Agreement document

The U.S. Postal Service has agreed to place a moratorium on all new route counts and nspections from April 3, 2004 through August 31, 2004 while USPS and the NALC engage in a joint process to verify cased mail volume.

The agreement document was signed by NALC President William H. Young and USPS Chief Operating Officer Patrick R. Donahue on April 1.

Route inspections that started before April 3 are not included in the moratorium.

The verification process on cased mail begins April 5 where possible, but must start no later than April 12 in all delivery units and will conclude on May 28. Letter carriers will have a daily opportunity to agree upon the cased mail volume that is being recorded in the Delivery Operations Information System (DOIS). Any disputes will be resolved jointly by USPS and NALC branch representatives.

"This is an effort to get a handle on the correct cased mail volume that exists in the delivery units today," Young said.

"During this period of time there will be no minor route adjustments, no special inspections, and no route counts and inspections of any kind," Young said. "Carriers who have qualified for special inspections under Section 271 of the M39 will have those inspections dealt with in the fall. The parties have agreed that during this period no office assistance will be provided to the regular carriers working on their own route."

Branch presidents will need to select a number of union representatives equal to the number of supervisors in delivery units. This will ensure that the verification counts are carried out expeditiously and disputes are resolved on the day they occur.

In a memo to National Business Agents explaining the process, NALC Vice President Gary Mullins said local branch presidents must designate NALC union representatives to assist in disputes concerning cased mail and give the names to the Postmaster as soon as possible.

"NALC Branches must make sure we have at least the same number of representatives as USPS supervisors for every delivery unit," Mullins said. "They will only be needed if there is a dispute over the correct volume."

In addition, Mullins said:

	Each letter carrier will be asked to agree upon their linear cased volume. If there is a dispute between the letter carrier and management about the volume, the union representative will be called over to verify the linear volume. Only if the union representative and the carrier agree that the linear volume is wrong, will the mail be counted.
	If local parties have an ongoing problem with cased volume verification, they are to advise their National Business Agent's office immediately.
	Each day, local NALC representatives will be provided a copy of the DOIS worksheet for each route. It will be that representative's responsibility to verify that the totals are those that were agreed upon by the letter carrier or union representative in that unit.
	Local branches should be sure to set up a filing system to store the verified data.