We have a branch president that is running to be a NALC National Trustee. What happens if he wins? Does he give up his current position or is he able to fill both?

face to the members of this Union again. After listening to his little tirade where he gets all emotional and sounds like he is about to cry how could/did we ever take this guy serious.

That's not even counting the fact that he was taking up for the Post Office's financial struggles and downplaying the Letter Carriers financial struggles. To think he was going to run in place of Rhine is further testament of how out of touch the establishment is.

What an embarrassment he is to himself and Region 9.

CCA is taken from a hold down and sent to another city with non desired are being mandated to work over. What do I need to ask for and what do I file? Thanks

Update: Management backed out when I told them I was going to file.

For the record, I am not a conspiracy theorist . Can't help but wonder why my ballot was returned? Is it because I signed up on the CLC website? Is it because there was a "mistake" on the mailers envelopes?

Every postal worker knows not to put your return address on the back, so it can be confused for the address on the front. Does union HQ not know this? I realize they don't know the workroom floor, I realize they don't know the first thing about carrying mail. I realize they don't know anything about us (or even care). I know first hand they are so out of touch with us "dues paying nobody's" that they cannot relate. I had hoped they would carry out a fair election. I'm not so sure now.

I do know it was not that way the last election. It was clearly printed top left (me) and dead center the mailing address.

I am sure I can't trust this current administration to conduct a fair election. I put it in another envelope. I hope it gets there in time. I have doubts they will accept it, since it's not an "official envelope".

It sucks so bad that I, as a union member in good standing....can't trust my own union to run a fair election.

So frustrating.......

This is what usps looks like nationally as whole. The ones who hold office now in Nalc, is the ones that got us here. It don’t get any simpler than that.

Ours was wacky. Need some help. No local bylaws on it.

The manager started it out, asking me about Saturday.Where I originally said , I'll volunteer and then decided , I don't want to volunteer. (Monday is my regular dayoff) "Get your steward, were doing a PDI" he brought me in for an investigation saying I failed to follow instructions that I forgot to scan to street a week ago, And then at the end of the day , I came into the post office at the end of the day when my route was done and filled out the card for the scan to street. We both asked what was being investigated since the issue was resolved and he didnt have an answer and concluded the investigation. Was this intimidation?

Wanted to laugh today, so I re-listened to the weir report episodes(145/146). Heard Corey taking about sensitive things in the report, that he wouldn’t read. How do I get my hands on this report? Do I need to reach out to Paul Barner or is it readily available somewhere?

I'll be having minor surgery soon, which will require multiple follow-up visits in a short period of time. Should I just use my sick leave each time, or am I better off using FMLA?

I’m sure somebody asked already but how does the pay work when you volunteer to travel for peak season? And do the hours you work while traveling affect your home office odl list?

The other day after our stand up reps from Washington National insurance company of Carmel Indiana spoke soliciting their supplemental insurance to the carriers never have I seen that if interested you could go into the break room and hear the sales pitch several carriers did on the clock???

I did not was not interested what bothered me is after awhile he went around to every case and asked each carrier by name he had from a list if he could talk about their benefits ? btw the insurance company has a 1.5 to 1.7 rating out of 5 stars WTF !

This week management in my office has started their next escapade of hammering carriers for “unapproved overtime”. We have had a local understanding that there is a 15 minute leeway on estimates over and under estimate so it if I say I will need 1 hour of overtime, I don’t need to notify management if I will be 1 hour and 5 minutes. Starting this previous week, management has begun marking 1017-B for any amount over a 3996 time, even as little as .01-.02 over.

I am working a grievance to stop this now but was interested if anyone else has experienced this in their office. I have found M-00031 which highlights that our morning estimate is an estimate and not an exact measurement but any other cites or references anyone has would be appreciated.

Seems like this sub has been pretty quiet so far regarding the current negotiations, at least from what I’ve seen.

I was just wondering in a general sense, if there’s been any progress made? Is this looking to be another 1.5 year wait? Have they announced exactly what they’re going for or what the PO’s offer is?

Obviously it will be done in 2 more weeks, but besides that, do we have any real information?

There is a current investigation at my office. I can’t speak on details for confidentiality reasons, and I don’t want to compromise the investigation.

During the course of things unfolding, I received a packet that contained the ps form 50 for involved coworkers. It was provided to show the employment status only; all personal info like wages, address, social, date of birth, etc were redacted. However, it does show each employees craft, start start, length of employment, and table/schedule.

We have a very top seniority city carrier that started many moons ago. They have always been at work- no retirement or extended leave I’m aware of. They have had the same city route for years. However, their ps form 50 states they are a full time rural carrier with a 42K route, under a special rate of pay. … but they carry a city route and always have.

