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The End of QWL/EI for Rural Carriers

GW — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 04:52:31 +0000

The announcement came as no surprise for me because of the abuse of the process by both craft and management. The process needed to be a consensus process as was originally designed. The process when used as intended is a way for management and craft to opt in to getting questions answered and problems solved and bridge barriers brought on by lack of contact with those in charge of the office.

This process is golden in work environments where management has a large contingent of employees and has little time to address the issues that arise on the work room floor and small offices that need outside intervention to moderate personality conflicts that can cause great stress when there isn’t an outlet for both.

The process served as counseling, information exchange, training, and postal modernization. Small things like Spanish 3849’s, stamp order envelopes that replace blank envelopes often lost in the mails by unthinking customers and educating craft and management in the use of the Rural Carrier Matrix and edit sheets. Improvement of parking practices of LLV’s would probably not have come without the QWL/EI program to facilitate improved conditions in our offices when people weren’t panicked by extending their day another 1/2 to one hour into the heat of the summer or the darkness of the christmas package season. Why not meet at the end of everyone’s shift? Carriers on different sized routes come in at different hours, and many want to go home after being an industrial athlete for 3-5 hours ending their day mentally and physically exhausted.

In some instances it became a forum for management want-to-be’s to show their skills at controlling fellow craft members to impress managers with their ability to control their fellow craft members in the meetings. This alone blocked members from participation because they were often controlled out of the process but even with that it still served a purpose to solve problems because those individuals couldn’t help but improve something in the name of recognition and served the process well.

After the shootings brought on in the eighties and nineties showing the high disconnect between management and craft the QWL/EI process was instrumental in holding overbearing management to eye to eye contact to their employees as a group with outside participation reducing the stress brought on by the lack of accountability in the management arena.

It often provided the only medium for management to learn the contract and for employees to participate in a forum where everyone was on an equal basis of information sharing.

Letter carriers work very hard for the money and deserve at the very minimum what the contract guarantees each carrier. Cutbacks usually precede periods of heavy inflation and modernization making the carrier that much more important to delivery of the postal products in the recovery periods.

This begs the question are we back to those kind of stresses and those kind of sweetheart deals where smoke screens and sweetheart deals nullify the spirit of the contract to give everyone an equal right to benefits and seniority rights? Is management accountable to all carriers by conscientiously abiding by the contract? Can we implement a replacement for the process that will give voice to those who need to know that the USPS is not going to return to policies that corner employees to the point of losing all hope and going postal on their fellow employees and management?

Is there some replacement that will allow those who see a way of improving on procedures, customer support and security for all who work there so we can at least work together as a postal team under one roof. If we regress then the terrorists are not our only concern, there are many forms of terrorism and some of the most insidious kind is practiced skillfully in the good old USPS.

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FSA Should Be RSA

GW — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:58:29 +0000

As far as I’m concerned FSA should be RSA for Rigged Spending Account as far as the Postal Service branch of the program is concerned. I guess we were all supposed to have received a letter telling us that the Postal FSA is for working mothers! OK. Am I angry? Just a little, but I’ll get over it. I put $500.00 in there to learn how to use it and receive a tax benefit by lowering my taxable income or face lost opportunity costs, they recommend $2000.00 each to as much as $4000.00 for a couple on their web site. Two things to keep in mind: If your are near your high-3 years of service for computing your retirement it can lower what you receive from your retirement! So if you are putting any significant amount in there, you may be shooting yourself in the foot. Secondly, if it is as difficult as I find it is to collect your money back in the name of lowering taxes, and you could conceivably lose your own money why go through all of the paperwork, time wasting to call 800 numbers and general foot dragging to receive a modest lowering of your tax obligation? The credit card they issue you is for drugstore.com and Walgreen’s only! Can’t use it any where else in the world. They are trying to change that, but it seems the USPS has some reservations about letting us take advantage of a good thing so easily. So, if you are going to fax your claim in you have to call their 1-800 number 24 to 48 hours after faxing to verify that they received the fax. OK, let me go over that again. Credit Card is limited. YOU have to fax your claims in or mail your claims in. You have to wait 24 hours and check back with them to make sure they received your fax. YOU have to get your insurers EOB, or “explanation of benefits” and know that as a postal employee your ID number is your postal employee ID number and you have to call them for a group number before you can do anything. My take on it is this, it’s just not worth the extra bureaucracy to save a few bucks when what you are using it for is medical and you are usually in some state of incapacitation when you need the services so the extra effort to file the claims and get it right are just not worth the trouble. To take advantage of the plan you are taking on a second job just to file the paperwork. How sweet is that my friends?

