2011 Spring Rally
March 27, 2011
1:00 - 4:00 PM
All Rural Craft members of the WARLCA were invited to attend the Spring Informational Meeting!
This was the largest, most important meeting for Union members to attend outside of the State Convention.
The meeting was held March 27, 2011 at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Federal Way, Washington.
Hampton Inn & Suites 31720 Gateway Center Blvd S
Federal Way WA 98003 253.946.7000
253.946.4205
125 members of the WARLCA from across the state gathered in Federal Way for our Spring Rally and obtained information on a variety of topics.
Senior Assistant State Steward Monte Hartshorn provided information on the National Reassessment Process(NRP).
Carriers who, through no fault of their own, have sustained a work-related injury are now being told by the USPS that there is no longer work available for them. Many are being told to fill out leave slips, and they are being sent home. In many cases there has been little or no advance notice of these "NRP meetings" to the employee or the Union.
The USPS has both a legal and a contractual obligation to make every effort to assign limited duty work to employees who have not fully recovered from an on-the-job injury. To many rural craft employees it seems as if management is making every effort to limit the amount of work available to these employees.
A National Level Grievance (class action) was filed by the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association (NRLCA) on August 31, 2010. This Step 4 grievance addresses management's failure to assign rural carriers to limited duty work in accordance with various provisions of the National Agreement, Postal handbooks and manuals, and federal law. The NRLCA is seeking reinstatement to limited duty assignments and make whole remedies for all carriers affected by the NRP process. The grievance filing states in part "The Postal Service has significantly impacted rural carriers across this country, when it has not made every effort to find available work for injured rural carriers by claiming no work available (NWA), and has manipulated the NRP process to change the intent of the language in the handbooks and manuals." Please note that the Association's Step 4 grievance challenging the NRP process does not address all case specific issues related to management's obligation to provide limited duty work in accordance with the ELM. Rather, you may be entitled to file a grievance to address limited duty work issues arising from your specific circumstances. If you believe that management has violated your right to be provided with limited duty work, you are advised to contact your steward immediately to review your rights and options under the National Agreement. Additional information can be obtained by accessing the "What's New" page on the NRLCA website (http://www.NRLCA.org).
Senior Assistant State Steward, and District 2 Representative Renee' Cowan provided information on Percent-to-Standard.
In short, Percent-to-Standard is a comparison between the standard hours of the route (as established during the most recent mail count or interim adjustment) and the actual work-hours utilized on a route. The "actual hours" as part of the percent-to-standard comparison is comprised of all the work-hours on a given route. This would include the regular carrier's actual hours, the relief carrier's actual hours, and any training time (cross-training and/or new relief carrier training) in addition to any auxiliary assistance provided. Many carriers have been, or soon will be experiencing an elevated level of attention regarding their work-hours and encouraged (read "pressured") to keep their actual hours in line with their evaluated hours. Renee' provided information on why this is seemingly important to the USPS and why it should, or should not be important to a rural carrier; as well as a carrier's rights and responsibilities related to work-hours.
Senior Assistant State Steward Joyce Patteson provided a comprehensive overview of Route Consolidations, Posting, Bidding, etc. In offices throughout the District routes are becoming vacant due to retirement (or other reasons) and instead of putting these routes up for bid and promoting a leave replacement to regular the USPS is deciding to consolidate these routes. Or worse yet, they are deciding to consolidate another route in the office. What happens when management exercises their contractual right to consolidate a route? What happens when they choose to consolidate a route other than the vacant route; perhaps your route? Could you lose your route? These are all questions that Joyce provided the answer to during her presentation as well as general information concerning route postings, electronic bidding, etc.
WARLCA President and Senior Assistant State Steward Cheri Freeman provided the latest information on 5-Day Delivery and other legislative issues.
As most of you are aware, former Postmaster General (PMG) John Potter stepped down in December, 2010, and was succeeded by Deputy Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. There were some who believed a change in USPS leadership would herald a change in direction for the organization. However, a statement made by the new PMG provided insight to what we might be expecting; "Our challenge going forward is to implement the ambitious plan now in place to assure the continued viability of the Postal Service ..." This, in reference to the USPS "Action Plan for the Future" of which a key part is the elimination of Saturday mail delivery. Cheri provided the latest information on this, the Advisory Opinion of the Postal Regulatory Commission and other key legislative issues, both active and proposed legislation which could have a profound impact on not only the rural craft and the USPS as an organization but on the very foundation of collective bargaining.
Information was also provided regarding Delivery Unit Optimization / Delivery Unit Relocation (DUO/DUR), recent changes the the Carrier Release program, as well as information on the new Scanning Procedures.
DUO/DUR is the latest initiative by the USPS purportedly undertaken to improve the financial condition of the organization. Although at the time this article is being written, no offices in Washington State have been "closed" or carriers relocated to a neighboring office, the WARLCA has been notified that several offices are under review. Many carriers have been informed by their local manager that they are going to be moving to another location. When all the routes in one office are moved to another office what happens to the seniority list in the offices? What happens to the evaluation of the routes being moved? What happens to the relief carriers assigned to those routes? What happens to the matrix? These are all questions that were answered at the meeting. How wide-spread DUO/DUR will become remains to be seen but inside sources have indicated that up to 50 offices in the Seattle District could be impacted by relocation this fiscal year.
In regard to the new scanning procedures; you all should be aware that rural carriers are now required to scan as "accepted" appropriate mail-pieces at the time they are accepted on the route. This new procedure was rolled out nationwide in late January, early February 2011. The USPS, when announcing the new procedures, also announced that the time associated with the acceptance scan would be built into the route evaluations at the time of the next mail count. The NRLCA National Board, after a full review of the acceptance scan issue which included nationwide teleconferences with the State Stewards, decided not to pursue the issue in accordance with the provisions of Article 19 in the National Agreement (contract). A full discussion of the new scanning procedures was provided at the meeting, including the reasoning behind not pursuing the issue at this time, as well as a discussion of those aspects of the scanning procedures that are still subject to discussions with USPS Headquarters.
If you were one of the many WARLCA members who were in attendance at the Spring Rally you are commended for taking the time to be involved and informed. If you were unable to attend the meeting, you are encouraged to make every effort to attend your next county unit meeting. The WARLCA makes every effort to have a State-level Steward in attendance at every county meeting and these stewards will be well-prepared to answer any question concerning the topics listed above in addition to any other question you may have concerning your employment with the United States Postal Service.
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