We Need to Do What We Can to Keep the Ship From Sinking By Mike Kurz, President Elizabeth City I hope the end of summer finds everyone healthy! I am going to have an interesting next 10 months. Am getting a second opinion, but found out last month that is it not my knee, but my hip that is bothering me and may have to get hip replacement right after New Years. So, don't be surprised if I am on crutches at the very least in Winston Salem in March. I am hoping to be 100% by the end of next summer. If anyone needs any online help with anything, I will probably have from January to May to play with! Hopefully, everyone has been fighting hard and writing their Congressional members in regards to all the legislative issues pertaining to the USPS. We have to save the ship from sinking, even though there is not really a leak! The lies that are spreading from mostly Republicans in Congress are really hurting our case about the pre-funding and other topics. Fred is doing a great job of fighting them off, but we need to keep fighting and not back down. I know a lot of our members are lackadaisical and are not really worried, but everyone should be involved in helping us in this matter. That is why it is called a "UNION". If any of your members doubt what the union has done for them, tell them to look in their paychecks on September 30! (Photo credit: www.dreamstime.com)

How Did This Happen? Michael Kurz, President Elizabeth City, NC Just an addendum to my article on Wisconsin. 3/2/11, Ohio passed a more severe bill than the one proposed in Wisconsin, that includes Firefighters and Police in the no-collective bargaining clause...How did this happen? I post just about everyday in my facebook also.

Strength in Numbers By Michael Kurz, President Elizabeth City, NC As I write this, the Wisconsin House of Representatives has just passed the bill that takes away Union rights. It is only a matter of time before the heavy-handed Republican governor gets the state police to haul a Democratic Senator in so the State Senate can have a quorum and vote it into law. Our Union rights are under attack and we cannot be nonchalant about this matter. I have written about this before, but cannot stress too much how the Republicans and their billionare supporters are trying to break our spirit and the unions as a whole! Please get your co-workers to follow online (and in the news if they are not online) about what is going on. The Union-busting Republicans are feeling their oats and think their election mandate can give them the right to do what they want! Show them that we have strength in numbers! The Unions need the people and the people need the Unions! Our careers and very lives depend on it!

"This Used to Be a Good Place to Work" By Fredrick Nimer, Branch 630 Since January 10, 2010 carriers in Greensboro have opted to retire. This has been the most in one year that I can remember. I asked several of them why they retired. Their answer was: "This used to be a good place to work, but the way management is now, it was time to go." We had several who, as soon as they were eligible to retire, were gone and couldn't wait to get out. We had one who retired due to the National Reassessment Program. He just didn't want to fight it anymore; he had 37 years. In January I understand that several more are retiring. I think it's pretty sad when carriers don't like their jobs anymore and can't wait to retire. I guess that's what postal management wants--to get rid of their experienced carriers. There is no hiring in sight in Greensboro. Right now we have 18 vacant routes in the city, and only about four unassigned regulars, and they are on hold-down due to the vacant routes caused by the NRP. As for TEs, Greensboro management has sent several of them to other cities, two quit, and they are not hiring any TEs or career carriers. Overtime in Greensboro is rampant. V-time is being paid; working on their day off, non-ODL carriers are forced to make overtime; and the carriers on the ODL are making all, and more, of the overtime they want. These are dedicated carriers in the city working all this overtime. Is this good and solid management? Branch President James Tvelia told me at the November meeting that 70 percent of the grievances filed in Greensboro are NRP grievances. The good news is that, at our monthly union meetings, we have a packed house, and the meetings are lively. We wish every member and their family a merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year.

Flavor of the Month: Office Time By Glenn Harvey Branch 3984 Jacksonville, NC From the mighty mountains of the district office sits all of the future management super stars and they're sifting through MODs and function codes trying to squeeze every minute possible out of employees. We have been made aware of some of the things these management gurus look for. Office time right now seems to be the flavor of the month. Our responsibilities as letter carriers are to properly and correctly enter in our time records. From begin to end tour, office and street time, union time, edit book time, work performed on another assignment, we must make every clock ring as precise as possible. Whatever you're doing you should make and stay on the appropriate clock ring to record that time for whatever you are doing. Knowing that management has proven time and time again that they just can't leave our clock rings alone, we have found all kinds of manipulations to various MOD codes. They claim they are trying to help carrier times by deleting office times and entering other codes to make time go away. A couple of us have had some good training on this subject that resulted from all the MIARAP's and JARAP's issues discovered by stewards and NALC team members in these route adjustment processes. They found out that management was manipulating carrier operation codes to misrepresent those route times. This is a widespread problem. Being shy of some clerks and lacking the proper utilization of the clerk employees is a major reason to some of the carriers' office time issues. I told the postmaster this: "Just get our carriers the mail on time and we'll do the rest." The main office is the first to receive their mail, but why are their carriers the last ones out? The reason isn't the carriers at the main office, it's the way the main office runs their clerk operations. If we refuse to be efficient and productive or refuse to make correct clock rings, we will have this nagging issue always popping up. We must also be efficient in our duties. Management could conduct proper office counts to see if we make the casing standards of 18 and 8. I'm confident that any of our carriers could pass a proper office count hook, line and sinker.