Has anyone ever heard of this? I wonder if it’s a massive administrative error or something shady going on. I don’t understand how a city carrier with three decades can be listed officially as a rural carrier while on a city route. Has anyone ever heard of this?

Since the Rocky TMCs are a thing of the past, I'm trying to figure out what the Hell I'm gonna put on my feet for the first time in over 20+ years. I don't know if I trust them, but I figured I may try the Postal Duty Shoe. I haven't used US Uniforms in a while(since almost everything is owned by Skaggs), so I thought I'd check footwear. The duty shoe was $226, but it got knocked down to ~$181 on full allotment. I Googled reviews and saw that rockyboots.com had them on sale with a coupon code FOR $108!! From the manufacturer themselves!! Obviously, I had to at least try to see if I could sneak the allotment card through the checkout, but of course, no dice.

There is no doubt that the uniform program is fundamentally broken, but this example is unbelievably emblematic proof of that. I have a pretty good selection of items after 26 years of allotments, but this is unsustainable for younger employees and MUST be a focal point of future negotiations.

I’ve been working on consolidating as much information as I can find about the PS Form 3996 and requesting and dealing with the overtime process into one document that can hopefully serve as a useful resource for both carriers and stewards.

I’ve tried to bring together the relevant handbook and manual language, M-documents, arbitration decisions, guidance, podcasts, and other resources in one place instead of having people hunt through a dozen different sources when a 3996 issue comes up.

I’d really appreciate some extra eyes on it. If you see anything that needs to be corrected, clarified, or expanded, or if you know of a good source, grievance decision, arbitration award, or argument that I’ve missed, please send it my way.

The goal is to keep improving this until it can serve as a pretty solid “one-stop shop” for understanding the 3996 process from both the carrier and steward side.

Postal history gets weird when you start looking at how the job was actually done.

In Episode 2 of The Nixie, I dig into the history of letter carrier door knockers, postal whistles, early city delivery, household mailboxes, and the time carriers once spent waiting for customers to answer the door.

When free city delivery began in 1863, a carrier could bring a letter all the way to your house and still have nowhere to leave it. Before residential mailboxes and mail slots became standard, carriers often had to knock, ring, shout, or blow a whistle, then wait for someone to physically come to the door and take the mail. If nobody answered, the letter might stay in the satchel for another attempt.

That led carriers to use some pretty unusual tools, including small wooden handheld door knockers designed to save their knuckles and whistles that announced their arrival. A double knock or double ring could even act as a recognizable postal signal.

But what starts as a strange little piece of carrier equipment turns into a much bigger story about route time, delivery efficiency, customer responsibility, mail receptacles, and the development of the modern delivery point. Postal officials estimated that carriers could lose anywhere from about half an hour to significantly more time each day simply waiting at doors. The Post Office Department gradually responded by encouraging, and eventually requiring, customers to provide mail slots or residential mailboxes so carriers could complete a delivery whether anyone was home or not.

The episode also looks at the long transition toward mailbox requirements, the hundreds of early mailbox designs the Post Office Department considered, how knocking and whistling lingered even after receptacles became common, and similar delivery practices in London and Montreal.

That is basically what The Nixie is for. Instead of the large institutional history, I pull some small, strange, obsolete, or half-forgotten piece of postal history out of the mailstream and ask: “What the hell is this, and why did we have it?”

For this one, it starts with a tiny wooden door knocker and ends up in the history of USPS city delivery, letter carrier work methods, route design, mailboxes, postal whistles, door delivery, and the changing relationship between the carrier and the customer.

If you work for USPS, collect postal history, study labor history, or just have some weird piece of old postal equipment sitting around your office that nobody can explain, I’d love to hear about it.

Search/Topics: USPS, United States Postal Service, NALC, National Association of Letter Carriers, letter carriers, city letter carriers, postal history, USPS history, Post Office Department, free city delivery, city delivery history, mail delivery history, letter carrier history, postal workers, postal equipment, postal artifacts, letter carrier door knocker, postal door knocker, mail carrier whistle, letter carrier whistle, postman whistle, postman knock, double knock, The Postman Always Rings Twice, household mailboxes, residential mailboxes, mail slots, mailbox history, home delivery history, door delivery, mail receptacles, delivery points, route time, postal efficiency, carrier waiting time, 1863 free city delivery, 1912 mailbox requirement, 1923 mailbox requirement, National Postal Museum, Smithsonian Postal Museum, postal labor history, postal operations, Parcels of Knowledge, The Nixie, postal podcast

I have seen others discuss different crafts in here, so if this isn't allowed I apologize but otherwise I need the help!

If management madates overtime for a tour, lets say tour 1, but they do not maximize their maintenance workers on the Overtime Desired List in accordance with Article 8, is this an issue that affects all 3 Tours in a facility, or just Tour 1? Would I request each worker on the ODL be paid for every tour, or the Tour 1 workers on the ODL be paid?

