February 2022 Branch 1111 Newsletter by NALC Branch 1111

Greater East Bay Branch 1111 News Volume 42 Number 474

February 2022

For All Our PTFs and CCAs About to Deliver and Deliver and Deliver, We Salute You!

Berkeley PTFs Charicka Davis, Samantha Machado, Christina Freund, Pietro Bigotti, Virginia Reyes, and Hongtao Wang representing Branch 1111’s next generation of Carriers

Branch 1111 News

February 2022

NALC HEALTH BENEFIT PLAN SERVICE LINES General Claims Inquiries Hospital Precertification (Required) Prerecorded Benefits Information Prescription Customer Service Line

1-888- 636-NALC 1-800-622-6252 1-888-636-NALC 1-800-933-NALC

BRANCH PAPER DEADLINE The deadline for copy for Branch 1111 News is the 5th of each month. News stories, articles, letters, drawings, or cartoons, as well as photographs -- either recent or historical -should be submitted to the Branch office. Short notices of personal or shop floor interest are especially welcome. The Editor and Assistant Editor retain the right to edit, delete, or reject articles and artwork for the good of the Branch.

BRANCH 1111 OFFICERS Edward P. Fletcher, President Jose Ochoa, Executive Vice President Narciso Paderanga, First Vice President Francisco Cabrera, Second Vice President Mary Abante, Third Vice President Terrence Super, Fourth Vice President John Ferreira, Secretary-Treasurer Mary Phelps, Asst. Sec-Treasurer Keith Massey, Sgt-at-Arms Jacob Morgan, Insurance Officer Rickie Cox, Trustee Jerry DePoe, Trustee Ron Jones, Trustee

Greater East Bay Branch 1111 News Branch 1111 News is the official monthly publication of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), Greater East Bay Branch 1111. Circulation 3,000 Offices Served:

Alameda, Alamo, Antioch, Benicia, Berkeley, Brentwood, Clayton, Concord, Crockett, Danville, El Cerrito, Fairfield, Fremont, Lafayette, Livermore, Martinez, Moraga, Oakland, Orinda, Pinole, Pittsburg, Pleasanton, Richmond, Rodeo-Hercules, San Lorenzo, San Ramon, Suisun City, Union City, Vallejo, Walnut Creek

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEMBERS

Elizabeth Corriea, Marisela Fletcher, Ray Garcia, Irene Liljedahl, Shana Lum, Joshua Pearl, Frances Rodriguez-Swint

BRANCH 1111 OFFICE HOURS Monday-Friday: 8 am to 5 pm 402 – 37th Street Richmond, Ca. 94805- 2134 510-237-5111, Fax 510-237-5181

FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/nalcbranch1111 WEBSITE: www.Branch1111.org Meetings are held every fourth Tuesday of the month except in December

BRANCH 1111 NEWS STAFF Editor - Joshua Pearl: joshpbranch1111@gmail.com Assistant Editor – John Jekabson: jjbranch1111@gmail.com Contributors -- Ed Fletcher, Jose Ochoa, John Ferreira, Narciso Paderanga, Mary Abante, Liz Corriea, Ron Jones, Jerry DePoe, Francisco Cabrera, Mary Phelps, Terrence Super, Keith Massey, Jacob Morgan. Views expressed in Branch 1111 News do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor, Assistant Editor, Branch Officers, or members of National Association of Letter Carriers, Branch 1111

February 2022

Branch 1111 News “With House passage, we are one step closer to dramatically improving the financial stability of the Postal Service. We call on the Senate to debate and pass H.R. 3076 as soon as possible — and then to send it to President Biden for his signature. “I want to congratulate and thank all the NALC members who lobbied their members of Congress to win House passage and urge them to help finish the job by contacting their senators to urge them to vote for H.R. 3076.”

BACK TO VIRTUAL MEETINGS The Tuesday, February 22nd Branch meeting will be virtual only. The same goes for the March 22nd meeting. We will be monitoring the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommendations and open up to in-person meetings as soon as they are deemed safe.

HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU The following carriers retired recently: Joseph Moran of Fremont; Jose Noel Andola, of Oakland; I Feng Wu of Berkeley; Michael Wilkinson of Vallejo; Jethro Romualdo of Walnut Creek; Yolanda Duenas and Ruben Diaz of Union City; and Edward Flores of Richmond; We wish many years of leisure to all.

SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS Now is the time to plan ahead and investigate available scholarships for family members for the upcoming college year. The Branch 1111 Katherine Ellis Memorial Scholarship form was printed in the December Branch paper and is also available by calling the Branch Office. The deadline for submission is February 28, 2022.

CCA Mekena Ramos of Lafayette taking a much-deserved break

HOUSE PASSES POSTAL SERVICE REFORM ACT February 8, 2022: In a 342-92 vote the House of Representatives passed the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 (H.R. 3076). NALC President Rolando called the passage “a huge victory for the American people, who rely on the Postal Service for affordable and high-quality universal service.” The strongly bipartisan bill includes key measures to strengthen the Postal Service, including provisions that eliminate the mandate on the Postal Service to pre-fund its retiree health care benefits decades in advance and that codify the requirement to provide six-day mail delivery. It also includes provisions to reduce postal health care costs by maximizing participation in Medicare on a prospective basis. The legislation reflects a broad bipartisan consensus that was 15 years in the making and that has the support of the four postal unions, the mailing industry, and Postal Service management. “NALC commends Chairwoman Maloney and Ranking Member Comer for their bipartisan leadership to get this momentous bill passed in the House,” NALC President Rolando said. “We also appreciate every House member who supported this bill by voting “yes.”

Fremont Main Steward Anthony Rhodes with new OJI (On the Job Instructor) Sulaiman Zahid

February 2022

ENDLESS TUG OF WAR By Edward P. Fletcher, President

Throughout my 37 years, it seems that the NALC has been “Toeing the Line” in an endless “Tug of War” with the Postal Service to protect the USPS from themselves. As members of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) and in addition to delivering our nation’s mail, we all have roles to play in this great union. As letter carriers, we are a different breed. We have been tried and tested. We are strong. We work long hours in unfavorable conditions. Some of which are created by the unsettled weather, while others are self-inflicted by short-sighted USPS leaders. We know that day-in and day-out we must continue to “Toe the Line” (synonyms: toe the mark, meet a standard, abide by the rules) by standing up for each other and enforcing our rights under our Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). That is effective unionism in motion. There is No Greater Role than that of a Shop Steward Becoming a Shop Steward in 1988 changed my life and my career path. I am here today fighting for your rights. I didn’t like the way that Management mistreated employees and routinely violated our National Agreement. So, I can say for certainty that there is no greater role and or honor in the NALC than becoming a Shop Steward. It starts and ends with you. You are the face of the union in your office. You can directly affect change in a positive way by learning and enforcing the contractual rights of our members. It is true that Shop Stewards are the backbone of the NALC. All of our current Branch Full-time Officers were local Shop Stewards who worked and still work tirelessly for our members. If you are interested in serving as a Shop Steward in your office, please discuss it with your Full-time Officer. If not, please remember that the union is all of us standing together. It is not just the Officers and Stewards who accepted the challenge. It is the membership that stands in unity, reports contract violations and provides evidence and statements to the stewards to collectively enforce our rights- e pluribus Unum. Setting Aside the Contract is Never the Answer It never ceases to amaze me that when Management fails to do their job, they expect the union to look the other way and/or set aside the Contract. That will not happen. For example, due to their failure to properly staff Postal Installations in California District 2. Oakland Management was directed to removed fulltime regulars off their bid assignments and send them to other stations. That is a clear violation of Article 41.1.C.4 of the National Agreement, and the carriers right to work their assignment as posted. In short, they lost their minds. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not the answer. Similarly, and if you are an 4

