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Ask President Burrus

Question:

Many members do not understand the importance of consecutive non-scheduled days. Could you explain from a historical union standpoint why they are paramount?

Art, Rockford (IL) Area Local

President Burrus:

Thank you for your question.

Each postal employee must determine the work schedule that best suits his or her non-work activities and private life. Some employees prefer split non-scheduled days, as they break the work week into smaller segments. However, the union believes consecutive non-scheduled days is more beneficial to rest and recovery from the work week. Most unions negotiate consecutive days off for this reason.

In 1971, when the initial labor agreement was negotiated for postal employees, this was considered a priority, and language was negotiated requiring management to schedule consecutive days off “as far as practicable.” This language has always been difficult to enforce, so we amended it during the 2006 negotiations to include an absolute requirement in mail-processing operations, unless the local union chooses to do otherwise.

An exception was made for Customer Service, where very few assignments require employees to work on Sunday. Application of the provision to Customer Service would require virtually all employees to have either on Saturday or Monday as their second day off. This would be difficult to accomplish while maintaining an efficient operation.

Locals should work to identify mail-processing assignments in Customer Service, which should be covered by the consecutive off-day provision. The Clerk Craft officers are meeting with management to identify assignments that are covered by the intent of the consecutive off-day requirement.

March 29, 2007

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