You Are Suspended Until Further Notice That’s the last thing any letter carrier wants to hear. But this is exactly what will happen whenever you do something which may trigger the emergency provisions of Article 16.7. This particular section and article of the contract gives management the right to act immediately to eliminate what they consider a hazard or threat to the company, the mail, or its employees. For example, if you are involved in a rollaway/runaway incident, management may send you home as a threat to their property (postal vehicle). If you come to work intoxicated, if you’re involved in a fight, or if you’re suspected of stealing from the mail, you may get sent home immediately and remain off the clock and without pay until the USPS has had an opportunity to investigate and sort out the facts behind the decision. Before management decides to put you off the clock, there may be some sort of fact-gathering or investigation. You may get called in by the OIG, Postal Inspectors or a member of local management and asked to answer questions. If this happens, do not answer any questions or provide a statement until a steward is present. If you are involved in a motor vehicle accident, the onsite investigation may be sufficient for management to determine you will be suspended and no further investigation may take place at that time and/or on that date. Under most circumstances you will be asked to surrender your ID badge, keys and any other postal property in your possession before you are sent home. Depending on the situation, you may be allowed to return, with an escort, to retrieve your personal belongings from your locker or other storage area. Unlike other instances involving discipline, management is not required to provide advance written notice to an employee who is put off the clock on “emergency placement.” Management needs only to have probable cause in order to suspend an employee under the emergency procedures. This is different from Just Cause which requires management to show beyond the preponderance of the evidence that corrective action was required and justified. You may expect a written notice in the mail at your official mailing address soon after you are suspended. Most times it will indicate why you were suspended, when to report for an investigative interview (if one was not conducted prior to placing you off the clock) and other instructions, such as remaining away from postal property unless conducting business at the customer section of the post office. In emergency placement situations the union is normally informed of what happened and why management believed placing the carrier in an off-duty, non-paid status was the right thing to do. However, you should always notify your union steward or contact the National Business Agent’s office (954-964-2116) immediately if you are ever placed on emergency non-duty status. The union should initiate a grievance on your behalf within fourteen (14) days from the date you were put out on emergency placement. Basically, we would ask for your immediate reinstatement and for you to be made whole for all lost wages and other benefits of employment, such as overtime hours and opportunities missed due to the suspension. In nearly all circumstances involving emergency placement, management will deny the grievance at the local levels since the action may be the result of a district or installation rule. If the emergency suspension goes beyond 14 days, the letter carrier could remain in a non-pay status unless he/she is a preference-eligible employee. A preference-eligible veteran will normally be placed in a pay status after 14 days of being suspended. Under the contract, employees who are placed on emergency non-pay status are called in for a pre-disciplinary interview and/or written charges within a reasonable period following the suspension. If following an emergency placement an employee is issued a removal, the removal action should not take effect sooner than 30 days from the date the written notice is received. A letter carrier receiving a removal action will be put on the clock or in a pay status until that grievance is adjudicated at Step B, or within 14 days from the date it’s received at Step B, whichever comes first. So what can you do to prevent this? Follow all safety procedures and instructions from your supervisor. Perform all your duties in a professional manner and protect the mail at all times. There is absolutely nothing or anyone at the job who can push you to the point you have to violate safety rules to get the job done. Never compromise your integrity for something you see or find in the mail; it’s absolutely not worth it. Take home what you brought to the post office and nothing other than what is yours or given to you by the rightful owner. Regardless of the value, nothing in the mail or the post office is yours to take, even if it’s in the trash/dumpster. If you really want it that badly, then follow the dump truck to the landfill and ask those in charge if you can take it. If you should have the misfortune of ever being suspended or issued a removal, remember that while the union is working for you, you should be working for yourself. If the union is successful in getting your job back, the resolution may award you back pay. To receive back pay the employee has to show he/she made a reasonable effort to obtain other employment after the first 45 days following the separation or indefinite suspension, per ELM section 436. If there’s no evidence of this when the Employee Statement to Recover Back Pay (PS Form 8038) is completed, you may not get any back pay for the period if you cannot show you made an effort to find other employment. Look before you leap, check both ways before you cross, and if you come to work feeling a little froggy, take a few minutes and cool down before you enter the workroom floor or interact with your co-workers. The job you save may be your own.

