NALC's "wrong way" Rolando

Many letter carriers in the USPS perceive the National Association of Letter Carriers as a union too friendly with management and willing to do the dirty work of eliminating jobs. Carriers are shown the door through excessing with the blessings of NALC's President Fredric V. Rolando who failed to play hardball with management. Instead of urging the USPS to use the "minor route adjustments" clause which requires management to work at eliminating routes, Rolando decided to fast track the process with MIARAP and JARAP to the delight of management and the detriment of carriers. Union officials visited every office in the nation and negotiated the reduction of routes with local managers while shafting its carriers. Carriers were bought in late in the process for their input on the routes to be heard by deaf ears.

Rolando said recently about his role in excessing carriers in a "Postal Employee Network" article on July 8, 2010, "Jointly with the NALC, it has evaluated and adjusted letter carrier routes four times in the past 18 months. These hard-nosed reviews have saved the Postal Service over a billion dollars and have significantly reduced its workforce while it reached record levels of productivity. Indeed, the Postal Service now employs nearly 100,000 fewer career employees than it did before the recession began." So Rolando takes credit for the loss of 100,000 middle class jobs and the affected carriers deservedly blame the union, who are obviously "in bed with management" when it comes to excessing.

The NALC's Long Island Merged Branch #6000 President Walter Barton wrote in its newsletter on March 2010,"In the opinion of this writer, after MIARAP is debated again, a vote should be taken by the Presidents as to whether we will continue with the MIARAP process or any other version that may be in the process. Postal Management at the National and Area level seem "hell bent" on destroying the service (5 day delivery) and demoralizing the work force. Why should we continue to be involved in any process that is used to deny letter carriers a fair day's work?" So it's not only USPS upper management blaming the union for the route adjustment debacle, but also presidents of NALC branches under Rolando's regime.

On March 24, 2010, the USPS stabbed the NALC in the back with a Five-Day Delivery Proposal on its website. NALC's President Rolando must be urged to pull out of the route adjustment MOU's (Memorandum of Understanding) at the NALC Anaheim National Convention (August 9-13, 2010) for leverage in the 2011 National Agreement. Under the traditional route adjustment process, it will take the USPS up to five years to evaluate every city carrier route in the country. This shot across the bow by Postmaster General John Potter concerning 5-day delivery shows he bargains in bad faith and is not to be trusted in contract negotiations.

If the NALC desires to protect its members, Rolando must immediately tell the USPS to "shove it" and pull out of its agreements to eliminate routes. The USPS doesn't respect them by overreaching and carriers aren't naive to think President Rolando has their interests in mind. Unions willing to fight are respected and letter carriers perceive the NALC as cowards by not going toe to toe with Postmaster General John Potter. Union membership is dwindling due to "wrong way" Rolando's approval of transferring (excessing) its members out of union branches and leaving discontent with the remaining members.

Unions are supposed to protect jobs and fight for them and the NALC has become just as arrogant as USPS management regarding the treatment of letter carriers in this issue. Rolando must pull out of JARAP immediately and require the USPS to use minor route adjustments as a tool for excessing. This will buy time for the carriers on the hit list and restore the credibility of the NALC to many carriers. Instead of Rolando's "hard-nosed reviews" of eliminating jobs, how about him playing hardball with Potter by pulling out of all MOU's regarding route adjustments?

Note: JSTAT is a retired letter carrier and a member in good standing at NALC Branch #1427 in Santa Clara, California.