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Rural Mail Counts |
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PostalMag.com recently asked rural carriers
how the recent mail counts will affect them. Below, are some of the responses, plus a note
from T. L. Righter. |
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My name is T.L. Righter. You may know me as the
writer of the eliminating Saturday delivery article in which I pretty much stated that
rural carriers "have it good". Let me clarify that. Rural carriers used to have
it good! About nine years ago I was the delivery supervisor of a station that had about 20
city carrier routes on one side and 20 rural carrier routes on the other side. The
differences were as stark as night and day. All of my time was consumed with micromanaging
the city carriers. The city carriers fought me every inch of the way for every last
minute, since they were paid by the hour. They had no incentive to finish early. Most of
them reported at 7:00 a.m and didn't clock off until 5:00 or 6:00 p.m.
The rural carriers however, who had positive incentives (because of evaluated
routes) to finish early, required very little supervision. One lady reported at 8:00 a.m.
and was usually finished by noon. Many others were finished by early afternoon and were
off to their second jobs. Remarkably, many of the rural carriers delivered twice the mail
volume of their city counterparts in half the time. They were a happy bunch, as compared
to their disgruntled city cohorts across the room. Evaluated routes were an important part
of this formula.
Also remarkable was the similarity in pay. Rural carrier
paychecks and city carrier paychecks were about the same. However, in the final analysis,
even though many rural carriers finished their routes in undertime, I'm sure that the city
carriers cost the USPS remarkably more with a myriad of costs - grievances, sick leave,
injury compensation etc. (I'm not trying to deride city carriers - the USPS just has two
different systems in place. One features positive incentives, the other system features
negative, counterproductive controls.)
Now, if I'm hearing rural carriers right, the undertime is
gone. Unfortunately, the positive incentives may be gone too, and also the cost
effectiveness of the past rural pay system.
Most disturbing however, is that many rural carriers will
have their salaries slashed by thousands of dollars annually and many will have to work
extra days with little or no extra compensation. Who else in the Post Office will be
having their salaries cut in similar fashion?
In a recent article I called for the conversion of city
carrier's pay to a rural pay-based system such as one that existed nine years ago when I
supervised city and rural. However, evaluated routes only work when mail counts are honest
(even, uninterrupted flow of mail) and when there are still sufficient incentives to
encourage remarkable work. Until the USPS changes its mindset, and starts working with
carriers instead of against them, both rural and city carriers need to beware.
-
T.L. Righter
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Rural Carrier Comments About the
2002 Mail Counts |
At my office, we have a carrier who cheated on the count.
His route lost no time, while all other routes lost much time. He was
allowed to count his own route, despite my telling our station manager
the fraud that would occur. When the station manager did nothing, I let
our postmaster know about the fraud that had occurred at the count.
Nothing was done. He got away with theft, while the honest people took
pay cuts. I find the Postal Service a joke when they cry about losing
money while letting this large theft occur. I wonder if anyone else saw
fraud like this in their office. Let me know. -
billgus@gtcinternet.com
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I lost $5000 a year and have 2 kids in day care at
$250.00 a week. You do the math, very honestly I will probably have to
sell my home. Thanks USPS for the "fair" count. - Nancy C.
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I am very concerned about the results of the recent mail count. Almost every route in my
office has significantly been reduced in evaluation. There are routes that have gone from
a 47K to a 41K. There is no way anyone is going to be able to handle these routes by the
time they meet the requirements of a 47K by the new standards! Several carriers are having
to opt for the high option in order to continue to receive a salary somewhere close to
what they have now. Not only is that putting a great number of RCA's out of work, but who
wants to run a route six days a week! Some are close to retirement and say it is just too
much for them. Can you blame them, after 20-30 years of service and now they're forced to
work a six day-five day week?
As I said before, with these new standards, how will anyone be able to handle a route that
receives 20ft. of DPS now - on a day after a holiday with an evaluation of a 41K - once
hourly increases are turned in increasing these routes to a higher evaluation? By the time
these routes become over burdened (48K), I don't think there will be any one that will be
able to run these routes within their evaluated time. This is really scary stuff! -
Traci Varn - Inverness, Fla.
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My route went from a 48K to 41K... loss of 10,187. It is hard to believe this is
happening.
