Organizing for America | Francis Scott's Blog: usps day shift elimination

usps day shift elimination

By frank - Mar 23rd, 2009 at 9:30 pm EDT

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To the best of my knowledge, most medium sized to large mail facilities( these facilities are more like factories) have operated utilizing a 3 Tour system( around the clock). Tour 1 operated generally speaking from 11pm to 6am. It's primary responsibilities are processing and sending out of the facility mail destined to local Post offices. Tour 3 (3pm to 11pm) receives mail from local Post Offices, cancels and processes mail intended to go out of town, as well as directing mail that originated locally and was destined locally. Tour 2 (7am to 3pm) responsibilities have been a clean up, preparatory, arrive and process commercial mail tour.It has become with the introduction of new equiptment a shift with the greatest focus on standard mail. This is what some folks refer to as "junk" mail. It is however the only growing sector of the Postal business. It is the best time to process mail that is less time sensitive.
Also the Postal Service uses a bidding system based on seniority. Subsequently it should come as not surprise that the most senior employees are staffed on day shift. This is an honor, it means you have put in years of hard work and finally you get a chance to enjoy your family. You can eat dinner together, check homework, call or see the grandkids, have community participation, church involvement, coach the kids teams, watch the kids grow up, and in general lead a life that is more normal.
Times have been tough, and our President has reminded us sacrifices are needed. The Postal Service has not escaped the hard times. Our letter volume is diminishing, We were crushed by the high oil prices, and we have an unfair financial burden by having to escrow more money than is necessary to cover our future retirements. Our business, hurt as it is by the internet, has not helped itself by becoming a major player in the parcel business. Parcel business is increased by the internet.
Postal Workers are patriotic and many are veterans, from Vietnam to Afghanistan. We know what it means to contribute and sacrifice. Most of us have made a nice career with the USPS and are grateful. I for one have tried to be productive and help the Service attain their goals and deliver to our customers the finest mail service in the world.
Postal management has faced this crisis with opportunistic vision. It wants to use this crisis to rid themselves of senior employes. They have become very aggressive in their pursuit of disipline.They can't layoff workers who are protected by Union Contracts. They have come up with an idea to get rid of the day shift. To hell with customer service, To hell with loyalty, if you are 55 or older, you are just a liability. We have had a new postmaster come to our facility (Lehigh Valley) who seems like a hatchet man who is brought in to enforce unpopular policies, then leave to perform his next execution. There was some talk to eliminate a delivery day, and this policy is just a way to do that witout going through congress. I never thought I would see the day when the Postal Service would resort to the same Union busting, agist policies that are so common in private businesses whose goals have nothing to do with the well being of their employees. I think they would send the mail to Mexico to process if they could get away with it.
Now the senior personel will be working on a tour that many of them started on more than 20 years ago, except now their jobs will be less preferred than folks who started 3 or 4 years ago. In other words a senior employee can now be sharing the same tour with very junior folks, who have weekends off, but the senior employees may end up with Tues/Wed.
Next the DC management, announces they will offer early retirements, what a surprise!!!! It will of course not cost the USPS anything to do this. The last time this was offered 370 or so mailhandlers took the bait.(Out of 53,000) So if you can make enough people unhappy, agitated and disgruntled, just maybe there wil be many more takers.
I am very upset. I do not want to accept this without a fight. The Unions are being kept in the dark. Families, clerics, politicians and anyone who could help should be contacted. The Postal Service should have to prove customer service will be improved, expenses will be lessened, inconvenience and crisis be kept to a minimum, and they should have to do this before our elected officials.
If you are a Postal employee and you know what I am writing about , then please help, tell folks about this. write to a congressman, write to a senator, use some contacts many of us made from the last election.
I realize Postal employees are not figures who gain sympathy easily, but we are your parents, grandparents, children, and neighbors. I want to do my job , be productive and be proud and loyal to my employer. I wish my employer was proud and loyal to me.
thanks
Frank Scott

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