Statement of NALC President On Compliance with National Agreement

February 25, 2009 by postal
Filed under: NALC, contract, usps 

In a recent NALC Bulletin, President Young stated that he encourages cooperation with USPS because “the current financial crisis requires cooperation, where appropriate.” Even so, he declared, “[n]o one, at any level, has any authority to amend or violate the national contract, period.” PMG Potter agrees: “It is up to each one of us to make sure that the changes we bring to the organization are changes for the better,” Potter recently wrote. “Respecting and protecting the provisions of the collective-bargaining agreements will help us to do that.” PMG Potter Memo To Managers (PDF)

From the NALC Bulletin:

Let 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.

William H. Young

 

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Comments

19 Comments on Statement of NALC President On Compliance with National Agreement

  1. Pony Express on Wed, 25th Feb 2009 5:33 am

    2. blah blah

  2. old timer on Wed, 25th Feb 2009 9:54 am

    3. Wow after 35 years of violating the contract management is now going to honor it?NOT

  3. Mark Comerford on Wed, 25th Feb 2009 10:43 am

    4. In my 28 years I have noticed that cooperation and flexibility are only given from the craft side NEVER from the management side. When will our management to employee ratio, the highest in the country, go down ? When we start running like a business then they can talk about flexibility.

  4. Real old timer on Wed, 25th Feb 2009 1:16 pm

    5. Considering Congess not helping, the tone is starting to sound like the UAW, right before GM, Chrysler and Ford started closing all their plants.

  5. Amazed on Wed, 25th Feb 2009 3:16 pm

    6. Yeh, I guess Congress figures it will be easier to let the usps self destruct than to step in and be part of the blame. I am embarased to tell people where I work. I usually get the, “Don’t shoot and the hands go up in the air routine!”

  6. take it on Wed, 25th Feb 2009 3:24 pm

    7. SOS DD

  7. barracuda on Wed, 25th Feb 2009 3:28 pm

    8. Bill Young—
    Why do we have to keep filing the same grievances over and over, for the same violations over and over, all over the country?
    Do you see what we (carriers)are hassling with day in and day out?
    Do you wonder why the stress levels are so high?
    And Postal management is laughing at us because they know it’s not going to stop!

  8. Craft on Wed, 25th Feb 2009 3:51 pm

    9. Maybe we should all start sending complaints to the White House, or your local senators. I will post some addresses!

  9. spike on Wed, 25th Feb 2009 6:19 pm

    10. Oh….Do we still have a union???

  10. Worthless Management on Thu, 26th Feb 2009 3:45 am

    11. Quit crying about every little thing and get to work.

  11. giggle on Thu, 26th Feb 2009 4:24 am

    12. Spike, oh I guess our UNIONS have done so much for us, are you a new hire spike?

  12. Management wanabe on Thu, 26th Feb 2009 4:28 am

    13. Worthless Management, I will get to work when I finish my game on your computer and hang up my personal phone call. Might as well continue to piss off the community and tie up the phone, makes us look more professional, like we are really bringing in the revenue! You management is teaching us some ethic, thanks!! I need a bonus!!

  13. A on Thu, 26th Feb 2009 5:11 am

    14. B

  14. Longtimer on Thu, 26th Feb 2009 8:51 am

    15. Management harassment is the main reason I retired before I was ready to. No one did anything to stop it. It was so bad I ended up on stress leave and finally took retirement as a way out. Funny thing as soon as management found out I was retiring most harassment stopped. Up till my last week when they decided they were going to reevaluate my route, I refused to let them by saying I would return to stress leave till my time was up. Then they backed off till I retired. I found out as soon as I was gone they ran a special inspection on my old route, no one did a thing.

  15. Manager on Fri, 27th Feb 2009 5:36 am

    16. Longtime, you are my favorite kind of employee.The kind with no balls I can shove around and intimidate. Grow a pair before it’s too late.

  16. Sir Stupidity on Sat, 28th Feb 2009 3:19 am

    17. Manager, I would like to tell you that you, sir, are an a&&.

  17. Anonymous on Sat, 28th Feb 2009 7:29 am

    18. Someone needs to let him know that in San Bernardino, CA the custodians carry mail everyday and the stewards allow it to happen at every station.

  18. RD Davies on Mon, 2nd Mar 2009 8:59 am

    19. I have carried mail for 28.5 yrs and violations are the same and worse as they have ever been. I also have been a steward for 8yrs and the same violations (overtime) are about 509% of all grievances I see. Management has never even admitted they violated the contract only paid the grievance settlement

  19. Past Legs on Sat, 28th Mar 2009 1:56 am

    20. Let us all bear in mind that the letter carrier position is a manual one, and no one cand dictate how much one can case or how fast one should move on the street. Yet the NALC has used DOIS to add onto routes. You have and always will contradict yourselves. Your interest is not for the carrier, but yourselves. These are STATE LABOR LAWS yet you continue to violate them at the expense of the carrier. SHAME ON YOU!!!!!