Branch 1111 News unassigned regular, Part-time Flexible and/or City Carrier Assistant on an “Opt” on a regularly scheduled workday, Article 41.2.B grants you the right to work your Opt “as posted.” If any of these violations happen to you, please immediately request to see your Shop Seward and file a grievance. We must all “Toe the Line” for our cause. Filing COVID-19 Form CA-1’s Did you know that if you are diagnosed with COVID-19 as a federal employee and with the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021, that you can file a claim with the Department of Labor (DOL)? You must have worked within 21days prior to when you took your positive test. The DOL/OWCP has streamlined the process for filing COVID-19 Form CA-1 claims electronically through Employees Compensation and Management Portal (ECOMP). So, to establish that you were diagnosed with COVID-19, you must submit either a positive PCR COVID-19 test result, positive antibody or antigen COVID-19 test result along with documented medical evidence that you had COVID-19 symptoms, and/or were treated for COVID-19 by a physician. A notice to quarantine for possible exposure is not sufficient. The NALC has a Power Point on the requirements and how to file a COVID-19 Claim/Form CA-1 electronically. To get COP for any Traumatic Injury/Form CA-1, you must file your Form CA-1 within 30-days. There is still a 3-day waiting period. Call your FTO if you have any questions. COVID-19 MOU’s Continued By joint agreement (M-01972), several COVID-19 related memorandums of understanding have been further extended through April 8, 2022. These memoranda include temporary expanded sick leave for dependent care (M-01910); temporary use of the 7:01 rule (M-01913); temporary workplace changes to promote social distancing (M-01915); temporary use of TCAs (M-01916); and reinstatement of temporary additional paid leave for CCAs (M-01965). Also extend through April 08, 2022, was: the temporary time limit extension on Step B and arbitration appeals (M-01973); and an agreement giving local parties the ability to mutually develop a sign-up process for full-time employees who previously did not, or could not, place their names on either the overtime desired list or work assignment list (M-01974). And, USPS memorandum (M-01914), which instructs managers and supervisors to allow liberal changes of schedule to accommodate employees dealing with childcare issues related to the pandemic, which cannot be cited in discipline cases. Virtual Branch 1111 Meetings To protect the safety and health of our members, Branch 1111 General Membership Meetings on the 4th Tuesday of each month will continue to be virtual. If you are not on the list to receive the link for the meetings, please contact the Branch Office. We look forward to seeing all of you on Zoom.

February 2022

Work Medical Restrictions and You By Jose Ochoa, Executive Vice President

You go to work and present an 8, 9 or 10 hour-a-day doctor’s restriction and your inept supervisor immediately rejects it because “it doesn’t have biomechanics” or “the nature of your illness”. So you are instructed to work more hours. Sound familiar? Have you tried asking that supervisor to explain what “biomechanics” are/mean? Most of them have no clue! Having an 8, 9 or 10 hour-a-day restrictions have nothing to do with biomechanics or the nature of your illness, because you are able to perform all of your carriers duties. There is nothing in such restrictions that would prevent carriers to deliver the mail in an efficient manner. Those types of restrictions do not render the carrier unable to perform the duties of the position, Therefore your medical restrictions are in compliance with the ELM 513.362 and ELM513.364. M-01807 dated March 19, 2012 prior to Megan Brennan becoming Postmaster General reads: “When craft employees provide medical documentation indicating that they have a disability and cannot work more than 8 hours or that they require other accommodation that may impact their ability to deliver the mail in an efficient manner, this can be challenging for a manager with limited resources who is trying to move the mail. However, the answer is neither to work disabled employees outside of their restrictions, nor to discipline them for being unable to complete their route. Significant liability may result from those courses of action.” M-01360 step 4 “An inability to work overtime does not necessarily prohibit an employee from performing his or her normal assignment. Accordingly, such individual working with such restriction is not necessarily on light duty. Employees restricted from working overtime may bid on and receive assignment’s for which they can perform a regular eight hour assignment” Always submit a 3996, if the supervisor refuses to take the overtime from your route, make him/her aware that no matter what, you’ll be returning to the office within your hours limitation. Do not allow Management to work you beyond your limitations! Fill out a PS form 1767.This is not a case or situation when you follow instructions and grieve later! You are to follow your doctor’s instructions, not negotiable!

