Mail Count—But First Sick Leave

The last day of mail count is finally over my shoulder. More about that in another post. First,

On Friday, March 13, 2009, Ralph Smith, CEO of FedSmith, Inc., a newsletter concerning issues of Federal Employees, wrote an article entitled, “Tobacco, the Thrift Savings Plan and FERS: What Is the Link Between Them?”

In this article, he wrote that HR 1256 was reintroduced on March 3rd with 143 co-sponsors. The bill entitled “Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act” has Title IV Sec. 407 stuck on the very end. Title IV has wording about changes to the Thrift Savings Plan. Sec. 407 specifically addresses unused sick leave.

This is quoting Ralph Smith:

“First, the credit for unused sick leave. Similar legislation was passed by the House last year but it was never enacted into law. The language in the new bill is similar. The language in the current bill reads:

"...in computing an annuity under this subchapter, the total service of an employee who retires on an immediate annuity or who dies leaving a survivor or survivors entitled to annuity includes the days of unused sick leave to his credit under a formal leave system, except that these days will not be counted in determining average pay or annuity eligibility under this subchapter."

In plain English, this means that federal employees who are under the FERS system would count their unused sick leave toward the computation of their retirement annuity in the same manner as employees under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS).”

This is extremely important legislation for someone like me who has a full year of sick leave and retirement plans.

Holiday overtime

Saturday is the beginning of holiday pay.

Overtime is not allowed in our office. We are fine with that. Help is welcome. It gives the RCAs a little extra Holiday money.

Lack of opportunity for extra pay is not my complaint. Rather it is the scrutiny of letter and flat mail verses time on the route. This is the conversation. “The mail is light today, you should get back under your evaluation.” No mention of parcels.

For this reason, I am writing the number of dismounts I have each day in the comments section of the 4240, time sheet during the Holiday season. This would include large packages, accountable mail, and hardships.

Here is an example of how this affected my route. Monday, the mail was fairly normal but there were loads of packages, many too large for the box. Tuesday, we had essentially the same amount of mail but far fewer packages. I finished the route exactly one hour earlier Tuesday.

At least I will have some documentation for daily delivery time verses volume of mail.

First District Meeting

The attendance was low, but expected considering the beautiful spring day. Agenda included old friends, fun and information about the State Convention in June.

Postal Service has a moratorium on assigning routes to private contractors

Postal Service won't add more private mail carriers
by Alliston SteeleFriday July 13, 2007, 1:11 PM



The U.S. Postal service has agreed not to hand over any of the country's new
urban mail routes to private companies, at least for the next six months.
All plans to contract out new mail deliveries, including a proposal for
building in Perth Amboy, have been withdrawn.


The agreement is a victory for members of the national letter carriers'
union, who have been concerned with the postal service's increased use of
part-time, non-union employees to deliver mail. Now, according to a contract
tentatively agreed on last night, a committee will be formed to look at the
issue of privatization.

In New Jersey, the postal service has also reversed its recent decision to
privatize routes in Little Falls, West Paterson and West Orange. And in
Perth Amboy, the building that the postal service had planned to assign to a
private contractor is now part of a city carrier's route.

"I was very pleased to hear that," Perth Amboy Mayor Joe Vas said. "I think
it's the right decision."

See the entire article here

Which side are you on?

William H. Young, President of the National Association of Letter Carriers wrote an editorial in the June Postal Record in response to this question.

On April 17, Young was among a dozen or more people called to testify at a House oversight hearing on the Postal Service. As he listened to those present, the answer to the question, which side are you on was, in his words, "astonishing."

On the NALC';s side were Rural Carriers and Mail Handlers, most members of the subcommittee and "here is the first astonishing part--all three postal management associations, NAPS, NAPUS and League of Postmasters."

"On the Postal Service's side were Postmaster General Jack Potter, Board Chairman James C. Miller III, the usual right-wing think tanks and [the second most astonishing part] the APWU."

At issue is the APWU lobbing against the consolidation of mail postal facilities where as the NALC supports H.R.2177. Young's position is there is no correlation between optimizing the automation process and hiring low-wage, no-benefit, part-time, non-union contractors to perform bargaining unit work.

Which side are you on? There should be no sides in this issue. As the NAPS President, Ted Keating said, [contracting out letter carrier work] "will be the death of the Postal Service." Why aren't we all standing together?

To read the entire article follow this link: http://www.nalc.org/news/precord/pres-index.html on click on "June 2007"

Thank you Ella and Vince.

Rural carriers headed for arbitration

It was announced today from NRLCA headquarters that the negotiations have reached an impasse and most likely the next step will be arbitration.

The central issues are COLA, health benefits, EMA and time standards.

The USPS is asking for elimination of the COLA as well as a 2% increase in contribution to health plans. Also, reduction in annual leave and sick leave accrual. They are also asking for a locality based pay scale and less contribution to EMA.

For more information go to NRLCA and click on the "What's New" link.