[img]583|left|Eric L. Wattree||no_popup[/img]The behavior of the U. S. Postal Service has become intolerable. The agency's gross abuse of its employees has come to rival that of a Third World country. It is essential that we bring this kind of citizen abuse to an end. Postal employees are a test case. If we quietly allow this to go on, the entire American middle class will be reduced to field hands.
In the new global economy, businesses that were once American corporations are multinational. No longer do they depend on the American class to buy or produce their goods.
They can send our jobs overseas to foreign workers who earn less per week than many of us spend on lunch. The American middle class has become a liability. We used to be able to depend on our government to protect our interests. What is going on in the Postal Service demonstrates otherwise. We must use our political clout to push back.
As Edward R. Murrow once said, “A citizenry of sheep begets a government of wolves.”
Here is a formal response written by mail carrier JoAnn Snow after she was notified that she was being suspended for 14 days:
In accordance with Article 15 of the USPS/NALC National Agreement, I, JoAnn Snow, hereby file this official statement in response to the Notice of 14-Day Suspension issued to me on September 27, 2010 by the United States Postal Service. The document reads in part:
All postal employees with time-keeping responsibilities are required to maintain time-keeping and pay records in strict compliance with postal regulations. When acting in a management position, employees with time-keeping access are aware that co-workers are to be compensated appropriately for work performed. Our regulations also require that clock rings accurately reflect the pay and work status of our employees. The postal service has recently become aware that you have made time record entries for co-workers that were improper.
Postal records reflect you entered numerous clock rings for craft employees Terria Clausell and Barbara Elzie that were improper and may have reflected the employees worked fewer hours than they actually worked. You made the entries for these employees which did not report directly to you.
I'm challenging the above action on the grounds that it is non-progressive, punitive, untimely, and the facts as presented are ridiculously contrived. In addition, the charges brought against me are a blatant and unconscionable exercise in reprisal within the meaning of 5 USC 2302 (9) (a) of the federal code, which reads as follows:
Any employee who has authority to take, direct others to take, recommend, or approve any personnel action, shall not, with respect to such authority take or fail to take, or threaten to take or fail to take, any personnel action against an employee or applicant for employment for the exercise of any appeal, complaint, or grievance right granted by any law, rule, or regulation.
Falsifying Clock Rings
The charges indicate that I entered numerous clock rings for craft employees that didn't report directly to me. What they didn't say, however, was that it was the station's policy that 204Bs (acting supervisor) not hit the clock. In addition, 204Bs were also instructed not to enter their own time. Therefore, the facts will show that the above notice of suspension has been issued for nothing more than the egregious offense of following instructions. The matter that actually needs to be investigated is why 204Bs are not allowed to hit the clock in the first place. Every 204B in the district clearly understands the reason why —because any time worked over 10 hours constitutes penalty overtime which requires the agency to pay the employee double time, and 204Bs routinely work between 12 and 16 hours a day, time that the district demands, but refuses to pay for.
In addition, the charges seem to indicate that when I entered a 204Bs time, it was my intent to deprive them of compensation that they were entitled to as a result of gainful employment. But the fact is, as the evening supervisor, I didn't get in until after 12 p.m., so I had no personal knowledge of how many hours the morning supervisors worked. I simply had to rely on the information that they provided me, so if they worked 14 hours and told me that they only worked 10, I entered 10 hours. Thus, if they were cheated out of hours, they cheated themselves as a result of the intimidation leveraged against employees to adhere to the district's illegal policy regarding time, and that is routinely the case.
Clear evidence of my contention is indicated in a memo sent out by Area Manager Joe Digiacomo to the supervisors in his area. It states the following:
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 11:28 AM
Effective Tuesday, February 02, 2010, all delivery supervisors will be required to stay until all their carriers are back. Unless specifically documented and requested, no extra time will be given without my personal approval. No exceptions!
Any questions, call me.