Have a great week

George

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RE: Fighting ‘The Femail Man’

GW — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 15:23:53 +0000

OK, the count is over, I’ve lost 5 hours in my evaluation as have thousands of “Rural Carriers” across the country, and I’m happy I still have a job. My point was proven to the nth degree as automation makes controlling our numbers easy for management trying to shift postal funds from one function to another. The arguments are the mail volume has fallen by 20%, (it always does in February.) Also there is an adjustment period just after a rate increase, which will now happen every year just after our mail count is finalized. To make up for the lost 5 hours I will be fortunate if I can add 5 more hours to my week through realignment of the routes in my Zip code. Just about the time that finalizes some new automation will be put into place and I will be looking for more hours to fill the hour shortage again. The POINT is automation is pushing us into a corner making speed more important than ever much more important than accuracy, and forcing carriers into the position of cutting customer service corners in order to get back by the new target time of 4:pm to get our collected mail back to the office so that a truck can get it to the plant yada yada yada. So Marty, pardon me if I laugh when you expect me to dismount during a snowstorm when darkness and a 4 P.M. deadline dictate my rules of engagement. Every business has its working rules and we have been privatized since 1971. The price of the stamp pays our fees, which are trying to compete with free email and an inflation price cap imposed by law. No pressure??? Customers think we are subsidized by tax dollars but we aren’t. The government still has control over us through the board of governors but our top man is a CEO of a corporation. Labor issues are settled through collective bargaining without that body having the freedom to strike. UPS has the teamsters if they have labor issues they can and do strike. They can strike! Marty, you have the freedom to strike if your craft feels so inclined, but not the craft members of the USPS. We serve 145 million addresses per day or more, which makes us the largest communications company in the world. We have to have working rules that make it economically feasible to deliver our product to the country in an efficient and timely fashion or else go bankrupt. Dismounting at every delivery during a snowstorm is not good business sense and would make necessary installing central box units to replace curbside delivery if you press the issue. The USPS could save 2 billion with a “B” just by eliminating some types of delivery. We don’t run on pipe dreams but economical realities just like every other business in the world. What you want could only happen if we were still subsidized by the tax paying public. So, to bring you back to the realities of the real free enterprise world and the economic pressures that govern the modern postal service I give you this information free of charge in hopes that you will make the best use and entertain the thought that you don’t dictate the working rules of the postal service, economic realities do that job for us. Have a nice day Marty.

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RE: Fighting ‘The Femail Man’

GW — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:35:19 +0000

To: Marty Fortier

Coeur d’Alene Press

RE: Fighting ‘The Femail Man’

It’s too bad that this story gets lost in gender wars. The real story is automation is pushing the limits of human endurance. We are about to go to the next level of automation in our office. In the months to come we will lose people to automation who are the middle postal workers who route the mail to each carrier.

The carrier will have to add more customers to each route to make up for what automation will take away especially on rural routes but also city routes and CDS routes.

We have a formula that will give us 2 minutes per each box per 6-day week if we maintain a route with fewer than 12 boxes per mile, (impossible after the next phase in of automation.)

The minute we go over 12 boxes per mile we get 1.82 minutes per box per week. If we deliver to a central box, (apartments, trailer parks, business, new housing developments use central boxes,) we only get 1 minute per box per week. (The Postal Service can potentially save 2 billion a year with delivery to central boxes.) That’s not 1 minute per day, but 1 minute per 6 days of mail delivery, (you do the math.)