- Michigan Rural Carrier
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Like everyone else, I lost money on the last count. I went from a 46K to 43K. For several
years, I thought we should have gone to arbitration to address the problem of equal pay
for superior work. I realized, however, that there was a chance the arbitrator would not
see things our way. I understand that the union may have presented too much information to
the arbitrator for (him) to absorb. Our evaluation system is difficult to understand. I
have 29+ years and it took me a long time to comprehend it. Volume was not the only thing
that hurt us. The real killer was the new definition of what is a flat and what is a
letter. The union had advised us for years that the inequities time standards for packages
was more than compensated by the definition of what constitutes a letter or a flat. As
long as we did not agree to discuss time standards, they could not change those
definitions. The outcry against package time standards became so strong that they had to
acceed to our demands. Consider, also, that if you place all the blame on the union, you
have also indicted yourself, because You are the union. -- Phil Snodgrass
Spencer, IN
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My wife is a rural carrier in Tennessee. I was concerned about her safety on her
route, but it appears the biggest danger lies in management and the rural carrier union.
She has 496 boxes, route is 82.04 miles. SHE LOST 5 HOURS due to way mail and R time was
counted. - Anonymous
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Very unhappy! PM and supervisor would not count DO NOT FOLD OR BEND as parcels, our P.O.
is going through the 911 process, time has not expired but one week before count clerks
were told we were not to have any route mail given to us. Now it is back in our mail.
Flats with CDs counted as flats. Float of flats brought in on Monday 11, purple tag taped
on it not to be delivered before Thurs. 14, in the addressed advo flats, delivery dates -
12 and 13, given to us on the 14th. Had two boxholders on 13th. PM gave us a speech about
how he was doing us a favor by letting us have them. One set was dated for the 13th ,the
other no date. When time came to sign count sheets he made a bargain to give us credit for
the advo but he would take away one set of boxholders. He got four out of seven carriers
to sign as correct. We got our daily count sheets maybe every three days. PM and
supervisor standing over you like attack dogs. I have never worked under such stress in my
21 years. I got so tired of arguing with management to count things right, that I finally
gave up and let them do whatever. It was the same old battles day after day. I have been
through alot of mailcounts, but this one was pure harassment from beginning to end. -
Margaret from FL.
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This mail count completely blind-sided the NRLCA officials, which I believe is a
direct result of their incompetence. Their having filed a level-4 grievance contesting it
seems to confirm this. They are in a defensive posture.
After having belligerently refused a mail count in September of 2001, they failed to
recognize that the USPS would demand one early in the year. Pragmatic observers would
understand that the basis for pay must be kept current and accurate. Failing to determine
a period to conduct a count would leave "bargaining" suspect for both sides.
Apparently, the NRLCA negotiators failed to recognize the detriments of their conduct in
the proceedings. It appears patently obvious that their research was lacking and that many
sources of information were not consulted.
I would suggest that the NRLCA negotiators concentrated upon what they might gain in
"pay-levels" by remaining consistent with the other Postal crafts, and did not
even consider what could be lost through their failure to bring a complete package to the
bargaining table: Having no comparative charts of salaries of like agencies, such as UPS,
Fed-Ex, and DHL revealed a lack of preparation. No computer models of mail volume by month
for the new calendar year were sought nor compiled. Therefore, determining a
"fair" period in which to conduct the count was highly improbable.
My status has changed 5 levels; from K46 to K41. Care to see the monetary loss?
With the new pay scale in effect in May, that's from $47,990 to $40,645, or a loss
of: $7,345. I will be forced to give up every other Saturday, in order to recoup
some pay as a J45; a salary of $46,105.
Do you think I'm a happy camper? I think not! In addition, my RCA (sub) loses
two days of work per month. Is she a happy camper? Not even! You may
conclude that we're disappointed in the representation we have received (failed to
receive).
Yeah, I'm a union member and so is my RCA. We may have cause to reconsider our
position on that. What do you think?
