National Association of Letter Carriers

If you are a parent, and your children are old enough to speak, you undoubtedly have heard these words uttered from the back seat of your car. Often times, they are spoken not long after leaving your driveway. That is how many of us feel about the year 2020 coming to an end. Are we there yet?

I'm not going to rehash the entire year. I would, however, like to share something that I recently read on the UC Davis Health Newsroom website. I have reprinted an excerpt below:

Abnormal is the new normal

But that doesn't mean we don't have paths to help ourselves and others. It starts with understanding why so many people feel frazzled. Knowing why we feel that everything is abnormal can help us feel normal.

"We know there are two kinds of stress that have long term effects on our mental well-being and physical health — intense stress and prolonged stress," Hermanson said. "We have both."

Add to that the uncertainly about, well, almost everything.

"We have unknowns in every part of our lives," she said. "At the same time, a lot of the things we generally do to cope, the things we enjoy and that give life meaning, have changed or been put off limits."

I am writing this article on November 19th, one short week before Thanksgiving. I can only imagine how many people are stressing right now, especially at the Postal Service. We have seen a prolonged surge in COVID-19 cases leading into the holidays. We want to spend time with our families during the holidays. This set of circumstances causes both intense stress and prolonged stress.

Letter carriers are also stressing about peak season. Although parcels in general have declined recently, they will certainly increase in the coming month or so. Couple that with the poor staffing in many offices and you have a recipe for fatigue and depression. This month's EAP insert in the Wake-Up! talks about suicide awareness and prevention. Some of you reading this may not be comfortable speaking with others about even mundane things let alone suicide. But, you might be in the right place at the right time to recognize something is amiss. If you do, please, summon the courage to have a conversation to let whomever it may know that you are there for them. Sometimes, that's all it takes. And, if you are the one feeling hopeless, realize that there are resources available to you and take advantage of them.

There seems to still be confusion in the branch as to what happens when someone in your office comes into contact with or tests positive for COVID-19. I have published the close contact tracing protocol on the cover of this month's Wake-Up! so everyone can read it on their own, outside of the chaos and stress or work, and understand it. Hopefully, knowing what is happening will set some minds at ease moving forward. Of course, there have been cases of employees contracting COVID from co-workers, but the overwhelming majority of infections are the result of contact with family members and friends.

We do need to remain vigilant, even more vigilant moving forward. Wearing masks, washing hands before touching one's face, drinking frequently (every 15 minutes or so), wiping down frequently touched objects or areas, social distancing are all ways that we can protect ourselves and those around us. Keep doing that and you will most likely remain safe. Hopefully, the two vaccines that have been announced are distributed en masse and efficiently. I've read that by NEXT Christmas, things may get back to normal.

Speaking of Christmas, this Christmas, as I mentioned earlier peak season is ramping up. I have received several calls at the Union office regarding parcels with USPS labels being delivered by other carriers such as FedEx and UPS. As I have stated before, the only thing we can do is educate the customers about this practice and be sure they know it is not us mishandling their packages or leaving them in unsafe locations. If the parcels are delivered into a mail receptacle without postage, the proper procedure is to remove the parcel and bring it back to your office and present it to your supervisor. There is a liaison between the Postal Service and Amazon that is responsible for communicating with representatives of Amazon to rectify these situations.

I would also like to mention proper delivery of circulars to apartments or condos with cluster boxes. All mail is to be delivered INSIDE THE BOX. Nothing should be left on shelves or couch boxes for the customer to have "self-service". This all too often leads to something bad. If you are not allowed to deliver properly, immediately contact the Union office and we will get the situation corrected.

I want to wish everyone health, happiness, rest, and comfort in the coming weeks. I have to think that we are "almost there" and that soon we can breath a 2021 sigh of relief.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !!!

Stay informed!

Dave Barbuzzi

By the time you read this Article, the election for President of the United States should be just a day or two away. I am writing on Friday, October 23. At present, there have been more than 51,000,000 votes cast. Some of these votes are already being counted. Eight states begin counting votes either one week, or two weeks prior to election day. The other forty-four states, including all of the New England states, don't start counting their ballots until election day. Massachusetts has received over 1 million votes so far.

What does this mean? Well, consider that the 51 million votes already cast by mail/drop-off represents more than 34% of ALL VOTES CAST IN THE 2016 ELECTIONS. The fact that so many people have voted a full eleven days before the election serves to demonstrate just how divided the country is right now. Regardless of which candidate they support, citizens are voting in record numbers and if the trend continues this year's election will shatter previous voting records.

When all is said and done, I hope the country, the neighborhoods, can heal. The country is on edge, with each "side" reaching a fever pitch in support of their candidate. I am deeply concerned over how this country will react after the election regardless of the outcome. I hope I'm wrong, but I envision the kind of mayhem that we witness after sporting championship deciding games. I hope that no matter the outcome, that no one is hurt.

I have been following the COVID-19 trends and news stories with much interest. Just today it has been announced that the CDC has revised its position on what constitutes "close contact". Prior to this revision, close contact was defined as being six feet or less from someone for a period of at least 15 minutes. The new definition is being six feet or less from someone for a period of at least 15 minutes within a 24-hour period. This new definition greatly increases the number of people that would be impacted by someone that is carrying the disease and it greatly expands the group of people that contact tracing would encompass.

I have received many calls regarding other delivery companies using USPS barcodes on packages that they deliver. Some have even gone so far as to put these packages INTO THE MAILBOX !!! I don't know when or how this issue will be resolved. There are a couple things that you can do, however. First, make sure your Postmaster (supervisor first, but if he/she doesn't do anything, put it on the Postmaster) is aware of what is happening and if there is someplace that repeatedly receives these parcels make note of it. Second, educate your customers. Make sure that your customer is aware that the parcel that is left at the end of the driveway, or out in the rain, or whatever else, was NOT delivered by you. Explain to your customer that they can verify this by entering the barcode number into the tracking program on usps.com. It is important that customers are made aware that we provide the best service, that we will attempt delivery at the door and attempt to place their parcel into their hands.

This is extremely important, especially right now. Through no fault of letter carriers, public confidence dipped a little bit over the summer. The Postal Service played the part of a political football, kicked around by Postmaster General DeJoy. Shippers even posted "warnings" on their website that the Postal Service was experiencing delays and perhaps customers should consider alternatives to the Postal Service. Our detractors took to social media, peppering local city and town gossip sites with complaints about the Postal Service. We are entering Christmas season. We NEED the public to be confident that they can trust us to get their packages delivered to their door, on time, without damage. I know that letter carriers are up to that challenge.

