Arbitrator Das and the members of the arbitration panel have issued the final award setting wages and conditions of employment for the NALC. Congratulations are in order to the officers of NALC for waging the fight and not being satisfied with excuses for destroying postal employment. As I have opined, the results of the arbitration is not as important as the willingness of the officers to fight for what they believe in. One union consciously negotiated terms and conditions that will subtract $500,000 from the wages and annuities of each future APWU represented employee, as opposed to the other union that determined to fight.
Notwithstanding, the propaganda and the apologist there is no justification for the negative changes made for future employees. All of the excuses have been exposed as gross bad judgment agreed to by incompetence and a lack of appreciation of the role of a labor union. How can they now look in the eyes of future employees and explain the justification for reducing salaries by 25%, limiting step increases at Step K, increasing the non-career workforce, changing full time to 30 hours, permitting supervisors to perform bargaining unit work, extending the right to revert vacant assignments, freezing salaries and increasing the employee share for health insurance.
Most importantly, how can they justify refusing to fight. This will be recorded as a dark day for all APWU represented employees who were abandoned by their leaders.
Parity between letter carriers and APWU represented employees has been fractured forever and the cruel response to challenges to the decision can now be converted from “if the new employees desire better jobs, they can seek other employment” to “they can become letter carriers.”
Mr. Burrus, I know that you feel that there is no logical reason for dropping from union membership, but your second paragraph gives many good reasons for doing so. Here is my logic: When you vote, you are not only approving or disapproving a contract, but you are also sending a signal to union leadership that indicates your approval or disapproval of their job performance. And we have a second vote as well: National Elections. But when the parties you vote for don’t win and the contract you voted against is passed, it is only logical to use the third vote to send the signal of disapproval to the union leadership. Writing about it in blogs, while aprreciated by myself and many others, will not make much difference to them. They need to be hit in the pocket book. They understand money, that’s all. My decision was finalized when we as clerks missed out on the largest COLA in history. They don’t get my dues for cutting my family’s purchasing power.
Johnny I couldn’t agree with you more except for one thing. We need a union but not the union we have now. At least on a local level where I work (Harrisburg, PA) Keystone Area Local is corupt. I once proposed that not to actually quite the union but, in mass, tell them that a large group is going to quit if they don’t step down; or beef up policy, or whatever; you get the idea. There is no way we can change the present contract (I am a clerk as well) but I do believe we can make it harder for management to push us around if we reshape our existing locals. On the grass roots level if enough of the locals change in a positive direction I think National will have to look. I honestly don’t know how the 2010 contract passed other than tampering with the votes. I work in a fairly large, hub office and only know of “1″ person that voted yes (other than some of the union stewards who were saying that the contract was the best they could see coming our way). With that said, we lost the most powerful tool we had: Arbitration. Our union didn’t even take it to that level. I smell corruption. What do you think? I’d like to know how your office works; do you work in a small office; etc………..? Compare notes so to speak. I always appreciate Mr. Burrus’ articles as they are insightful and to the point. But the best part is that he himself will respond and address situations that are brought up in our comments. So keep the dialog going even as this article becomes dated; make it an open forum for discussion. Thanks. Take care and hope to hear from you.
Hi Jeff, yes i smell a little bad scent as well but more on the national level. Unfortunately, many local officials did not take the time to research the new agreement before voting and encouraged their members to vote yes. I am in a level 21 office in Monmouth county NJ and while no clerk in my office voted yes, our local “leaders” were telling us that it was a good contract to vote affirmative. Although my beef is with national, our local has gone downhill in the area of representation. They have done a great financial job, reducing spending, but they don’t return our phone calls in anything near a timely manner and frequently postpone their visits to our office. And now, my steward tells me that at the latest local meeting they didn’t want to address any questions from the AO’s and they said that the contract is not good. REALLY???
