Arbitrator Issues Award in Rural Carriers Contract Case
From NEW JERSEY POSTAL AND RURAL NEWS
SPECIAL BREAKING NEWS: INTEREST ARBITRATION ISSUE
INTEREST ARBITRATION AWARD ISSUED
The link below is to the Award issued by the interest arbitration panel chaired by Arbitrator Herbert Fishgold as well as to the separate statement from NRLCA Arbitrator Dennis D. Clark. The Award sets the terms of the 2006-2010 USPS-NRLCA National Agreement.
Click here to view the Award and the separate statement from Arbitrator Clark
Highlights:
A- Salary increase effective 11-25-2006 1.2% increase in each step level
effective 11-24-2007 1.5% increase in each step level
The 2006 and 2007 step level increases will be paid as soon as practible.
effective 11-22-2008 1.5% increase in each step level
effective 11-21-2009 1.5% increase in each step level
B- Four year contract.
C-Cash payment of $686.00 for each regular carrier and proportional cash payments for other employees.
D-COLA roll-in base May 2007 with COlA roll in for RCAs February 2011
E- EMA $ 38.5 and increase of $ 07.5 over three years broken down as follows: 3 cents in January 2008, 2 cents in October 2008 and 2.5 cents in October 2009.
F- An additional 15,000 employer provided vehcles.
G- Change of address credit of 15 seconds.
H- TRC cap of 15% for each area level.
I- Employee health plan contributions will see a 2% increase in employee paid contributions for 2009, a 1% increase in 2010 and another 1%increase in 2011.
Archive: USPS, Rural Carriers Tentative Contract Agreement
USPS Press Release
Contracts Now in Place With All Four Major Postal Service Unions
A three-member arbitration panel led by neutral chairman Herbert Fishgold issued its award today, establishing the terms of the new collective bargaining agreement between the Postal Service and the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association (NRLCA). The award establishes a four-year contract (from Nov. 20, 2006 to Nov. 20, 2010), affecting approximately 68,000 career employees and 55,000 non-career employees who deliver mail to residences and businesses on rural delivery routes.
“We are pleased to have contracts in place with all four of our major unions, bringing the 2006 labor negotiation process to an end,” said Doug Tulino, Postal Service vice president, Labor Relations.
The Postal Service and the NRLCA reached a tentative four-year contract agreement in Dec. 2006, in collective bargaining negotiations, but the two parties entered the arbitration process after the union membership failed to ratify the agreement.
Arbitrator Denies Rural Letter Carriers Fletters Grievance
The National Rural Letter Carriers Association (NRLCA) objected to the Postal Service’s insistence that “fletters” (Flats and Letters) be processed on flats automation equipment when they can just as easily be processed as letters. As a result, they said mail is being improperly presented to rural carriers for delivery.
Former NRLCA President Gus Baffa’s Letter to USPS Contract Administrator Andrea Wilson (2/27/03)
The method of presenting certain mailpieces, mailpieces that the United States Postal Service has unofficially identified as “fletters”, to rural carriers constitutes a violation of, but not limited to, the USPS/NRLCA National Agreement MO-38, and Handbook PO-603. The Postal Service is consciously and by design diverting mail from the mailstream that is compatible with letter automation equipment to equipment intended to process oversized letter mail and flat mail. Although not strictly limited to the AFSM 100 flat sorting machines, the occurrence of the contractual violation is most commonly associated with the AFSM 100′s. This processing irregularity resuls in mail that is not properly presented to rural carriers. The Association seeks an appropriate remedy including an immediate cessation of this practice.
In a long-awaited decision, National Arbitrator Dana Eischen denied the Association’s class action grievance challenging the Postal Service’s practice of commingling letter-sized mail with flats when mail sorted on flat-sorting machines is presented to rural carriers for casing. We are extremely disappointed with the outcome and distressed at the limited analysis Arbitrator Eischen gave to the issue in the final four pages of his decision. Arbitrator Eischen did not acknowledge and ignored altogether most of the arguments advanced by the Association in support of the grievance. RuralInfo.net
Arbitrator Dana Edward Eischen’s 11-13-07 award on the merits of the NRLCA’s National “Fletters” grievance
As I understand it, the Association’s fundamental position is that the language of P0-603 Chapter 2, §212.13, 212.2,222 and 223, supra, and “past practice” thereunder, evidence a mutual intent of the parties, albeit by implication, that the Postal Service is contractually barred from presenting to rural carriers for casing Post-Wells machine -processed “fletters” which are “commingled” in flat tubs with other machine-processed flat-sized mail pieces. [Handbook P0-603 was jointly adopted by the parties in June 1991, as the successor to Handbook M-37, issued in May 1983. That handbook, in Sections 211,222 and 223, described the letter and flat presentation and casing provisions in virtually identical language to that in P0-603. (Postal Service Exhibit 7.) The prior version of Handbook M 37 was issued in December 1965 and likewise contains the same letter and flat presentation and casing requirements. (Postal Service Exhibit 8.)].
