Statement of President William H. Young On Compliance with National Agreement
TweetLet Let me make the following clear to one and all, including Postal Service management at headquarters and in the field, and all letter carriers, at every level in the union and in every post office: No one, at any level, has any authority to amend or violate the national contract, period.
I continue to receive calls from branch officers who inform me that local managers have approached them and attempted to secure agreements to violate the national contract. These same managers have the audacity to suggest that I am cooperating with the Postal Service and that they should, too!
The plain fact is that I encourage cooperation with the Postal Service because I realize the current financial crisis requires cooperation, where appropriate.
If any manager approaches you with a suggestion for creative ooperation, advise them to send their ideas to USPS headquarters, which will then make the determination whether to present such ideas to us. Some of the ideas floating around now are not grounded in common sense. For example, the idea of prohibiting all carriers from working their nonscheduled day off, and then requiring non-ODL carriers to work overtime is a clear violation of the contract – one we will stop through the grievance procedure, and one that will cost the USPS dearly in the end. We must be mindful of the critical difference between contract amendment/contract violation on the one hand, and creative, positive cooperation on the other.
February 25th, 2009 10:38
These must be some of the same type of work rules the UAW just agreed to suspend to make sure their members still have a company to work for at all.
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February 25th, 2009 12:19
this sounds like the same old union garbage, the union will drive the USPS into the ground while protecting worthless carriers. The majority of carriers work hard and have no problem with management, while lazy carriers use the union to do as little as possible and force good carriers to pick up thier slack.
February 25th, 2009 12:23
Just observing, just observe. Leave the comments to those that are informed.
February 25th, 2009 17:03
Glad to have the union protect me from working 10/12 hrs a day. I don’t want to. Sounds like we have a couple of supervisors sounding off in prior messages. Abusing the carrier work force is not the way to kept the company working.
February 25th, 2009 18:44
I think Mr Young is out of touch with what happend daily on the workroom floor.
February 25th, 2009 19:15
To Hah, if anyone will drive the USPS into the ground, it will be the bonehead decisions made by upper management. Instead of scheduling a city carrier to work on his off-day, they use a rural carrier to work in our craft; then do not bat an eye when they pay the carrier 8 hours of overtime for sitting at home cause the Southwest Area V-P said “no off day overtime”. DUH!!! They pay 2 to 3 times to get the same piece of mail delivered. The “lazy carriers” I know are now in management (204-B or 102-A’a as we call them).
February 25th, 2009 20:09
I agree with JULUBR, the the SW VP is costing us more than it is worth with forcing managment to break the contract by not working OTDL carriers and paying POT.
HAH is also correct in stating that the majority of carriers are hard working people. Managment allows the lazy carriers to do less than what is expected not the union. Be careful of the MRAs. We do have a drop in volume, but adding deliveries to already overburden routes is not the answer either. The USPS needs to look at the modes of delivery also. Expecting city carriers to do something they have never done in the past is going the wrong direction, if we are working together.
February 25th, 2009 21:10
What? All of a sudden the Union is making the P.O. go by the conract! Yea right,TheP.O. has broken the contract so many times that so many carriers have gotten out of the Union because nothing ever was being done in the past… Get Real!!!!
February 25th, 2009 21:53
Ray, do not know what things are like in your area, but in this area the contract is followed. Most of the carriers here are in the union and it is a good thing. If management does not follow it they pay.
February 26th, 2009 01:19
Ray, Just ask the Santa Ana district if the Union doesn’t do anything about management breaking the contract…..Branch 1100′s Article 8 grievance this past year yielded a health 7.8 MILLION for it’s members because of the mandatory overtime issue…and Hah, that was not the union not using the OTDL cariers instead of mandatory overtime for non OTDL carriers, it was Management, and they knew going in they were breaking the contract. Their reasoning is that the full tour overtime would go against their budget and grievance settlements come from a separate pot…UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!
February 26th, 2009 01:51
MC, When the “Window of Operations” grievance was settled last year, I had a friend call the union office. Santa Ana District paid $40 million to settle this grievance. Branch 1100 is part of the Santa Ana District.
Two carriers in my office were each paid just over $10,000. Why? Because we followed the decisions and directions management gave us. Gerry Ahearn is now running a District larger than his last appointment in the state of Connecticut, I believe.
February 26th, 2009 05:13
Apparently some of the commenters have never experienced working with postal supervision. Hah sounds like the typical anti-union idiot when the UAW was first to tell their management to downsize. If you would like, I’ll begin to tell you ALL ABOUT Postyal managers. Maybe one is on this site right now instead of playing computer games at work. You’ve really gotta keep your eye on these sneaks.
February 28th, 2009 07:08
Yes big business will do all it can to secure your job. Trust me the management at the Post Office are no angels. That this away that away soon you have nothing, much like the democrats are doing today with our rights.
March 1st, 2009 15:56
It’s the same in the Pittsburgh area. To many chiefs and not enough indians. Managment sitting on their butts looking at Nascar web sites all day, while the only people making the USPS money(carriers) are out working thier butts off. And with all the adjustments done,PIVOTS AGAIN hahahahaha. Save money get rid of half the worthless office managment.
March 2nd, 2009 23:46
In response to “HAH” on Feb 25th. I used to feel just like you. In fact got out of the union. Then I transferred to the toughest office in the world and had to become a Steward just to defend ourselves from the meanest and dirtiest boss/supervisor ever. Just keep in mine, not always like you say it is.
March 25th, 2010 10:10
According to the APWU; Field support,Supervisors, and Postmasters positions have decreased by 22% craft employees by 25% and headquarters increased 38%.
NALC officers don’t want evaluated routes yet they decreased employees by 18% rurals increased by 18% Rural carriers make an average of 9000 dollars more in base pay a year than city not counting EMA. City carriers work more hours for less pay. Gotta love those Unions. Subtract those union dues from your pay and you’re not very well paid…….
August 19th, 2010 05:21
Management breaks the contract and that immediately saves that office money. The union gets involved and files a grievance and the PO pays, sometimes dearly… But the grievance payments are not taken from the budget of the PO that broke the contract. So the self serving supervisor saved thousands of operation dollars and gets promoted.
If you want to fix the problem then make grievance payments reflect on the budget of the PO that they are paid against.
And I am not a lazy carrier. I am pissed off because of the number of times I have been abused and lied to…
I am not on the ODL and when the grievance is filed because I was forced to work the people on the ODL get paid for loss of oportunity. I get nothing because I have already been paid for the time I was forced to work. So why am I working manadatory overtime so ODL people can get paid? Because managment has no incentive NOT to break the contract….