No, I'm not saying the union is useless for rca's. The membership dues pay for representation of carriers in disciplinary hearings, pay issues, contractual rights and so forth. That representation takes funds. The largest % of discipline is against rca's...by far. In the past, the union was looking at the membership as two entities. Regular carriers and substitute carriers. They would look at the majority of assigned days with regular carriers having 5-6 days a week and substitute carriers having entitlement to one day. The regular dues are the backbone of the union. They would negotiate for all but the focus was on regular carrier benefits.
Things have changed, rca's have a much higher union participation rate than ever before. More regular carriers are demanding better perks for rca's. The rca position is getting tougher to fill and the USPS, Union and regular carriers acknowledge this, Finally. The two tier wage system was given to us by an arbitrator. Pretty much all of private industry has gone to a two tier system since the last economic downtown. Unfortunately, we are required to compare our wages with private sector wages at arbitration. That does not mean an arbitrator cannot make similar concessions of other USPS collective bargaining contracts for USPS. There is never a truly neutral third party in any arbitration for USPS. There is the USPS business side, the NRLCA perspective and the supposed neutral party whose view is what's good for the American people? We've had a few arbitrator's over the years take what might be called overreaching liberties to make changes to our systems on behalf of the people. Like the two tier system for regulars and rca's. The attitudes are changing, the union is fighting for both groups harder than ever. The INFORMATION network is changing as well. We are slowly ( sometimes painfully so) getting into the electronic age as a union. Things are improving. Maybe not in leaps and bounds, but they are getting information to the membership more than once a year at national as before.
All this being said, I believe it's more important than ever to belong to the union as an rca to receive access to the website steward documents and the literature sent out by national/state to inform you of your rights and responsibilities to assist you in staying employed. Some states do a better job than others of educating their membership. I told every rca I spoke with at last ratification they should consider voting no due to the specifics of that contract. Not a single one voted. In my state, the rca dues are about $7 a pp. We want to educate you so you can stay employed. With the steward system now administered by national, there is no need for any state to have a full-time employee. At most maybe 20 paid union lwop days a year at the state level. The workload simply doesn't justify anything more.
To sum up, I believe the pros of union membership outweigh the cons. With the right people, in the right positions, with the right attitude tremendous things can happen. If you are not satisfied with the support in your neck of the woods ask how can it be improved? Do I need to pay 3 full time state employees to sit home? Change things. Just as carriers and managers can get stale, so can union representation. Change can be positive for all. But, you must participate to be able to elect change.
