coordinator does not handle mail or engage in mail-processing tasks, and that the position’s “focus remains on vehicle flow, yard visibility, and trip coordination – not on mail flow.”
Arbitrator LaRue went on to assess the Postal Service’s application of the criteria of Article 1.5 to the new position, and he also compared the Dispatch Coordinator to existing clerk craft positions. He concluded that the Postal Service’s assignment of the Dispatch Coordinator to the motor vehicle craft was proper under Article 1.5 of the National Agreement and fair, reasonable, and equitable under Article 19. Finally, in reviewing whether the Dispatch Coordinator should be best or senior qualified, Arbitrator LaRue was convinced by other lower-level best qualified motor vehicle positions that the Dispatch Coordinator was properly made a best qualified position.
The post Clerk Craft Wins National Article 19 Award Regarding Dispatch Coordinator Position first appeared on APWU.