“It is beyond toxic. The morale is so low”: Texas rural letter carrier speaks out on terrible working conditions, massive pay cuts

[DB.Cooper]

I Hate to sound like CT (conspiracy theory).....but what if this is being orchestrated to allow Amazon to sweep in and take over the rural side?

Leet me get the hail out before that happens.... I've never aspired to be an Amazombie....

 

[flash]

I aint no stinking socialist...thats for Dang sure...BUT...Truth is good, and can be found in some of the strangest places...
Good information this...

In 2022, Congress passed the Postal Service Reform Act, with broad bipartisan support, to end the requirement of pre-funding of retiree healthcare benefits, forcing all future postal workers to enroll in Medicare. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump supporter who also has bipartisan support, has also unveiled a 10 year restructuring program called “Delivering for America” which would cut $200 billion.

The aim is to make the USPS “competitive” with new rivals such as Amazon, notorious for its speedup and exploitation of its workforce, by cutting jobs and consolidating the Postal Service’s operations. DeJoy recently told the right-wing American Enterprise Institute, “Right now, to get to break even, I think we may need to get 50,000 people out of the organization.”

This is mainly to be accomplished through attrition, including 200,000 who are expected to retire over the next two years. But workers are being forced out by intolerable conditions. An internal audit by the USPS Office of Inspector General found that turnover for rural carriers in 2022 was 58.9 percent, up from 38.5 percent in 2019. The reasons most cited for quitting were the grueling hours and lack of respect from supervisors.

In May of this year, the latest version of a pay-for-performance compensation system, negotiated between the National Rural Letter Carriers Association (NRLCA) union and DeJoy, was imposed on workers.

Called the Rural Route Evaluation Compensation System (RRECS), it was rolled out, as intended, with disastrous consequences for rural carriers. Within weeks 6 U.S. Senators wrote to DeJoy that 66 percent of rural carriers saw significant salary decreases and insisted that implementation of the RRECS be halted.

Thats a little bit of what those bastards are planning...get rid of the OLD GUARD...BRING IN THE NEW...Be AWARE.

Oh please
The folks on table 1 can't breathe if someone takes their stack of tubs. Or anything that forces a change, IE, new labels ..... shocker!!! Maybe sometimes, change is good

 

[U caught my attention]

I aint no stinking socialist...thats for Dang sure...BUT...Truth is good, and can be found in some of the strangest places...
Good information this...

In 2022, Congress passed the Postal Service Reform Act, with broad bipartisan support, to end the requirement of pre-funding of retiree healthcare benefits, forcing all future postal workers to enroll in Medicare. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump supporter who also has bipartisan support, has also unveiled a 10 year restructuring program called “Delivering for America” which would cut $200 billion.

The aim is to make the USPS “competitive” with new rivals such as Amazon, notorious for its speedup and exploitation of its workforce, by cutting jobs and consolidating the Postal Service’s operations. DeJoy recently told the right-wing American Enterprise Institute, “Right now, to get to break even, I think we may need to get 50,000 people out of the organization.”

This is mainly to be accomplished through attrition, including 200,000 who are expected to retire over the next two years. But workers are being forced out by intolerable conditions. An internal audit by the USPS Office of Inspector General found that turnover for rural carriers in 2022 was 58.9 percent, up from 38.5 percent in 2019. The reasons most cited for quitting were the grueling hours and lack of respect from supervisors.

In May of this year, the latest version of a pay-for-performance compensation system, negotiated between the National Rural Letter Carriers Association (NRLCA) union and DeJoy, was imposed on workers.

Called the Rural Route Evaluation Compensation System (RRECS), it was rolled out, as intended, with disastrous consequences for rural carriers. Within weeks 6 U.S. Senators wrote to DeJoy that 66 percent of rural carriers saw significant salary decreases and insisted that implementation of the RRECS be halted.

Thats a little bit of what those bastards are planning...get rid of the OLD GUARD...BRING IN THE NEW...Be AWARE.

Doing a little digging on the Postal Reform Act. I appreciated this post so much, Thank you.

I printed out the postal reform act to look it over.
What the heck is chapter 37 Nonpostal services? This is setting us up for something, it's vague as can be.

