M-01608 is a pre-arbitration settlement on a case out of Buffalo, New York, which was recently pre-arbitrated prior to National Level Arbitration. The case was remanded to Step B of the grievance-arbitration procedure for further processing. The case deals with the jurisdiction [clerks vs. city letter carriers] over the generation of PS Form 3883. NALC alleges a past practice existed where letter carriers had exclusively generated this form [See M-41, Sections 335.11, b and c, and 335.15]. The office was issued scanners which allowed the user to scan articles into a computer generated form, Form 3883-A. Such work was assigned to clerks, resulting in this dispute. The agreement indicates that changing the manual form to an electronic version cannot be the sole reason for altering a past practice.

MRS M-01606 is a new National Memorandum of Understanding, providing directions on appealing Rural/City Delivery Disputes through the Grievance-Arbitration Procedure. This new Memorandum serves to extend the previous memorandum [MRS M-01568].

Each NALC branch has now been sent a copy of the Route Inspection Kit CD, as well as a copy of the 2006 Contract CD. Also enclosed with that mailing were hard copies of the corrected pages for Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of the Route Protection Program, which were made to the online chapters in May 2006. The online pages indicate the date of the correction at the bottom of the page.

The NALC Route Inspection Kit (RIK) is a new computer program developed as a supplement to the NALC Route Protection Program to assist officers, stewards, and other NALC members with monitoring route inspection data. The program will prompt the user to enter route inspection data from the PS Forms 1838-C, 1840-B, 3996, & 3999, and it will then generate the properly calculated PS Forms 1838 and 1840. The program features an extensive help index, links to the RPP, and a grievance checklist.

We will distribute a copy of the Route Inspection Kit CD to each delegate at the national convention in Las Vegas. Additionally, we will send a CD to each NALC branch shortly after we return from the convention.

President Young has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Postal Service (M-01571) which extends the terms of the previous MOU on 'multiple days of inspection'. During a six day route count and inspection, the MOU allows management up to three 'days of inspection', but limits them to only one day of completing PS Form 1838-C. Additionally, when two or three PS Forms 3999 are completed, the MOU dictates which PS Form 3999 will be used to transfer territory when adjusting routes. The terms of the new MOU are applicable through May 26, 2007 unless mutually extended by the parties.

The National Association of Letter Carriers, the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, and the Postal Service have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (M-01568) regarding the processing of new city/rural grievances.

Any settlements at Step A (city) or Step 1 or 2 (rural) that would result in the reassignment or assignment of deliveries require the agreement of authorized representatives of all three parties at that level.

Additionally, if a grievance is appealed to Step B (city) or Step 3 (rural), the representatives at that level will ensure the file is properly developed and documented, and forward the file along with their supported recommendations to the national level for review by the national city/rural committee.

The memorandum will expire in one year if not extended by the parties.

The parties at the national level have entered into an agreement which resolves the 186 delivery redesign grievances which were being held at the headquarters level. (M-01567) The data collection and testing conducted by the Postal Service during this initiative did not result in any changes to current work measurement systems or work or time standards. The parties agreed that a test conducted pursuant to Article 34 does not modify provisions of the National Agreement, including handbooks, manuals and published regulations incorporated through Article 19, beyond the scope of the new work measurement system or work or time standard being tested. The parties agreed that Article 8 was not amended or modified during the testing, and subsequently all delivery redesign cases involving Article 8 violations were remanded to the appropriate Step B teams through the National Business Agents to be resolved by applying the relevant provisions of Article 8 to the facts of each case.