I would also like to talk about meetings. I recently contacted the Knights of Columbus, before the uptick in COVID cases, and found out that they are not allowed to have more than 25 people at a function. Clearly, we still can't have an in-person meeting under these circumstances. Last month, we had a Branch ZOOM meeting. The meeting lasted a little over an hour, and that included nominations for delegates to the 2021 Mass State Letter Carriers' Convention. The meeting went relatively smoothly.

This month, we will again meet by ZOOM. As a matter of fact, we will be meeting by ZOOM for the foreseeable future. The information to login to the meeting can be found on the back page of the Wake-Up! To make it even easier to log in, there will be a link posted to the Branch 25 website (nalcbranch25.com). All you have to do is open the branch website on your computer, tablet, or smartphone and press the link. That's it, you're in! We aim to keep the meetings to an hour and we try to provide as much information and answer as many questions as we can. I hope to see you on-screen at the next meeting.

Finally, I want to again make clear that I am more than happy to host a ZOOM meeting with any office that would like to do so. Further, if any of the stewards would like the Branch to provide any training, on whatever topic, we can do so on ZOOM as well. We have to turn the negative into a positive and stay in touch.

Stay informed!

Dave Barbuzzi

This hasn't been a good week. Every now and then, calls from an office may spike. This usually happens when management issues a new standard operating procedure (SOP), or perhaps near the end of a quarter if overtime hours are out of whack. This week, the office was flooded with calls from one of our stations with carriers letting me know that they were sick and tired of carriers working off the clock, of management delivering packages, and of management doing carrier pickups. As I write this article, my blood is boiling. But, to add insult to injury, I was also informed today that 4 or 5 carriers in an office with less than 10 carriers total are coming to work early, not punching in, and casing their mail. These offices have both been addressed in the past. I did not bother reaching out to the Postmasters, and I didn't advise the stewards to file grievances. Instead, I dropped a dime on the managers for allowing this to happen. I am confident that as I write this article, the situation has been taken care of.

What I'm not confident of is why? Why work for free? Why put people out of work because you are eliminating jobs by doing your job for free? What benefit do you receive? Do you think that the supervisors respect you for working off the clock? They don't. They're laughing at you. Seriously, though, why do it? If you want to donate your time, there are food pantries, animal shelters, and countless other organizations that would love and appreciate your help. The Postal Service doesn't need you to work off the clock and any supervisor or postmaster that allows you to work off the clock is (I've got to be careful here because I want to say a scumbag) not looking out for your best interest. Please stop. If you are a carrier in an office and you see your co-workers working off the clock, please let me know. I will report their supervisor or postmaster or both and we will make it stop.

If you would have told me in March that we wouldn't meet in person as a branch until at least after October I would have asked what you were smoking. But here it is, the eve of October, and we are still not allowed to gather in person. I have tried to provide as much information as possible in the Wake-Up! and on our branch website nalcbranch25.com. However, according to our by-laws, October is when nominations for delegate to the Mass State Letter Carriers Convention must be made. We have to meet. But, we're not going to meet in person. We're going to meet with me here at the branch office and you in your living room or kitchen, or perhaps in your backyard if the weather is right.

We will be meeting via Zoom meeting. By the time you receive this Wake-Up!, active carriers should have seen the meeting information hanging on their Union boards at work. Both active and retired carriers can turn to the back page of this issue for information on logging into the meeting. It is really quite easy. On a smart phone, tablet, or computer, you can enter the URL (that's the stuff in blue) into the address bar on your device. That will take you to the meeting. It is even easier if you go to the Branch 25 website at nalcbranch25.com. There will be a link to the meeting posted on the website. All you have to do is click on the link and it will take you to the meeting. It is a little more complicated if your computer doesn't have a camera, microphone, or speakers. A camera isn't necessary unless you want everyone to see how stylin' you are. If you don't have a microphone or speakers, however, you will have to dial in to the meeting. The phone number that most people should use is in red on the back cover. It is the New York number. You dial, listen to the prompts, and just like that you're in.

I don't expect things to be perfect for the meeting. The Executive Council has been meeting this way all through the pandemic, and it has worked out very well. There are a couple of things to be mindful of in order for the meeting to be successful. First, mute your microphone. On a telephone, this is done by pressing *6. If you want to ask a question when we get to the general session after the officers' reports, there is a chat section on the screen. If you don't want to speak, you can identify yourself in the chat and ask your question. Myself and other branch officers will monitor the chat so that we can recognize you. There is also a "hand" icon to raise your hand. Again, if you do this, you will be recognized as quickly as we can during the general session and then I will unmute your microphone so that you can speak. On a computer or tablet, it is much easier. You just touch the microphone icon to mute or unmute yourself.

I hope everyone is reading everything they can to make an educated decision with their vote. I sincerely hope you vote your job, but I really hope you vote. For years, from Mike Rea, to Barry Doherty, to this month's article by Dan Wheeler, we have been told that the current election is the most important election ever. Guess what? ... IT IS! Be informed, and make an informed decision, and cast your ballot.

I truly look forward to seeing everyone on October 6, albeit virtually. I will extend the offer again. If your office Would like to have their own Zoom meeting, I would be happy to attend. Just give me some dates and times and we'll make it happen.

Stay informed!

Dave Barbuzzi

Man was August hot! Although I do love the summer, good riddance to the extended heat and humidity that August brought this year. In case you haven't been told by anyone else, great job keeping the mail moving under such adverse conditions.

Unfortunately, it seems as if there will be more adverse conditions but I'm not talking about the weather. I'm talking about the climate at the post office. I recently spent the better part of three weeks at the Beverly Post Office observing the ESAS program (only preferential mail is supposed to be sorted in the morning and then the rest of the day's mail is sorted when carriers return from the street at night). In my opinion, this was not the time to roll out a program such as this. First off, the later starting times during the heat of summer caused carriers to be on the street for more of the hottest part of the day. Next, this program is something that would have made more sense, say, 30 years ago. You see, back in the early 90's there was no DPS, parcel volume was much lower, and mail volume was much, much higher. I can recall starting my day at 6:00 am and casing mail till 11 or even noon. If we had only cased preferential mail, customers may have gotten delivery possibly 2 or more hours earlier. Then, we would have cased bulk mail upon our return.

