Regional Leadership at our Union Meeting

September 4th, region 5’s National Business Agent, David Teegarden, came to attend our Union meeting and answer questions about anything and everything. I imagine being in his position you never know what you’re walking into, and everywhere you go you’re going to meet some disgruntled members, so I thought it was good he still goes out in the field and takes questions.

I took some notes on what we talked about and his responses, so without further ado, let’s get into it.

Construction and Safety?

When the Q & A portion started up the first thing that was asked was about the construction at Southwest Annex (SWA), grievances, and what the heck happened with that whole mess. There were a few carriers represented that were a little frustrated about the situation, so the opportunity was a welcome one to get a top-down perspective on what the NALC was doing about it.

We learned a lot.

First, we learned there is a massive grievance regarding safety and about how closely Richard Thurman worked directly with Daryl Sexton on the grievance. That’s a big asset because Thurman has a master’s degree in health and safety (I don’t know the specific degree that was cited, that’s on me), and he was in regular contact with Daryl about what reports we needed, what would need to be in the case file, and how to protect carriers in the future with an effective remedy.

We learned that Daryl’s grievance has requested a remedy that helps protect against latent conditions in the future; so if we get sick in a way that could have been initiated by the construction we could be protected. We still have to win this at higher levels, but this was a big chess move that addressed our health long-term, and thankfully so.

We learned the wheels of justice work extremely slow, and that we shouldn’t expect a resolution in the short term.

A question was asked about filing lawsuits against the postal service for neglect of safety, but Dave brought up the liable parties are primarily the contractors on the job site, and that our grievance is about management turning a blind eye to the construction contractors’ unsafe habits.

Another question was raised about when we can walk off the job due to safety; we hear folks say “we’re not going to take ‘X’,” but when can that actually result in action of walking off the job out of unsafe conditions? He responded the contract says we can disobey orders that immediately threaten life or limb, essentially anything that can result in immediate bodily harm or death. In the case of dust in the air for construction, limited mobility in the office, and potential hazards, that generally isn’t enough, it’s more about the long-term effects. While it was frustrating to learn our limitations, he expressed his frustration with the system as well, so at least it’s not just us. Additionally, it was nice to see contractual framing for a significant issue when there is a lot of clutter around the subject.

Grievances Related to an S&DC?

Being a steward, I was interested in general practices around S&DCs, common issues, and what we should be wary of. The answer was short and initially a little dissatisfying: it’s just like any other office, S&DC (shipping and delivery centers) aren’t special and each one is a little unique. This means that nothing changes in our National Agreement, but management is going to try and change a lot.

We learned that we are empowered to file the same grievances as before, and whenever we run into an issue that we don’t know how to handle we can contact the NBA office. While that’s comforting, it would be nice to get a walk through to say, “This is a grievance, and that is a grievance,” but that’s now how S&DCs or the grievance procedures work. We’ll have to be vigilant locally and respond to new policies being implemented.

Route Adjustments?

We’ve been hearing rumors in Springfield about route counts coming up again. Dave told us we’ll be notified of upcoming route adjustments, and when that happens to give his office a call.

Dave’s office offers training to anyone getting ready to face route adjustments, which is a deep dive on carrier responsibilities to help you get a fair assessment on your route. Also, we learned that Dave has a specialty team for grievances associated with route adjustments and COR. This is a massive boon to us with so few stewards and fewer opportunities to train on this stuff than we’d like.

If any training opportunity comes available, we’ll get the word out and try to have a good showing for Branch 203.

Change in Service Standards?

Apparently, more changes in service standards occurred in July with regional transportation optimization. What that means is the possibility of slowing mail down even more to help meet delivery deadlines. This should be unacceptable as mail delivery is what we do, but it seems like the Post Office doesn’t care about that as much as they do making sure parcels are scanned. We can likely thank these service changes for the uptick in SPM “accountability” and even discipline coming out.

A Notice on the Work of the Branch

Our branch got some praise from Dave for our increased turnout at our union meeting. He remembered our union hall and the turnout we had last time he visited. With at least double the turnout he expected we’re seeing more input, representation, and activity recently and it shows. He said, “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.” That’s great to hear, and it’s wonderful to see the pulse of our branch beating stronger.

The Verdict

Dave didn’t B.S. us, he shot straight and gave us great insight, even if it wasn’t pretty. He used good contract language to help guide us in some of our understanding, and he laid out some of the processes we weren’t familiar with in the safety procedures, grievance procedures, S&DC procedures, and more.

It was good having some regional leadership for our members to question, vent to, and get explanations from.

That’s all for this episode! I’d like to thank Dave Teegarden on behalf of our membership for coming out and representing our regional leadership team.

Thanks for the read, we’ll see you next time here.