Will I Get My Tentative Agreement Ballot?

                  In case you haven’t heard, the USPS and the NALC have reached a Tentative Agreement in Contract negotiations. I have been working diligently over the last few weeks to ensure that our members receive their ballots in the mail, timely, so they can vote in the process of rejecting or accepting the terms of the new Tentative Agreement. Over the years when carriers move or change addresses, they often forget to inform us here at Branch 6000 that they have moved. If you do not tell us, you can be sure that your national union also does not have updated information. This means that you are in jeopardy of not receiving a ballot.

I am currently attending the NALC leadership Academy. After seeing the amount of mail that is returned to us due to undeliverable addresses, I decided to make this my project for the class. Not only is this an unnecessary cost to the branch, but it also hampers your ability to receive important information you need to keep up to date on any branch news. I have already fixed almost 50 addresses. I have updated our system, as well as notifying the national office of the updated changes. However, I have a lot more to do. I need everyone’s assistance to ensure that you get your ballot, your Union paper, or any other branch correspondence that we send out throughout the year. If you know of a co-worker who has moved recently, even if it was five years ago, ask that co-worker if they ever changed their address at the branch. If they need to call me, I will fix it for them. Shop Stewards, if you know of employees who complain that they do not receive the branch paper, or other mailings, please contact me. I will change it immediately.

I will be calling the phone numbers we have for you on file. This is an attempt to be proactive, in case you did not even realize that your address is not correct. There are some addresses that have been wrong for years, due to either a typo on our end, or misreading your address on your application when you joined. These are fixed when we realize they are incorrect, but we have quite a few that were never caught. That happens more than you think.

In addition, we have set up a link on our website nalcbranch6000.com, that will allow you to send me your change of address. I will receive that information immediately. That is the easiest and quickest way to have your information updated.

The second part of my Leadership project is the branch records. As you can imagine, over the years the branch has had a lot of records, forms, grievance paperwork, as well as other documents. These documents and records all have timelines associated with them, as well as ways that they must be discarded or destroyed. I am currently working with President Rich McLehose, on sorting out this information and making sure we reorganize all these records. This will include disposing of some outdated stuff we have held on to. We will also be reorganizing the filing room. This will be done in accordance with Federal Law and the NALC rules governing this process.

I want to wish everyone a happy and healthy Holiday Season!!