Isint that ironic. Ya still posted a book of questions knowing nobody's posting on here. Hmmmm.......

Comment: Is no one commenting on here lately? With everything that's going on I figured there would be a lot of posts!

Question: PM says I have to be back by a certain time. If I leave when PM says to, I'll never make it back by that time. If I don't 'manage my mail', the PM will! So what does PM hold back from delivering that day? Anything different than what I would? Are they authorized to hold back periodicals even tho' they're supposed to go out? What else could they curtail? Also, PM is not making any allowance in this time schedule for the 30 minute, unpaid, lunch break I thought we were allowed to take. This would be in addition to the paid 5 minutes we're allowed to take for bathroom breaks for the entire day. Grievance time?!

Question: How are the rest of you dealing with the push to be so much faster? What shortcuts are you taking? We can't make mistakes, but we have to cut our time somewhere! Are you throwing parcels out your windows at the garage/house? Are you hanging them in bags on the mailbox? Are you honking the horn but not getting out to bring accountable mail to the door? Rolling through stop signs? Speeding and then slamming on the brakes when you get to the mailbox? Not moving behind the wheel for long distances between mailboxes and/or the PO? Are you coming off the route without finishing your deliveries so you can get back when they tell you you have to be back? Are you pulling bulk/standard letter sized mail out of your DPS and casing it when you get in? Are you only putting up letter sized mail, rolling all the flats and then putting up the flats if you have time when you get in off the route? Do you wear Depends or other such product so you don't have to stop and waste time going to the bathroom? What happens to the regulars getting time off for dental/medical appointments, or being able to go on a vacation to recuperate from the stress, beat up elbows, shoulders, backs, and hands/wrists, when all the subs quit because they don't know when, let alone IF, they'll ever work again?!

Asked the PM just exactly what I was supposed to do and PM just smiled the PM smile. No wonder the USPS is struggling! No wonder some (a very few)carriers are dumping boxholders and taking dangerous shortcuts (I'm afraid there's got to be a lot!) to make these unrealistic time standards??? Cuts/discipline/harrassment to the people who actually serve our customers (us mail carriers), is not where the USPS should be cutting service to save money!!!

Have clerks run the day to day operations. One PM for five offices, rotating on a daily basis to oversee the clerks. Give the clerks the responsibility to manage their own drawers. If they screw up their till, they pay the money back to the PO! Do away with all the duplicate paperwork upper management has created to keep the PMs/clerks busy. We sign in on our time sheet when we come in off the route, so why do we need to sign in on another sheet saying what time we put the collected mail in the outgoing bucket to the mail processing center? Wouldn't they be within a couple of minutes of each other? DUH!! I don't know any carrier who doesn't know how to do their job. Shouldn't management be able to trust that the six months it took to hire me, provided the PO with enough intimate details about me to prove that I'm a trustworthy employee fully capable of doing my job without being micromanaged by a power-hungry PM. Oh, wait... if they can't trust you to do your job, is it because they already know what it's like to cheat and take those shortcuts that are "NO NO's" because that's how they got to be PMs and management in the first place???

Regulars are salaried employees, right? Aren't salaried employees of other companies expected to work more when needed without extra pay? As long as we 'make the truck', why the big fuss over the 2080? Sometimes we get done early. It probably all works out in the end! There is no way that management can expect carriers to work the same number of hours each day when the flow of mail is so very, very different each day. Mondays we get 2 days worth of mail. Tuesdays are light so we can catch up. What happens when the PO stops Saturday delivery? I know! 3 days worth of mail on Mondays! On Fridays, ALL mail will have to go out because we can't have any left over the weekend for Monday's 3 days worth of mail! Why the huge push to 'be there' at the same time every day? If folks are lucky enough to have a job nowadays, both the mom and dad are working to pay the high cost of insurance and gas. They're not sitting at home watching out the window so they can run out to greet us carriers when we bring them certified letters from their mortgage companies! Only the very old and the very young are at home during the day. The old ones need to have something to complain about when they go to town to have coffee with their buddies, and the young ones are too busy chasing after their pre-schoolers and babies to give a darn when the mail comes!

Mail counts? Do away with them. Why? The PO already knows what the day to day volume is from the reports their mail processing machines already provide! Accountable mail is kept track of already. In this day and age there must be a computer program that can process this data, right? Have the carriers keep track of how many times they have to exit their vehicles to bring accountables and large packages to the customers' doors. Give them 5 minutes for each dismount. Treat the carriers as you would be treated. I know that this will anger most of you carriers out there, but I feel that I'm paid a lot of money to stuff paper in boxes. I actually feel guilty knowing that I make way more than many folks who have gone to college and grad school and have very important jobs (like teachers, for example).

