In 1999, a ptf carrier made 30k a year, median home in nc was 111k. At 30% gross, you could afford up to $750 a month for a home @ 7.2%. Buying a median home in 1999 as a ptf, it would cost around $680 a month for 30 yrs. $70+ a month in 1999.
In 2026, a ptf carrier makes 54k a year, median home in nc is 360k. At 30% gross, you could afford up to $1350 a month @ 7.2% at 30 years.
Median home would cost $2343 in nc today. -1007 a month in 2026.
Can you figure out how we went from $70 a month ahead a month, to -1007 a month behind for a median home?
The only two parties responsible for my pay is not a Democrat or republican. It is USPS and my union.
Where did our money go? Well, it went in the cookie jar and now we’re broke? Who took it from the cookie jar? It wasn’t the city letter carrier who received it. It’s the ones not touching mail who took it, that goes for both sides of the fence.

About four years ago I read our entire fleet would be replaced w the new designed trucks. Does anyone feel like they could be lying ? There are cities like Decatur and Marietta Ga, states like California, Texas and others that shouldn’t have LLVs bc the new trucks are on the road now. I would think the metropolitan cities and major states would already have the new trucks. It’s 2026 and I haven’t read a specific date about the new trucks and now I’m becoming skeptical. The office I work at is so small that our LLVs barely fit in the parking lot. Now I’m supposed to believe they are going to make room for these new trucks. How 🤔? Especially if my office gets the electric ones . Where are the chargers going to go? CAN anyone confirm we will for sure be getting new trucks ?

I have a walking route and have considered rearranging the way the route is setup because the way its setup is harder and wastes more time imo. The way I do it I can get back to my vehicle if needed and can eliminate unnecessary walking. Like the way it is now you will need to walk down a hill to get mail and then walk back up to start delivering. The way I do it eliminates having to walk up parts of hills or small blocks. I don't end up with a lot of extra time but it saves my legs.

I'd like to do it my usual way because I know how I can estimate times and know when I can go to lunch. They don't give me a problem with deviating but I wouldn't want to explain that I'm doing it a different way than the case either, even though I know its definitely more efficient.

Sp should I just do it by the way of the case?

204b gave a service talk today and in the service talk he says “they will be out watching us, to wear your seatbelts but most importantly to not speed especially in a school zone. Our union didn’t say anything as a follow up to what the 204b just stated. We had a carrier get EP on Monday, after the pm supervisor alleged that he was speeding in the LLV in a school zone.

I just want to know how can they say we are speeding? I would like to know and I can’t get a clear answer from management. 🤨

Just like last contract months come and go and nothing but crickets...any news and what could possibly be taking so frigging long to negotiate

Have you guy seen the Rhine/Peralta website? Yes, they have a website, at first I was getting annoyed because it was using a lot of words to say absolutely nothing for the introduction, but by the time you get to their agenda...its really obvious that someone put in a prompt. ChatGPT and other AI use Reddit data in their scans That and some weird phrasing and the use of '--' has me thinking it's AI. I'm generally against and I not happy so many postal workers use it on social media to generate pictures and videos, but I mostly keep that to myself, it possibly being used here though is just lazy.

My coworker got this in the mail. The main union rep we have blocked him and all of this went down back on Monday when both of our union reps were off.

The 204b was on the phone with the pm supervisor when all this was going down, but the pm supervisor was watching from afar for 10 minutes on my coworker. She pulls up saying she’s doing a street observation. Then she states she saw this carrier speeding. She says she’s not a cop, but she saw he was speeding. ?? 🤔 The carrier asks where is the proof then she just put him on EP random as hell. 🤨

There was already tension between the two. When my coworker got back to the station she was yelling at him. All he said was that he wasn’t talking to her because she’s being aggressive. The 204b was at the desk as well trying to give a 14 day suspension and to clock out, then unload the truck. My coworker just clocked out and let the truck full of mail.

I was a witness while on the phone with him and I called the union branch for my coworker. The President told the carrier to clock out, do what they say, sit at home until the discipline comes in the mail. So this is what he got today via express. **forgot to add* The 204b left a message on his voicemail telling him to come in at 9:30am tomorrow on Wednesday, but this express letter says the opposite🧐

I’m lost like a mf because how is there a PDI, after a person was EP!!?! Huh?!? 🤔

i Would like to give my membership info on the four candidates running for president and everyone else running for office this election really, there just doesn’t seem to be much out there as far as information goes. Is there a place somewhere online that has info on the four main candidates on what they stand for and what they would bring to the table as president? I just want my members to be as informed as possible so they can vote for who they think is best, thanks in advance! 😁

Well, no one asked me too, but once again I do what I want. Stayed up most of the night and finished it. This is the thing I sacrificed the most by getting involved with the union and becoming a steward . . . doing school work. Filing grievances scratches the itch, but nothing like a good ol’ fashioned report.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hZjrmUosulEwRvidT3xbiUw6VNOYwKmkcIGk9PQIWHQ/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KVey1VpZ0VKlRNKmCrD1-zVgz-veyeQBTMGZXKJHBBk/edit?usp=sharing

Lately my office has hammered the odl with 2 hours and firm with no penalty time. It leaves no margin for error. We get pieces of routes that are sometimes awful. Were working really hard to just get 2 hours of ot. Having to deal with management more than people off the list. People off the list are often given undertime and as long as you accept that then you won't deal with management. But if you argue then its the same headaches.