I Give, You Give, We All Give Most letter carriers are a giving and volunteering bunch. Like most citizens in this great country, we donate and help charities in our communities. Letter carriers are known for giving time and money to help the less fortunate and are always involved in things that provide no other reward than the satisfaction of getting it done. One of our pet projects is raising funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, better known as MDA. Since its creation in 1950, letter carriers have been at the forefront of raising money for this great organization. MDA’s goal is to find a cure for things such as muscular dystrophy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease), childhood spinal muscular atrophy and several other neuromuscular conditions. The effects of these dreaded diseases are exemplified in the children we have affectionately come to know as Jerry’s Kids, from past National Chairman and number one volunteer, comedian Jerry Lewis. MDA also helps families cover costs associated with the treatment of these diseases, repair and purchase of medical equipment, transportation, temporary lodging as well as the great summer camp for the kids. The yearly Labor Day MDA marathon draws the involvement of our citizens in the biggest one day push for muscular dystrophy. In 2010, NALC President Rolando (also MDA National Vice-President), presented a check for $1.9 million on behalf of letter carriers. In addition to the national event, the NALC will be involved in events such as the “Fill the Satchel” on October 2, and the third annual NALC Bowl-a-thon on November 7 to raise money for MDA. Make sure you involve yourself with at least one of these events for this great cause. Close to home, we have carriers giving their time and effort to the NALC food drive. Now in its 19th year, the NALC food drive is one of the biggest one-day events throughout the nation, created to help the less fortunate in their communities. The food drive was born out of a pilot drive in 10 cities in October of 1991. Feedback from the food banks and pantries suggested that late spring would be the best time for such a collection effort, and on May 15, 1993 we started what has officially become the NALC Food Drive. The NALC set an original goal of one branch per each of the 50 states to participate, but the response and action brought forth the participation of 220 branches nationwide. The U.S. Postal Service, AFL-CIO, United Way, NRLCA, VALPAK, and Campbell’s Soup Company, have been partners in the success of the food drive. The economy has had devastating effects on many American families in the last few years and this year natural disasters only exacerbated the problem. But letter carriers were on the ready, collecting approximately 70.6 million pounds of food. This year’s totals were a bit down from last year’s totals of over 77 million pounds. Any poundage collected in the local communities is a welcome addition to the food banks and pantries that help our most vulnerable, the children. That’s right, the children. Simply because most school-aged children are close to the end of the school year and will depend on the local food banks for assistance. Many of these children depend on the school system to provide them with at least two meals a day. When not in school this responsibility falls upon the parent(s) or guardian(s), who are becoming less and less capable of providing these meals for their young wards. While delivering the mail, we see the need in our communities. It is for this very reason letter carriers not only created the NALC Food Drive, but embrace it as one of the ways to give back to the people we serve. Make sure to visit your local food bank to see the real picture and to get a glimpse of how the other side lives. I’m confident you will have a more positive perspective on the food drive next year. And then we give to our own cause. We have a need in the organization that doesn’t affect us physically, like muscular dystrophy, or prevent us from having enough food for our families, but we do have a need to protect the U.S. Postal Service from becoming extinct. Many of you will be reading this article in paper copy, but others may have already seen it on the internet, on The North Carolina Letter Carrier website. And while this isn’t something the North Carolina State Association of Letter Carriers (NCSALC) wanted to do, it’s something we had to do given the dwindling number of members and the costs to publish a monthly newsletter. And that’s the way most of America is operating nowadays. We are looking for the most economic, most immediate and most effective proverbial “bang for our buck.” We’re seeing a trend with banks imposing a surcharge on customers who do not have electronic bill paying or direct deposit. With the personnel shortages and erratic delivery times, die-hard letter carrier fans are having their all important checks deposited directly to a financial institution. That way they don’t need to chase down Danny O. on the third of the month to make it to the bank before five o’clock. The American public considers the USPS the most trusted federal agency. The USPS provides a service which is both reasonable in cost and effective at the same time. We deliver to America six days a week and can disseminate information to all of our citizens better than the internet since not all citizens have internet access. We depend on financial contributions to our political action fund (PAC) called the Committee on Letter Carrier Political Education, or COLCPE, to pay for things we can’t pay for with our dues. This is where you come in. We have asked that carriers contribute five dollars a pay period to COLCPE, to assist our union in protecting our jobs and the Postal Service through legislative action. The monies contributed to the PAC have been well spent and we have all reaped the benefits. Since its creation, the NALC has been a formidable adversary in the fight to preserve and make the USPS a better place to work, as well as the arch-enemy to the powers who have attempted to take down the USPS as we know it. I will list some of the things the NALC did with PAC monies. We fought for and obtained collective bargaining, versus “collective begging,” with the passing of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970. The NALC dissuaded the Postal Service, with congressional influence (and only for the life of the current contract), from contracting out letter carrier jobs. But one thing we’re having a problem with is convincing our members of the wrong in five-day delivery. Lots of people out there believe this will fix the financial problems of the Postal Service. As you have heard and read here before, there’s something you can do to stop this insanity. Your contribution of five dollars per pay period can go a long way towards helping COLCPE fund our battles. We know finances are tight for everyone now, but reducing or eliminating our contributions to COLCPE is not the way to cut back. As the highest contributor in the state, I can say that I put my money where my mouth is. Unlike a carrier I know who had to reorganize her financial arrangements and could no longer afford to give one dollar a pay period to COLCPE, I give so that I can have a job from which I can make financial arrangements. Remember that we’re all in this together.

