Branch 203

Southwest Missouri National Association of Letter Carriers

Read articles written by branch members focusing on local branch matters and how they may effect you.

If you would like to write an article, please reach out to Alec by email: alechnalc@gmail.com

Read articles written by branch stewards about important grievances, protections, and resolutions in your area. Become educated about the workings of your local representatives and the process of grievance handling here.

Union Meeting

December 3rd @ 6:30 pm

Location:

McAllister’s Deli
1711 W Battlefield Rd, Springfield 65807

You could win $150 at our monthly drawing!

Retirees Meeting

January 12th @ 2:00 pm

Location:

Cedar’s Family Restaurant
3322 S Campbell Ave, Springfield 65807

Clyde Glenn Memorial Scholarship

It's time for the Clyde Glenn Memorial Scholarship! Your high school senior could be eligible to win $1000 towards their college education if you're a member in good standing. Want an application? Get in touch with Colby Fontinel, Alec Helwig, Carmen Summers, or Jonathan Cigallio by the end of December to learn more about the opportunity.

Get to your local union meetings to learn about grievances, protocol, and calls to action in your branch. Feeling froggy? Ask how the branch can use your particular set of skills to get involved and improve your area’s operation.

Sign Issued Discipline!

Please sign and date any discipline you receive. Signing does not mean that you agree to the discipline, the bottom of your discipline will state that you have the right to grieve the discipline if you’d like. If you don’t sign and date your discipline you may have discipline fraudulently entered into your file! Also, it establishes a timeline for the Union to work with because sometimes management will create discipline, then sit on it a while before issuing it, meaning that you could lose several days for a grievance to be filed!

NALC Contract Talk

“Contract Talk” is an educational series by the NALC for carriers on the workroom floor about their rights, protections, and applicability of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Our National Agreement is made to be easy to read for the everyday worker, and the articles in Contract Talk can help our Union brothers and sisters to not be afraid of the document, processes, and use of the contract in our daily lives. Every carrier should take efforts to learn their rights and current events in the workplace as it is an ever-changing, political juggernaut, regardless of whether we want it to be or not. Don’t trust some hearsay on the workroom floor as gospel because misinformation gets spread quickly that way: the more educated the workforce the less that kind of misinformation can take hold.

Check out NALC Contract Talk articles here, as well as the incredible NALC Activist articles to learn your rights and applications at your own speed.

Empower yourself through education; an educated Union is a strong Union.

Seasonal Safety

Hazards

  • DARKNESS: Darkness by itself may not be a safety hazard, but performing our job in the dark certainly can be! Request a head lamp from management, and take your time to deliver safely, accurately, and according to protocol.

  • DOGS: Customers’ parcel delivery will pick up for the next few months. When we knock on the door more people may be inclined to answer if they know their holiday gifts are coming, so watch out for dogs when customers open their front door!

  • AGGRESSIVE MANAGEMENT: Some members of management may attempt to push you beyond your abilities and limits. Utilize your rights and perform your job with professionalism to be beyond reproach under any scrutiny. Be honest with yourself and management about your abilities in the dark and cold.

  • HEAVY PARCELS: Watch out when you’re lifting parcels! Sometimes heavy ones aren’t labelled properly and you go to lift it only to find out some jerk is trying to mail condensed metal from a collapsed star (sometimes it feels like that at least). Even flat trays can get super heavy! Use proper lifting techniques, get a team lift going, and use available equipment to get the job done safely.

  • THIEVES: Carriers are being assaulted with an increasing frequency since COVID times due to our increased parcel volumes and arrow keys. Keep your head on a swivel, and report suspicious activity. Knock on doors and make the attempt to get it into a customer’s hands before you drop the parcel at the door; that’s right out of our M-41 handbook, so you can help reduce the ability of thieves to ruin people’s winter time gifts and essentials.