I asked my supervisor if I could start at 7:30 instead of 8:30 which is the regular start time. As it is all ARCs spend their first 30 minutes taking parcels to the cases. It helps EVERYONE tremendously BUT I was told to make sure the shop steward doesn't find out??? How can a SS get a hair if I'm helping literally everyone?
ARC doing clerk work
- Thread starter Hamparc
- Start date
jaymacgthree
Well-known member
Do you have rural craft steward in your office? Rural carriers should not cross crafts except in an emergency. Management failing to hire or schedule sufficient clerks is not an emergency. If someone tells you to make sure another employee doesn't find out about something then they are doing something dishonest, which is NOT your problem. If a grievance is filed and a clerk is paid to do the work that you already did, again, NOT your problem. Management is good at losing money due to their own incompetence and you will see a lot of that. Welcome to the Postal Service.
EthelAnne
Well-known member
Because it is a violation of the contracts under which we all work. The steward's job in your office is to make sure the contract is followed.
Sorting and distributing parcels is not rural work, but, agreed: clerks can grieve this if they want.
Way back when Amazon Sundays first began, management in the hub office in my area had RCAs sorting parcels. The clerks filed a grievance, got a fat settlement, worked the next Sunday, then declined to work any Sunday after that. Everyone was up in arms about "losing work" until they actually had to do it, and management, as usual, was incompetent. The grievance pay out was just a nice little bonus for the clerks in the office and did nothing to get the office to follow the contract.
I don't want to make enemies here so please understand I'm learning BUT it's management that sees how much help it is to have ONE HOUR of extra help with emptying buggies. It helps EVERYONE.
The shop steward is
The clerks were glad to have my help. It saves them a lot of time and effort having someone clear the overloaded buggies. It's the shop steward that's having the problem with it. I understand her position.
I'm in NC which is a free to work state but, of course, the postal union trumps the state in this regard.
This is purposeful inefficiency IMO and it frustrates me. As everyone says, "it's the post office" but I will never be a fan of inefficiency.
Now I go in at 8:30 and have to stand around like an idiot until I get a route. This took 30 minutes yesterday because the boss couldn't yet get determine where I was needed. Standing around makes me feel useless and totally sucks.
Shannonboy
Well-known member
Well....I get it, but this may, or may not be news to you. You are gonna have to get used to inefficiency, being useless, and sucking....because those are the 3 PRIMARY LIFE GOALS for the usps, and the union, of which, I hope you are not a member. The only thing that makes the usps an honorable entity on any level, is US, the HARDWORKING AMERICANS that keep this place afloat....we are the HEART of this company. Without us, the RURAL CARRIERS, this place would cease to exist.
Do your best, be honorable, do your job, DONT JOIN THE UNION, JUST USE THEM....go home to your Family. and you'll be alright.
Shannonboy
Do your best, be honorable, do your job, DONT JOIN THE UNION, JUST USE THEM....go home to your Family. and you'll be alright.
Shannonboy
Dominator
Well-known member
APWU and NRLCA both need to grieve this. Management can't utilize rural employees beyond the scope of their job description, i.e., unauthorized inclusion, nor can they relax the line between crafts, i.e., failed exclusion.
APWU should go for the overtime or penalty pay they would have received had clerks done the work. No higher compensation evasion by improper means.
NRLCA should go for restitution for the compensation gap between ARC pay and whatever the pay would have been had management utilized the correct craft employee. No discount labor through improper utilization of lower-wage employees.
jaymacgthree
Well-known member
Follow management's instructions in this regard. Management will be paying for the grievances. It is admirable that you want to be a team player and help out where possible. However everybody at the Postal Service plays for different teams, aka crafts that each has their own national agreement to abide by. If shop steward raises an issue about it then management should be the one telling you "thanks but no thanks, we need to follow contract" when you offer to help.
The fact that your steward is trying to protect your craft is actually a good thing rather than enforcing the contract whenever it suits them. Clearly you have a good steward, we have a RCA that is the steward at a local post office and he is the one breaking the contract and doing clerk work because it helps him get out the door faster. The clerks are lazy and happy to let other people do their work there.