Below is the actual excerpt from the file.
Postal Union Leaders Debunk PMG Letter Justifying Contracting Out Mail Delivery
“NALC President Bill Young, joined by National Rural Letter Carriers President Donnie Pitts, sent a letter to members of the U.S. Senate on June 18 refuting a letter from the postmaster general that tried to justify contracting out delivery work and attacked legislation to draw sharp limits on contract delivery. Both union leaders support Sen. Tom Harkin’s bill, S. 1457, to curb postal subcontracting. Support for S. 1457 continues to grow, with 31 Senate co-sponsors.”
NALC President William Young noted:
…we have no right to negotiate for private contractors—and the problems they create for our delivery system will not go away just because they work cheaper. (We should have learned that lesson from the mess at Walter Reed hospital.)
Excerpts from NALC-NRLCA letter sent to members of the Senate (PDF)
On behalf of the nation’s 325,000 letter carriers, we write to respond to the misleading letter sent to you by the Postmaster General of the United States concerning S. 1457, the Mail Delivery Protection Act, a bill introduced by Sen. Harkin and co-sponsored by 25 members of the Senate.
Contrary to the assertions made by Mr. Potter in his June 13 letter, the bill would not override our collective bargaining agreements and would not interfere with the existing collective bargaining process. Rather, the legislation restores the status quo that existed before the Postal Service decided to begin outsourcing urban and suburban mail delivery with the recent creation of Contract Delivery Service.
S. 1457 would permit the Postal Service to renew and create new Highway Contract Routes (HCRs), the contract routes the USPS has traditionally used in rural areas to transport mail in bulk between rural post offices, as it has for decades. HCR contractors do perform incidental deliveries on their routes, but their main function is to transport mail in bulk – a function specifically authorized by existing law. The legislation would, however, prohibit the Postal Service from attempting to evade other public policies firmly established by the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 (PRA), as amended and reaffirmed by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA). These policies include a preference for Veterans in hiring and the right of collective bargaining for workers employed by the Postal Service. Neither the contractors employed by the Postal Service nor any association to which they belong are afforded these rights or covered by these policies. The creation of CDS contractors was designed specifically to evade these obligations.
But perhaps the most outrageous claim in the letter is the assertion that “99 percent of our contract delivery services are performed by small, minority- or women-owned businesses.” Combining unlike categories (company size, race and gender) is a cute device to get a large percentage to cloud the issues and to mislead your reader, but it is really beneath the Postmaster General to do so in a communication sent to all 100 members of the Senate.
It is not accurate to assert that the individual contractors who bid on part-time, low-wage, no-benefit CDS contracts to deliver mail in urban and suburban neighborhoods are “small businesses.” In fact, they are exploited workers, working in urban and suburban neighborhoods alongside career postal employees who enjoy decent pay and benefits. There are tens of thousands of minorities and women who would love to work as career letter carriers for the U.S. Postal Service.
These workers deserve the same pay and benefits as career postal employees. It is true that the USPS has long used contractors to transport mail. But to suggest that delivery has been contracted out since 1785 is misleading. The Post Office began city delivery with career employees in the 1860s and rural free delivery began in the early 20th Century. What happened before that may be interesting as a historical matter, but is largely irrelevant.
Contractors do go through background checks, but to suggest that they are subject to the same level of oversight as career letter carriers is to be blind to reality. Once a contract is signed, very little supervision occurs and the widespread use of sub-contractors leads to a total loss of accountability.
Postal Record article | PMG letter to Congress| July President’s Message
Related link: More news on Contracting Out Mail Delivery
NRLCA To Join NALC in Protest at USPS HQ
“The National Rural Letter Carriers led by President Donnie Pitts will join NALC President Young in an informational picket on Monday, April 16 at 2:00 PM EDT to protest the Postal Service’s decision to outsource mail delivery to private companies and individuals. At the demonstration, President Pitts plans to deliver a message to Postmaster John E. Potter demanding a halt to the practice of Contract Delivery.”
See more information at RuralInfo.net
Related Link: A Stamp of Disapproval for Mail Delivery Contracting (Washington Post)
Forget the rain, sleet and snow. Outsourcing is what worries a major postal workers union. Concerned that the U.S. Postal Service plans to step up use of contractors to deliver mail in cities and suburban areas, the National Association of Letter Carriers is lobbying Congress to get involved and study the use of contract delivery services. The union plans to draw attention to the issue by picketing postal headquarters on L’Enfant Plaza on Monday.