Been reading and learning a lot from the forums here for a long time now, and finally decided to respond to a post as I've been dealing with this issue for the past 4 years.
When Amazon first started in our area, we RCA's were told that it was all volunteer, I had my manager come up to me and ask if I would volunteer for the 1st Sunday, as I knew 3/4 of the routes in my office. I agreed to do the 1st Sunday and I also stipulated that I would not be volunteering to do Amazon in the future, as I am religious and attend mass every Sunday. Also, I was hired prior to doing Amazon Sunday as part of your job requirement.
Fast forward a couple weeks and the lack of volunteers to do Amazon seemed to surprise our managers. Management came out with a policy, that stipulated that volunteers would be used, and then those RCA's who were not scheduled for 40 hrs that week would fill the remaining spots. PTF's were excluded from doing Amazon in our office. I went to our union rep at the time and was told a grievance had already been filed on religious grounds, and that I would have to do Amazon until the grievance was resolved when scheduled. I continually asked about the grievance, and was told there had been no decision on it.
The volume of Amazon pkgs increased over time along with the number of Amazon routes. When I first started the average number of pkgs were 65-80. Currently, we are averaging 120 - 140 pkgs per route. When we first started we had a 8:00 am show time, and you could finish by 12 - 1 pm, now our start time is 10 am and depending on route, you can finish between 3 pm - 5:30 pm.
Over time, management started forcing other RCA's out of smaller offices to start doing Amazon out of our large office. We had 2 senior RCA's one with 19 years as a sub, and another sub with 10 years at the PO quit rather then be forced to do Amazon as they had not been hired to do Amazon. In addition, management started having PTF's do Amazon Sunday.
Recently, I spoke with my new Union rep concerning the grievance on religious grounds. He told me that there had been a number of RCA's in our district who had not had to work Amazon Sunday due to their religious belief's, and our UNION went to court to make them work Amazon Sunday as it was unfair to the other workers (RCA's) in our office. Needless, to say, I was totally shocked hearing that our union did that! He also told me, that if it wasn't for Amazon, most of us RCA's would not have a job and we should be thankful for them.
