A New Year and a New Beginning
I hope you all had a Happy Holiday season. With the new year comes a new Branch Board and an unknown political playing field. Also, a new District Manager, movement of supervisors and postmasters. The only thing constant on this job is change. It seems that every day there is a new rule or a new way to do the job. Reinventing the wheel should be our new motto.
As of this writing there is no update on our contract negotiations. I have heard multiple times from our National Officers that we are picking an Arbitrator. This has been repeated for the past three months at multiple meetings I have attended. My question is what is taking so long? It is not rocket science to pick an arbitrator. You get a list, strike names one by one, and you get the last one standing unless you can agree on one. Why is either side dragging the process out? One way or another a resolve must be reached shortly. We deserve better wages and working conditions. We deserve a full career workforce. We deserve to have management held accountable for their repeated violations of the contract and mishandling of the workforce. The time has come to weed out the managers who create hostilities in the workplace. A better process should be in place for the crafts to have when taking on such managers and supervisors. Management has a process to take us on and we should have a clean process to take them on. The field is tilted and until we straighten that out, we will never have peace.
There is an ongoing issue with the use of Promaster trucks being used on routes with mounted and dismount deliveries. The use of a left-hand drive truck in these circumstances is a clear safety issue. Every office that is being forced to work under these conditions should file a form 1767 unsafe condition report. Have management fill out their portion and then immediately send it to your full-time officer so they can file a grievance. Safety grievances are filed at the formal step. We must attempt to stop the use of these vehicles under those circumstances before someone gets seriously injured.
Another safety issue has also just come up. If you have the new, large blue bins used to move your mail and parcels to your truck, make sure that the 8 elastic bands are attached to the base. Reaching into these tubs to get heavy parcels and trays of mail out is extremely unsafe. If the cords are not attached, file a 17676 and let your supervisor know it is unsafe and you will not reach into the deep bin. The cords are there to lift the load as you take mail and or parcels out. This is an ergonomic issue and I have already been in touch with our national office. File the 1767 and then file a grievance. If we do not hold management’s feet to the fire on these issues, we will pay the price with injuries and lost time. The union cannot attack these issues without your help. 1667’s along with written statements will go a long way to being successful in getting these issues resolved.
The NALC and the USPS have signed an extension to the TIAREAP agreement. The agreement is now in place until May 31, 2024. Both sides will continue to attempt to get a long-term agreement that meets both sides’ needs. I have stated before and continue to say that we should not be involved with this program until we have equal footing in the process. The process has some good points but there are too many escape routes for management to mishandle the end results. If President Brian Renfroe can’t get this straightened out, we need to dump the process. Let them do route, count, and inspections as outlined in the M-39. We will either get re- educated on how we should be doing our daily work or not. the more you know, the better off you will be.
The NALC should also be looking at how to limit how management is using the GPS in the scanners. The fact we are being scrutinized every minute on the route is wearing thin. It is unfortunate that there are so many untrustworthy supervisors and managers who browbeat and abuse the carriers with the use of GPS. This is going to come to a head in the near future and I’m not sure what the end result will be. Just remember, you should be doing your assignment the same way every day. Do not cut corners. Do not be bullied into running routes. Remember, management cannot discipline based on DOIS projections! Fill out the 3996’s and 1571’s when necessary. If, for whatever reason, management denies your 3996 request, you are still obligated to inform management that you will not be able to maintain your 8-hour day. Make the call by 2 or 3pm if you will not make it back in time. It is your obligation to let management know if you cannot maintain schedule. Do not make it easy for them to take action charging a failure to follow instructions or use of unauthorized overtime. Make the call. Protect yourselves!