Branch 1111 News dismount route, that a lot of my mailboxes are like a centralized location for all other delivery agencies to park their packages around the mail boxes. On garbage day, it sucks, because for some reason the garbage guys constantly leave the garbage cans in front of the mailboxes, making it difficult at times to make deliveries. Occasionally I will find some small parcels in the mail boxes from other delivery agencies, which have no business using the postal customer’s mailboxes. Sometimes I have to remove them if they are taking up space so that I can’t even put my customers mail that rightfully belongs there inside. There are so many daily obstacles that we as Letter Carriers have to deal with, like when I am using my scanner it doesn’t always scan immediately. There are times when I have to punch in numbers, and if I am wearing rubber gloves, it might not work. I then have to remove the gloves in order to punch in numbers. The scanner has a mind of its own. There might be a message about the parcel I had just scanned, it will show up and disappear before I finished reading it. I have no clue what that was about. You could be in front of the correct house, and the scanner will tell you that you are 200 feet away. I have even witnessed my scanner processing a parcel that I scan without me having to punch in anything. What’s real annoying is when the scanner makes noises on its own and you are not touching anything. BERKELEY BLUES NEWS Berkeley carriers are experiencing better morale than in the past. Unfortunately, we are dealing with shortage of carriers, just as many other cities are experiencing as well. It’s hard to believe some of our carriers are carrying two routes, and some of these carriers are old-timers. Unbelievable! Just for starters, how about Management stop misusing the carriers; stop having them performing clerk work; put back all 204B supervisors; this could help some of the insanity that we are experiencing. There are carriers not even on their assignments, which is creating other violations of our Contract, which is just more work for Berkeley Shop Stewards. Oh well, we do what is needed to be done. Hang in their carriers, here’s hoping some new hires will come to Berkeley. “Knowledge is Power.”

THE MAIL BOX By Berkeley Chief Steward Liz Corriea

Mail boxes can come in all shapes and sizes. One thing I notice about mail boxes on my route, which happens to be a 5

Branch 1111 News

Enough is Enough By Narciso Paderanga, IV, First Vice President

Has your working environment ever been this bad? * * * * * * * * *

Scheduled for seven days a week More than twelve hours per day Do your route and a section from another route Newer employees calling it quits Numerous routes aren’t going out Mail and parcels are piling up. Sunday mail delivery is now necessary not just for parcels. Too many carriers being robbed while delivering Long term carriers who wanted to keep working are now seriously considering retirement.

What are the USPS leaders doing about it? As you may know, they consolidated districts and the Bay Valley District no longer exists. What a bright idea! Not so! Ever since the consolidation, everything has gone downhill. They have ignored the Union’s continued persuasion on hiring more carriers. The Branch and your local stewards have been continuously filing numerous grievances on your behalf as you may or may not know. However, it appears management would rather pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars for grievances than fix the issues. Enough is enough! Postal leaders at every level need to step up. They need to be held accountable for the current state of this organization. They need to provide a safer working environment. On the union side, these issues have been brought up to regional and national levels. If you have been scheduled to work without a day off and have been working excessive hours and excessive amount of days consecutively, and you suffer from exhaustion, it is highly suggested you take a rest day to recuperate. In the event, you are questioned via just cause interview, simply inform them of the situation and that you believe it would be unsafe if you reported to work due to exhaustion. In solidarity.

Bill That Would Give The U.S. Postal Service A Major Overhaul Moves to The Senate February 10, 2022

By Deepa Shivaram, NPR

Bipartisan legislation that boosts the U.S. Postal Service and saves nearly $50 billion in the next decade is potentially set for a Senate vote by the middle of February 6

February2022 The bill, called the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022, passed in the House on Tuesday night with overwhelming support of 342-92. "Americans rely on the Postal Service for medicines, essential goods, voting, correspondence, and their livelihoods," tweeted Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "With the overwhelming House vote for postal reform — I intend for the Senate to quickly take up and pass the bill!" What a Piece Of Work Is the Post Office Key parts of the Bill include requiring Postal Service employees to enroll in Medicare, which would cut down on premiums, according to the House Oversight Committee. Currently, about a quarter of retired postal workers do not enroll in Medicare, even when they are eligible. The committee estimates this would save approximately $22.6 billion over 10 years. Additionally, USPS would no longer be required to prefund health benefits for its current and retiring employees, which saves about $27 billion over 10 years. This is where the greatest cost savings for the Postal Service would come. The Bill also implements a service-performance transparency tool, which would require USPS to create an online dashboard with data on national - and local-level service to track delivery times. It also mandates at least six days of service per week. Of note, the Bill is also attempting to promote local news by expanding special rates for local newspaper distribution.