The formula is computed on the lowest volume month of the year, February and the luck of the draw of what mail might show up then verses the rest of the work year. An inventory is made of every piece and type of mail, plugged into a formula that is used to pay us for all of the year, (the rest of the year mail volume is heavier than the post-Christmas slump,) leaving us with nothing but hustle on our minds to get our routes finished before the sun sets and the last dispatch truck leaves. I’m a rural carrier and I don’t get paid by the hour, but by the above method.

That pace of delivering mail is maintained even on light mail days, not just out of habit, but also because it is figured into the formula and lets us go home early. Some customers will complain because we burn up the road to achieve our mission as efficiently as possible, but if customers start leaving mailboxes blocked with kids toys, trash cans, pit bulls, farm animals, parked cars, overhanging limbs and branches, or snow on any significant amount of our routes, we will be delivering in the dark and past the last dispatch truck that takes the mail we collect for delivery.

When we walk our walking sections to deliver to houses should it be necessary for us to come armed with deadly force to defend against that loose Rotweiler that is known to kill more people than any other dog including Pit bulls?

Now the post office has essentially merged with DHL, UPS, and FedEx for sharing the delivery loads. They say we have a monopoly on the mailbox. That has essentially disappeared over night. I have delivered DHL, UPS, and FedEx parcels on my route. I’m sure they are doing the same with USPS products.

If we got paid for all the real services we provide, especially pruning customers trees and shrubs, moving kids toys, the price of postage would skyrocket which is not in our best interest or the general publics best interest.

The postal service has a zero tolerance for missing the dispatch trucks with outgoing mail. We are penalized if we are late for that truck. Methods of punishment include changing our start times, cutting the size of our routes, (hence cutting our pay,) and forcing different casing methods that force us onto the street transferring the workload to the street which makes us do the work, (that could be accomplished so much easier in the office,) to the street.

We have been called glorified paper boys by some members of congress who are trying appeal to those who would transfer every penny of the postage stamp that pays for our services into their own advertising pockets, (yes Marty, you were once one of those on the congressional dole if you were an ad exec and as a writer still are,) while working us into the ground before we can collect a retirement pension, (which I might add was radically changed when it was moved to FERS from CSRS,) but those who make those kind of statements don’t realize the work that goes into delivering a paper route much less serving the number of people we serve daily delivering mail, selling postal products, picking up and delivering parcels and mail, and offering friendship to those whom we serve.

Our local surgeons know us by first name for constant knee, wrist and shoulder repair for the damage repetitive and awkward motions cause that we endure to deliver the mail efficiently. Just try it during the heavy months of the year. We must maintain an average speed of 10-15 miles per hour just to stay within the time allotted to do the job. That doesn’t sound like much in terms of speed, but when you take into account we have to come to a full stop, collect outgoing mail, sell stamps, and deliver parcels to the door, well, our average speed doesn’t reflect our true speed.

If you were to drive where you had to stop quickly, accelerate quickly, constantly watching out over your shoulder for speeding customers who hate to get caught behind a delivery vehicle for even 10 seconds, making constant turns down every cul-de-sac, private drive, and street on your line of travel, you would find the same stresses on your neck and lower lumbar that a fighter pilot endures. (We hire a lot of those by the way.)

That very friendship we establish with our patrons can get taxed when we are under pressure to deliver the amount of mail that we now have to face each and every delivery day that will only double by the end of next year.

Thanks so much for the cookies and milk, the walnuts, the fruit and other goodies my appreciative friends supply me who know the meaning of a fair days pay for a fair amount of work and I have so many on my own route who have toiled for a living and know what I endure daily. I’ve been delivering for nearly 2 decades to the same customers and we know and appreciate each other well.

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Arbitrators Arrive At Decision On Rural Contract

GW — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 04:36:01 +0000

It Appears there is a contract in place. This must mean there will be a 2 week opt-in count in February 2008. YUP, 2 weeks in 2008, 4 weeks in 2009 and 2 weeks in 2010. Regulars agreeing to work their scheduled relief day so the relief can have a day off will only receive an x-day.