 

[Shannonboy]

Aaawwww....shucks, you are very welcome. I just love to read, and I read every chance I get! I never read page 37, but I will say this, the po, and the union leave things vague very simply so they can not be held ACCOUNTABLE when they rip us off, or steal from us, or take advantage of us, or abuse us, or create a toxic workplace environment.....you get my point I suspect....

 

[LEFTINGUTTER]

What is the end goal here???? Are they trying to drive peeps out.... and what then???? Who is gonna deliver the mail and parcels this Christmas????

Not management they have to many DUIs and not enough Uber drivers with vans to go around

 

[RegularPostman]

Speaking of TSP match, I wonder if the latest paycheck snafu will prevent the 5% TSP match? I was LWOPed for the whole pay period, so no dollar cost averaging into TSP last Friday, and no employer 5% match. I’ve never had a whole paycheck wiped out to LWOP before, so no idea if the 5% match catches back up, or if it’s a loss that requires a grievance.

I have ongoing grievances for LWOP going back to May. Haven't seen a penny of it. Three grievances for it so far. Also have FMLA protected days that were purposefully credited as LWOP instead of sick leave. No pay out for that either so far. Part of why I resigned.

I didn't get paid anything for Thanksgiving 2023. Took 6 months, multiple grievances, and turning over 6 months of pay stubs to get my pay.

This is a big reason for my resignation last month. My resignation also still hasn't gone through.

 

[RegularPostman]

Why isn't any other crafts being effected? Isn't this some kind of singled out wrongful treatment discrimination is what I'm calling it. What else? anyone have a idea?

A good friend of mine resigned in May from the City Carrier Craft. He told me about his craft being effectes. They centralized all the routes into the city into a single plant. No time added to evaluations. Got to drive 30 minutes in good traffic to start of route? Okay credited 30 seconds for that. 2 yard walk to parcel hamper becomes 200 yards. Being hourly helps with pay, but bad supervisors they find ways to subtract time and supervisors get Ammo when severely underevaluated. Not to mention the concept of 8 hour days get destroyed. Regulars being forced to work 7 days a week, despite not volunteering for Sunday. Etc. Etc.

He developed tendinitis in both legs after Christmas, where he was walking his route for 14 hours every day through peak. Went out on FMLA and eventually resigned. His wife demanded it, saying it'd be better to be unemployed for a time than to go back. Both of us agree last Christmas was the most brutal we've experienced.

Rrecs and Salary just allows management to play their games in a worse, stronger way.

 

[Shannonboy]

Guys, and Gals.....I've told you ALL..
POSTAL MGMT IS EVIL, there might be a few kind descent ones, but they are few and far between. I'm for putting em all against a wall, and shooting em with black paintballs, and riding em outa town on a rail, and telling them, DONT EVER COME BACK HERE....

 

[coleen]

DB...we all should recognize it pure and simple, it is a basic battle tactic. Attack us on our job security, ie: loss of job, discipline, harrassment. To distract us from the main attack....RECC's. These morons dont know what they are doing though....so, dig in and get ready for some incoming. If you havent started yet, youall better get it figured out. Get ready to fight for our future. File grievances, get informed, know your stuff. Use the the Union, trust em when you can, when you cant get em removed. Make them work...most of them are worthless, but there are some good ones out there. Take the battle to the mgmt, they act stupid, file, they treat in a harrassing manner, FILE. THEY DONT FOLLOW THE CONTRACT....FILE. I AM, AND YOU SHOULD TOO.

I have been telling you guys for a solid year what they are doing.usps is taking out the rural craft.And is so way worse the stewards are too easy on mgmt.I cringed when my district union rep said mgmt has been a tough time.Or even better when the oversized parcel cart gets parsed out instead of clerks and having the steward join in.No one is protecting the craft.Literally…..Or the supervisors are supposed to do the count and we have to do it….this time they wanted me do a form to hand them I said it was bad enough it was your job in the first place and now you want me to fill out your form ….forget that.If the stewards are seeing mgmt violate our contract and let them get away with it…..or even better our previous postmaster had refused to meet with the union because we had over 300 grievances for lost pay.And the list goes on.Thats why THE UNION! is responsible

 

[DB.Cooper]

Guys, and Gals.....I've told you ALL..
POSTAL MGMT IS EVIL, there might be a few kind descent ones, but they are few and far between. I'm for putting em all against a wall, and shooting em with black paintballs, and riding em outa town on a rail, and telling them, DONT EVER COME BACK HERE....

