Comments on: The Future Of the Letter Carrier

by: Washington

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 18:13:57 +0000

WE HAVE NO UNION! The February mail count is being taken during the weakest two weeks of the weakest month of the year. Why not take it the two weeks after Thanksgiving? Where is the UNION in rebutting management’s timetable? A respectable and fair compromise should be determined between the two parties but it is not. Our UNION LEADERSHIP is made up of people that took a standardized speed test to get a job. Their background in Labor Negotiation tactics and strategies might not be that “professional”. Maybe it’s time to actively look for another Union to represent us. One that has a history of competency. How about the Teamsters? There is a relationship between the jobs they represent and ours. Essentially you get what you pay for. We have carriers that aren’t even in the so called Union. They aren’t even required to pay an agency fee yet enjoy the same benefits. Everyone need to pay a lot more attention to what is involved and to what your union dues are going into.

by: Administrator

Sat, 03 Dec 2005 04:01:48 +0000

One more thing, we were sold P.M. casing based on the idea that we would only have to case about 1-2 feet of flats in the morning, then hit the street. Since then they have curtailed clerk hours used to spread the P.M. helicopter flats, increasing that 1-2 feet of morning flats up to 4-10 feet of morning flats or more, and expect us to be consistent with our departure times. (Not much respect for us as a unit of working class people.)

by: Administrator

Sat, 03 Dec 2005 03:54:09 +0000

The times they are using to determine if we are +-20 minutes are from the last February count, which is one to the 2 lowest revenue months, (that and July,) of the year. The start time uses the formula based on taking mail straight to the street, transferring the time you would have used in the office to the street, (adding one hour or so to your street time.) In other words, if you can’t case the mail in the time allotted for all but DPS, then you have to take it to the street. We are being told our district is mandating 8:30 start times, which doesn’t make sense in the rural craft especially during standard time when afternoon daylight hours are less. For safety’s sake it would make much more sense to let us come in earlier, case the mail as long as we are not idle, then get back off the street earlier so we are not delivering mail after dark when accidents are more likely to happen and accuracy delivering is much higher.

by: Administrator

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 03:23:46 +0000

Carriers in our office are being told that if they aren’t within plus or minus 20 minutes of the official route time established by the latest count, that they must take DPS to the street.

by: SirBru

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 00:46:10 +0000

They always have USED the start times in order to manipulate rurals. In the typical ploy they will threaten that: “your start times will have to be moved forward if you can’t________________________”
i.e., If you don’t come in off the record ,assist each other off the record , shave off hours, add in bogus breaks, run short-service duty, do route chores at home, take additional parcels as you leave, and show good numbers , then we’ll have to inconvenience you by making your start times later.
It’s the SAME OL ‘GAME…IT HAS NEVER BEEN CHANGED!
Their game is, as you guessed, to play the margin…widen the undertime gap…then CLOSE IT… Widen…close…WIDEN…CLOSE…FRAUD…EXPLOIT!!