All I want is:

1) to be treated fairly,
2) dealt with honestly, and
3) not have to suffer the long-term consequences of battered body parts from delivering the mail over the years.

Since 3) is impossible, all I can hope is that management, from the very top all the way down to the PMs, supervisors, and clerks, can find a way to take care of 1) and 2)!

I don't want to see the Postal Service go down the tubes, but it won't be because the mail carriers haven't been doing their job!

OK... gotta get to bed: gladly hauling mail tomorrow (and Saturday - yes, I got an H route after last count)!

This is Prime , why are you all directing your angry at the choosen one? save your energy for the deceptamangers that you all have to go to war with on a regular basic. Your time is near D day will arrive and a great number of you will not survive these great changes that will very soon sweept over the Postal Service changeing it forever, your Onions power is now being stripped and they can know longer protect you from the deceptamangers that will soon rock your worlds, all the Onion dues you have payed has been waisted away by use less Nacional directors , you have know power to strike ,your only changeing of surival now is to beg for your jobs, I am Prime and I warned you all before and you did not lissen ,are work is now done on your planit , you must fight the Deceptaclowns on your on ,good luck to you all I AM PRIME ,AUTOBOTS TRANSFORM AND ROLL OUT ,THE PARTY IS OVER!

Ok, everyone, I cannot stress enough how much you need to contact your Senators. They held a hearing today, and they went back and forth over the amendments added to S. 1507.
 
Let me be clear, if this bill passes that require arbitrators to consider the "financial heath" of the USPS during Contract negotiations, then it will make negotiating a contract fruitless. An arbitrator will rule with the USPS every single time we go to arbitration.

If you have not taken an interest in what is going on with your job before, now is more important than ever. Write your Senators TODAY!! We cannot wait one minute to let our voices be heard.

You can be sure that if S. 1507 passes with this amendment attached, that the USPS will be financially unhealthy for every single arbitration.. And we will all lose big because of it..

You think they have already taken enough from rural carriers?? Let me tell you, you have not seen anything yet.. What we have endured in the past will not even begin to compare with what we will get if this gets passed.

They will be able to do whatever they want during negotiations and then tell an arbitrator it is for the financial health of the USPS. This leaves the collective bargaining process open to manipulation..

Tell every postal worker you know to contact their Senators. Nothing has ever been more important for postal workers..

Find info to contact your Senators on my Action Alert Page.

Click on Contact my Senators NOW under the description of S. 1507 and there is a place where you can email them or have them hand delivered to your Senators..

http://ruralinfo.net/actionalerts.html

National Rural Letter Carriers' Association: "S. 1507 Passes out of Senate Committee with Anti-Labor Amendment

WASHINGTON, DC ---

On Thursday, July 30th, 2009, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted out S. 1507, which would provide financial relief to the Postal Service. A vote of 12-1 in favor of the legislation was cast. Unfortunately included in S. 1507 is an anti-labor amendment that would require the arbitrator to take into consideration the financial health of the Postal Service when deciding Postal Union contracts. The NRLCA is opposed to S. 1507 with the inclusion of the arbitrator amendment and is working with Members of Congress to have this amendment stripped out before final passage.

If you have any questions, please contact our Legislative Department."

 
Ok my friends, it is time for us to put our collective butts on the same page.

There are amendments being added to the Senate bill (S. 1507) (This is the Senate companion bill to HR 22) that would provide short term financial relief to the USPS. Most of these amendments are not in the best interest of postal employees.

Amendments offered by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) would require arbitrators to consider the financial health of the USPS when ruling on collective bargaining agreements, and an amendment submitted by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) would increase the share postal employees pay for healthcare coverage.

An amendment submitted by Sen. Coburn would repeal the requirement in appropriations law that requires the USPS to deliver mail six days per week. A total of 11 amendments were submitted as of the deadline for submissions, but additional amendments could be offered when the committee meets on July 29 to vote on the bill.

For the summary of all of the amendments, click the link below:

http://www.divshare.com/direct/8021535-057.pdf

Once the committee acts on the amendments, it is expected to vote on the main bill, the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Funding Reform Act of 2009 (S. 1507) The bill was introduced by Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) on July 23, would restructure the USPS obligation to pay retiree healthcare benefits, and would generate savings of billions of dollars over the next several years. The USPS is projecting a loss of $7.1 billion in Fiscal Year 2009, despite predictions that it will cut costs by $6.1 billion this year.

