President’s Report

IHAPPY nEW yEAR -
bUT WILL IT BE ?
The holiday season has come and
gone. The ball has dropped in Time
Square bringing in the New Year.
Baby New Year symbolizes the birth
of the New Year and with it all the
hopes for a better year than the one
going out with Father Time. But
what about all the stuff that is on
Father Time’s “to do” list? You know
the stuff that we talked about all last
year that didn’t get done. Let’s take a
look at the list.

On the legislative front
The $ 1,000,000 question is what
will Congress do? According to the
Postal Record there are no less than
19 bills that have been introduced
supposedly dealing with fixing the
problems facing this Postal Service.
Unfortunately most of them are
not too good for the employees or
the American public. Most will do
nothing to address the real cause
of the problems facing the Postal
Service. On January 23rd, Congress
will return from their holiday break.
Unfortunately both H.R. 2309 and
S. 1789 are waiting for them to
be brought up on the floor of the
House and Senate. If either bill were
to become law in their present form
the changes in what we do, how we
do it and how many of us would be
there to do it would be irrevocably
changed. That’s not rhetoric or fear
mongering. It is what it is. The terms
of this legislation and what would
be its impact has been published
in a variety of sources so I won’t
bore you with another recitation.
But there are worse things on the
horizon. The only thing worse
than a bad bill being passed in this
session of Congress would be for
nothing to pass in this session of
Congress. With the clock ticking,
now it is more important than ever
for all of us to be connected to
what is happening in Washington.
The best way to do this is by signing
up to be an e-Activist. Whether
you are a Democrat, Republican,
Independent, or something else, I
can think of no reason not to be
an e-Activist. What Congress does
or does not do this year will end up
impacting our contract, our benefits,
and our working conditions. That
is why everyone should be aware
of the things that are happening in
real time. What ever happens will
probably happen quickly. To sign up
for e-Activist go to the www.nalc.org
website or give the Branch Office a
call.

Contract Negotiations
After agreeing to extend negotiations
for a new collective bargaining
agreement on more than one
occasion, the Postal Service ended
negotiations which began last
August. This does not mean a
negotiated settlement is not possible
as the parties still have the mediation
process but the hope of a negotiated
settlement has dimmed. What does
this mean to us as carriers? The
terms of the 2006-2011 National
Agreement continues to be in force
as do the LMUs. While it is still too
early to see what interim agreements
may be reached about bids or new
route adjustment processes like
JARAP, we must be ready for what
ever happens. This brings us back
to the 800 pound gorilla that is still
in the room, Congress. As has often
been said, what the parties negotiate
Congress can take away (see above).

Route Adjustments
Under the JARAP agreement there
were only a few units that sought
review using Fall data. Those
reviews are nearly finished. The
larger issue has to do with the FSS
units. After management’s unilateral
adjustments we continue to work to
get the routes properly adjusted. For
the last few months there have been
meetings trying to mutually agree on
the values of the routes; however
no agreement could be reached save
one unit (Lost Lake). The remaining
units will be inspected beginning in
February. There is no other option
save the inspection process. During
these inspections there will be an
NALC Representative involved
throughout the inspection and
adjustment process. While it has
been over 15 years since count and
inspections were used on a wide scale
basis, whatever needs to be done will
be done to ensure as fair an outcome
as possible will result.

Contract Compliance
Overtime - “It happens every
January” was recently heard by a
steward. “After only 4 weeks, it’s
like they forgot how to manage
overtime.” The rules haven’t
changed but for some reason, after
the exclusionary period, we see an influx in 12/60 violations and daily
violations. After a joint training
session this past summer, the
only option left is to grieve those
violations.

Maximization and Staffing–
After years of waiting, 17 PTFs
were converted to regular in time
to receive holiday pay with the
Martin Luther King holiday. Due
to withholding all conversions had
been put on hold. A special thanks
to NBA Chris Wittenburg’s office
for continuing to pursue these
conversions. We will continue to
challenge management’s withholding
as both unnecessary and improper.
As the station and branches continue
to deal with short staffing, we
see the shell game of guessing
which shell has the TE. We see
management robbing Peter to
pay Paul by shuttling TEs from
workplace to workplace. We
continue to hear that more TEs have
been requested and yet we continue
to try and do more with less. The net
result is fewer letter carriers overall.
The only option left to us is to hold
management accountable when their
short staffing results in contract
violations.

2012 will be a busy year. It is
the year of the 68th Biennial
Convention here in Minneapolis
(July 23rd through the 27th). As
the host branch there is much to
do. There will be a need for both
volunteers and others to work
during the convention. In the
coming months committee chairs
Bob Baird (transportation); Jim
Nelson (sergeant-at-arms) and Barb
Watczak (volunteer coordinator) will
be reaching out to the membership
seeking your participation. If you
can or have questions please contact
the Branch Office.

2012 is also an election year. There
will be a need for volunteers to
work the NALC Political Action
Program, this program is being led
by Carrier Corp 2012 volunteers.
As in previous years we are asking
all members to get involved this
election cycle. We need to build, by
increasing and adding to the number
of volunteers from last year as we
move forward. In February there are
caucuses to attend and redistricting.
It doesn’t matter whether it is a
DFL, Republican or Green Party
caucus that you attend. What does
matter is that letter carrier issues
are put forward. You can get more
information about being a Carrier
Corps volunteer by visiting the
NALC website.

In addition to these two major
events, we will still have our
regular activities for MDA, the
Retiree Banquet, State Fair, State
Convention and others. Yes 2012
will be a busy year and hopefully
before the ball is dropped on
another year, Father Time’s “to do”
list will more complete.