I'm not sure it's about just individual funked up mngt.... it's becoming institutionalized.... RRECS cut $10's of THOUSANDS of $$$$ from peeps pay.... then they roll in Amazon following those massive cuts, so peeps are working many hours over the funked up RRECS evals.... then they keep pushing start times later and later.... run off all the subs..... deny Regs leave or any kind of time off.... put out some MOU's so Regs can run OTHER routes after they finish theirs, and then work Sundays delivering Crapazon.... wtf.... how is this not insanity????

 

[ATCBigE]

I'm not sure it's about just individual funked up mngt.... it's becoming institutionalized.... RRECS cut $10's of THOUSANDS of $$$$ from peeps pay.... then they roll in Amazon following those massive cuts, so peeps are working many hours over the funked up RRECS evals.... then they keep pushing start times later and later.... run off all the subs..... deny Regs leave or any kind of time off.... put out some MOU's so Regs can run OTHER routes after they finish theirs, and then work Sundays delivering Crapazon.... wtf.... how is this not insanity????

Let's break it down even further.

RRECS cut pay. Yep to a huge chunk of people and we still can't see the data. If I could see what they said EACH DAY ON TIME and my route dropped, I could believe it, but the way my plant delivers mail , my route is either an aux route or 65K.

Amazon comes in. Yep. Bring amazon in a few months and gone again then back so you never get fully pay or you roll in amazon to get route to cutting point and then amazon goes away to make route even smaller.

Start times pushing back. Yep seen this 1st hand. Pushed our city back to 830, but they fought it and won (I somehow stayed at 8 the whole time because of being a 48K at the time and needing ability to take lunch). Also why are the start times being pushed back more and more when we are "getting less mail?" Our truck driver always tells he is waiting on DPS it seems like 95% of the time.

Run subs off. I don't see that as much in my area. More like POV compared to GOV. The office that are shorthanded are all POV. GOV offices are fine.

Deny regular leave NOR OTHERS helping. I finally got my sister's wedding off. It took several months to find 1 person to work 1 Saturday for me. I still have one Saturday no RCA will work or help with (Had office tell me to take a hike when I asked about having one of their regulars work for me and I borrow it for one day).

MOU. This one irritates me the most. I get why this was done the 1st couple of times during COVID. It made sense, but now it is just a way for not hiring & REGULARS TO MAKE SOME EXTRA MONEY THEY LOST FROM RRECS.

 

[DB.Cooper]

Let's break it down even further.

RRECS cut pay. Yep to a huge chunk of people and we still can't see the data. If I could see what they said EACH DAY ON TIME and my route dropped, I could believe it, but the way my plant delivers mail , my route is either an aux route or 65K.

Amazon comes in. Yep. Bring amazon in a few months and gone again then back so you never get fully pay or you roll in amazon to get route to cutting point and then amazon goes away to make route even smaller.

Start times pushing back. Yep seen this 1st hand. Pushed our city back to 830, but they fought it and won (I somehow stayed at 8 the whole time because of being a 48K at the time and needing ability to take lunch). Also why are the start times being pushed back more and more when we are "getting less mail?" Our truck driver always tells he is waiting on DPS it seems like 95% of the time.

Run subs off. I don't see that as much in my area. More like POV compared to GOV. The office that are shorthanded are all POV. GOV offices are fine.

Deny regular leave NOR OTHERS helping. I finally got my sister's wedding off. It took several months to find 1 person to work 1 Saturday for me. I still have one Saturday no RCA will work or help with (Had office tell me to take a hike when I asked about having one of their regulars work for me and I borrow it for one day).

MOU. This one irritates me the most. I get why this was done the 1st couple of times during COVID. It made sense, but now it is just a way for not hiring & REGULARS TO MAKE SOME EXTRA MONEY THEY LOST FROM RRECS.

That was just some of the items off the top of my head that seem to be hitting MANY across the country.... pretty sure the list could be expanded.... but, it's too big and widespread of a problem(s) to be attributable to just some rogue asinine mngt.... this is like a systemic master plan to funk rural carriers... the machine is trying to grind us into dust....