Hmmm, O.K. . You can opt in to the ODL or, (work day relief list,) twice a year now instead of just once. The sticky issues are Relief carriers not receiving COLA until 2011. Rural carriers are going to pay higher health care portions 1.2, 1, 1 . We lost the fletter argument.

Those on the roles during the 2002 count have some remuneration coming as much as $300 for regular carriers and regular carriers will receive their portion (after taxes,) of $686.00 cash and COLA’s every 6 months instead of annually.

Each 3982 label received during the mail count will be 15 seconds unless the carrier is required to perform any additional duties of completing Forms 3575, 3546 and/or writing addresses on Form 3982. In such instances, the credit for the 3982 label will be two minutes.

Revenue generation will require the use of time already allowed for stamp stock credits. They will hold your route only 6 months now instead of a year, (two years before the last contract.) Do I detect a downhill slide? Oh, almost forgot to mention that Regulars buying new RHD vehicles will qualify for a $1,000.00 credit and $500 credit to reliefs and regulars who buy or convert a vehicle to RHD for their routes.

So, anyone have anything to say?

George

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Interest Arbitrator Selected and Hearings Scheduled to Begin October 29

GW — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 23:32:29 +0000

It looks like it’s going to happen later than I had gathered from the previous information dispersed on the subject.
http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dzdzj27_758vbb64

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Rush Limbaugh Adds the Postal Service To His List

GW — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 13:38:00 +0000

Rush Limbaugh, in his daily radio broadcast on July 19th, 2007 included the Postal Service in his attacks against government waste and inefficiency. Many people don’t understand that the Postal Service is all but private and not public funded through the tax system. The postal service is funded by the stamps and postage, not as it once was through subsidies, (except for philately.) Stamp collectors do receive some considerations, but the rest is paid for by that stamp on the letter. In order to keep unions at bay the Postal Service has managed to keep some of it’s government oversite. It’s a joke to say they have a monopoly on the mailbox, simply because UPS and others will use the mailbox after the letter carrier has delivered his delivery. On Sundays the local and national news will use the mailbox for their media.

More to come on this broadcast and who made it.

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NALC Has Tentative Contract With USPS

GW — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 05:35:40 +0000

A reporter for the AFL-CIO, Mike Hall, stated that the NALC has come to a tentative agreement with the USPS concerning their contract. Highlights are: 5 year contract, Cost-of-living increases, Reduction or elimination of casual assistance in place of bargaining unit employees, 5% increase in contributions for health benefits, discussions on reducing the use of Contract Delivery Services.

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Tainted 2002 Route Evaluations

GW — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 13:12:26 +0000

SUPPLEMENTAL AWARD TO 2002 MAIL COUNT ARBITRATION AWARD ISSUED

Late Friday afternoon we received National Arbitrator Dana Eischen’s Supplemental Award concerning remedy. At issue were several remedial questions raised after the 2002 National Mail Count award issued on May 15, 2006. In implementing that award, the Postal Service proposed to issue letters of demand to regular and relief carriers serving on approximately 8,300 routes where the pre-2002 data for Columns J-Q-R were lower than the tainted 2002 National Mail Count results. The Postal Service also proposed that carriers serving on routes created after the September 2000 mail count or on routes where the Postal Service did not retain the data necessary to determine the hybrid evaluation should not be entitled to a remedy. Arbitrator Eischen rejected the Postal Service’s implementation plan in these three areas: No letters of demand may be issued. Carriers serving on routes created after the September 2000 mail count or on routes where the Postal Service did not retain the data necessary to determine the hybrid evaluation will have 13.18 minutes added to the Columns J-Q-R data set from the discredited 2002 National Mail Count. The addition of 13.18 minutes to these routes will undoubtedly result in higher evaluations for some carriers and a back pay award.

While Arbitrator Eischen did not accept our request for pre-Award interest, he did hold open the possibility that post-Award interest may be awarded “in the event the Association makes a persuasive showing of undue delay on the part of the Postal Service in adhering to the terms of the May 15, 2006 Award and the … Supplemental Award No.1 Concerning Remedy of June 15, 2007.”