Get It in Writing I get calls every once in a while from PTF carriers claiming management had approved for them to be off and now they are needed to work. The conversation goes something like this: “I made plans to go out of town next Saturday and the supervisor had told me weeks ago that it would be all right to have the day off, now I’m told that I can’t have the day off because Frank is out sick for two weeks. What do I do now?” My response is that according to the contract, approved leave requests must be honored, except in serious emergency situations. Then I get the bad news: The carrier didn’t submit a leave slip because that was the scheduled day off of the opt assignment. Well, brother, as a PTF, the day off of the route you have opted on is assumed only and if management needs you, then they can bring you in to work. The language in Article 41 of the JCAM states: “Scheduled Days and Opting. The distinction between the guarantee to work certain scheduled days and the right to specific days off is important. “An employee who successfully opts for a hold-down assignment is said to be guaranteed the right to work the hours of duty and scheduled days of the regular carrier. It must be noted, however, that days off are “assumed” only in the sense that a hold-down carrier will not work on those days unless otherwise scheduled. In other words, a hold-down carrier is not guaranteed the right to not work on non-scheduled days. Of course, this is the same rule that applies to the assignment’s regular carrier, who may, under certain conditions, be required to work on a non-scheduled day. For example, suppose there is a vacant route with Thursday as the scheduled day off. The carrier who opts for such a route is guaranteed the right to work on the scheduled work days, but is not guaranteed work on Thursday. This does not necessarily imply that Thursday is a guaranteed day off; the carrier on a hold-down may be scheduled to work that day as well, either on or off the opted-for assignment. However, management may not swap scheduled work days with days off in order to shift hours into another service week to avoid overtime or for any other reason. To do so would violate the guarantee to work all of the scheduled days of the hold-down.” My best advice for an opting employee who just has to have a day off, or who has made plans for a specific event, is to submit a leave request by way of a PS Form 3971. If the request is approved, you may not be charged the leave if you have over 40 work hours that week; but you will have written documentation to show your absence has been approved by management. So now if the supervisor determines that your services are needed because Frank is out for two weeks, you can say thanks but no thanks, I’ve got something to do and my absence for that day has been approved. A little known fact is that all PTFs are accountable to the USPS for 40 hours per week. These 40 hours may be made up of work hours, guaranteed time, leave (annual, sick, AWOL, or LWOP) and a little known thing called “cross foot.” This function is nothing more than non-paid hours added to an employee’s time to make up the balance of the total hours accounted for and 40 hours in a week. Unlike a regular carrier, management doesn’t have to go into the computer and account for non-work hours for a PTF. The system will automatically give a PTF carrier who doesn’t have work hours, a maximum of 8 hours of cross foot time per day and 40 per week unless management enters and approves other types of paid or non-paid hours. It isn’t unusual for a PTF who was on two weeks of annual leave to not get paid if the supervisor forgot to enter the leave in the system. Unlike a PTF, a regular carrier’s time records will reflect a “fatal error” if the carrier doesn’t punch the clock or the supervisor doesn’t account for 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week. So keep up with your time and work hours, specifically in offices where management enters time manually from a punch clock. If you have approved leave of any kind, make sure management enters it into the system so that you may get paid for it in a timely manner. If this isn’t done or you suspect your paid hours are not the same as your work hours, contact your steward immediately. Management has no right to withhold payment of work hours just because of the costs of overtime. Never work off the clock to “catch up” on incomplete tasks or to do management a favor. Keep up with what’s happening by reading your Postal Record from cover to cover and attending your branch meetings. And give to COLCPE to insure and secure your job.