There is no benefit to the customer from this program. Even if the carrier spends less time in the office, the hour delay to start times ate that up. Simply put, there is not enough bulk mail to justify starting an hour later and not casing all mail in the morning. The problem now, just as has been for the past 30 plus years is the plant. Period. The plant is not accountable and every other operation, clerks and carriers, are slaves to the plant. If you really want to effect change, start there.

ESAS wasn't the only thing that carriers had to deal with. The mandate, real or imaginary, to eliminate overtime has been having negative impacts on carriers' lives and customer service. Local managers are not allowed to bring in overtime desired list carriers on their N/S days unless some ridiculous number of vacant assignments exist. You may have four vacant routes with multiple overtime desired list carriers sitting at home and carriers who are not on the overtime desired list are forced to carry these assignments. If the carriers that aren't on the list go into overtime, and they were forced to work off their assignment, this is a violation of the contract and a grievance must be filed. I recently met on and resolved one such grievance that covered two days' worth of violations. When I went to meet the following week, multiple carriers had reached 60 hours on THURSDAY, and more reached 60 hours on Friday. So, the Postal Service is going to have to pay penalty time grievance remedies, as well as overtime remedies. Can anyone explain to me how this mandate to not allow N/S overtime is a cost-saving measure?

Last month my article was titled "It Was Good While It Lasted". I have communicated with multiple carriers through text messages and social media. They feel betrayed by the Postal Service and rightfully so. For some five plus months, since mid-March, we have worked cooperatively with the service to do "whatever it takes" to get the mail delivered, to keep our work areas and our vehicles as clean as possible, to look our family members in the eye and tell them it will be alright and to soldier on. I know there are carriers that strip out of their clothes in their garages or mud rooms and put their uniforms straight into the wash. I know carriers that have separated themselves from the rest of their family in their home. These are just some of the sacrifices that carriers are making "for the good of the service". The Union locally and nationally agreed to staggered start times in an effort to facilitate social distancing.

What has that good will and extraordinary effort and sacrifice produced? It's produced a great big "F-U" from our employer. Start times are changing later. If you have a staggered starting time still, and the earlier time of the two times is before 8:30 am, chances are your Postmaster fought for that. The plan is to start everyone no earlier that the mail up time. Remember what I said about the plant earlier? Yeah, your quality of life will be dependent the plant. And if the slap to one cheek with the later start times isn't enough, turn your other cheek because a good deal of your casing equipment is about to disappear. The plan is to have all city carriers casing into only one letter case by October. I told you that I spent the better part of three weeks in Beverly observing. Well, my observation tells me that there's not going to be any improved efficiency by removing all this casing equipment. That office, and many others, receive far too many SPR's to work into one letter case along with the other residual mail. Oh, I almost forgot (you're going to love this), management is going to sit down with you to get your input on how they can ruin your casing equipment. You can't make this stuff up.

It is disappointing to me that we have not been able to meet as a branch since the March meeting. Your executive council has been meeting each month via ZOOM. We also communicate as necessary when anything else comes up. But I do miss getting together in person as a branch. Should any group of employees, whether it be CCA's with questions or concerns, stewards, or just rank and file letter carriers want to have a ZOOM meeting, I would be more than happy to accommodate such a request. We can make it work into a time frame that works for you.

The NALC recently endorsed the Joe Biden/Kamala Harris ticket. It's going to get even crazier in the coming months leading up to the election. I would simply ask that you vote your job. Politics has a way of bringing out the worst in people and quite frankly, I don't want to stoke any fires of acrimony. If you go to work each day, you see what the Postmaster General has already done in just over a month's time. If you don't vote your job, what you've seen recently will only be the beginning.

Stay informed!

Dave Barbuzzi

About a week ago I watched the movie "Patriots Day". As I watched the movie and the manhunt for the Tsarnaev brothers played out, I vividly remembered having been in Amesbury for route inspections when the District Manager (DM) issued a kind of "shelter in place" directive. There had been tips that the bombers were on the loose and that they had possible connections to various cities and towns throughout Massachusetts. The DM made the call to get postal employees out of harms way.

Fast forward seven years. New DM, new danger. COVID-19 came into the United States, and Massachusetts was one of the states that got hit relatively hard in the beginning. A tech conference at Biogen in Boston was responsible for many of the early cases, and a lack of understanding of the disease, and respect for the disease pushed numbers upward.

The Postal Service was woefully unprepared for an outbreak of this nature. As a toilet paper shortage developed, there were some offices that didn't even have a backup supply of toilet paper. Forget about hand sanitizer, gloves, and face masks. There was a panic on workroom floors fueled by the lack of supplies and the lack of understanding.

NALC at the national level spearheaded an inventory update system whereby local branches communicated supply status to the National Business Agent, who in turn communicated to the National Union, who in turn pressed Postal Service Headquarters to address the supply chain. It wasn't perfect, as not even hospitals could obtain adequate numbers of masks to protect health care workers.

The National parties also worked together to institute other guidelines to keep people as safe as possible. Staggered start times were established, dividers were installed between cases, instructions on how to properly clean our vehicles and to exercise caution on the road were disseminated in floor talks and other means.

In the early stages of the pandemic, the National Business Agent was invited to a teleconference with the DM and others. Over the objection of the NBA, local branch presidents were not invited. However, some of us managed to get the meeting link and we attended. After that first telecon, and thanks to the insistence of NBA Rick DiCecca, the local presidents were included moving forward.

To his credit, the DM was forthcoming with information regarding what was being done, what we had and didn't have for supplies, and where there were positive or presumed positive cases reported. He also asked us to let him know if there were any trouble offices or managers that were either misreporting supply levels or weren't complying with agreed-upon measures.

In our branch, I called upon him on two instances. There was one instance where the postmaster refused to work with the local steward and safety team regarding start times. That situation was rectified immediately. The second instance dealt with a letter carrier being given a direct order, and subsequently placed on emergency placement, for refusal to deliver mail to a known COVID-19 positive residence. He had asked for an alternative means to deliver the mail and local management did not provide one. That situation was also resolved quickly.

