I am writing to give you an update on APWU's response to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

As this Coronavirus crisis unfolds, we are in constant discussion with USPS management, demanding temporary leave policies, telework provisions where possible and better safety policies, supplies, and equipment.

One thing is clear. Our very first priority is ensuring that the Postal Service provides for the health and safety of our members.

Postal workers are on the front-lines of the pandemic response. We need to ensure that the hardworking people who keep medicine, medical equipment, food, supplies and other essential goods moving through the mail are protected, as the country relies on us in ways they never have before.

You can find out more at APWU.org/Coronavirus about the policies we have secured from management.

They include:

• A Maintenance Management Order for each post office to increase their cleaning standards (including using cleaning products from before the CTC implementation) and provide gloves, masks, hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes.
• New Memoranda of Understanding concerning pay, telework and leave include: Temporary Expanded Sick Leave for Dependent Care During COVID-19, Temporary Additional Paid Leave for PSEs, Telework for IT/AS unit, Customer Care Centers, and Mail & Shipping Solutions Center, and HRSSC.
• The newly announced policy of "Liberal Change of Schedule and Leave."

It is important that postal workers come together to help each other.

Please follow the recommended safety procedures, sound the alarm to your local when management has not supplied the necessary equipment or implemented improved cleaning standards, and stay home if you are not feeling well.

We are all in this together.

Read more about our work on Coronavirus at apwu.org/coronavirus.

In Union Solidarity,

Mark Dimondstein
President, APWU