It’s the Union’s Fault Every so often, and if I’m lucky more like every day, I hear this particular carrier at my unit say it’s the union’s fault for this and it’s the union’s fault for that. Personally, I find him very comical and understand he does this to bring a bit of comic relief to a sometimes boring workplace. I may even get him going at times to see what he says next. He usually bellyaches about something he believes would have to be different, or even better, if the union wasn’t involved. In the old Post Office, according to Wes, carriers could get as much overtime as they wanted and every quarter he would get a big overtime settlement, until the union came along. Since Wes is a long time postal employee and union member, carriers like Bernard Ligon and Nelson Bias, who have less service time, may sometimes wonder if “Old Wes” is actually on to something. I know deep down that the carrier is just joking, but what if he wasn’t? Can you picture the workplace without the union? Management would have all kinds of fun with their whoop-tee-doo programs, their assessment of our work, and they could get rid of you just because you didn’t carry your route fast enough. Lucky for us, and Wes, the union has a say and is involved in everything that affects letter carrier’s wages, hours and working conditions. That may sound like a mouthful, but the U.S. Postal Service and the NALC negotiated it that way. The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, also known as the PRA, gave us the right to have collective bargaining for our wages, hours and working conditions and the National Association of Letter Carriers as our exclusive representative for such purposes. In today’s workplace we have lots of people like Wes who really and truly believe things would be better without the union. And the sad part about it is that they are not all scabs or members of management. Our own brothers and sisters would rather take the “easy wrong over the hard right.” At every carrier case there should be a copy of the M-41 Handbook. This source of information was created and disseminated to ensure we were all of one accord when performing our carrier duties. It’s easier to leave mail at the case without a PS Form 1571 than it is to properly complete the form and attach it to the mail. And while each piece of undeliverable “current resident” mail must be endorsed, most carriers consider this a waste of their time and do not do it. This is true even when doing so could add time to the route. We have fought long and hard as a union to get everything we have in the workplace and now is not the time for givebacks. Next time you hear a carrier say, “It’s all because of the union,” you tell him/her that it IS because of the union that he/she has the right to complain and have his/her complaints heard and addressed. See how far he/she would get doing this at Wal-Mart. Make sure to attend all your branch meetings and keep up with the “Big Picture” by reading your Postal Record. Till next time….

How Does My Route Look Today? In our "on the go" world we do things on the run, in a hurry and in an ever increasing pace. We can get our food, laundry, medications and even pay utilities without ever leaving our cars. And every year, something new is phased in that allows us to accomplish things with less and less effort. Businesses have introduced numerous ways to get more done with fewer employees, at cheaper overhead costs and in less time. Long gone are the days when you could take your time and do things at your own pace. The US Postal Service is no different. Over the years management has introduced new and creative methods to measure, record and estimate letter carrier work, with the belief than by doing so it will change carrier attitudes and behavior. Recently, the USPS has introduced throughout our district a gee-whiz and sophisticated process. They call it Lean Six Sigma (LSS). It is fielded in an attempt to improve how we perform our carrier duties. LEAN SIX SIGMA may be new to us but it was the brainchild of one Bill Smith, who formulated it for Motorola in 1986. Also known as Six Sigma, the doctrine states that most business processes have characteristics that can be measured, analyzed, improved and controlled. These practices, as they are also known, have set off much controversy on the workroom floor because of the aggressive and sometimes abusive method of implementation. A typical day for a carrier in a "lean six sigma" environment begins with a sheet containing the carrier's expectations for the day. Usually left in a conspicuous place at the carrier's case, the paper lists the amount of mail you have, what time you are supposed to leave the office, what time you are to return, as well as the times you are scheduled to hit your MSP points. It is also part of the practice to "discuss" the previous day's performance with the carrier, to ascertain what can be done to improve and/or maintain the required levels of proficiency and efficiency, based on the numbers management's computers spit out. The things we are expected to accomplish under this doctrine can be impressive, oppressive, abusive and downright depressive at times. For sure, carriers who know their job and understand how the real process of estimating their daily workload works, have little to no problem with the LSS. It's the less knowledgeable ones that worry me. Some know just enough to get them in trouble. These carriers totally disregard the fact that management can give you expectations and request that you give them an estimation of your work for a particular day. Some don't know, or don't care to share with management the value of their route. Perhaps because of fear of a confrontation, these carriers either don't ask for time, run through the route to get back on time, or they call from the street and hope the supervisor will then approve the time they were afraid to ask for that morning. There's yet another group that does exactly what management says they should be doing, in the times set by management, based solely on management input and information. I have seen carriers in my branch ask management for their expectations worksheet to see how they are supposed to be doing that day. As Ripley says; Believe it or not… Nothing the USPS develops, implements or suggests can supersede, set aside or change the language of our handbooks and manuals. The reporting requirements of the M-41 have not changed one bit. Management must assign work based on the guidelines of the M-39 and our National Agreement. Lean Six Sigma is not found in any of our handbooks and manuals. Carriers cannot be disciplined and/or expected to maintain standards set by a system unilaterally implemented by the USPS. Any discipline issued to a carrier must be for Just Cause. We must be prepared to deal with these issues as they present themselves. We cannot and should not be intimidated, coerced or threatened to meet expectations of a computer program we know nothing about and have not agreed to as a union. For the union officials reading this article; I have an excellent Step B resolve for my installation that prevents management from utilizing the carrier daily expectations worksheet, contact me for a copy if you are interested. Give generously to COLCPE, or at least a tenth of what I give, every pay period. Read the Postal Record from cover to cover and participate in your branch meetings. The time has come to stick together for our collective future. See you all around, Frank