The Power of Exercise By Michael Kurz, President/Shop Steward Branch 1127, Elizabeth City, NC Don't underestimate the power of exercise! Three-and-a-half years ago, I was happy and fat. I had 28 yrs service, was on a route with 2 hours of walking and the rest riding and dismounts. I bid on an all riding route and continued to be more fat and happy. I was about 250 pounds or so, down from a high of 277 in 2001. Starting last year with the route adjustments, it had 30 minutes of walking. The next adjustment, it had 2 hours of walking. With the most recent adjustment, it now has almost 5 hours of walking with just shy of 2 hours of driving. Now mind you, I am the second senior carrier in the office (and they promised the senior carriers would not be affected much). I whined a little, but kept on plugging through. My last visit to my doc at the beginning of the summer, he got a big smile on his face. I had lost more weight and BP was down. I can only imagine what he will say when I go for my next checkup this week. I am now down to 201 pounds and the arthritis in my knee is better with the weight loss. My BP seems okay, even with having to deal with management as a union officer. I am still happy, but not fat anymore. So what do I do now? I'm waiting to bid on a route whose regular is supposedly retiring soon. The funny thing is with all the route adjustments, that route has only 45 minutes of walking and 90 percent of it is from the route that I was on for 11 years up until 2007. So where do I go from there? I have a plan. My family joined the Y last spring, so I guess when I get off this mostly walking route, I will have to get on the treadmill that I have been avoiding every visit to the Y! Okay, enough of this rambling.... The moral of this story? When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. I will try to wear a name-tag in Durham in October since many of you who know me may not recognize me now!

Help Save Six-Day Delivery, Write Those Letters By Glenn Harvey, President Branch 3984, Jacksonville, NC The National Convention is over and it's good to be home. This Convention was the best one yet. We can be proud of our national leaders; we have the best. We have two key pieces of legislation that we need to get passed this year. HR 5746 and HR 173 are vital pieces of legislation that will affirm the immediate future of the Postal Service. As of now our representative for the 3rd District has not endorsed either of the two bills. I will be sending more letters to Representative Jones asking him why he hasn't co-sponsored these two bills. I can only assume that our representative's wish is that the Postal Service be scuttled. He thinks our company should pay $5.5 billion in advance to pre-fund retiree's pensions. And did I mention that we are the only company, government or private, that has to do this? Three out of the last four years the Postal Service would have broken even if we didn't have that $5.5 billion burden by the pension pre-fund and I guess Representative Jones thinks that it would be bad if the Postal Service broke even each year. I thought the Postal Service wasn't set up to make a profit. HR 5746 only eliminates the pre-fund payment and allows the Postal Service to pay as they go -- the way all other government agencies and private companies do. If the Postal Service can get credited for the over-payment that we were charged ($50 to 75 billion) it would relieve the Service from paying into the fund for about 10 years. That would free up quite a bit of coin for the Service to reinvest into the future of our company while developing new products and services. Remember, Representative Jones thinks that would be a bad thing by not co-sponsoring this legislation. Now with HR 173 our representative feels that the Postal Service should raise their rates, cut at least one day of delivery, and let go about 80,000 workers to save the ship. Like Forrest Gump, I'm not a smart man, but I know raising prices and cutting service will not help any company rebound. Now I know that we have 5-Day fans in our Branch and I would warn you of what will happen sooner rather than later if 6-day universal service is defeated in HR 173. We will go to Monday thru Friday for a while, then, oh my gosh, we are still in financial difficulty; we must cut one more day to make this work. Guess what would happen to all the remaining postal workers? We would become part-timers and lose everything. Our branch has about 120 active and retired members and every member should start writing and calling Representative Jones, asking him why he isn't concerned with our welfare since he is there to represent us! Retirees, you have just as much to lose as active members. We all must flood our representatives with our views and remind them who they work for: you and me.

Reviving the Spirit of Solidarity is a Must Glenn Harvey, President Branch 3984 Back in July Representative Stephen Lynch (D-MA) introduced HR 5746. This legislation is designed to address the Postal Service's financial problems. This bill is considered a huge step in the right direction and is written to implement many of the Postal Regulatory Commission recommendations. The Union is reviewing the bill's details and hopes to call upon activists to seek co-sponsors. The Postal Service has been overcharged by at least $40-55 billion for pension costs related to service performed by the taxpayer-supported Post Office Department before 1971 and the Postal Service has over-funded its pension liabilities. The surplus funds in the Civil Service Retirement System postal account could be used to meet its obligations to pre-fund its future retiree health benefits. That's huge news. Getting our $55 billion back and hopefully the passing of both bills will help us survive another round in this battle. We are starting to feel some of the effects of our staffing issues. Hang in there. Maybe we can feel some relief with the last round of route adjustments under JIARAP. Having all routes adjusted to as nearly eight hours as possible will help out. If we all come to work, it should be all right. I am a member that believes that if I have leave, I'm going to use it if I need it. All I ask is if you can work, please do so. I do not make this petition to you with any thoughts for Management but for my fellow Union members. If I bang out of work for whatever reason outside of the rules for that leave, you're not hurting Management, instead, you're hurting your fellow members. Management is not going to carry your mail, your co-workers will. The reality of our predicament is that for the next few years our work force is going to decline and it's going to get worse before it gets better. We must do all we can do to lessen the burden on our fellow Union members. It's my hope that we can all come together as a whole, look out for one another and revive the spirit of Solidarity in our Local Branch. It seems to me that between the last 10 to 15 years the ideal of solidarity has been forgotten and replaced by individualist attitude. We all need to be mindful and look out for each other.