If you live in one of the states of the Senator's that serve on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs then please contact those senators and urge them not to approve this bill with these amendments attached.. If they are a Senator in your state, then they need to hear loud and clear from their consituents. And, I dont see where it could hurt for the rest of us to contact the Committee also..

You can find the Senator's that serve on that Committee along with links to their websites with contact information at the link below:
http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?F...ommittee.Membership

This is make or break time folks.. Lets put our voices together and do something..

Thanks to the APWU for this information

Now they want US to be "census takers"....

Washington » Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, wants your mail carrier to count you.

Chaffetz said Wednesday he will introduce legislation to marry the U.S. Postal Service temporarily with the Census Bureau so that the postal workers can help with the once-a-decade count of how many people live in America.

"They really have the workforce in place to do this," Chaffetz said. "They already go to everybody's door."

Chaffetz proposes taking a "postal holiday," so that mail carriers, instead of dropping bills and magazines to your mailbox, would count the number of people in each household. The Postal Service matches up well with the Census needs, Chaffetz argues.

There are 760,000 postal employees, and the Census is anticipating it will need 750,000 temporary workers to conduct the Census next year. Congress is forking out $11 billion to do the count while the Postal Service is looking at a $1 billion revenue shortfall this year.

The Postal Service had no comment on the bill because the legislation had yet to be formally introduced Wednesday and Census officials did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment.

Chaffetz says he's introducing the bill to avoid having the Census hire groups like the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, which has been under investigation in several states for voter fraud during the 2008 election.

"The ultimate underlying thing here about the Census is trust," Chaffetz says. "And people trust postal employees a lot more than somebody just off the street."
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That's right a "dismount" at EVERY door. I'm sure the NRLCA would be able to "negotiate" a 3-second "credit" for us.

K route- for each 10 days LWOP you will lose 1 day of annual

J route - 11 days
H route - 12 days

I'm sure someone else has the "official" numbers for you, but annual days are based on "hours worked." Therefore for every ___ number of LWOP days you use you will LOSE a day of annual leave. I forget what the number is.

Edited by author 06-17-2009 07:25 PM
I questioned LWOP on Saturdays....I was told no matter how days we use lwop they will not take away one day of annual?

USPS Conducting Study On Impact of 5 day delivery

The NRLCA has been notified that the USPS is currently conducting a study of the impact of five-day delivery along with developing an implementation plan for a five-day service plan. A team of postal service headquarters executives and staff has been given a time frame of 60 days to complete the study. June 10th, 2009 the NRLCA was contacted for our input.
The current concept examines the impact of five-day delivery with no business or collections on Saturday, with Post Offices with current Saturday hours remaining open. The NRLCA is preparing a response with our issues and concerns. The website will be updated as information becomes available.
NRLCA NATIONAL BOARD

http://www.nrlca.org/membershipUpdates/sel...ate.cfm/memUpID/121

Can anyone out there help me out. I need to know when you recieved your form fifty in the mail regarding the count results. I am on the west coast and just recieved mine yesterday, lowering my pay 2,000.00 , processed on the 2nd of June and backdated effective the 25th of April. Thus meaning they will go back 3 if not 4 pay checks and take my money back. (OUCH) I'm just trying to get some feedback thank you

Cindi...they are all full of chit. Both management and the stew. NOTHING is supposed to be done with that route at all and is supposed to be held open for excess carriers until FSS flats come thru. The senior sub will not get it UNLESS that sub is the Primary for that vacant route. What is supposed to happen, per the MOU that Pitts signed not too long ago with the USPS, is the Primary sub HOLDS DOWN that route that becomes vacant UNTIL FSS Flats come thru. Then, and only then, can anything be done with that route...and that means it most likely will NOT go to the senior sub...it can then be chopped up to other routes OR carriers that go under 32 hours on their eval next mail count (a year away) will take the route. No one is supposed to be bidding on it either, and that means the Regulars in office, also. Good luck and talk to your Asst. State Stew or call your State Steward if your local Steward is giving you this chitty advice.

Had a carrier retire 2 weeks ago. Route will be posted for regulars in office. Was told that the residual will be cut up and distributed among the regulars. Steward says because of lost hours during mail count. Not going to hire senior RCA because of this. He has been there almost 10 years. I don't believe that the office is within the 50 mile FSS. (Middle Tennessee Area. If I am wrong and somebody else knows please correct me.) And as far as I know there are no excess carriers either. My question is...can management do this?
I believe the steward is pushing for this also to rebuild routes.
Can the RCA file a grievance to have the route posted?
Just trying to help him by asking.