Thanks,
Joe Digiacomo SOM-2
Delivery supervisors are generally in the office by 6 a.m., and carriers are often on the street until after 8 p.m. So the above memo is instructing delivery supervisors that they must work that overtime without pay. Therefore, the above memo is grossly inconsistent with management's contention that “When acting in a management position, employees with time-keeping access are aware that co-workers are to be compensated appropriately for work performed.” This clearly shows that while the Postal Service is preaching integrity out of one side of its mouth, it's threatening its employees not to hit the clock out of the other. After getting such a memo, if a 204B worked 16 hours, what are the chances that they're going to tell me that? Yet, after the gross intimidation of its employees not to report the time they actually worked, the Postal Service now wants to hold me responsible for the employees under-reporting their time. Thus, the action taken against me represents the very height of hypocrisy.
The Postal Service's History of Time Fraud
The theft of employee time that's going on here in the Los Angeles district is far from an aberration. The Postal Service has clearly adopted time fraud as a national business strategy. One lawsuit against the Postal Service alleged that time fraud against its employees is so rampant and widespread that it constitutes a criminal enterprise. The attorney in the case actually tried to charge the Postal Service with violation of the RICO Act (The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act), the law passed by Congress to go after the Mafia. The Postal Service didn't deny the charge. Instead, it simply petitioned the court to throw out the allegation based on the fact that a government agency can't be charged with engaging in a criminal enterprise.
In New Hampshire, Congressman Paul Hodes (D-N.H.) called on the United States Postal Service to present a plan to fully reimburse postal workers for the wages they have lost as a result of managers manipulating their timecards.”
Just this past week Barbara Stickler, president of Branch 1100 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, led her branch in picketing the Long Beach postmaster for harassment, intimidation, and time fraud, and another round of picketing is scheduled for early November. Ms. Stickler said the following:
While management everywhere is pushing letter carriers to do their routes and part of another route in an impossible time frame, Long Beach management has taken it to new heights. Long Beach management is consistently violating the parties’ collective bargaining agreement with their abusive remarks and creative discipline. Management is on a rampage destroying its very own employees. Letter carriers are brought into the office and threatened with discipline if they do not make the delivery times arbitrarily created, based on projected times and inappropriate deductions, and have been disciplined for not making these illegitimate standards. Additionally, the union is investigating several cases of management falsifying clock rings for the entire office.
In the interest of full disclosure, I became personally (but objectively) involved in this matter because I know it to be particularly egregious, based on my personal knowledge of the employee involved. It also speaks directly to an issue I've been addressing in many column. It is of particular interest for the negative impact of America's new business model on the middle class. The facts clearly demonstrate the business community's full-throated assault on the American middle class.
The character of the manager and agencies mandated to protect the rights of the employee is clearly revealed through the facts in this case.
The Postal Service placed so much work on this employee that by the time she was finally ready to close the station, she didn't have to because the morning tour was showing up for work. Instead of going home, she checked into a motel across the street from the Post Office.
The following is a letter from her former manager:
I was the Manager of Customer Service at Bicentennial Station in Los Angeles from 1997 until I retired in 2001. I was M.s Snow's manager during this time. Prior to coming to Bicentennial Station, the two previous managers, Lloyd Curtis and James Barnett, had apprised me of Ms. Snow's supervisory skills and total dedication to duty and company. Upon coming to the unit, I was not disappointed and found all they had told me concerning Ms. Snow was true.
Ms. Snow was one of my closing and weekend supervisors. She had an exceptional knowledge of the overall operation and excelled at running a difficult unit. She required little to no supervision. She could be counted on to work beyond what was normally considered an average workday without complaint. She always finished her assignments, no matter how long her day was extended and this included weekends. She has excellent interpersonal skills, which you need supervising the diverse workforce at Bicentennial Station. Ms. Snow exceeded my expectations relative to handling my business customers and resolving complaints. In addition to all of this, Ms. Snow would routinely call the office on her scheduled off day to see how things were going and offer her assistance if needed.
Joann Snow proved to be an invaluable asset and even now in retirement, I often think of her and thank her when I talk to her for helping make my tour at Bicentennial successful.
Sincerely,
Eugene Jeffries
Mr. Wattree may be contacted at wattree.blogspot.com or Ewattree@Gmail.com
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