The new 2005 Joint Contract Administration Manual (JCAM) has been mailed to each NALC branch, and is also being mailed to each USPS delivery unit for use by shop stewards and supervisors. The 2005 JCAM was printed as a completely new manual, rather than as a transmittal letter with inserts as was done in 2004. While there aren’t many major changes or additions to the interpretive material, a new printing was needed because of the many rewrites, typographical corrections, and grammatical and formatting changes. The major changes to the material are summarized in a ‘JCAM Changes’ attachment to the cover letter mailed to each NALC Branch and included with the NALC website copy. Please note that there are four corrections to the ‘JCAM Changes’ pages. The referenced change on page 8-16 is actually on page 8-17, 8-20 is on 8-21, 8-23 is on 8-24, and 17-2 is on 17-3. click here to go to the new 2005 JCAM

President Young has initiated an interpretive step dispute with the Postal Service on the recording of the handling of S-999 mail during a route count and inspection. It is the position of the NALC that the S-999 mail should be handled and recorded in section 1 of the PS Form 1838-C pursuant to the handbook instructions for letter size mail. In the grievance arising out of the Cadillac Michigan installation, local management recorded the time on line 21.

In order to ensure that this is the case, President Young is asking each shop steward to request the latest DOIS ‘Route Base Information Report’ and the latest PS Form 1840 for each route in order to complete a ‘Base Data Verification Form’ provided by your National Business Agent.

The form and the instructions for completion of the form are available for your use. You can either use this form (102 Kb) to print and fill out by hand, or use this form (3.7 Mb) with text fields that you can type your entries into. Once either form is complete, please mail the completed form to the attention of Director of City Delivery Fred Rolando at NALC Headquarters, as was requested in the January 13, 2006 NALC Bulletin.

The Postal Service is planning to begin deployment of new scanners for letter carriers in May of 2006. The new scanners are called Intelligent Mail Devices. Several letter carriers were involved in the testing and provided input into the design of the new devices.

The new IMDs weigh about three ounces more that the current scanners, and have a larger screen. The new device will take a digital picture of the customer’s signature, prompted by a barcode situated below the signature block on the PS Form 3849. The new scanner will have the ability to scan at any angle. The device itself has a full alphabet keyboard, an adjustable hand strap, and additional large scan buttons on either side.

The Postal Service is planning to conduct performance, engineering, and field testing between January and April, with plans to begin deployment to letter carriers in May in the Capital Metro Area. Nationwide deployment would follow and take 6-12 months.

We were advised that stand-up talks are being developed for letter carriers in advance of the deployment, and that each letter carrier will receive about one hour of end-user training when the devices arrive. Additionally, each route will be assigned a user guide, and each letter carrier will be provided with a pocket card as a quick reference to the scanner functions.

The Postal Service has initiated a new service endorsement known as Parcel Select Hold for Pickup. The endorsement is designed for shippers of high-value and heavyweight parcels. Using this endorsement, the sender drop ships the parcels to a designated postal facility where the parcel is then picked up by the addressee within 10 days. The Postal Service is currently testing the service with the Dell company only.

The shipper contacts the customer 4-7 days before sending the parcels, and another call to the customer is generated automatically when the items are scanned upon arrival at the postal facility. If the packages have not been picked up within three days, a notice is delivered to the customer by the letter carrier. The shipper will call the customer again after 7 days, and if still not picked up after 10 days, the parcels are returned to the sender.

If a customer decides to have the package delivered instead, they must pick up the parcel, take it to the retail window, and pay the postage for delivery to their address.

NALC and the Postal Service have jointly developed a new Standard Training Program for City Letter Carriers to be used to train newly hired letter carriers in Carrier Academies. Four city letter carrier classroom instructors in each Area have received the training necessary to now provide training to all the city letter carrier classroom instructors in the country.

The training for newly hired letter carriers will consist of three days of classroom training, followed by three days of ‘on-the-job training’ by On-the-Job Instructors (OJIs) in the station where the new carrier is assigned. OJIs who will be training new carriers will receive training on the classroom material provided to the new carrier.

Management will select the Classroom Instructors and the On-the Job Instructors from a list of candidates provided by and agreed upon by the NALC National Business Agent and the USPS District Manager. The national parties have tasked the National Business Agents and the Area Vice-Presidents with ensuring that local instructors are selected and trained.