A guest blog by VOCAL RCA While the United States Postal Service (USPS) is heading for possible bankruptcy this October, United Parcel Service (UPS) is flourishing in profits and getting ready to open new smaller retail stores. Calling the concept “Main Street”, UPS plans on appealing to small business owners to open the stores in … Read more
A guest blog by VOCAL RCA The United States Postal Service, which has reported that it will run out of money in October 2013, is currently at a crossroads in order to maintain sustainability and remain a vital part of America’s economic growth. On the one hand, the Postal Service can remain a private company, … Read more
A Ruralinfo.net Editorial In July 2011, the Postal Service announced that nearly 3700 post office’s would be studied for closure. There was major public outcry, especially from small rural communities who did not want to lose their post office. Public meetings were held, and from the feedback received at these public meetings, the USPS developed … Read more
A guest blog by VOCAL RCA While the postal service struggles to complete day to day operations, United Parcel Service (UPS), just formulated a new contract with its’ Teamsters Union (Bloomberg report by Mary Jane Credeur in Atlanta) to avoid a strike that was scheduled to occur in early August of this year. The Teamsters … Read more
Most people do not think of the job of a Postal worker as being a dangerous job. In reality, there are a lot of dangers Postal workers face both in the plants and post offices and on the street delivering mail. This brings me to the Ricin laced letters sent through the mail. These letters … Read more
From the start, letter carriers delivered mail six days a week, usually Monday through Saturday.6 In May and June 1947, Saturday deliveries were temporarily eliminated in some cities due to budget shortfalls. In 1957, Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield decided to end Saturday deliveries nationwide because of a budget crisis. On one Saturday – April … Read more
I wanted to help clear the fog on all of the rural carrier relief designations and titles. Most of today’s rural carrier relief carriers fall under one of these four designations Rural Carrier Associates (RCAs)—(Designation Code 78) – Rural carrier associates are those employees hired from a register or reassigned from rural carrier relief or … Read more
I have noticed a very disturbing thing in the last few years. LLV fires – Lots of them.. The aging fleet seems to be becoming a huge problem in regards to the safety of mail carriers. I looked at only the last year or so and specifically for LLV -Postal owned vehicle fires and it … Read more
Step 4 Grievance Settlement on Waiting for Mail that Requires Casing Before Strapping Out The issue in this grievance concerns waiting for any mail due to late arriving transportation which may or may not include DPS letter mail. The parties agree that when a rural carrier is required to wait for mail due to late … Read more
The issue in this grievance involves management requiring rural carriers to case Delivery Point Sequence (DPS) Letters during a DPS letter formal review request for 12 days. The Parties agree that when rural carriers are required to case DPS letter mail, appropriated compensation will be provided in accordance with Handbook PO-603, Section 541.41. DOWNLOAD via … Read more
The issue in this grievance involves management denying LWOP on Saturday due to the unavailability of a leave replacement, when the leave replacement was assigned to express mail and collection runs and is not servicing a route. The Parties agree that a leave replacement assigned duties per Article 30.2.Q., will not be considered unavailable for … Read more
The issue in this grievance involves rural carriers retrieving DPS letter mail from conveyances when DPS letter trays are randomly mixed between routes. The Parties agree that when DPS letter mail is not properly staged by separating routes and this requires rural carriers to move trays to retrieve these trays, then additional compensation is appropriate. … Read more
Dr. Louis A. Martin-Vega is the Dean of Engineering at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. With more than 8,500 students, 700 faculty and staff, and $129 million in annual research expenditures, NC State’s College of Engineering is internationally recognized for the excellence of its research, education and outreach programs. In 2008, the … Read more
Elephant in the room” is an English metaphorical idiom for an obvious truth that is either being ignored or going unaddressed. The idiomatic expression also applies to an obvious problem or risk no one wants to discuss.[2] It is based on the idea that an elephant in a room would be impossible to overlook; thus, … Read more
I spend a lot of time online and there are a lot of pages on the internet that I look at while scouring for news and information to share with everyone. I see a lot of crazy things posted by rural carriers, but there is nothing that gets me riled up more than to see … Read more
There are a lot of questions floating around lately about X days, the Guarantee period, and the Christmas Overtime period. Which is not surprising because the Evaluated system itself is confusing. I have been a rural carrier for quite a few years and still find things that surprise me once in a while about … Read more
Effective October 20, 2012, Handbook PO-603, Rural Carrier Duties and Responsibilities, Section 541.41, Additional Compensation, is revised to reflect the change to the delivery point sequence (DPS) letter mail standard for those routes assigned a right-hand drive (RHD) employer-provided vehicle. Handbook PO-603, Rural Carrier Duties and Responsibilities * * * * * 5 Inspection, Count, … Read more