The #1 website for rural carrier information!!
The #1 website for rural carrier information!! |
Hello rural carriers, I hope everyone got through Christmas in one piece and your New Year was wonderful.... Hopefully everyone got everything worked out with the paycheck problems from PP25. Unbelievable that something like this could happen right before Christmas.. I hope it did not keep everyone from having a great Christmas.. I also want to thank each and every one of you for your support of ruralinfo.net. Without encouragement and support from rural carriers this project would have died long ago. Due to the tremendous popularity of the site, I have had to move my page to another host. The site has been totally redesigned. I hope you like it. You can reach the new site at http://www.ruralinfo.net/. Please update your bookmarks to the new site. The old site is redirecting you for now, but will be gone in the future. Also, I have received a couple of emails about not providing a disclaimer for the information on this site. There has been a disclaimer on this website since the first day I started it. There is also a disclaimer link at the bottom of every page on this site. I do not pretend to be any kind of authority on rural information. I simply provide information to help rural carriers in their daily work life. With that being said, I am human, and therefore, I am subject to error. If you find anything on this site that you believe is not correct or factual information, please let me know. If I indeed find it to be erroneous, I will remove it promptly. Therefore, just so everyone is fully aware of the disclaimer on my site, I am going to reprint it in this newsletter for all to see. Ruralinfo.net is not sponsored or authorized by the NRLCA or any state or local association. It is presented here for only informational use. The information presented here comes with no warranties, either expressed or implied, as to its accuracy. Links to sites outside this site are presented for informational purposes and not controlled or moderated by this site. Ruralinfo.net will not be responsible for any content contained in those links. This website does not replace the avenues available to you through the NRLCA, or your state or local steward system. If a problem arises, do not rely on the accuracy of this site for your grievance against the USPS. Your grievance can only be pursued legally through the steward system. All opinions and advice made available as part of this website (including any bulletin boards and chat rooms) and any opinions, advice, statements or other information contained in any messages posted or transmitted by any third party are the responsibility of the author of that message and not of ruralinfo.net (unless ruralinfo.net is specifically identified as the author of the message). The fact that a particular message is posted on or transmitted using ruralinfo.net does not mean that ruralinfo.net has endorsed that message in any way or verified the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message or opinion, or advice. I am sure that everyone has read the arbitrated contract by now, but I just wanted to let you know that I have devoted an entire page to our new contract. You can check that out on my arbitration page. Mail Count I am sure everyone knows by now that we will be having a mail count Feb. 23rd-March 7th. Most have probably already received their option election papers, but if you havent, you have until Jan. 11th, for either the carrier or management to opt in to count.. The news I am hearing is that most districts are opting to count all routes. You can find all of the information you need about the upcoming mail count on my mailcount page.. Eischen 2002 mail count award settlement We finally have a payment settlement on the 2002 Eischen mail count award. This settlement will end up costing the USPS an estimated $60 million dollars. Instead of just a percentage of carriers getting a payout, all rural carriers on the rolls as of May 4th, 2002 will now get a piece of this settlement, including substitute, rural carrier relief, auxiliary rural carrier and rural carrier associate bargaining unit employees. National has said to expect these payments some time in January. I have put together a list of payments regular carriers should be receiving, including the mail count award settlement and the contract back pay. You can see that list HERE Contract Back Pay I know everyone is wondering when we will receive our back pay from our new contract.. I have not heard anything for sure as to when we will receive them. From my reading of the new contract, below are the payments we should be receiving from the new arbitrated contract. Regular carrier 1. Wage increase back pay from Nov. 25th, 2006 2. COLA $686 lump sum payment Leave replacements (including substitute, rural carrier relief, auxiliary rural carrier and rural carrier associate bargaining unit employees) 1. Wage increase back pay from Nov. 25th, 2006 ****** Leave replacements will not receive a COLA payment until Feb. 2011**************** I have put together a list of payments regular carriers should be receiving, including the mail count award settlement and the contract back pay. You can see that list HERE Carrier Pickup settlement I mentioned