- Luther
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We have 7k rts. and 1 aux. in our office. If this count is not nullified then we
will have 1k, 4h's and 2j routes. That is how bad the post office has done us in Pacific,
MO. Everyone is STRESSED and ANGRY. I am a 41K and in May when it goes into effect I am
supposed to be a 40H, which means I lose 1 hour and HAVE to work 6 days a week. I pray
this is thrown out! I don't mind losing the 1 hr. but working 6 days per week to get the
40 will not work. I AM A K ROUTE and will fight to stay that way. If it is not nullified
then I will be working approx. 47-50 or so hrs. in 6 days to get a lousy 40 hour pay
check. - Thank you, Nancy
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I am a rural carrier in southeastern Pa. whose route went from a J41 to a 35 sub standard
route. While we routinely have boxholders at least 4 out of 6 days, they were
suspiciously absent during mail count. Annoying credit card offers were also
non-existent. Surprisingly two days after count was over we had 3 boxholders in one
day, and the people on my route are once again being deluged with offers for all sorts of
credit cards. The mail during count was the lightest I have ever seen, it's obvious
this count was a controlled event. I will be doing the same work for a lot less
money and there is no way I can properly serve almost 500 boxes a day for six days and
only need 35 hours. As always the rural carrier suffers for management's
wasteful ways but more important - the customer loses the kind of service they
deserve. The USPS preaches "customer perfect" and flog you daily with
admonitions about safety... how can you possibly be safe, accurate, courteous, and keep
within their time standards? I have been a carrier for ten years, (only 3 months career)
and we have been given more and more pithy little rituals to perform and less and less
time to execute them. I would just like to see management come down to our level and
do our job in the heat of summer and the snow of winter and then set time standards and
pay schedules. If those think tanks had ever performed the job themselves maybe we
would still have a chance in this organization. That's all I have to say... I am
still licking my wounds from their latest assault. Thank you for the opportunity to vent.
- Jennifer Stevens, Nottingham, Pa
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The recent mail count has cut my salary almost $8000 a year and I will have to work every
other Saturday. I have worked as a rural carrier for 24 years and I feel betrayed by
the Postal Service. They weren't just satisfied by the ridiculous time standards imposed
on us, but also had to cheat and lie on every other aspect of the mail count.They denied
us every second they could squeeze from our time.There is no way I will ever be working
under my evaluated hours. Certainly it must be against Federal labor law for us to be paid
less hours than we actually worked! We are working for no compensation on a
daily basis for many recurring job duties. What other employees of the Post Office works
for free? I have always been proud to be a rural carrier, but no longer will I go that
extra mile to give the best service until USPS starts to show us some respect!!! -
From Disappointed in Oregon
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Most of our Routes came back H's, 6or7 came back 36, 37, 35 hrs. So what are they -
NOTHING. The one aux route came back a 39 hour route. What a joke! This is the biggest
mess I have ever seen. How can we let them get by with this - help!
- Charlene Coppridge Genito Station Midlothian Va.
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One K route of 15 years went down to an H, another is a high H/ low J, the J route
with high growth went down to an H, and the H route went to an AUX route. This count
effectively eliminated our RCA's work days and will have a major impact on everyone's
financial and career planning, not to mention the impact on our families.
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Anonymous
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Hello, my route went from a 47k to a 42k or 46j. I guess I will take the J because
of the retirement issues. I am disappointed with our union. We have not had a good
contract for the last three contracts and to send a contract to an arbritator over a raise
and a small one at that is bad business. I believe the union stopped looking out for our
best interest a long time ago. Also, the accounting practices of the Postal Service is
like Enron taking money from the workers and giving performance pay to managers. This
should be investigated. All rural carriers need to band together and decide on a plan of
action , so that the union is held accountable for not having our best interest at heart
and the postal service is investigated for possible fraud.
- Anonymous
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As a previously overburdened 48K, who now has lost 14 hours and my day off, I am
not happy to say the least. I have run the same route for 14 years and have never been in
a H status since 1990. It is really a shame what has happened to us all. The
worst part is my husband is a carrier as well , so between the two of us we have lost over
20% of our income. Where are we to cut back that much? Did any other employee
of the USPS take a cut in pay that you know of besides rural? NO. It's all too unfair.