The Supplemental Award modifies and clarifies the May 15, 2006 Award. It does not affect carriers on approximately 21% of the routes counted in 2002 who are clearly entitled to a remedy because the hybrid evaluations on their routes were higher than the tainted 2002 evaluations.

We will be diligently monitoring compliance with the May 15, 2006 Award and this Supplemental Award and will continue to apprise you of new developments and the Postal Service’s progress in making payments to the affected rural carriers. Click here to view entire Award. (Acrobat Reader Required)

Posted at 11:25 a. m., on June 25, 2007.

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Contract Delivery Services

GW — Sun, 27 May 2007 12:09:32 +0000

Misc. General Discussion - Bill Introduced- Outlaw Contracting Out notify me whenever anyone posts in this

discussionSubscribe

From: MurphysLaw21 May-25 12:59 pm
To: ALL (1 of 1)
6739.1
http://www.postalreporter.com/news/2007/05/25/harkin-introduces-senate-bill-to-outlaw-%e2%80%98contracting-out%e2

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PostalReporter.com Blog
Harkin Introduces Senate Bill To Outlaw ‘Contracting Out’ Mail Delivery

Young Praises Move to Protect Letter Carriers

(NALC Bulletin) Sen.Tom Harkin (D-IA) on May 23 introduced in the U. S. Senate legislation to protect city and rural letter carriers from having their work contracted out by the U.S. Postal Service to private firms and individuals.

The bill, S. 1457, is titled the “Mail Delivery Protection Act of 2007” and would forbid the Postal Service from entering into any contract “with any motor carrier or other person for the delivery of mail on any route with 1 or more families per mile.”

The only exceptions allowed are contracts in effect atthe date of enactment of the bill which could continue untilterminated under the terms of such contract, or could be renewed, and also service on a rural route may be converted to contract delivery service when such route no longer serves a minimum of 1 family per mile.

NALC President William H. Young said the Harkin bill would bring a halt to the Postal Service’s drive to privatize mail delivery.

“Every active and retired letter carrier in the nation, and their families, should thank Senator Harkin for taking this courageous stand against those forces that would destroy the U.S. Postal Service,” Young said.

“At the same time, it is now critical that the other members of the Senate hear one loud voice from our members—by letter, phone, email, personal offi ce visit —to bring about a groundswell of support for S. 1457 that will ensure its swift consideration in the Senate and eventual enactment by the 110th Congress,” Young said.

Joining Harkin as early co-sponsors of the bill were: Sens. Max Baucus (D-MT), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Robert Casey (D-PA), John Kerry (D-MA), Jon Tester (D-MT), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Patty Murray (D-WA).

In introducing the legislation, Harkin said outsourcing mail carriers jeopardizes the reliable and secure delivery of mail because independent contracting fi rms do not use the same extensive recruiting and screening processes the USPS does in hiring and training mail carriers.

“Outsourcing mail delivery to people who have not undergone the Postal Service’s extensive screening and training process leaves open the possibility that convicted felons, identity thieves, or other undesirable workers could have access to the sensitive materials that pass through the mail on a daily basis,” Harkin said.

The Iowa senator said that last year, when the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act became law, the House of Representatives explicitly and overwhelmingly rejected contracting out mail delivery. He said despite that clear Congressional guidance, the USPS has nonetheless begun an aggressive program of placing the responsibility for residential mail delivery in the hands of the lowest bidder in states across the country.

“We cannot allow the Postal Service’s management to jeopardize the safe and reliable delivery of mail to our homes.” said Harkin. “This bill will ensure that the quality mail service Americans depend on continues.”

163 Back H.Res. 282
In the House of Representatives, 163 Members of Congress have already joined Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ) as co-sponsors of H. Res. 282, which would express the sense of the House of Representatives that the Postal Service “should discontinue the practice of contracting out mail delivery.

source: NALC Bulletin- May 24, 2007(pdf)

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