Boy, all of you bothers and sisters missed a fantastic NALC Branch 231 meeting on Tuesday 9-12-2023, if you weren’t there. The next meeting also will be held at the union office too. I can’t remember if we decided to have it Tuesday 10-10-2023 or not. That is a day after Columbus Day one of the most busy days of the year. Keep an eye out for the branch NL for when, and where the meeting will be.
Anyway, it seems like we as a branch may have turned the corner, and will be coalescing with the same vision eventually. Many valid issues where brought up. I believe a positive dialog happened in some of those cases. We didn’t get where we are overnight, so we most defiantly will not get where we need to be overnight either. I am happy that the healing process seems to have started though, but I also understand that there are still a lot of differences that need to be spoken about, and/or addressed at many of the future meetings. I am sure that I am not the only one that wishes a magical wand could be waved fixing all these issues, but that isn’t the world we live in.
One of the biggest issues that was spoken about is freedom of speech, and the writing of lies for management against fellow NALC members in statements that management uses to issue discipline to a fellow sister or brother. Let’s cut to the chase, from what was said at the meeting, there was false(my label) outrage directed at the the editor(s) of the NL complaining about at least one of the authors of an article that was published in the NL, hell maybe it was solely me and my article. No names were mentioned, and the people that know weren’t saying who, so it’s all speculation at this point.
Anyway, before you write a lie(or lies) for management in the form of a statement that will be used in discipline, maybe stop for a moment take a deep breath, and call any of the chair officers or the branch office to speak to someone before doing something that can wrongly hurt a brother or sister. If you don’t like the person, that is even more of a reason not to write anything, and to speak to a chair officer. Maybe a dialog can be established, and any contract violations can be addressed in a one on one moderated meeting. To think that in Fresno there is approximately 380 city carriers, and probably in the entire branch upwards of 800-900 carries that we all will get along is insane. What we can do, is agree to be civil to each other, and most defiantly work together to defend the contract that was signed by the NALC and USPS. If anyone has an issue with following the contract, I must ask what is your issue?
Nothing makes management more happy to see members fighting with each other, why do you want to give management that type of satisfaction? When I was a steward at Cedar in zones 6/25 I filed for carriers working off the clock. It is a violation of Article 41.3.K that states “Supervisors shall not require, nor permit, employees to work off the clock.” Anyone working off the clock is just helping to falsely enrich management at the expenses of every city carrier in the installation that you work out of. Sure I understand, you have your 15, 20, 25, 30, or more years in, you may not give a rats ass. When management tries to eliminate a route, like they did 2604, it hurts every single dues paying NALC member in that installation. I have sworn off of personally filing Article 10 charges against carriers, I am one of the few. If your actions are a detriment to a fellow NALC dues paying member maybe take this time to reevaluate the harm you are causing without any reason.
If the route you carry for USPS is over 8 hours put in 6 weeks of daily 3996’s then file to have a 271.g special route count conducted on that route. This will ensure that the route is 8 hours, and will be adjusted properly to you as the assigned regular on that route. Make sure you get copies of each and every 3996, as the steward of your zone may need them for when management “loses” the submitted 3996s.
That’s it for this article, I have been a little on the lazy side, but I will try to put something here weekly.
Make sure you vote Johnson for VP in Novemeber 2024.