How to request a PTF

[rhunnicutt]

Hello Rural Mail Talk! I am back with a new slew of questions! So grab a cup of coffee, this may be a long one!

 

So if anyone remembers me, I am the RCA who transferred from Montana to a very understaffed office in a new district. (Only took 3 months of negotiations for my old PM to finally release me lol)

 

Anyways! Survived Christmas and all that in my new office and have just recently been elected our new office Steward. For my first task as steward I want to address how understaffed by office is and get ourselves the proper help! So here is what has been going on, our office has: 

One 31hr Aux

Six 44-46K Routes

Only 4 RCAs (One is on 7hr Medical, One is on loan from our branch, and myself and another guy both transferred in before Christmas)

So preliminary math shows we are short some subs, and we have been short subs for a long time. Until myself and the other guy transferred in at least 4/6 of our regulars have been involuntary working their relief days every week for the past YEAR! Now only 2-3 are still working their relief days every week.

 

So for starters, how can I make management create us a PTF? From what I dug up they probably should have been forced to create one sometime this past year.

However, our managers have no idea how Rural stuff works, we are the only office in the District that has Rural Routes and all our managers come from the City side of things. Not to mention our office gets a new station manager once every 2 years it seems. There are also a lot of issues going on like only paying the subs running the Aux on green cards so they dont get AL and SL and stuff like that but I want to start here and snowball to the rest later haha

 

Any helps and advice is welcome! Especially for me being a new steward (I go to my training in 2 weeks, our office has not had a steward in about 2 years too)

 

Edit: Also the regulars in our office do not want to get a PTF because then we would become a formula office. I do not really know how those changes would effect them but as RCAs we would like to have one of us be able to be a PTF and the second most senior one of us runs the Aux. Thoughts on this too?

 

Thanks!

 

[gotstamps]

The office needs to become a Formula office BEFORE a PTF position can be created. If carriers put in their 120-day sub request letter & mgmt then cannot successfully hire/keep subs, mgmt can create the PTF which would be bid by subs on-line like a route posting. Going formula alone would likely solve the "lack of subs" issue. Good luck!

 

[btdtret]

rhunnicutt -- Until you are certified as a steward, you can not do any official duties as such.   However you can probably ask how many of the regulars without a sub have actually submitted the 120-Day Notice to get one.   Until that has been done and the 120 days actually have passed, your office will continue to be short of subs.  And mostly likely someone will be losing a Saturday relief day if a Formula Office is established as well as their Code 5's.   Good luck as a steward.

 

[rhunnicutt]

<blockquote class="spPostEmbedQuote"><strong>btdtret said </strong>
rhunnicutt -- Until you are certified as a steward, you can not do any official duties as such.   However you can probably ask how many of the regulars without a sub have actually submitted the 120-Day Notice to get one.</blockquote>
Yeah I will not being doing anything official yet, I just want to get a jump on learning as much as possible now (we just had our election last friday, ran unapposed).

Also if anyone has any information on how a formula office really works I would appreciate it. After talking with one of my regulars more this evening he said while all the regulars are getting tired of working their relief days, they do not want to lose saturdays as their day off, if we ever do end up getting more RCAs hired that last. Apparently once you go formula there is no going back, but I have no idea how that would effect a regular. Just that as RCAs getting our office a PTF would be adventagious for us with seniority for having a career spot sooner and still giving the regulars a day off every week, albiet not nessicarily saturdays.

Thanks for the responses so far!

 

[btdtret]

rhunnicutt -- " I just want to get a jump on learning as much as possible [ about being a steward ]:

--  Google "tips for stewards".  15 Important Tips for Stewards by the CWA 4900 should help.   Look at the other one too.

--  Pay close attention during your steward training session.

--  If you have a tablet, down load such things as the contract ( EL-902 ), PO-603, ELM xx ( Employee and Labor Management Manual ), M-38 ( Management of Rural Delivery Services ), F-21 ( Time and Attendance hand book ), RDSOP + RDSOP Clarification, Order of Consideration, 120-Day Notice, Weingarten Rights, yearly  pay schedule, among others.   It is nice to have instant access to references when dealing with manglement.

--  Be prepare to have a target on your back!

--  You will find out what it is like to be a car's shock absorber as you will be between the carriers and manglement.

"information on how a formula office really works I would appreciate it."

-- Search for "formula office" in the KNOWLEDGEBASE section.

"Apparently once you go formula there is no going back"

--  If manglement ever manages to hire enough subs, a Formula Office would no longer be needed.

Words to remember, whether your are a steward or not, and use often:

Thanks.

You're welcome.

I don't know.

I will find out.

I'll get back to you.

 

[EthelAnne]

Congrats on getting off the sidelines and into the game by running for steward! 

My advice for new stewards is to take advantage of the knowledge and experience of your ADR. Don't be afraid to ask for advice and guidance.

Put up a bulletin board (Article 22) because it drives management nuts.

 

ETA: because no one linked to this, here's the <a href="https://www.nrlca.org/Documents/WebContent/c6d47800-fc98-4a88-8806-cf5fe4208f07-R-95.pdf">Implementation Guidelines</a> for formula offices