Mutual Respect Is a Two Way Street!
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MOUND 2010 Award Winning Publication CITY CARRIER St. Louis, Missouri Official Publication of Branch 343 Chartered 1892 Volume 62, No. 8 August 2011 MUTUAL RESPECT IS A MOUND MOUND city TWO WcityAY ST R EET ! PRESIDENTcarrier’S ARTICLE … BY BILL LISTER carrier ver the past year there have been severalOfficial incidents Publication where of employeesBranch 343 have been accused by manage- Official Publication of Branch 343 ment of talking or acting in a threateningSt. Louis, manner. MO Each of these employees were placed off the clock St. Louis, MO with management claiming an emergencyChartered situation 1892 from our contract, as well as a violation of the Joint Chartered 1892 OStatement on Violence in the Workplace. The Joint Statement was the eventual result of management’s foray into promoting managers who lacked the skills to talk to people in a professional and respectful manner, back in the mid 1980s. Many of these under-qualified yet upwardly mobile employees were incapable of managing, so they abused their power by constantly intimidating, coercing and threatening craft employees, to make the numbers. After two horribly regrettable shootings in two distant offices, the national parties of the USPS and all the postal unions signed the Joint Statement in a combined effort to stop the abuse. At that time, it seemed as though the service had finally realized that pushing its folks from the top levels to make the numbers by using any means possible, was the primary cause of all the problems on the workroom floor. Add someone who manages by intimidation and a craft employee with personal issues, and you have a recipe for disaster. Over time, the Joint Statement changed the way many managers, managed. Some began talking to employees instead of badger- ing them and began to show respect to the craft, instead of indignation. Things improved although the penalty NOTICE: NOMINATIONS NOMINATIONS FOR BRANCH OFFICERS, DELEGATES TO THE ST. LOUIS LABOR COUNCIL, AND DELEGATES TO THE NALC NATIONAL AND MISSOURI STATE CONVENTIONS SHALL TAKE PLACE AT THE REGULAR BRANCH MEETING, SEP- TEMBER 8, 2011. THE TERM OF OFFICE FOR BRANCH OFFICERS AND LABOR COUNCIL DELEGATES SHALL BE THREE YEARS. NALC NATIONAL AND MISSOURI STATE CONVENTION DELEGATES SHALL SERVE FOR TWO YEARS. ELECTIONS SHALL BE HELD IN NOVEMBER BY MAIL BALLOT. MOUND CITY CARRIER for violating the Joint Statement was different for management and craft. Carriers were placed off the clock for their bad behavior and left to fight for their jobs, while managers were given written reprimands on how to treat employees with dignity and respect. At least we now had an avenue available to identify abusive managers and build a history documenting their bad behavior. It’s hard to say when this train of improved relations derailed, but by the time volume began to drop in 2007, it had already begun. Carriers were once again being badgered with DOIS numbers about under-time and threatened with discipline for not making those numbers. Like a flashback to 20 years earlier, the pressure to make the numbers from high levels within the service began to result in an immediate decline in the climate on the workroom floor. The combination of higher levels managing from above and a whole slew of lower level managers promoted for how loud, abusive and mean-spirited they could be, has left us today with perhaps the worst climate I have seen on the workroom floor in all of my 30 plus years. That’s not to say they are all bad, however there are far too many who lack the skills to be a good manager much less a good human being. The really bad ones have erroneously changed pay for carriers, continuously harassed them, put carriers off the clock without reason and a few have made direct threats to carriers. Last year we had 13 carriers put off on emergency placement and 53 who received removals. This year we already have 21 carriers get removals and nine placed off the clock on emergency. During that same period, we filed 23 grievances on bad management behavior in violation of the Joint Statement and while many of these carriers sat off the clock without pay, not one manager lost a dime. Until the USPS again realizes the error in fostering a management style that solely relies on making its num- bers, it will risk repeating the tragedies of the past. If it can refrain from using threats on its own managers to make the numbers and then only promote those who can act professionally and have even a modicum of intel- ligence, then perhaps we can avoid repeating the past. Until that happens, we will continue to file grievances, EEOs, unfair labor practices and anything else until these abusive few are either miraculously healed of their terminal ignorance or they’re gone for good. If confronted by one of these