POLITICS For decades, USPS, which does not receive taxpayer money, has been politicized and toggled between serving as a business or a public service. It has been losing billions of dollars annually in recent years. During the 2020 election, the Postal Service and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy came under intense scrutiny as millions of Americans voted by mail during the coronavirus pandemic. DeJoy is a longtime Republican donor and was appointed to his role during the Trump administration. On the new legislation, DeJoy says he's "hopeful" the bill passes through the Senate in a timely manner.

February 2022

We Need Your Help! By Terrence Lee Super, Fourth Vice President

As you all know, the Postal Service, for whatever reason, has slowed down its hiring at a time where we need more carriers to deliver the mail. Day after day carriers are working 12 to 14 hour shifts! When will it end? We as your Officers have tried on several occasions, as well as meetings with the District, to show how vital it is to hire more people to keep our carriers from working so much overtime and penalty hours. We have carriers with 30 plus years, wanting to work a few more years initially, but now they are retiring earlier than they wanted to because their bodies can’t handle the excessive hours. Hence, the title of this article: we need your help! One of the things you can do while you are out on your route and speaking with customers, is to help get the word out that the Postal Service is hiring; and show them where they, or someone they know, can go and apply. I know some of you may be reluctant to do that for whatever reason. But I feel the oldfashioned way of doing things can really work when it comes to just hitting the streets and using word of mouth to get people in the community more involved. We can get them to understand that if we get the manpower (or woman power) to get every office to its complement, which just means basically that you have a body for every route and then some, the Post Office could literally “kill the competition”. What do I mean by this? Think about it, UPS, FedEx, and Amazon already give us a small portion of their packages to deliver, mostly because they don’t have the staffing to handle their volume. Imagine having enough carriers to force these companies to give us even more of their packages to deliver. Amazon is in the same boat as the Postal Service, they don’t have enough people either to deliver the volume that they have. In fact, I mentioned this in one of my earlier articles. Amazon is too big for their britches as the saying goes, they don’t have the man (or woman) power either to handle their own volume. The Postal Service could change the whole dynamic of delivery service if we would just hire more people! Having more of the delivery business could mean more money for the Postal Service and possibly higher wages for our next contract. If only the people at the top (Management) could see it the way we all

Branch 1111 News do, it’s really just Business 101. If you have all the delivering power, these companies will have no choice but to pay the Postal Service more to handle and deliver even more of their packages. Because we would be able to deliver them faster by having the staffing to do it! What a concept right?!?! We all know that the Postal Service NEVER does anything that makes too much sense, but when do we start calling them on this? As I mentioned before, it’s insanity to keep doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result. That just doesn’t make any sense, and I’m tired of dealing with upper management thinking that the same methods will still work today! They don’t! It’s a new age and a new work force and demographic. Again, everyone; we need your help! Please get the word out to your customers, families, or friends that we need more carriers. We can really turn this thing around if we think outside the box. The old ways are no more. We need new and inventive ways to get people into the Postal Service. MESSAGE TO NON-MEMBERS Just an FYI to all of our dear members: we have a lot of carriers who are not in the Union, please help us get them to understand that we need them to continue to fight Management for your hours, wages, and working conditions. Without its members, there’s no representation or anyone to fight for you. In fact, without the Union, Management could fire everyone and there would be nothing you could do. A couple of close friends of mine worked for Amazon, and they are as cruel as any other non-Union company. They fired them just because they didn’t want to deal with people who stick up for themselves and that was it. Imagine the Postal Service having the power to do that? Just something for all of us to think about. So, if you just happen to run into a non-member, please just take a moment to help them appreciate the benefits of being a member and how we need them to continue to make a difference in strong representation and fight Management at the highest level. Love you all, be safe out there.

Branch 1111 News

February 2022

About Those New Mail Trucks: Now EPA Wants Them to Be EVs The U.S. Postal Service is being asked to rethink its $11.3 billion plan for new trucks because they're only 0.4 mpg more fuel efficient. Please note, the current truck design has been in service since 1987. By Sebastian Blanco, Car and Driver FEB 3, 2022

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE • The U.S. Postal Service announced last spring that it would buy around 150,000 new mail trucks from Oshkosh Defense, and that they would be gas-powered instead of electric. • The EPA is now asking the USPS to pause the contract and take a more serious look at EVs for these daily work trucks that follow a known route and return to a centralized location each night. • The USPS is independent of the executive branch and so doesn't have to follow the EPA's request, but it looks like this messy fight isn’t quite finished.