this in my last newsletter, but I have been getting a lot of questions on this. Most are asking whether a carrier will still receive "extra payment" for carrier pickup after mail count is over. The answer is NO. Once a time standard has been established for a rural carrier function the time standard will be included in the route's evaluation. Therefore, you will be getting paid in the evaluation and will not receive extra payment. You will be paid "extra" until April 25th, 2008. This is the date the new evaluations from mail count begin. If you get a lot of carrier pickup requests and your manager has not opted you in to count, it would be to your best benefit to opt in to get credit for these carrier pickup requests.. You can read the carrier pickup settlement HERE New Step 4 concerning DPS credit for a closed business.. The issue in this case concerns the credit given during a mail count when DPS letters are received for a closed school or business and were unable to be delivered. You can read the settlement HERE New EMA Chart The latest EMA chart has been posted. This includes the increase from the new agreement. You can see that chart HERE New MOU for DPS Flats worked on the FSS machines The NRLCA and the USPS have agreed to a MOU concerning the impact of DPS Flats.. You can read that MOU HERE Latest Postal Bulletin The latest postal bulletin includes information concerning 2007 tax information. You can check all of the 2007 postal bulletins HERE. I highly advise everyone to scan through these when they are released. This is where any new procedures, forms, and updates are usually released first.. CDS Update Senator Harkin wrote a letter to PMG Potter on behalf of the NRLCA concerning CDS routes.. You can read that letter HERE Is the OIG illegally obtaining postal employees medical records? The text below is from NALC's Young in a recent edition of the NALC postal record.. Is the NRLCA addressing this?? In addition to bungling “investigations”of letter carriers, the OIG also has appointed itself a “health oversight agency” and is going after personal, legally protected health information without the consent or authorization of carriers. The OIG secretly contacts doctors for the information and tells them to keep their letter carrier patients in the dark about the loss of privacy. Outrageous! I have directed NALC’s attorneys to pursue this matter relentlessly through litigation. You can read the entire article HERE In memoriam, Anderson Family, Carnation Washington It is so very painful when senseless tragedy happens on a special occasion such as Christmas Eve and when one of our extended postal family is involved, it is especially sorrowful and deeply tragic. For Judy Anderson a rural carrier and her husband, Wayne, it is the worst of tragedies. They raised a family and were approaching retirement aged about 61. Some years ago they had purchased a property adjoining their own and a mobile home was placed on the lot some 200 yards from the Anderson's home. Wayne and Judy's daughter, Michelle lived in the mobile home with her boyfriend, Joe McEnroe. Sometime on Christmas Eve daughter Michelle and Joe McEnroe came to the Anderson home and shot Wayne and Judy. McEnroe then dragged the bodies out to the shed when Son Scott came to visit with his wife, Erica and their two children, aged 6 and 3. They were also shot by McEnroe. Judy Anderson was a well known and well liked local in the area. Their bodies were found by a family friend when Judy failed to report for work on December 26th. How horrible to lose three generations of a family on Christmas Eve. How must more horrible is it that one of the two murderers was the daughter they nurtured, supported and helped even to the day she and her boyfriend killed them. She killed her father, her mother, her brother, her sister-in-law, her niece and her nephew all on Christmas Eve. It is a torment that is hard to bear for those who knew her and for those of her extended postal family. In memoriam for Judy Anderson and her husband Wayne, an engineer with Boeing and for their family members. This Christmas season when our hearts are broken and our souls heavy, let us take a moment to pause in memory of the Andersons and the lives they touched. by John Amtsfield You can read numerous media reports on this senseless tragedy HERE Editorials by former State Steward John Amtsfield I will be featuring some editorials by former State Steward John Amtsfield in my monthly newsletters. This month's editorial is The Top Ten ways the USPS screws rural carriers.. He has started a series of editorials concerning the USPS Transformation plan, the planned restructuring of the USPS business model, which includes staff reductions and route consolidations. He is anticipating this will be a 10 part series with 5 already published on my site. You can reach the whole list on my EDITORIALS page. Special thanks goes out to John for these editorials which provide a valuable perspective from his experience and knowledge. All rural carriers should take heed of what he is saying in these editorials. This truly is not your daddy's postal service anymore. Big changes are coming... Interesting News stories Friendly rural mailboxes becoming a thing of the
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