The fact that your steward is trying to protect your craft is actually a good thing rather than enforcing the contract whenever it suits them. Clearly you have a good steward, we have a RCA that is the steward at a local post office and he is the one breaking the contract and doing clerk work because it helps him get out the door faster. The clerks are lazy and happy to let other people do their work there.
hamparc -- "I don't want to make enemies here so please understand I'm learning BUT it's management that sees how much help it is to have ONE HOUR of extra help with emptying buggies. It helps EVERYONE."
-- Not necessarily so.
-- One way to look at the situation is that your helping with parcels allows the PM not to hire another clerk.
"Now I go in at 8:30 and have to stand around like an idiot until I get a route. This took 30 minutes yesterday because the boss couldn't yet get determine where I was needed. Standing around makes me feel useless and totally sucks."
-- Do you go in every day at 8:30 and stand around until manglement determine where you will be needed?
-- I suppose that beats staying at home, waiting for the phone to ring.
- Manglement is supposed to do something called SCHEDULING! Such references include the contract, the PO-603, the M-38, as well as Step 4's.
- If scheduled, but not needed, supposedly you should be getting 2 hours of pay ( or it used to be that way ).
-- If not scheduled, but you go in anyways, that saves the PM some $ if you are not needed. But is "costs" you time.
-- Why did you opt to be an ARC instead of an RCA?
-- Not necessarily so.
-- One way to look at the situation is that your helping with parcels allows the PM not to hire another clerk.
"Now I go in at 8:30 and have to stand around like an idiot until I get a route. This took 30 minutes yesterday because the boss couldn't yet get determine where I was needed. Standing around makes me feel useless and totally sucks."
-- Do you go in every day at 8:30 and stand around until manglement determine where you will be needed?
-- I suppose that beats staying at home, waiting for the phone to ring.
- Manglement is supposed to do something called SCHEDULING! Such references include the contract, the PO-603, the M-38, as well as Step 4's.
- If scheduled, but not needed, supposedly you should be getting 2 hours of pay ( or it used to be that way ).
-- If not scheduled, but you go in anyways, that saves the PM some $ if you are not needed. But is "costs" you time.
-- Why did you opt to be an ARC instead of an RCA?
Hamparc said taking parcels to cases - not sorting - I get paid to wheel my parcels to the case. I really think this is loading time in question. IDK does an ARC do load time
Is a Regular Rural Carrier remapping other rural routes, while not on a 204b assignment, ( management work? ) while an RCA runs their route, a violation of the contract?
Is it the Stewards Job to make sure no one, no matter how close they are with management, gets sweet heart deals, desk work, while someone else runs their route?
EthelAnne
Well-known member
So the ARC is just moving the parcels to the cases of random routes in the office?
This ARC is distributing mail to the various routes in this office. They are not loading mail for these routes. Distribution of mail is a clerk duty.
EthelAnne
Well-known member
You don’t seem to understand that we work under the rules of a contract. This is not a “pet peeve” of the shop steward. Why are you so upset with your shop steward instead of your supervisor who appears to be a moron and brings people in before they are needed and then has to let them stand around doing nothing?
If you feel that the way we work is “inefficient”—first, we’d all agree with you, but I think for different reasons. Anyway, you have options here:
1. Violate the contract
2. Stand around and do nothing (Careful! Someone might mistake you for a supervisor then!)
3. Ask if you can be scheduled a half hour later
4. Go to work somewhere more “efficient” than the USPS.
Because I’m curious: what’s going on in your office that you’re still running parcels the second week of January?
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U caught my attention
Well-known member
Won't this decrease time on rural routes? Isnt retrieve another parcel buggy actual time during mms?
EthelAnne
Well-known member
A really excellent point. Regular carriers could be hitting STARTLOAD/ENDLOAD for the time it takes to bring that mail to their conveyance.
I'll cram an answer, along with some history and observations if I may.
This is the second PO I've worked at. The first one was in the larger town next to mine and it was a nightmare. I left there because I got an offer from a FedEx ground contractor. That was bad because they paid per day and I couldn't make more than 17/hr no matter how hard I went. I left there quickly and stayed unemployed other than my honey bee removal business which is a major income for me. In truth I am blessed in that I don't HAVE TO work. I'll leave it at that.