The weekly telecons continued and various presidents brought forward concerns and many of them were addressed. The DM claimed to value the communication and went so far as to say that he wanted to bring us all in to meet in person when the COVID restrictions were at the appropriate level. Basically, it was an example of Union and management working together for the good of the employees, the service, and the mailing public.

Well, this past Monday's telecon seems to have signaled the end of this Union-Management partnership. There wasn't much to report, so the DM said he would answer questions about "whatever". I asked about the new ESAS initiative as one of our offices, Beverly, has been selected as a test sight. The DM said that he "fully supported" the plan that the new Postmaster General (PMG) Louis DeJoy had conceived. Manager of Operations Programs Support Frank Bowen then gave a rundown of what was to be expected in the offices such as Beverly that would be participating in the test.

As of the writing of this article, the test has yet to begin. It is scheduled to begin Saturday, July 25. A service talk has been given that lays out the expectations to carriers. Due to prior commitments, I cannot be present in Beverly on Saturday or Monday. However, I have assigned former Vice President Bob Cronin to report to Beverly and observe the test and take notes on the goings on and potential contract violations. The Branch will be aggressive in our response to any action or instruction that runs afoul of the National or Local Agreements, Handbooks and Manuals.

We can't be in every station, however, and that is where you come in. We need you to make note of the following and report your findings to us daily. We need to know:

• Route number of any route that does not go out for delivery.
• Amount of mail recorded as delayed or curtailed for that day.
• Total forced and volunteer overtime on that date.
• Number of OTDL carriers N/S for the day and not worked.
• Number of scheduled OTDL carriers not worked to 10 and 12 hours.

Make no mistake, presently upper level management (not your local postmaster hopefully) is not on the same side that we are on. We are on the side of customer service and preserving a viable Postal Service. Upper level management is on the side of political expediency. You have had to be living under a rock not to know that the man that currently occupies the White House has been demanding changes at the Postal Service. These changes are NOT changes that will have a positive impact on your future. Once again, it will be up to the letter carriers to save the Postal Service. There are currently two things we can do. We must insist on contract compliance today and everyday, and most importantly VOTE OUR JOB IN NOVEMBER!

Stay informed!

Dave Barbuzzi

Much has taken place since last month's issue of the Wake-Up! was published. The world witnessed a brutal murder up close over social media on May 25. The 8 minutes 46 seconds that it took to snuff out the life of George Floyd have set in action a worldwide response. There have been protests in over 2,000 cities across the United States and in 60 countries worldwide.

I am not a black man. I am not a police officer. I don't claim to understand what either has gone through historically, or what either is going through now. How could one understand such a raw stereotypical hatred without having experienced it? I just hope that out of tragedy, any tragedy, positive change can be effected. For my part, I have tried to raise my awareness, tried to do more reading and gain more understanding. As the President of this Branch I would simply like to ask the membership to do the same. For years, I have been wearing "Life is Good" t-shirts. I figure that if I have one on just about every day, the expression is bound to rub off. My favorite one has the following written on it:

BElieve
THEre is
GOOD.

"BE THE GOOD." How simple is that? We all, by virtue of our jobs as letter carriers, are given the opportunity to be the good each and every day. From the time we arrive at work in the morning until the time we punch out at the end of the day we are given the opportunity to attempt to have a positive impact on those around us.

When you punch in in the morning you are working alongside (albeit socially distanced) your brothers and sisters for a brief period of time. As brief as your office time may be, you still have time to say good morning or to offer words of encouragement. You'd be surprised at the domino effect such a small gesture can have. Your effortless act could trigger a "pay it forward" chain of events that is limitless.

Out on the street we have similar opportunities. I realize times have changed quite a bit regarding how much ability management has to watch and track our movements via the scanners, but there is still the opportunity to hold a door open for someone. There is still the opportunity to make a positive impact on your customers. The children and the elderly immediately come to mind.

Again, social distancing notwithstanding, we can still say hello to the kids on the route. We can still tell them "nice shot" when we see them make a basket as we're driving through their neighborhood. We can leave a positive impression on them that they will hopefully carry into and through their adult life. I can still remember my childhood mailman. He was also a little league umpire and I thought it was so cool that my mailman was calling balls and strikes at my baseball games.

Some of our elderly, especially now with the COVID social distancing requirements, don't see their families at all. Maybe they're sitting on their porch, maybe they're out for a walk. Is it too difficult or time consuming to say hello and have a nice day? Sure, some people might not respond to it but most people do.

I'm not naïve, I realize that some (hopefully very few) of you are reading this and laughing. Some are cynical and are thinking "Sure Dave, and what world are you living in?" That's fine. You're entitled. It's just that I'm in a position to try to have an impact and I believe that I would be derelict in my duties if I didn't try to make that impact positive. I guess my t-shirts have rubbed off on me.

One other thing that I would like to talk about is heat stress/stroke. The effects that heat and humidity can have on someone are no joke. Twenty-four years ago this August, my father passed on a 90 plus degree morning after taking out the trash. He had underlying issues, congestive heart failure and he was overweight. But, had it not been for the gross heat and humidity of that morning, that day would not have been his time.

On the back of this month's Wake-Up! is another graphic dealing with heat exhaustion and heat stroke. If you take a look at it you'll notice that in a large, bold font under "Treatment" it says "DIAL 911". It does not say "call your supervisor". It does not say "struggle through as far as you can". It does not say "making the numbers is more important than your life." It says DIAL 911.

The mail can wait. Treatment for heatstroke may not be able to wait. It is NOT your supervisor's decision whether or not you continue delivering the mail when you are suffering symptoms. It is NOT your postmaster's decision either. YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN MAKE THE DECISION WHETHER YOU SHOULD DIAL 911 OR NOT.

It is not weakness to ask for help. You could be the most physically fit person around and still suffer heatstroke. Don't ever be embarrassed if you have to call 911 and receive treatment and possibly an ambulance ride to the hospital. Unfortunately, if you make the wrong decision, you'll never know but your family and loved ones will. Don't take any chances.

Stay informed!

Dave Barbuzzi

If you visit the NALC website, nalc.org, the landing page exclaims "Action Needed". I am echoing those words and asking you to take action. I know, I know, you're exhausted. In many offices the staffing is such that you have been working your days off, most recently some of you have even worked the Memorial Day Holiday, just to deal with the enormous influx of parcels created by online shopping while stores remain closed.