Where Do You Fit in This Equation? There was a time when our days basically consisted of just carrying mail. With modernization and technology, carrying the mail is just now one part of a letter carrier’s duty. Today’s letter carriers are salespersons. We sell the USPS and its services just by the image that we project. Most people associate the US Postal Service with the mailman (no offense to my sisters) walking down Main Street, your street and mine, with a satchel on his shoulder and a broad smile across his face. The mailman has seen kids grow, get married and have kids of their own. He has seen neighborhoods change, some good while others not so good. All the while he is the face of tradition, service and reliability. He makes his rounds in all kinds of weather and brings news, good and bad, six days a week. To some of our communities, letter carriers are the only Postal Service they know. If you need stamps, Joe Bauer the mailman will bring you a book the next day through our stamps by mail program. Parcel pick-up? No problem; Danny Orozco has plenty of spare room on his mail truck and the stamina to haul them off your front porch with a quickness. We provide this service through “carrier pick-up,” and it is free. Need your mail held or forwarded while you’re away for a couple of weeks? Just tell Marcia and consider it done. Ms Rumbaugh is so good at what she does; she probably has the forms already prepared for your signature, since you take the same trip every year. Most letter carriers are just that good at providing service to our customers. Nowadays doing these things is simply not enough. No matter how much they admire, respect and trust us, our customers have also moved on with modernization and technology. A First Class piece of mail may take a couple of days to travel cross country, but the same number of letters and words -- minus the envelope, stamp and the touch of human hands -- can reach the same recipient lightning-fast. Some don’t care for moving forth with technology and don’t care at all for the speed of electronic communications. They like the paper check, the water bill, the advertisements and the written communication from a loved one. Technology can never replace the feel and smell of a birthday card from Grandma, or the letter a deployed service member receives from a loved one back home. These things, although important, are not paying the bills anymore. The USPS has to diversify and keep up with changes in customer demands and its own ever changing operational costs. Information, knowing as much as you can about everything, has become important to today’s consumers. When buying food, some need to know where it came from, what’s in it, how it was packed, what a serving portion is, etc. Before, if it smelled good and tasted good; that was all that mattered. How it was built, who built it, who owned it before, you get the picture. Customers are now demanding the same from the USPS and the mail. When a mailer places something in the mail stream they want to know when it will leave the unit, reach its designated location and how long it will be “held up” in transit. To some mailers the delivery of their advertisement on the Thursday and Friday before the Saturday sale may be the difference between success and failure. We can’t let technology pass us by. Carrying the mail alone is not enough for the check we earn every other Friday. Changing and keeping up with change will make the difference between the continued viability of the Postal Service. There are many people out there who have the ideas and the ability to keep our company from going under, while there are others that believe that changing is not within them and would rather sink than swim. Where do you think you fit in this equation?

I Just Want the Weekends Off That’s a familiar statement around the Post Office lately. And the sad part about it is the people uttering those words have no real understanding of what they are saying. Many of us would like a job with traditional days off and, given the opportunity to get a good paying job, with the benefits the USPS offers, one may consider a change in careers. But the bottom line is, you won’t find many jobs like this out there in today’s job market. But why are postal employees even speaking that way? Misinformation may be the biggest culprit. Letter carriers, looking at things through rose-colored glasses, are missing the big picture. Getting fixed Saturdays and Sundays off may be good for only a fraction of employees working for the US Postal Service. And it is quite all right for those employees who are not involved in providing the services we do, to be off on the weekends. Some out there can be off for weeks at a time and not be missed at all. But letter carriers, and clerks who provide services to our customers six days a week, should fiercely oppose any type of reduction in service days to our customers. It is clear to any person with minimal business knowledge that you don’t attempt to increase revenue by eliminating service when service is all you provide. Duh!!! Five-day delivery will be the death of this institution, if the powers that may be are allowed to follow through with their proposals. Letter carriers, as we know them, may also be a thing of the past. Currently we have a negotiated ratio of part-time to full time employees that the service would like to see changed. We are now supposed to staff postal facilities with 88% full time and 12% part-time employees in our craft. We didn’t get this because the USPS likes the NALC or they want letter carriers to have a living wage. This was done because we sat at the bargaining table and agreed that this would be in the interests of all parties concerned. But the idea of an increased and more flexible