My current office is AMAZING! The management is outstanding and almost everyone at the station is as well. Everyone gets along and we are all in there working like crazy but, seemingly, enjoying it. I suspect this is an unusual PO because the people there are up beat and helpful as well.
I don't want to work full time. Of course I am currently working every week more than 40 but that's not going to last much longer. The ARCs in my office only work 2-3 days most of the year.
I was approached by the shop steward yesterday. She said she's filing grievances and is asking all the ARCs about their work emptying buggies during peak. I initially told her I'm not comfortable answering questions so we went to my supervisor who said I should go ahead answer the questions which I did.
This is how I see it :
The shop steward, if successful, will cost the PO $. Why? Why initiate a grievance for a few days where ARCs did clerk work for a lousy few days or, maximum, a week? Why not just look the other way for a reasonable amount of time BEFORE biting the hand that feeds you. I believe that some rules are made to be bent and/or broken for the sake of productivity and efficiency in the work environment.
Yes. I am anti union BTW.
Huh? We had 6k parcels yesterday for 26 routes. I honestly don't know if that's a lot or not but I got back from run #2 at 5:45 and there was still a few routes that needed help with parcels.
I spoke with my supervisor yesterday and she helped me greatly by telling me to just pick a route that has a pile of boxes and start working when I come in at 8:30. Prior to this I'd have to wait for her to tell me what route to take. Problem there is that she's dealing with the hot case and other stuff early AM and she used to have to stop and look at routes herself in order to tell me where to go. Now I'm on my own to decide what route needs help.
The parcels don't get finished being scanned until maybe 9 but now I can take what's available, mark, sort etc and, by the time I'm finished doing a cart, I will have plenty more when I return with my empty cart to refill it.
I'm not here to defend a supervisor however my supervisor is outstanding. She will be having ARCs start later soon but currently there is enough for us to do starting at 8:30. Being new I wasn't aware that picking my own route to help with was an option.
As far as I'm concerned the shop steward is human waste who simply wants to nit pick anything. IMO it's to justify her position.
Thanks for all the help and advice here.
Charlie Brown
Well-known member
Simply put, you are stealing. Yes, stealing from other postal employees that are entitled to the work the hours and the pay. The clerk craft is contractually entitled to the work you've been doing. The rules are not meant to be bent or broken. We have the rules to make sure things get done by the people that are supposed to do them. The rules are there so that management doesn't take advantage of employees and have people doing things they aren't trained for, qualified for or contractually entitled to. So that management doesn't have part time non career employees doing work that contractually should be done by an employee in another craft. If your management can't hire, train or schedule the clerks that's not something they should be trying to fix by using you to do clerk work.
You can be anti union if you please but it was the unions that got many of the things we all take for granted today.
You can be anti union if you please but it was the unions that got many of the things we all take for granted today.
Shannonboy
Well-known member
Wwwwooooowwweeee....I'm kinda shocked by your response there. I also can see that you have some good intentions in some ways, while shooting yourself in the foot on many others. This job is not ROCKET science....so instead of trying to do your thing, and what you think is best.....maybe.....just shut your mouth, stop ticking off your union steward, because that can cost you your job in the future, and get in there and do what you are directed to do by po mgmt. Dont make suggestions, dont try new things no one else is doing in the office. Keep your nose to the grindstone (working hard) not shoved up your po mgmts arse....watch others, and emulate them. KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT....unless you are asking for direction to do your job. Get the advice, write it down if needed to clearly remember it. Dont chitchat....mind your own Business, and dont start controversial conversations with coworkers. You may not be aware of this, but I suspect you have really ticked off some people at your office, and you arent even aware of it. In most offices, arc's are barely seen, much less heard, so maybe try to keep your profile there on the down low, if ya know what I'm saying. I dont mean this to be rude, I'm just shooting straight with ya. I dont know for sure, but suspect you may not be there long if you dont implement some advice here, not just from me, but all of us. Most of the replies are from long term career postal employees, 20-35 years experience talking here....so I dont know.....might want to back up, and take a closer look at your approach might be helpful for your future. Just my thoughts friend...
Shannonboy
Shannonboy
Shannonboy
Well-known member
I seldom agree with Charlie Brown on much of anything, but here, he is EXACTLY RIGHT, and you the OP (original poster) should listen.