I'll tell you what, though, you can take action from your couch while watching TV. All you need is your mobile phone, tablet, notebook computer, whatever you use to surf the net.

Turn a few pages to the center spread of this month's Wake-Up! and you will see how letter carriers and civilians can do their part to secure the future of the postal service, the future of our jobs.

For a letter carrier, there are four simple steps. The process is found at nalc.org and it's very simple. Probably takes about 30 seconds for a computer savvy person and maybe 3 minutes for someone less familiar. The four steps walk you through the process of emailing your Representative in Congress, and your two Senators. After you press "Go" in the fourth step, you will have done your part to make Congress aware of the dire need for them to "Take Action" and include the postal service in the next and any future rounds of stimulus relief.

For a civilian, it is even easier. There aren't four steps, there is only one. The image that you see on page 7 of this Wake-Up! is found at heroesdelivering.com. If you can type or text quickly, it will take less than 30 seconds. If you can't, it only takes as long as it takes you to type your name, street address, zip, phone and email. Worse case scenario what is that 3-4 minutes? A very small investment of time to try to make a difference.

Don't stop at just once, though. Do it every day or every other day. Post the links to your social media accounts. Help elderly relatives and friends do it. Make sure your family does it. Remind friends, family, and co-workers to continue doing it. It is THAT important.

It is worth mentioning that I received a call at the office earlier this month from a member who received an email soliciting money to "save the Postal Service". Fortunately, the member called to find out if the email was legitimate. For the record, unless you can contribute $75-80 billion dollars, you can't contribute money to save the Postal Service and there is no one that can collect that money and ensure that it would go to the Postal Service. An email making a claim such as that is either outright scam, or it is a political campaign contribution request. A campaign contribution in and of itself will not save the Postal Service. So please, take action in the manner outlined above and in the coming pages and watch for future ways from either the national union publication, website, or anything that you may receive from the branch.

I am not going to disparage the incoming Postmaster General. There is history that can be found, but I'll let you look into that yourself. We'll see what I write next month, after he's been in the job a few weeks. I'm also not going to disparage our President. There is more than enough information out there that if you want to know the truth, you can find it. I would only ask that you do your due diligence and find the truth BEFORE you cast your ballot in the upcoming election for President.

Let's talk about that ballot for a second. There are some states, such as Michigan, that have permission for mail-in ballots in their Constitution. Some Massachusetts communities have begun sending their residents applications for mail-in ballots for local elections that will be taking place this summer. A mail-in system would have the benefit of increased mail volume and it would allow more people to vote.

I would also like to caution everyone not to let their guard down now that we have received some encouraging data on "flattening the curve" of the spread of COVID-19. People are extremely anxious to get back to normal, to go outside, to go out to eat, to get a haircut, to live their lives. These people are not thinking about your health, they are thinking about their needs.

Please, keep your distance. Remain vigilant in adhering to the guidelines of the CDC. It's going to be getting warmer and more humid. It is going to become more difficult to breath with a mask on. Be aware of that and do what you need to do to stay healthy. I would imagine that soon there will be mandatory messaging during service talks about heat and how to protect yourself from heat stress and heat exhaustion. Face coverings just add another challenge to dealing with the heat. Don't sacrifice yourself, your health, your safety, to make a number. Gage your workload to the best of your ability and take the heat and/or humidity into the equation when notifying management of your time requirements. If you get pushback when noting such reasons for the need for time, talk to your steward or call the office.

Finally, I must inform you that due to the phasing-in system in place to open the state, we are not able to have a branch meeting in June as we will not be at that phase yet. Your executive council has been meeting via "Zoom Meetings". If your office would like to have a local "Zoom" meeting, I would be more than happy to attend such a meeting to answer questions and hear concerns that you may have.

Stay informed!

Dave Barbuzzi

Each day at approximately 4:30 PM, I get an email that causes a bit of apprehension. The email is from the Manager of Human Resources for the Greater Boston District, and it lists the district's cumulative stats for COVID-1919 ending that day. If there are any new positive tests, they are listed at the top. Of course, names are not listed, nor are crafts, simply locations with totals for each location. Each day after reading this email I either cringe, or let out a long slow breath, relieved that one of you has not become a positive test.

If you work in an office where someone has tested positive, you know that a management official from your office addresses you the next morning, along with a higher level manager ranging from the POOM to the District Manager, along with me. As I stated last month, I come to your office to address you, to try to reassure you, and to answer any questions that you may have.

I would like to think that you take something from these meetings. If only one more carrier wears a mask as a result of my visit, I will have accomplished something.

The biggest message that I try to convey is to respect the virus and to respect your co-workers, your family and your customers. Let's start with respecting the virus. We respect the virus by learning whatever we can about it. The best place for information strictly regarding the virus is cdc.gov, the CDC website. The best place for information about how the virus impacts your job, what your rights are and what is happening, is the NALC website, nalc.org.

The other way to respect the virus is to put the knowledge you gain from whatever trusted sources to work. Maintain social distancing, utilize personal protective equipment, constantly wash your hands, clean as many surfaces that you come into contact with as possible, and if you're sick, STAY HOME!

How do you respect your co-workers, your customers, and your families? Much of the answer is the same as respecting the virus. Now is not the time for anyone to feel that "I'm young and healthy so even if I get it, I'll recover and be fine." You may recover, you may be fine, but how many people might you come in contact with and infect? They may not recover and they may not be fine.

If you don't think you need to wear a mask for yourself, then wear it for your co-worker who may have a high-risk family member at home. We don't know who has a respiratory ailment, who may be having an at-risk pregnancy, who may be the only "essential" employee in a household who returns home from work each day to several family members that are afraid. Think about that before you decide that you don't need to wear a mask. At every station I visit, I inform you that management can't force you to wear a mask, but I wish they could.

Things have developed rapidly in the last month. The CDC has revised its position on masks, now stating that masks are strongly recommended. The USPS and NALC at the national level have agreed to a number of Memorandums of Understanding. Our webmaster, Mike Shields, has been updating the website each time a new memo or important release comes out. As a matter of fact, there has been a new PDF added to the site that you should definitely read. It is titled "USPS Close COVID-19 Contact Investigations Overview". It is a 4-page document that provides an in-depth explanation of what happens after an employee reports a positive case. Please take the time to read it.