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Anonymous
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The 2002 mail count has got to be the biggest farce I've ever seen. I will lose 4 hours
and go from a 43h to a 39, barely above an aux route. In the changing times with prices of
everything else going up why are our own countrymen screwing us over ? Oh yes the mighty
greenback - domestic terrorism in its finest hour. Thanks again for making all of the
rural letter carrier craft fearful of their very existence as a group and individually! -
Anonymous
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This is what the recent mail count did to me. I went from a 43K to a 45H . I have been a
rural carrier for 22 yrs. and I have been through a lot of mail counts but this one was a
real joke only I don't know anyone who is laughing. - Marjorie Schwalm
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The recent mail count cut 10 hours off my in-season weekly evaluation. I went from
63.4 to 53.2. This is way out of line. A 44K during high season is not workable. I average
between 9.5-10 hrs daily during season. The summer gets even worse. It will probably be a
44J. I did not sign my certified to be correct part of 4241. I did sign the guarantee for
the 2080 hrs. I submitted a detailed letter explaining my feelings about count, and how I
could use a "buffer" to help keep route at K during summer low season. Our union
let this happen to us! - Anonymous
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My route had evaluated at a 45K before this mailcount. When this circus was over, I
had become a 41K/45J. In order to maintain my present salary, I will have to work every
other off day, and then some to stay even. I shall remain calm and wait for my union
to intervene in this situation. The last thing to do now is let ourselves fall apart
and then we will picked apart by the Postal Service.
- Anonymous
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I think your site is great. Now is the time for all rural carriers to use this tool
to go against the USPS at our time of crisis with the NATIONAL MAIL COUNT FARCE!!!
We have four rural routes in my office. Myself & one other carrier will lose
approx. $6,000,00 & go to six days a week, the other two will go from K48 to K41 &
K45 to a K40. The mail volume 2 weels B4 the count & starting 2 days after the
count tripled from the 2 weeks of the count which leads me and many others to believe that
the USPS was hiding trailers of 3rd. class flats somewhere. During the 2 weeks of
the count we would come back to the office after our deliveries & wouldn't have even
one letter to case!! Two days after the count we would come off the road to find 17
FEET of 3rd. class flats waiting for us. The count of 9/99 cut us by approx.
$4,000.00 & now this. Has anyone ever worked anywhere in their life where your
pay was cut??? TWICE in 2&1/2 years??? This is insanity. I, like many
other of you can't afford to work for USPS any longer. Our taxes go up as gasoline,
bread,etc. & our pay goes down. I'm 58 years of age so what do I do? I'm a
little old to start a new career so do I tell my 16 year old daughter she can't go to
college because the Big Shots in USPS are screwing us? I don't know. Maybe
someone out there has an answer, if you do, I'll be watching this web site for your
answer. - Thank You mrbill1943@hotmail.com
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I would just like to say that my route went from a 44K to a 41K. The postal service
got us where it really hurts - in the pocketbook, and our union sits back on their fat
butts with a blank look on their faces. They claim that they did all they could in
arbitration - but with a union like this representing us, we might as well not have one.
And besides, look at the money we would save on dues. I hope we can eventually get this
count thrown out! - Anonymous
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I have now went down from a 41J route to a 37H route!!!!! I have now
lost a day off and $2052 in salary!!!! I think it is the worst thing that has ever
happened with the rural carriers since I have been employed by the post office in 1989! It
took me 7 1/2 yrs. to even become a regular carrier and had I known how this was going to
be I would have stayed at the union factory where I worked before. I have tried to
go as fast as I can on my route and I am still running over my new evaluation by at least
2 hours!!!!!! I have even started taking my DPS to the street!! I used to
think we were paid fairly and didn't mind doing extra and working longer in a day to clean
up all the mail no matter how much longer it took me than the evaluated hours but I no
longer have that positive attitude. I feel very disheartened to know that the post
office came up with these standards for us. The rural carriers already was the least
expensive way to deliver the mail for the post office. There is no recourse for us
like if the city carriers get pinched and the volume goes up they either make
overtime or they have help on their route not to mention they don't move all the mail in a
day like the rural carriers do! I don't feel we got a raise at all since with the
new standards that negates the raise and not to mention takes money away from us and days
off!!!!! If the post office continues to lower our pay like this we will no longer
be making more than a job outside the post office makes and then the decision to leave the
post office won't be that hard of a decision to make at all. The
arbitrator made a statement that our union did not come prepared and didn't show good
enough examples of what they were trying to get for us. I feel the union officials
have been away from the craft way too long.
- Anonymous
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The mailcount has taken my 40K route to a 41J. Now I am working six days a week
every other week for the same amount of money. This is yet another slap in the face when I
see city carriers working eight hour days five days a week. If they work over that they
get over time. When you break down my route to a hourly figure, a new RCA will make a
comparable salary to mine. What is wrong with this picture?