unprofessional jerks, keep your cool, be professional and treat them with respect even if they won’t. Anyone pushed to the edge should take a deep breath, ask for your steward, call the Branch Hall and request EAP immediately. The USPS must first take re- sponsibility for empowering an abusive manager and then mutual respect will be a two way street. More! Later! SHOP STEWARD OF THE YEAR Each November, the officers of Branch 343 choose four stewards whom they believe have performed at a level deserving of recognition. Unfortunately, none of our 2010 picks could make it to the Branch Hall for the presenta- tion at our end of the year Stewards’ Banquet. We were able to catch up with three of them at stewards’ meetings after the banquet. One steward has eluded us and since he is located over one hundred miles from the Branch Hall, we had to finally track him down at his office in Rolla, Mo. After a couple of failed attempts, VP Barry Linan caught Mark Hill at his office in Rolla and presented him with the Branch 343 Shop Steward of the Year Award. Mark took over the job of steward only a couple of years ago, however, he has consis- tently performed at a high level, representing the members of Rolla in an excellent manner. In 2009, Mark became steward and, with the tutoring of VP Linan, he began to file and win grievances on management performing craft work and then on overtime drafting and maximization. In MOUND CITY CARRIER Published monthly by: just two years, Mark has won nearly 100 Branch 343, NALC $ Br. 343 VP Barry Linan presents one of the Shop 1600 South Broadway of these grievances for over 18,000. Good St. Louis, MO 63104-3806 Steward of the Year awards to Rolla letter carrier job, Mark, keep up the good work and Mark Hill and congratulations and best wishes to congratulations! newly retired alternate shop steward James Ashley. 2 August 2011/MCC MOUND CITY CARRIER EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT ’S ARTICLE … BY NICKI L. PRADO FRONT COVER OF JULY 2011 freeze in domestic spending that would NOT include Medicare and defense POSTAL RECORD spending cuts based on President id you see it?? Did you notice?? The center photo on Obama already reducing the number of the front cover of our national Postal Record has two troops serving in Afghanistan. However, one of the issues that Br. 343 carriers showing off the Food Drive collec- would be felt deeply by letter carriers is basing federal work- Dtion on May 14 with Campbell soup cans in hand. This was ers’ pensions on their high five years of income rather than the 19th year that letter carriers all across the nation partici- their high three years. pated in the labor movement’s largest humanitarian effort, Washington should not be playing a high-stakes game of the NALC Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. chicken with the full faith and credit of the government at These two carriers hail from Sappington Branch. After risk. Without an increase of borrowing authority, the govern- some coaxing, we were able to get them in front of a collection ment is projected to reach its debt limit on Aug. 2. That may of food for the picture. You know everyone wants to look their result in the country’s first ever default. We will certainly be best for pictures, and it was late afternoon after a hard day’s watching this unfolding government saga that will affect the work when we captured these two carriers participating in entire country. the Letter Carriers’ Food Drive. These two photogenic carriers are FTR Latisha Berry and TE Jeffrey Heman!! Way to go!! TELEVISION AD Thanks to Br. 343 Correspondent to the Postal Record Tom Did you see the clerk’s union ad on TV with the voice- Schulte for submitting our pictures to NALC headquarters over making the public aware that U.S. mail delivery doesn’t for consideration to print. cost taxpayers a “single cent” and is “funded solely by stamps and postage”? REDUCTIONS / TAX INCREASES Well, Rep Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who is not a friend of letter INCREASE IN RETIREMENT carriers, sent a letter to the President of the APWU requesting CONTRIBUTIONS / HIGH FIVE that the union cancel what Issa says is a misleading campaign. As of this writing, Washington still has not come to an Issa thinks the ad campaign falsely claims that the Postal agreement on how to prevent an unprecedented govern- Service doesn’t receive taxpayer support when the Postal ment default. They began by focusing on tax increases and Service receives support from American taxpayers because Medicare reductions. President Obama has met separately the USPS does not have to pay taxes, including property taxes, with both the Senate’s Republican and Democratic leaders in vehicle registration fees and can borrow at low-interest rates what signaled the start of critical head-to-head negotiations thru the U.S.