Fred Rolando, our national president, has been issuing statements that are published on the NALC website and there are now podcasts with updates on "PodBean". PodBean (podbean.com) is a free service that can be downloaded to your Apple or Android device. There is a series of podcasts entitled "You Are The Current Resident". These podcasts run approximately 20-25 minutes. You can stay up to speed on important issues on your commute to or from work or while you are delivering a mounted route if you have one.

There is no more important issue facing the Postal Service right now than how are we going to survive as an institution. As if the pandemic doesn't pose enough of a threat to our health, it poses at least as great a risk to our livelihood. Mail volume has dropped precipitously and it is not expected to return. Along with volume, revenue has also plummeted. To date, there is no relief for the Postal Service in any stimulus plans. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin made clear that President Trump would not sign the stimulus bill if it included funds for the Postal Service.

The reality is that the Postal Service was all but ignored in the stimulus bill. The service received the ability to borrow $10 billion dollars. Provisions for the Postal Service to receive forgiveness of existing debt and $25 billion dollars to continue operating were removed from the package in order to ensure that the President would sign the bill.

You should know, however, that UPS and FedEx each qualify for grants and loans as part of the stimulus package. There is $4 billion in grants and $4 billion in loans for cargo carriers in the stimulus bill. Those two companies are facing some of the same issues as we are, reduced volume, yet they are deemed worthy of government assistance and we are not. The effects, the great reduction in volume, hasn't just affected UPS and FedEx and passed over the Postal Service. Reduced volume is ravaging the Postal Service.

The President, instead, has said that he believes that the Postal Service would be fine if we raised our prices ... A LOT! Those were his words. However, many analysts believe that raising our prices at all would drive business AWAY from the Postal Service to other private shippers, and would hasten the expansion of independent delivery services set up by companies such as Amazon.

The President has also said that we are in the state we are in financially because we have not raised our prices A LOT and have made bad deals with Amazon. He has been provided the facts, but he chooses to ignore them.

For those of you that have only been around for a short while, you may not know that in 2006, Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. At the time, with a good economy, it appeared that the only truly negative part of the act was the 3 day waiting period for workers' compensation benefits. There was/is a requirement that the Postal Service pay over $5 billion dollars/year from 2006 to 2016 to pre-fund retirees' health benefits 75 years into the future. At the time, in that economy, it was thought that even though this mandate was unique to the Postal Service, the service would be able to make the payments and continue on. Then, 2008 happened to the economy and things started going off the rails. The overwhelming majority of losses suffered by the Postal Service since that time are the result of the pre-funding mandate ... period.

Now more than ever, we have to understand the facts and be able to relay those facts to anyone that will listen, especially our elected representatives. It is not enough for us to contact them, we need our friends and families to contact them as well. We need relief from the devastation the Postal Service is suffering due to this pandemic.

That brings me to my final point. The ONLY thing that we are communicating to our elected officials is the need for relief. There is a lot of chatter about hazard pay. Hazard pay is not our message to Congress. Relief from the losses suffered as a result of the unprecedented drop in mail volume is our message to Congress. This drop in volume is unsustainable and immediate help is necessary. Hazard pay, although a hot topic today, is not our biggest priority. Keeping the Postal Service functioning so that we can get ANY pay is our priority. Help in any way you can.

Stay informed!

Dave Barbuzzi

There is no denying that these are scary times. The pandemic that we are experiencing is tragic, and will surely have long-lasting consequences. What we can't allow is for hysteria to take over and cloud our judgement and suspend our sensibility.

If you haven't done so already, I would ask that you please go the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, cdc.gov, and take advantage of all the information that is available to you. The website is thorough and easy to navigate and understand. I hope that, as with many things, the more you learn about and understand COVID 19, the better prepared and less fearful you will be.

It would be an understatement to say that the pandemic caught us by surprise. As such, supplies are short and difficult to replenish. Branch Presidents have been tasked by our National President to communicate with our National Business Agent as frequently as possible to let them know what supplies are available and what supplies are lacking. This information is being shared at the headquarters level in an effort to get supplies where they are needed. The supplies are hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, gloves, and masks.

Unfortunately, at press time, there are more stations that are lacking some of these supplies than stations that have all of them. Items are back-ordered. All one has to do is watch the news to see that hospitals can't even get masks and gloves in many cases. Health care professionals are being forced to ration personal protective equipment (ppe). Governors are showing frustration at their inability to get much needed supplies from the federal government.

I would urge anyone that has the means to produce their own hand sanitizer or spray disinfectant to do so. We can wait for the Postal Service to supply them, or we can be pro-active and do it ourselves.

Along those lines, I have to commend the employees and managers that have been proactive. There are distilleries within the area that have been contacted that are now producing hand sanitizer and supplying it to the Postal Service. Thousands of personal size bottles have been produced and provided to employees.

You have to use them for them to be effective. Again I refer you to the CDC website. Hand-washing and sanitizing before touching one's face is paramount to staying healthy. Washing and sanitizing your hands is almost pointless, however, if you don't wipe down your steering wheel, gear selector, e-brake, door handle, and window crank.

There are those that are not taking the virus seriously at all, and there are those that are paralyzed with fear. Again, I can't stress enough how education from reliable sources is so important right now.

To that end, I visited the Billerica installation this morning. I wanted to be available to the members as there had been a positive-tested employee in another station that the employees in the Billerica installation were aware of. I wanted to make sure that the messaging provided by the Postal Service was accurate and I also wanted to be sure that our members understand that if they are in the at-risk group and they are fearful for their health, that they can self-quarantine on sick leave without consequence. If you're sick, by all means stay home.

If you are sent home by management, or by a public health professional, you will be paid administrative leave. Public health professionals become involved if your medical provider makes them involved. If your medical provider believes that you are exhibiting signs of the virus, they make the call to the appropriate public health care agency who then advise them what to do. That is how tests are administered.

If you are exposed to someone that has either tested positive or is a presumptive positive, let management know. It's also not a bad idea to let the Union know as well. I am told that the protocol is that the Occupational Health Nurse Administrators (OHNA), liaison with the CDC and receive instructions on what to do. I am told that it is not just the OHNA making a decision, but a Public Health Professional making the decisions.

If this information hasn't been shared with you at your station, I am sorry for that. I hope moving forward that there is transparency between management and the employees. If you believe that your manager is keeping something from you, please make me aware. I will do everything I can to ensure that you receive the information you deserve.