- Debbie
Payne, Ridge Post Office, Rich. Va. 23233
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This is just totally wrong. I don't even understand how they can just come in and
tell us the rules have changed now and that all routes are all getting counted, using new
rules that are not a one in favor of the carriers - like it or not. I would like to know
who at the union agreed to this or what the hell happened. My route has grown in volume
seriously since taking it about a year ago and I had been thinking when the next mail
count came around I would be in pretty good shape - probably make a little more money
even. WRONG!!!!!!! Now I have the choice of working every other Saturday making a
LOT less money or just going ahead and working every Saturday and still not making as much
as I do now. Man I hope they don't totally get away with this. - Ed Stevens,
Palmetto, Ga. 30268
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The Rural Carriers were hit hard this count and will continue to pay the price
as long as it takes for the city carriers to beat our routes down to 8 hours a day. Then
they will try to convert them to City Delivery. No doubt they were instrumental in this
arbitration ruling. After reading the information given in our National Magazine I
was totally ashamed that the Postal Service regards us in such a rude and unprofessional
manner. They were calling us thieves because I was working under the hours THEY calculated
for me to work. As I read the arbitrators ruling I can understand why the National
Officers were at a loss for comments. I feel that the Postal Service and the Arbitrator
owe the craft as a whole the real reason why they did this to us. - Anonymous
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When the salary charts came out, I was happy. At that time I thought I was in for a pay
raise finally. Little did I know that the mail count was going to cut my salary so much.
It will hurt my family financially. I have worked for the Postal Service for twelve years.
I never would have believed that they would harm so many families. At first I was feeling
sorry for myself for losing thousands of dollars a year for the same amount of work. But
then I realized that I was luckier than a lot of the employees of the United States Postal
Service. If you are unfortunate enough to be a RCA, RCR or TRC (not covered by the union
at all), then you are probably losing at least half of your pay and possibly
even more. The union was trying to protect these employees for when they became regular...
but they have lost the most. So much for working for a company that cares about their
employees and thier families. This will save money for the Postal Service at the cost of
thousands of families. Many RCAs and other relief workers will be forced to quit. How many
of us could survive on half of our salary? I am hoping and praying that something will be
done to stop this from happening. - Anonymous
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Central Arkansas - Little Rock District. Most of the rural routes in this
district lost five hours. - Anonymous
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BAD COUNT IN TEXAS: FYI - 2/27/02, K46 ----- 3/14/02, J41and just barely made that. Now
mail and office back to the norm and will really be in bad shape come mid-May. What
are we going to do when the well runs dry? After this ass whopping, what's next?
- Anonymous
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THE MAIL COUNT WAS USED TO WIPE OUT MOST OF THE RED INK IN THE POSTAL SYSTEM
WITHOUT REGARD TO THE SAEFY OF THE CARRIERS. I BELIEVE SAFETY WAS NOT EVEN CONSIDERD
WHEN IT CAME TO THE MAIL COUNT. OUR JOBS ARE GETTING MORE DANGEROUS ALL THE TIME. WILL IT
TAKE CARRIERS BE KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY FOR THE POSTAL SERVICE TO EFFECT A FAIR AND
SAFE WORKING ROUTE? YES WE DO HAVE CARRIERS COMING IN BELOW THEIR ROUTE TIME, BUT WE
WILL ALWAYS HAVE PEOPLE CUTTING CORNERS OR COMING IN ON THEIR ON TIME. BUT THIS
SHOULD NOT PUT THE REST OF US IN A LIFE AND DEATH RUN WITH AN UNFAIR ROUTE
EVALATION. - Anonymous
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The postal service should be very ashamed of itself for cheating the rural carriers
as they have in this last mail count! The rural carrier craft was the only craft to work
under budget making money for the service and the thanks they got for doing this
outstanding work is a knife in the back. Rural carriers have always been very effective in
working under evaluation because they are dedicated and hard working, but management with
their simple mindset think they are getting over. Anywhere else in the US hard, effective
work is rewarded but the postal service looks at this in a different light. Cutting the
pay of hard working people so management can put bonus money in their pocket,
what-a-shame! - Anonymous
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