Printer-Friendly Page
Migration Madness
(This article was first published in the July/August 2009 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)
Ever since Ebenezer Hazard, an early postmaster general, complained about being broke and got in trouble with — of all people — George Washington, the Post Office has been making changes to postal operations based on what it claims are financial problems.
Today we have a worldwide recession, cyber-mail, healthcare funding, presort discounts, and other issues, including mismanagement, all taking their toll. The postmaster general isn’t responsible for the economy, but he is irresponsibly repositioning the workforce. The USPS Office of Strategic Planning micromanages post offices — dictating policy to bungling field managers; disrupting the work and home lives of thousands of workers; and denigrating service.
The initial USPS Transformation Plan was released in April 2002, a few months after the 9/11 and anthrax terrorist attacks. It was followed in 2004 by the Strategic Transformation Plan, which pointed to slow mail-volume growth and the rising costs of maintaining postal networks and retiree benefit liabilities. Today, Americans are being impacted by the worst financial crisis since the 1930’s. Management couldn’t predict this, but it did know that mail volume was declining.
Meanwhile, tour compressions, facility closures, consolidations, outsourcing, etc. all evolved from the transformation plans.
All Crafts Affected
One hundred million work hours have been cut, which has resulted in forced employee migrations. Clerks forced into other crafts — often hundreds of miles away — face termination. MVS work is being outsourced on a mass scale. Maintenance Craft workers are being reassigned as facility consolidations occur. Schedule and operational realignments take place daily! We should take no pleasure in learning that supervisors are being laid off or that Letter Carriers and Mail Handlers also are being impacted.
We are facing outside entities who want to eliminate the Postal Service as we know it. One theory on how this could happen is called “creative destruction,” which envisions terminating all postal bosses and replacing them with corporate executives, demanding big concessions from the unions, closing post offices, revising the Postal Service’s mission, and ultimately privatizing. We can’t let this happen!
At the same time, cyber techies preach that mail is irrelevant and “Do Not Mail” advocates push the elimination of Standard Mail, saying it’s anti-environment. We face a lot of opposition; unfortunately, management only makes things worse!
What Are We to Do?
The latest financial analyses all conclude that no single action will be sufficient for the USPS to remain financially viable. Likewise, no single action can solve the problems of the postal workforce.
The national union deals directly with management at the headquarters level, and is pushing for legislation designed to secure immediate financial relief for the Postal Service through H.R. 22 and through laws that would curtail subcontracting.
The union’s Regional Coordinators — Liz Powell, Sharyn Stone, Bill Sullivan, Mike Gallagher, and I — grapple with Area management’s mishandling of workforce repositioning. We process impact notices and involuntary reassignments, and rely on the cooperation of National Business Agents, local leaders, and rank-and-file union members to help challenge improper reassignments.
NBAs are asked to refuse to extend time limits on Article 12 appeals so we can place excessing grievances at the top of the arbitration dockets.
Local unions are asked not to allow managers to blame the economy as an excuse for improper management actions: Seniority and reassignments rules must be aggressively enforced. District bosses with no administrative control over excessing aren’t likely to be able to resolve disputes. Grievances must be appealed without delay.
Local union members must be fully educated on all aspects of management’s migration plans — seniority, reassignment, and retreat rights. Local leaders should discuss these topics to make membership meetings more meaningful. Every member complaint must be acknowledged and treated fairly.
Better relations with the Letter Carriers and Mail Handlers must be forged to protect excessed workers. Unfair Labor Practice charges should be filed whenever management refuses to give proper notice or to meet and discuss operational changes and allow for union input.
YOU, THE MEMBER, cannot and must not trust management to do the right thing:
Check Your Job Security Status. If you were hired before Sept. 16, 1978, you have lifetime job security. If you were hired after that date, you must earn your job security by being in a pay status for at least 20 pay periods during each of six consecutive years. Please note: Employees with as much as 25 years seniority are being excessed. Look at your Form 50 and appeal any errors.
Trigger Your Retreat Rights Request in writing before being reassigned. Make sure you have proof (e.g., certified mail or a fax transmission) that you submitted your request. Have someone monitor residual assignments.
Protect Your Seniority and Status. Be careful what you volunteer for. If you transfer voluntarily to another craft or installation, it may affect your seniority. If you opt to become a PTR/PTF, recognize that your work hours will be reduced, your future opportunity to become full time will be minimized, and excessing could still occur.
Focus and Qualify . All postal workers must qualify on their assignments. Of course, there will be anxiety associated with being forced into a new assignment. But you must make every reasonable effort to qualify. (Remember: When you first applied for employment, you probably declared that you would work any job, any hours, at any location.) If you find that your training or examination were flawed: Appeal. If you’re discriminated against: File an EEO complaint.
Demand Your Rights to 60 days advance written notice, and to relocation benefits (if you are reassigned more than 50 miles away). Appeal if you are denied a preference if more than one withheld residual job has been offered.
Do not fall prey to management’s blame game involving your brother- or sister-workers: They’re not at fault for this mess. But do report casuals, junior employees, or detailed workers who are remaining. Just don’t make it personal! Don’t fault stewards’ super-seniority status: It’s a protection that ensures continued union representation on the workfloor.
The economic mess may only get worse, and no doubt the struggle will continue. Are layoffs imminent? Will the Postal Service be able to meet its financial obligations? Will Congress help? Will outside forces meanwhile succeed in their attempts to privatize every last piece of us?
Whatever comes our way, we will survive only if we stay strong, and united in our support of the only organization fighting for our future. YOUR UNION!