part-time force is not new, nor is it exclusive to the USPS. Many companies in this country and abroad consider a part-time work force as the solution to their problems. Just imagine yourself, a regular now, suddenly put back to the working conditions of when you were a PTF. Gonna throw a few scenarios out to you: if management were somehow able to change or flip around the current percentages of full time employees, like they do in UPS and FEDEX, then we would not need to worry too much about mandatory overtime. The flexible workforce would be begging for work hours, and management would have every right to work “flexible” employees as they see fit. And what about annual leave? We may not have to worry too much about covering vacation vacancies, because there would not be that many carriers on leave. You would only earn leave as you go. Getting up to 26 days of annual leave a year may be possible only if you work 40 hours a week. And because you have a flexible schedule, then making appointments would no longer be on days off, but on days you took leave. See you at the hall,   Frank

Two Plus Two Is...? In today’s world data, or collected information, governs much of what we do and how we do it. Information from weather forecasts, gauges on a car or reports that give times and numbers are all data that assists us in making decisions and staying informed. It is very unlikely that one would go on a mountain camping trip if weather forecasters were predicting an enormous blizzard. And not many of us would continue to drive a car if the temperature gauge indicated it was overheating, without checking it out. Most data is accurate and exact. You can rest assured that carton of a dozen eggs will have 12 eggs. Ten dimes will equal a dollar and a pound of feathers will always weigh the same as a pound of lead. These are some obvious examples of accurate data. But what happens when the data is not accurate? What do you do when you buy 4 dozen eggs and get home and find the cartons only contained 39 eggs? The answer may depend on who you ask. In our current postal environment, we base most of what we do on data. Computer data, manually recorded data, estimated data, a Ouija board, a throw of the dice, are some examples of what management uses to determine our workload on a given day. But, it is the pieces of mail and the time it takes to deliver them what makes up a carrier’s route. Mail determines our workload, our workload determines labor costs, labor costs determine how much revenue the USPS must generate, and it goes on and on. But, it all starts with that first piece of mail. As union officials we sometimes obtain or run across data that says one thing, when it should say another. We’ve been offered a dozen eggs only to find the carton contained only five eggs, more times than I care to remember. One example of this is a carrier’s office time. Office time is determined by the total number of mail pieces cased and pulled down, along with each route’s fixed office time. (See Route Protection Program or Chapter 2 of the M-39.) But the reality is that 80% of our mail is not always at our case when we report to work. Waiting to receive and clear accountable mail, casing on other routes and sometimes doing nothing while waiting for mail, makes up the balance of our office time. When unexpected circumstances occur, or the numbers don’t show what they should, it negatively affects the data management relies on to gauge carrier performance and the efficiency of the operation. Ten minutes spent in the office over the time management “projected” in an office with 30 routes, could be equate to up to 5 hours over the budget. What does that mean to you? Probably nothing. And that is because our pay is not based on the amount of mail we work or carry, but on the number of hours spent on the clock working with that mail. For management, it’s a different story. Success or failure for management hinges on how the “numbers” look. So if Frank Vega is taking more time in the office than the projections indicate he should, the unscrupulous manager will assign me to a task or function that does not count against my office productivity. Or, he/she may “fudge” the numbers to reflect/indicate I worked more mail than what I actually had. Neither of these two examples affects my pay in any way, making it difficult to detect and for carriers to report it to their union leaders. Yet it definitely compromises the integrity of the data. It is almost impossible to see when an office is “cooking” the books, by a walk around the workroom floor or looking at a carrier’s pay stub, or any other cursory review. But it becomes evident when clock rings are compared or matched against PS Forms 3996, mail volumes, office and street times. That’s when you realize that in postal math 2+2+2 is not always 6. In the postal environment the total could be anywhere between 4 and 10, depending on the manager gathering or inputting the information. As letter carriers we clearly understand the concept of “a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay.” We are not going to allow numbers on a computer screen or printout, or the expectations imposed on us by corrupted data, to determine the worth of our routes or our estimation of work. We do not rely on “numbers”: to determine how efficient we are in what we do. Tell me what mail has to be delivered, and I will tell you how long it will take me to get the job done. Giving our best effort each and every day, under all conditions, is what being a letter carrier is all about. Let management be happy with their numbers and allow me the joy of delivering for our customers. That’s what service is all about. See you at the next union meeting… Frank