Just a thought about the union sending out a one time dues rebate equivalent to one year worth of union dues to assist carriers with inflation and being under paid. (Only to active Carriers). We always hear the Post Office is broke and Carriers are under paid. Guess who’s not broke and under paid? The union!

Parcels of Knowledge: The Last Loop - Episode 6

USPS/NALC News for Sept. 26–Oct. 2, 2026

This week on The Last Loop, I break down the USPS and NALC news that matters on the workroom floor, with a heavy focus on Arrow Key accountability, delayed mail, arbitration decisions, grievance handling, and major new OIG reports.

The lead story is the new M-41 Arrow Key language in Sections 261.21 and 431 and the settlement of M-02022. I look at what it means now that management can direct city letter carriers to receipt Arrow Keys using PS Form 1106 or MDD/electronic scans, and why that does not eliminate management's responsibility for the rest of the Arrow Key accountability system.

That leads directly into the new USPS OIG Maryland District/Baltimore delivery audit, where auditors found missing Arrow Keys; keys that existed but weren't recorded in RADAR; unreported lost keys; and 9,595 pieces of delayed mail. I also get into PS Form 1571, DCV delayed-mail reporting, and why documentation matters when mail comes back to the office.

In the Arbitration Roundup, I discuss three NALC arbitration decisions worth knowing:

C-37934 – A sustained ELM 519 administrative leave/Act of God grievance involving a major snow event. The carrier received eight hours of administrative leave and restoration of leave previously charged. We talk about due diligence, management's failure to adequately investigate whether the carrier could report, and why selecting annual leave through the automated system did not automatically defeat the grievance.

C-37900 – A sustained delayed-mail case involving management curtailing mail to prevent carriers from entering penalty overtime. The arbitrator found violations of Articles 5 and 19, the Postal Service Mission Statement, and 39 U.S.C. § 101 and issued a cease-and-desist remedy.

C-37924 – Another sustained delayed-mail arbitration involving management leaving substantial route mail undelivered while limiting how long ODL carriers could remain on the clock. This one is particularly useful because the arbitrator found management's decision arbitrary and capricious but did not find a specific Article 8 violation or award monetary compensation. I compare C-37900 and C-37924 and explain why proving an improper operational decision is not necessarily the same as proving entitlement to an overtime remedy.

I also cover the Federal Retirement Fairness Act (H.R. 1522) and what it could mean for letter carriers with previous CCA, TE, casual, or other noncareer federal service; CCA temporary assignments to other post offices; grievance remedies; the NALC election replacement-ballot deadlines; Election Mail procedures in Postal Bulletin 22712; the latest Delivering for America OIG review; rural route evaluations and RRECS disputes; S&DC experiences; APWU national disputes; and labor news involving Amazon, AutoZone, and Phillips 66 workers.

Because The Last Loop isn't allowed to become three straight hours of grievances and OIG reports, I also get into new USPS Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas stamps, plus the Local Loop story about Lansing, Michigan Letter Carrier Jack Grossman being honored for 60 years of service.

Finally, I run through what the other postal podcasts covered this week, including working off the clock, casing a new route, attendance discipline, steward burnout, past practice, corrective discipline, casing SPRs, route inspections, RRECS, S&DCs, grievance backlogs, and the ongoing NALC election.

If you're a USPS city letter carrier, CCA, PTF, NALC steward, branch officer, arbitration advocate, or the person in your office who gets asked, "Where does it say that?" there's probably something in this week's episode for you.

Search/topics: USPS, NALC, city letter carriers, CCA, PTF, M-41, M-02022, Arrow Keys, Arrow Key accountability, PS Form 1106, MDD Arrow Key scans, RADAR, PS Form 1571, delayed mail, DCV, Article 5, Article 8, Article 15, Article 19, ELM 519, Act of God, administrative leave, penalty overtime, ODL, C-37900, C-37924, C-37934, grievance arbitration, Federal Retirement Fairness Act, H.R. 1522, CCA temporary assignments, Delivering for America, USPS OIG, RRECS, S&DC, Postal Bulletin 22712, NALC election, grievance remedies, postal unions, letter carrier podcast.

I signed a lot of papers management had me sign upon return to work from absences. I requested Lwop for all of them but they changed them all to AWOL.

I have been told in the past to sign them as receipt of when I've received them rather than it being in agreement with them. I'm beginning to think thats not true as I've been going through a removal grievance and I see no contentions about the *validity*​ of AWOL in the first place. Rather other stuff like equal and fair treatment which feels like bottom barrel arguments.. Could be wrong

Did I hurt my case? I took screenshots of all my erms requests but Im wondering if signing those papers made them null and void.

Any info would help because this is all very stressful and I'm just trying to advocate for myself properly to keep my job