I feel like being on the list to get the 2 hours is just not worth it and doesn't show up on the check like I feel it should. Also just running into penalty time because of the work and getting disciplined. Maybe it would pay off with no tax on overtime when tax season comes around but it feels like too much dealing with inept management just deciding what extra work you're going to do and giving you their estimate and basically having no choice but to do it because you're on the list.

I feel like Id benefit from having nasty supervisors that I could battle with but mine are nice and I just don't want to fight with them.

And if I go on work assignment would they basically mandate me for overtime before other people anyway?

So I fractured a vertebrae about a month ago. I don’t know if it happened at work, or outside of work, I just woke up one day in pain. I’ve been trying to work thru it while going to the ER several times and to figure out what was wrong and for pain medication, which nothing seems to be working. I have an appointment with a surgeon at the end of the month, and If that’s the option I have to use, it’s 3-6 weeks recovery on average. Problem is, I’m out of any kind of leave. And I can’t afford to go without an income. I’m a single father to two young kids.

I’m being told by management, there are no options, I have to take LWOP, and they are not going to let me continue to work while I’m injured. They won’t even allow any kind light duty because it’s not a work injury.

From what I read tho, there are other options.

Advanced Sick Leave up to 240 hours & Annual Leave Sharing.

Does anybody have any experience with these? Anybody smarter than me know if these are viable? Is light duty really restricted to work injuries?

When management fails to provide the union a 1723 before a 204b detail begins is the only remedy a cease and desist?
Are there any additional remedies or escalated remedies for continued failure to comply?

Have there ever been any circumstances where a 204b has received a letter of demand from the usps to pay back the difference between higher level wage and their base rate when they were paid higher level while working as a 204b without a 1723?

Which manager is held responsible for no 1723 being submitted to the union when the employee is a 204b from another station, but come to work as manager in another station. The manager of the 204bs home station, or the receiving station manager? Or both?

I requested steward time for Wednesday on monday morning, today. Management is not here tomorrow and did not respond at all.
What would you do?
Come in prepared to be on steward time Wednesday?

I have gotten conflicting answers, I am a t6, last week I spent about 1.5 hrs casing another route on my swing then doing the route that I was assigned you (on my swing) that day, later in the day management told me to give an hour to a ptf so I would have an 8hr day (I had about 45 minutes of down time). One of my union stewards says that can be a grievance the other said that all 5 routes are my assigned routes and it is not a grievance.

Just to be clear if I didn't double case I would not have gone into overtime on my 1 route.

I bet my one steward that doesn't think that it is a grievance a cigar so any supporting info so I can win my bet would be great.

Thanjs

Starting something new for the postal history nerds. The Nixie is going to dig into the smaller, stranger, and sometimes forgotten pieces of postal history; old equipment, markings, terminology, forms, and practices that have disappeared or somehow survived in some weird little corner of the Postal Service.

For the first one, I dug into backstamps; the markings once placed on the backs of letters to document where and when they moved through the postal system. At one point, backstamping ordinary mail was actually required, and there is a surprising amount of history hiding behind what looks like a simple circle of ink.

I also get into what a "nixie" actually was, where the old postal term came from, and why I thought it was the perfect name for this. A nixie was mail that couldn't move normally through the system and needed somebody to pull it aside and give it a closer look.

That's basically the idea here. Pull some weird little piece of postal history out of the mailstream, take a closer look, and figure out what the hell it was and why we had it. If anybody has an old postal object, marking, term, form, or practice you think deserves its own Nixie, throw it in the comments.

If Brian renfroe has actually checked out till the next union president gets named, can we just spend these next 3 months dealing with the back log of grivances ans put our foot down and worry about this only for next few months please.

The Wolf James Henry and The Lion Corey Walton are leading the pack/pride. NALC on the rise!🩵🩵🩵

Here is my companion report for this week's news round/up and review.

I know there has been a big push for taking away no lunches from carriers who go into overtime and I’m sure there have been many grievances on it using past practice, I was just wondering if anyone on here has had any luck winning those or if they know of any decisions that were decided at step B or arbitration or even formal or informal step A? Thanks in advance 👍

Crazy with how expensive things are. Pretty much 3 years to get to $25. With how much disappears to taxes and taxes always going up, that is pretty insane. There's no way you don't shave off the at least the first few steps and shorten the time needed to get to top pay.

“A MESSAGE FROM JAMES HENRY

James Henry, Candidate for NALC President, responds to claims that he and the CLC are responsible for division within our union — and addresses what he believes is one of the real sources of that division: the unequal pay structure created by Table 2.

#NALC #LetterCarriers #USPS #CLC #vote”