I feel for you Johnny. I only trust two stewards in our office (Harrisburg, PA). I personally often simply confront supervisors; MDO’s and other management about “is this the right way to do this”; “is this a benefit for the customer”, and other confrontations. I may have said that I work on a FSM 100 and I clearly remember when the 2010 contract came out and some of us sat down and started reading it. I stopped reading, and knew I was going to vote no, as soon as I read that the PSE’s were going to be able to join the union. I’ve seen enough career employees abuse union power, plus I saw other potential future problems such as which side will the union take in a situation that may occur between a regular and a PSE. I’m not saying that just because a person is a PSE that they are inferior, but by giving them the same union rights and backing gives them leverage that they don’t deserve. They basically are the future Postal Employees and they will replace us not as a career but as a temporary job: lower pay; less benefits, etc……… It was all in the contract to make it seem, “Don’t worry about the PSE’s because they will never amount to anything in the work force” and yet every day more and more are being hired as residule jobs are being held up for bid because they So I didn’t need any more convincing about how I was going to vote. Another clerk in our section while reading the contract stated that you can see by the time we get our COLA our health benefits will over shadow them in our spending; thus making the COLA basically nonexistant. Other clerks pointed out other problems with the contract and yet the union stewards in our building said it was the best we would get!? They weren’t even planning on taking to arbitration from the get go. I can see many stewards in bed with management. For me the final blow after the contract was “agreed” upon, one of steward’s fiancee had amazingly gotten a job as a PSE!!! Imagine that. Johnny, you had mentioned in your last post that your stewards delay in calling back etc… well this steward has never done his bid job in the 15 years I’ve worked at our office; we only see him coming back or going on one of many cigarette breaks (meaning he leaves the union office, passes our section and then returns to the office and stays there all day). And sure enough, as I mentioned above, a situation happened involving his PSE fiancee where a union steward needed to be called (Regulation states that when a steward is asked for the union member gets one immediately or within two hours time of asking). In this case the PSE fiancee called her union steward fiancee on her own cell phone to his cell phone and he came out within minutes. When a situation occured to me where I asked for a steward, which I rarely do, I didn’t get one; and to top it off when our beloved mentioned steward passed our section I asked him, “Isn’t it true…. stating the regulation about getting a steward in a timely matter……” he was in such a hurry to get that cigarette that he answered me while walking away, that I was correct and he continued on his way instead of coming over to me and asking what the problem was. That is what I mean by local corruption Johnny. Now the union’s stance on everything is, “Just do what you are told and we will file a grievence.” Basically this boils down to nothing is going to change the situation. I can’t stand being faced by ignorance and saying, “Okay.” So I’ve gained a bit of a reputation as one who questions those in charge.
I’ll pass on this one story Johnny and then stop, but hope to hear from you on Mr. Burrus’ page. When I first started working for the USPS I had just moved into a new house and across the street was an older couple who I oddly enough knew, the husband being an old Navy man. Turns out that they were the Aunt and Uncle of my office’s Plant Manager lol. Now the Aunt really didn’t know what her niece did for the USPS but she mentioned that she was always being called in about situations night and day and even sometimes while they were eating dinner. Oh my!!! Those were the days of dedicated people working for a living. Since then that Plant Manager has retired, and just about two or three months ago I was talking with her Aunt and she said, “You know Jeff even after ******* retired for about four or five years the Post Office was still calling her at home about, oh I don’t know what it was, she called them grievences.” Amazing. I have never filed a grievence, but will simply approach a supervisor and question them on an issue that is at hand, and simply discuss it with them. Johnny we need to revamp OUR union and get back on our feet again. The next contract won’t be until 2014 thanks to the last vote, and I know a lot will have changed since then, but I am a career employee and I am a paid servant of the customer to see fit that he or she’s mail is treated accordingly to the best of my ability.
Hang in there Johnny, and tell your co-workers that there still exists a common unity amongst members, but we have to do our own thinking first and then act. But solidarity is still the foundation of our strength. Lets just get rid of the dead weight we have been carrying for years and make a new. Take care Johnny and the best for you and your co-workers.
Hey Jeff,
You sound as if you have Steward Envy. I’m a Steward who works his ass off for a thankless job. You have no idea the amount of work that goes into a grievance. Maybe you do have a lazy Steward but if their still calling your ex postmaster for advice four or five years later then someone is filing grievances.I guess we should check with you first to let you know our every move.
You sound like a pompous ass who is full of himself. Who are you to decide what someone “deserves”. The Union doesn’t ” take sides” with their brother members. Sorry if you think a PSE in the Union is not worthy of the same rights you have. You have something called “Seniority” which you probably use to your advantage.
The Union enforces the contract and deals with issues not someones ego. If you have problems with your Steward than what does your e-board say when you bring this up at your monthly Union Meeting. You do go to meetings and voice your opinion don’t you?
The NALC just got through screwing their TE’s out of six dollars an hour. The APWU gave the lowly PSE’s a pay raise from what casuals make plus the bennies. You know nothing of solidarity and sound like a lot of other blow hearts that just like to hear themselves talk and only ask ” what have you done for ME lately”. Sorry it’s not a perfect Union or contract. At least some of us are fighting the fight and not belittling our fellow brothers and worrying about me,me,me.
Look up Solidarity and try to understand the meaning.
Thanks Charlz51 for identifying this “Cry-Baby” of a self proclaimed Union Member. I personally have engaged Jeff on several occasions, calling him a (Scab) non-member, whiner, and other names without rebuttal. He appears to be a very lonely individual who happens to be pro-management. In Union Solidarity
The NALC gave a good fight. But at the end of the day the TE’s received a six dollar an hour cut in pay. The bridge to career employment will be a bridge to nowhere if Saturday delivery is eliminated. CCA’s will do the same work as career carriers for 10 dollars an hour less. They will not have the same contractual protections against excessive overtime that regular carriers enjoy. At their drastically lower rate of pay management will have a powerful incentive to heap draconian amounts of overtime on their backs. This new generation of carriers will be younger, browner and more female than their older counterparts. My question is this: how will they not blame the union for this inequality?
“Don’t let it bring you down it’s only castles burning……….” Neil Young. Kickin’ Out the JAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!