Which Side Are You On? Go into most post office parking lots, and you will be able to see a wide variety of modern vehicles, loaded with nice accessories. From sports cars to luxury SUVs, you see them all. No wonder or surprise, after all, we have good paying jobs, right? Our employment allows us to have such niceties, which would not be possible if we worked in some other industry, or receiving minimum wage. We take good care of our vehicles since they are an investment. Preventive maintenance and insurance is a way to guarantee it will last you a long time. The well maintained car will always be available when needed. As part of the middle class, making a decent living wage, we can usually afford to live in a nice and comfortable home. And after a vehicle, a home is usually the largest investment we make. To increase or maintain its market value we make sure regular maintenance is done and improvements are made. We want it to last as long as we need it, and take extraordinary measures to protect that investment through the use of burglar and fire alarms and the ever important homeowner's insurance. Letter carriers, for the most part, are some of the healthiest employees in the Post Office. Our jobs are not sedentary, and because of the things that we do daily, the majority of us are in good physical condition. And because of the physical requirements or our jobs, we find it imperative and necessary to continue to be physically capable of performing our duties. And we need to work to keep up the payments on that nice residence and fancy car. As employees covered under the FEHB program, we are offered the benefits of health insurance, which most of us opt to have. And we don't necessarily get health insurance because we are sick, but as a preventative measure in case we do. Then we have the job itself. We have good paying jobs, when compared to other jobs in this state and around the country. Where can you get retirement, health benefits and a decent wage doing something similar to what we do? Good luck trying to find something like it. Like the car, your house and your health, you should take time to insure you have job insurance to protect your job from elimination or modification. How many letter carriers do you know who were laid off or fired due to the devastated economy? An important reason for this is our contractual protections. But our contract, just like other benefits of employment we enjoy, can be taken from us with the stroke of a pen. What Congress gives, they can also take away. Negotiating for a contract was a right we earned through the Postal Reorganization Act (an act of Congress). It was Congress who created things such as six day delivery, the establishment of a Post Office to serve all citizens, the Federal Employee Retirement System and other things we sometimes take for granted. The point is, that even under the current economic situation facing the country, politicians have kept their hands off the USPS, and not because they like the Postmaster General. They have worked to support letter carriers, because letter carriers have worked to put them where they are, and we remind them of that anytime they have to consider any bill which may affect our hours, wages and working conditions. But to maintain this political leverage we need money. And because we cannot use union dues for political activities, we have to rely on COLCPE. Our COLCPE funds need to be sufficient to support candidates or elected officials that will continue to look out for our interests and those of the USPS. If you do not contribute to COLCPE, then you do not care what happens to your job, your health, your home or that nice car of yours. And just like you can obtain insurance and protections for your other investments, you can do the same to protect your job by purchasing job insurance at five dollars a pay period. This investment in your future will maintain our political clout and leverage. How can fifty cents a day hurt your budget? In this struggle, you are either part of the problem or part of the solution; you decide which side you want to be on. See you at the union hall, Frank

Who Owns the Work? Unlike other postal crafts, letter carriers passionately and fiercely guard our right to perform what we consider to be our work. Like any other tradesman or skilled worker, we consider ourselves to have the only qualifications to perform the core functions of our jobs. Letter carriers care and protect the mail from receipt at the carrier cases to delivery at its final destination. Once a piece of mail enters the mail stream, it becomes postal property, and it is the responsibility of the Postal Service to make sure it arrives safely at its destination. The Postal Service takes this responsibility seriously, calling it the "sanctity of the mail." As letter carriers we protect the sanctity of all mail matter entrusted to us. There was a time that only letter carriers were sufficiently qualified to case and deliver city mail. History has shown that to be true. But with progress came automation, and nowadays automation in the form of DPS and FSS has reduced the need for tradesmen in our craft. And the harder truth is that almost anybody can keep the mail flowing in today's mail environment. Automation eliminated the need for a specialized or skilled employee to perform carrier work. This is why we no longer have that certain "ownership" of our carrier jobs as we had almost forty years ago. Could an untrained employee case letters, collate flats and deliver a route in that time period? The answer was clearly evident in the undelivered mail that accumulated during the brief strike of 1970. While we have a no-strike clause in Article 18 of our agreement, I am of the opinion that if we had a strike today, management could easily replace a striking employee, with little to no impact on the effectiveness of the operation. That's just one of the sad realities of progress and modernization. The next time we negotiate our wages and working conditions we will have to deal with the fact that the USPS has shown they can get the work done without the skilled labor of years ago. Can anyone say "contracting out"? This very serious and real issue has been sitting on the back burner for the life of this contract. And if you think that this issue will not come up again as an alternative or in conjunction with eliminating a delivery day, you have another thing coming. But resilient as we are, there is no way we can do this alone. As always we will have to solicit the public and our elected officials to insure that "Buddy Smith", "Mailman Dan" and others like them are the only ones with access to our mailbox. We want to keep letter carrier work in the hands of NALC letter carriers. To help in this endeavor you must get involved by becoming an e-activist and contributing to COLCPE. The situation we face in the USPS is critical and leaders on both sides are running out of ideas. Article 3 of the contract contains a "whopping" 162 words in its entirety and is less than a half page long, but it gives management the authority to direct, hire, promote, transfer assign and retain employees. It also entrusts Postal Management with maintaining the efficiency of the operations entrusted to it. The legal obligation to stay in operation is what distinguishes the USPS from private sector companies. They cannot close the doors and say they're going out of business. So with or without us, they are going to continue to get the mail moved from point A to B. Think about it. See you all at the union hall.