Our NBA, Rick DiCecca, asked our District Manager (on a telecon) if the service could put out a mailing on proper customer behavior during this time. Kids are out of school and many of them think it's just another school vacation. One of their favorite things is to go and visit the mailman and take the mail. We have to politely let the parents know that now is not the time for that. We have to balance customer service with safety. Safety being the ultimate factor in any decision.

This situation changes day to day. We will do everything we can to answer any questions that may arise. Please don't assume that we are aware of what is happening in every station. Let us know.

Stay safe, and ...

Stay informed!

Dave Barbuzzi

In early February it was announced that Arbitrator Dennis Nolan would serve as the neutral arbitrator in the interest arbitration between NALC and USPS (our new contract). Hearings will likely start "in the spring". Meanwhile, we all wait hoping that our leaders will be able to convince the arbitrator that we deserve a fair increase in pay. Let's face it, the money is the first thing we want to hear about whenever there is a new national agreement.

How much of a raise will we need to achieve in order to stay ahead of the game? Well, that depends on several factors. For instance, the 2020 Federal Budget proposed by Trump calls for an increase of 1% per year for the next six years of letter carriers' contributions to FERS. This would amount to an increase in our retirement contributions of $3,700. A top step letter carrier would have to receive a 5.7% pay raise to break even. To give you a point of reference, the 2011-2016 National Agreement yielded a total of 3.5% in general wage increases while the 2016-2019 National Agreement yielded a total of 4.6% in general wage increases. Think about that for a minute.

The budget also calls for calculating retirement based on a high 5 instead of a high 3. The math is simple, you made less 5 years ago than you did 3 years ago. Including the fourth and fifth year into a high "x" calculation serves to reduce your retirement benefit.

Thinking about retiring before age 62? If this budget passes you'll probably have to think again. The budget proposes eliminating the annuity supplement. The annuity supplement approximates your Social Security benefit if you have 30 years service and are at least 56 years old. It is what allows many carriers to retire "young". It is calculated as total years service/40 x SS benefit at age 62. Eliminating this supplement eliminates over $1,000/month in many instances. How many of you reading this right now are planning to take advantage of the annuity supplement? How many of you reading this could retire at 56 without it? Retiring at 56 with 30 years is one of the few bones that a letter carrier can hope for. You work your butts off, do you want to be forced to do that for six additional years?

The budget also calls for the immediate elimination of FERS retirement COLA's and the phasing out of CSRS retirement COLA's by .5% per year. A few months ago I wrote about Ovila Cote who has seen his CSRS retirement triple over the course of his retirement as a result of COLA's. Retirees' annuities would be frozen at the amount they are on the date of retirement. They would not be able to survive increases in the cost of living. For those of you that have been retired for say 10 years, how would you be doing financially now if you were still only receiving what you received 10 years ago?

The budget proposes changing the interest for the TSP G fund. You guessed it, it would be a reduction in the interest that the funds invested in the G fund receive.

All of the above items would immediately and directly affect letter carriers. There is one more item that would most likely have a delayed affect on us. The budget calls for federal employees to pay more into the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program. Our contributions are dictated by our National Agreement so although there would not be an immediate change, negotiating this benefit in the future would be far more difficult. Past proposals would cost the average worker approximately $1,400/year take-home pay.

As you can see, whether you're active or retired the current administration is trying to make your life far more difficult financially. And these are just the administration's budget proposals. There are still a litany of "recommendations" regarding the Postal Service from the Mnuchin task force that released its report in December 2018. Central to those recommendations was rolling back postal unions' ability to bargain collectively for compensation. Before letter carriers could bargain for compensation, letter carriers qualified for welfare. That was the level of wages that were "voluntarily" paid to letter carriers.

Walk through a parking lot of a postal facility today. You'll see shiny Cadillacs, BMW's, Mercedes, Audis ... and that's in the employee parking area. YOU DESERVE THEM. As I stated earlier, you work your butts off. If the current administration had their way, you wouldn't be able to afford these vehicles no matter how much overtime you worked.

Paramount to our future is fixing the USPS finances. That is why HR-2382, the USPS Fairness Act is so necessary as it repeals the pre-funding mandate, the mandate that is responsible for the overwhelming majority of postal losses over the past decade. The bill passed the House by a 309-106 vote. Its Senate counterpart, S-2965 may never see the light of day. It sits with roughly 400 other bills passed by the House on Mitch McConnell's desk. If the Senate passed this bill, it would present a much better financial picture of the USPS. A better financial picture would make it easier for an arbitrator to grant us decent wage increases.

Remember this when you vote. I could care less about Democrat or Republican. I care about whether you voted in favor of my well-being. I care about whether your budget damages my quality of life. 2020 is a crucial year for our financial well-being.

Please, make educated decisions ...

Stay informed!

Dave Barbuzzi

Is it? I hope not. I hope that we can get through to you at some point so that the rest of your career, however long that may be, is a little bit easier. It's in your control believe it or not. All you have to do is commit to learning your job and then double down that commitment and do your job properly.

For those of you in one of the seven offices that will be inspected in this upcoming route inspection season, that commitment must start now. You should receive this Wake-Up! sometime during the first week of February. For those that are being inspected in May, you can impact 40% of your average street time beginning the day after you read this article. I'll explain.

When you are inspected, management gathers data during the week of inspection on your office time and your street time. Just as important, however, is the fact that management gathers data on your street time for the 7 months prior to your inspection (excluding December, June, July, and August). September, October, and November shouldn't be bad as those months yield flat volume and parcel volume leading up to Christmas that contribute to fairly good street times. January through May however, may not provide such favorable volumes. Couple the decline in volume with carrier bad habits and you could face a low average street time for your 1840B time.

So what's an 1840B time? Glad you asked. One week from each of the 7 months that precede the inspection are selected and the street time for the regular carrier only is extracted. Management then comes up with an average time for each day of the week. If you don't properly punch for auxillary assistance or if you don't fill out a 3996, this time won't be reflected and your street time will be shorter. If you skip lunch or breaks, your street time will be shorter. If you meld your mail together into fewer than 3 bundles your street time will be shorter. If you pee in a bottle instead of driving to a rest room your street time will be shorter. If you rush to get out of work to make your second job or your other life activities, your street time will be shorter.

