VOE SURVEYS

GET ‘EM

&

SHRED ‘EM

Turn in your VOE Survey and be entered to win
one of five prizes!
$250
$100
$50 (3 prizes)

THE APWU’S POSITION ON THE VOICE OF THE EMPLOYEE (VOE) SURVEY IS TAKEN FROM THE APWU WEBSITE.

APWU Opposes USPS Opinion Surveys 

As we prepare for national contract negotiations later this year, APWU local leaders and members are urged to be extremely vigilant regarding Postal Service efforts to conduct employee opinion surveys. Bear in mind that responses provided to these surveys may well be used against APWU at the bargaining table. 

The Postal Service mails “Voice of Employee” (VOE) surveys to all employees on at least an annual basis. In its most recent VOE Survey, the Postal Service revised its questionnaire to include numerous workplace-environment factors, such as technological advances, safety issues, and its own Transformation Plan. 

The APWU is opposed to all forms of USPS Surveys. The union's policy, as adopted by the National Executive Board in 1998, is “that the union at every level (Local, State and National) opposes the use of all surveys, focus groups, polls, and audits as a means of interviewing employees and union officials to evaluate job-related and internal union issues.” 

The union's stance is clear: The subjects of these surveys should be discussed in labor-management meetings where the concerns of all represented employees are considered. 

The purpose of labor-management meetings is that employees speak in a united voice, so their message cannot be manipulated contrary to the interests of the membership and APWU. 

Questions in opinion surveys are often designed to elicit a specific response or result. Surveys conducted by an employer are designed to circumvent bargaining with unions and are used in management's effort to reduce wages, hours, and benefits. Quite simply, this has been our experience with the Postal Service. 

We feel the Postal Service has misrepresented previous employee-survey results during contract negotiations with claims that APWU-represented workers supported management's wage proposals. 

Because the Postal Service is aware that participation in employee opinion surveys is voluntary, its managers can be very creative. There is only one way to ensure that you do not contribute to surveys that may adversely affect your livelihood: Simply refuse to participate. 

APWU Opposes USPS Surveys

APWU Web News Article #21-04, Nov. 5, 2004

The APWU opposes worker participation in USPS employee opinion surveys, President William Burrus reminded union members on Nov. 5. “We are aware that the Postal Service continues to mail Voice of Employee surveys to employees on an annual basis,” he said, “but we discourage union members from participating.” 

The union’s policy, adopted by the National Executive Board in 1998, contests “the use of all surveys, focus groups, polls and audits as a means of interviewing employees and union officials to evaluate job related and internal union issues.”

Experience has taught union members a bitter lesson in that regard, said APWU Industrial Relations Director Greg Bell. “The Postal Service has misrepresented the results of previous employee opinion survey and claimed that employees supported the Postal Service’s wage proposals during contract negotiations and interest arbitrations,” he said.

The subjects addressed in the survey should be discussed in labor-management meetings where the concerns of all represented employees are considered, said Bell. “The APWU’s concern is that results of a survey of individual employees can be misrepresented or manipulated by the Postal Service in order to achieve management goals that the union does not share.”

Opinion surveys are often designed to elicit a specific response or result, Bell said. “In most cases, surveys conducted by an employer are designed to circumvent bargaining with unions and are used in management’s effort to reduce employee wages, hours, benefits, and working conditions. This has been our experience with the Postal Service.”