Late Again? You May Want to Recalibrate Your Rooster Some of us remember our days in the military where reporting for duty was a matter of great importance. We wanted to impress the individual(s) whom we were reporting to and did so by looking sharp and prepared for the tasks that awaited us. In the post office we do not report in the same way, yet the impression we give is more or less the same. The Postal Service and our customers rely on us to be at work on time and as scheduled. We are expected to provide timely, efficient and consistent mail service. So when one or more of our co-workers has a problem reporting to work, it affects the entire operation. Somehow, someway, the mail will be delivered. It may not be at the normal time or to the correct address, but it will eventually reach its destination. Career employees of the Postal Service earn annual and sick leave as an employment benefit. The respective earning amounts are found in both the contract and the ELM. The Postal Service policy is to administer the leave program on an equitable basis for all employees, considering (a) the needs of the Postal Service and (b) the welfare of the individual employee. Annual leave is provided to employees for rest, recreation and for personal and/or emergency purposes. Sick leave is to insure employees against loss of pay if they are "incapacatated" for the performance of duties because of illness, injury, pregnancy and confinement, and medical (including dental or optical) examination or treatment. The first priority in the granting of leave is "the needs of the Postal Service." The fact we have leave on the books does not necessarily mean the USPS has to grant us leave. The contract provides how carriers may take choice leave, but incidental leave is determined by each office's local memorandum of understanding (LMOU). And even when a unit does not have a local, the contract provides that for both full and part-time employees, "vacation leave is granted when requested--to the extent practicable." Sick leave, on the other hand, is not meant to be utilized just because you accrued it. Sick or annual leave that is not requested and approved in advance creates one of the biggest workplace disputes. Carriers who do not wish to work overtime are usually forced into doing so to cover unexpected absences. Service to our customers is affected when delivery is delayed, modified or even suspended. Most employees who have issues with reporting to work on time and as scheduled, may sooner or later face some sort of corrective action. They will expect the union to represent them and get them out of any trouble they may get into. As union officials we have a legal obligation to represent the carriers who may have received attendance related disciplines. And the majority of our fellow workers have a real problem with the few that can't seem to live up to the requirement of reporting to work as scheduled. Sometimes the unexpected absences occur because of poor planning or lack of knowledge for the process of requesting leave. An unscheduled absence is defined as not having been requested and approved in advance. How far in advance is also a subject of numerous workplace disagreements. But if you inform management as soon as you know of the need for leave, you should be alright. So if you need to take time off for an appointment, a vacation, or just to sit at home and do nothing, make sure you submit the appropriate request for the type of leave you feel is necessary in a timely manner. There are situations where unscheduled absences could be protected by the law. Employees who have conditions which may qualify them for FMLA, may not be disciplined for absences that occur as a result of the accepted FMLA condition. Disabled veterans are another group of employees who can be afforded some protection when they are seeking treatment for their service connected conditions. Executive Order 5396 which covers USPS employees and is commonly known as the Hoover Law, provides that "disabled veterans who upon presentation of an official statement from duly constituted medical authority, that medical treatment is required, shall be granted leave (annual, sick, LWOP), all without penalty in his/her efficiency rating." It is each employee's responsibility to clock in and out on time and as scheduled. It is very difficult to defend an employee that does not and cannot come to work. Sometimes the discipline is overturned because the proper procedures for issuing the discipline were not followed. But looking at it in simple terms, it boils down to either you were at work on time and as scheduled or you were not. We all have unexpected and unplanned events in our lives. Keep in mind that any rule setting a fixed amount or percentage of sick leave usage after which an employee will be, as a matter of course, automatically disciplined, is inconsistent with the National Agreement and applicable handbooks and manuals. At the end of the day, we have to own up to and be responsible for the consequences of our actions. The bottom line is: No one is responsible for your attendance but you. And as Buddy Smith would say, "If you can't make it to work on time, you may want to recalibrate your rooster." Give generously to COLCPE and attend your branch meetings. There is nothing more powerful than an informed union member. Until next time.... Last updated: March 2, 2010