1. National Agreement Article 8 section 9 states: “Wash-Up Time. Article 8.9 establishes a general obligation, enforceable through the grievance procedure, for installation heads to grant reasonable wash-up time to those employees who perform dirty work or work with toxic materials.”
2. Materials Reference System (MRS) can be found at nalc.org : The MRS contains summaries and, in some cases, the full text of many important national-level materials, including settlements of Step 4 Settlement, grievances, national-level Pre-arbitration settlements, Memorandums, USPS policy statements, NALC publications and more. The MRS also contains cross-references to significant national-level arbitration awards. M-00399 states in part “wash-up time has been associated with the personal needs time allowed on line 20 of the 1838”, so this demonstrates during route counts you are allowed wash up time as it even has a line item on the 1838.
3. M-41 City Delivery Carriers Duties and Responsibilities is the carrier handbook, and if everyone would read and follow the M-41, we wouldn’t be where we are today, but that is for a different article altogether…. M-41 4 Office Time – Return (pages 61-66) gives a description of everything that is required of a carrier upon returning to the office. It’s 6 pages covering a lot of things that may need to be completed before a carrier can ET.
4. MRS M-01769 states in part “This agreement does not change the principle that, pursuant to Section 242.332 of Handbook M-39, ‘No carrier shall be disciplined for failure to meet standards, except in cases of unsatisfactory effort which must be based on documented, unacceptable conduct that led to the carrier’s failure to meet office standards.’”
5. Then there is always the flowchart at your station that most likely hasn’t been updated since Y2K, or you have 2-4 flowcharts floating around like one station that I worked out of. Anyway, maybe instead of management persecuting carriers out on the street, management could maybe spend that time to update the flowchart for all of Fresno…..
6. The M-41 clearly states that we are to unload our vehicle on street time then once we have the vehicle unloaded we are to move to office time then follow the rest of the M-41. M-01023 states in part “Carriers will be allowed to return mark-up mail and misthrows to the throwback case or other designated location. It is our mutual understanding that the carrier case is not the designated location.” There are some management types that always say just leave the mail at the case for the morning. This is an Article 15 and 19 violation and M-01023 should be filed every time. Please stop dumping your work on fellow carriers, we shouldn’t have to clean up your mess from the previous day.
At the end of the day, if you can get all your contractual obligations and rights completed in 5 minutes awesome, but don’t let the bullies bully you into cutting corners, and dumping your work onto your fellow carrier. The M-39 115 and M-01242 JOINT STATEMENT ON VIOLENCE AND BEHAVIOR IN THE WORKPLACE are there to protect you from the bullies. M-01242 states in part “‘Making the numbers’ is not an excuse for the abuse of anyone, Those who do not treat others with dignity and respect will not be rewarded or promoted. Those whose unacceptable behavior continues will be removed from their positions.” As always be safe, and keep making and casing those dog cards.