The point is, before the inspection even starts, management has pretty much already made up their minds that this 1840B time is the maximum amount of time that you will be credited for your street time. It doesn't matter to them if you skipped lunch or did any of the things referenced above. If you did your route in 6 hours the 7 months prior to inspection, you have an uphill battle trying to get more than 6 hours during the week of the inspection.

If you are someone that does any of those things, please, stop now. There is still time to impact your 1840B time. The Branch will continue to provide inspection training throughout the inspection season. If you have the opportunity to attend one of the sessions, please do.

There is one thing that you can do immediately without attending training. Deliver parcels properly. It is alarming how many carriers, new and veteran, are not delivering parcels properly. It is disturbing that management encourages you not to deliver parcels properly. I've had countless discussions (read arguments) with local managers and OPS people about the proper delivery of parcels and even when I point out the requirements in the M-41, they still dig their heals in to improper practices.

So there can be no confusion, no doubt in any letter carrier's mind, I have published the proper parcel handling procedures on the back cover of this month's Wake-Up! Please cut this out and keep it with you during your inspection. If you are instructed to do anything differently than what the M-41 says, obey the instruction and immediately ask for Union time to file a grievance.

There are a couple parts of the procedure that are worthy of discussion. First, look at the phrase "... if no one is available to receive the parcel ..." The only way to determine if someone is available to receive a parcel is to knock on the door or ring the doorbell. You must do this. You are not supposed to just go to the door and drop the parcel on the stoop. The mailer and the customer receiving the parcel are paying for better service than that. Provide the service.

The next significant phrase is "PS Form 3849 ... must be left in the mail receptacle notifying the addressee of the mail left in the authorized alternate location." This is particularly important in apartments and condos that have a concierge service in a separate building such as the condo office building. This means that if you deliver a parcel to the concierge box, you MUST then leave a 3849 in the customer's mailbox telling them where the parcel is. There are too many letter carriers that simply leave packages with a building manager. Some do this because they've been instructed to and some do it because they're taking a shortcut. Please, do it right. There is no other single factor that impacts your route's evaluation more than proper parcel delivery.

One other reference that bears publication comes from page 41-28 of the JCAM. "The only proper instruction before and during route inspection is that the carrier deliver the route 'in exactly the same manner as he does throughout the year.'" If management gives you any other instruction, obey and file a grievance. They're coming to take something from you, help us to help you keep it.

Stay informed!

Dave Barbuzzi

The front and back covers of this month's Wake-Up! represent over 110 years of NALC Union membership from just two individuals. Ovila Cote, who retired in 1981 from the Haverhill office, recently celebrated 70 years of membership, while Vinnie Lebednik recently retired from the Marblehead office with over 40 years of membership. I would like to personally wish each of them many more healthy years of retirement. They have both certainly earned it!

I would like to hit the ground running this month regarding the Branch's efforts concerning MDA and Scholarship fundraising. We can do better with both causes, but we need the buy-in of as many of our active carriers as possible to be successful.

No doubt, many of you have received a number of gift cards from your customers this year in recognition of your service day in and day out. We would like you to donate a gift card or two to be raffled off for the Branch 25 Scholarships and for MDA. If you only drink Dunkin Donuts coffee and a customer gave you a Starbucks card, donate it to the cause. If you got movie passes and you prefer watching movies in the comfort of your home, donate the passes to the cause. Depending on the value of the donated gift card, the Branch will then sell raffle tickets either at a Branch meeting or some other event with the proceeds going to MDA and the Branch Scholarships. Please consider this painless way to help two great causes!

In other news, the Branch has assigned 212 grievance numbers as of press time for this month's Wake-Up! We finished out 2018 with 284 grievances. Barring a rash of mismanagement requiring grievances in response, we should realize a significant reduction in grievances this year. I would like to think that our stewards are directly responsible for that reduction. Our stewards have both prevented problems from reaching the grievance stage by addressing issues with management before they become grievances. They have also been quite successful at Formal A, B, and arbitration. This success makes management think before violating the contract again.

Speaking of thinking before doing something, I would like to talk to you about a couple things that have come up more often than they should. The first is the Office of Inspector General (OIG). Let's just get something out of the way immediately; OIG agents are not your friends. They are not there to help you. They are not there to tell you the truth. They aren't even there to try to find the truth. They are there to conduct a one-sided investigation designed to blame someone for something.

DO NOT SPEAK TO AN OIG AGENT WITHOUT REPRESENTATION! If you are ever approached by an OIG Agent (and this could happen on the road, in the office, or even at your home), politely let them know that you would be more than happy to cooperate with them as soon as you are afforded representation. In some instances, the appropriate representation may be an attorney. Their typical response to this is something like, "That's fine, but it would be a lot easier for everyone if you just talk to us now." They may also promise that you have nothing to worry about so you should just talk to them.

Don't believe it. If you had nothing to worry about, they wouldn't be talking to you. In many instances, they know the answers to the questions they are asking before they ask them. They are trying to see if you tell the truth. There will be time to tell the truth when you have proper representation.

The other thing that I would like to talk about is carriers resigning without thinking it through. The turnover rate for CCA's nationally is over 50&. The job is not for everyone and there will be turnover regardless of the office, management team, etc. However, it is unfortunate to speak to someone who has resigned AFTER they have already put in the papers and passed the point of no return.

If there is a CCA in your office who is struggling with the job, or with management, help him or her out if you can. If they are being forced to do things that violate the contract, if they are not getting proper training, if they don't have proper clothing, let us know at the Branch office so that we can intervene. Whatever you do, please don't "pile on" to their troubles. If they are providing assistance to you, explain anything that may be unusual about the piece that you are giving them. Ask them how they're doing. It's in everyone's best interest to grow a workforce that realizes that their union brothers and sisters want to have their back.

On a final note, with all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season around us, it is easy to forget that our current contract has expired and the bargaining period has also expired. The terms of the contract are still in force while the parties wait to present their cases at interest arbitration. A neutral arbitrator, as well as one arbitrator selected by the NALC and one selected by the USPS will make up a panel that will weigh argument. Ultimately, the neutral arbitrator will issue an award that will become our next national agreement. At some point shortly thereafter, the local implementation period will begin. That is the period where each office's local agreement may be opened by either the Union or management. Start looking at your local agreement now to see if you have suggestions for improvements.

Happy New Year and Stay Informed!

Dave Barbuzzi