(This article appeared in the September/October 2026 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine)
We successfully completed the 2026 APWU Maintenance
Craft Conferences held in Los Angeles,
California. We began with the Maintenance Council meeting
on Thursday, Aug. 13, and held Maintenance Division
Workshops (Preserving Article 38 and Line H / Eagle
Clean) on Friday.
On Saturday, we held the Maintenance Craft Conference.
APWU President Jonathan Smith and members of the
National Executive Board addressed delegates, followed
by lively debates among the body on Maintenance Craft
resolutions.
The National Business Agents (NBAs) held Maintenance
Regional Breakouts with their respective regions on Sunday.
We ended the conference in solidarity, ready for the
National Convention, which began on Monday, Aug. 17.
Assistant Director (B) Jason Treier welcomed delegates
to the session and introduced the division’s leadership,
including Director Idowu Balogun, Assistant Director (A)
Terry B. Martinez, and Maintenance NBAs: John Gearhard,
Jeffrey S. Beaton, Josh Montgomery, Kyle Popek,
Stephanie Logan, Carlos Paz, John Hunt, Dave Sarnacki,
Hector Baez, and Steven Duckworth.
Maintenance Division Officer Report
Director Balogun announced the recent signing of two
new national-level agreements involving the remedy portion
of the Pending Qualifi cation National Arbitration and
the new Skilled Maintenance Assessment (SMA) testing
process, which will replace the 955 Exam in the near
future. Please visit apwu.org/maintenance for more information
on these new agreements and to view the actual
agreements in their entirety. Contact your NBAs with any
questions you might have on this subject.
Additionally, Director Balogun reported that the APWU is
currently working on creating a members-only protected
directory on the APWU website that will make accessible
new and old USPS-generated Maintenance Management
Orders (MMOs), Supervisor of Maintenance Operations
(SMOs), and Maintenance-related pilot programs for local
and state unions to review at any point in time. Once the
directory is created and ready to be viewed, we will notify
the Maintenance Council and fi eld.
Other Notable Issues and Disputes the Officers Are Currently Working On Include:
- MMO-047-26 Implementation and Guidance to the Field
- Subcontracting the overhaul of 65 DBCS machines
- PEMARS notification and implementation
- Finalizing FMO Work Order App Step-4 Agreement
- Finalizing updated In-service National Q&A
- Subcontracting expansion and modification of SDUS and SIPS machines