Happy Fourth of July! While some of us are experiencing much-needed relaxation from work, NALC is hard at work trying to secure our next contract. The “contract banter” will be the fill of the summer on social media. But if you live in the gossip and speculation world, your sense of reality becomes rather murky.
Along with presidents (or their designees) from all over the country, I attended the first Collective-Bargaining Conference presented by NALC. The purpose was to inform leaders about the inner workings of collective bargaining. At our last convention, the members spoke and NALC listened. Up until now, there could not be more transparency.
The result of all the hard work during this process is aimed at getting the best contract possible for our brethren. In negotiations you may not get everything you want, but there is nothing wrong with shooting for the stars. We will see how it all turns out, and guess what? Local negotiations begin 30 days after the
contract is ratified by the membership.
Thankfully, route inspections don’t occur during the summer. We currently do not have a joint process in place for route inspection. Therefore, management has been cutting routes at a rampant pace all over the country. Some offices have agreed to take routes out, only to have management come back months later and take another six routes out.
We seem to have problems taking comfort stops and breaks when management is walking us! I’ve never seen it this bad. Hopefully we will adjust and prosper, because some of the cuts management are making will render those offices unmanageable. But in management speak, squeeze, baby, squeeze until you wear out their knees.
One thing talked about was self-management. How beautiful does that sound?
#NoMoreStupervisors
#It’sEasyToComplain