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE Upgrading the U.S. Postal Service’s truck fleet has been a long and controversial process, and we're not done yet. As a quick recap, the USPS started looking for replacements for 150,000 or so Grumman Long Life Vehicles (LLVs) in around 2015. For a while, it looked like the new fleet might be made up of mostly electric vehicles, but when the contract for the new mail trucks was awarded to Oshkosh Defense in the spring of 2021, the USPS said only 10 percent of the new mail trucks might be electric. One of the contenders for an electric truck, Workhorse, sued the USPS last summer over the deal. Now the government is asking the USPS to pause on the $11.3 billion contract and reconsider the gas-powered truck purchases in the face of climate damage.

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE The Biden administration and the EPA told the USPS, which operates independent of the executive branch, that the new Oshkosh trucks are just 0.4 mile per gallon more efficient compared to the outgoing LLVs—8.6 mpg versus 8.2 mpg for the older vehicles. It also said that the Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) the USPS conducted as it decided where to award the contract were not conducted correctly. 8

February 2022

Branch 1111 News

The EPA sent a letter to the USPS yesterday that said that the whole reason to buy new mail trucks was to make them cleaner, better, and safer. The EPA said last fall that it had a problem with how the USPS conducted an earlier EIS about the truck purchase and that “the final EIS remains seriously deficient.”

This Could Be Put on Pause

"Specifically," it went on, "the final EIS does not disclose essential information underlying the key analysis of Total Cost of Ownership, underestimates greenhouse-gas emissions, fails to consider more environmentally protective feasible alternatives, and inadequately considers impacts on communities with environmental justice concerns," the EPA letter said. The EPA or the Biden Administration could also sue the USPS to reconsider the truck purchases, something that Adrian Martinez, an attorney for the environmental law firm Earthjustice, thinks could work. “It is hard to predict what courts will do, but the Postal Service’s work here is just so embarrassingly flimsy,” Martinez told the Washington Post. “They don't reveal the source of the information for many of their conclusions, instead dismissing electrification outright.” Powering the USPS's standard mail delivery trucks with electrons instead of gasoline would go a long way to hitting President Biden’s January 2021 executive order that would replace the federal government's current fleet of vehicles with EVs as part of an expanded Buy American act. The federal government had more than 645,000 vehicles in its fleet in 2019, about a quarter of which would be replaced by the 165,000 new trucks the USPS is looking to buy over the next decade.

Too Expensive, Says USPS

The USPS's defense is that it would simply be too expensive to buy tens of thousands of electric vehicles. "While we can understand why some who are not responsible for the financial sustainability of the Postal Service might prefer that the Postal Service acquire more electric vehicles, the law requires the Postal Service to be self-sufficient," a USPS spokesperson told the Post in a statement. President Biden's social spending package proposal unveiled last year included $6 billion for the USPS to purchase new vehicles, but that proposal is still being debated in Congress. In late January, the California Air Resources Board asked the USPS to hold a public hearing about its vehicle purchase plans, and the EPA joined that call in its letter yesterday. EPA officials told the Post that even if the USPS goes ahead with the gas-powered vehicles this year, there may still be time to shift the bulk of the purchases to electric in the coming years.

Branch 1111 News

February 2022

Where’s the Love? By Mary Abante, Third Vice President

Finish your office work and go to the street. All you have to do is your best. Work professionally. If your estimate or best guess needs adjustment while on the street, call your supervisor per local instructions. Potato, patato, -- there is a difference. Keep your commitments for your loved ones and estimates for your work.

Does this sound familiar? Does your supervisor ask you this just after clocking into work? • Why is delivering your multiple full coverages going to take so long, you’re already delivering there? • Why are you asking for additional time to complete your assignment? You should now be used to additional parcels. • You’ve been a carrier for several years; you know what do to. Why are you asking for time? • So, it’s raining, it’s hot, there’s road work, what time are you going to be back in the office? Finally, to top it off your supervisor asks, what’s your commitment?

My Commitment? Webster’s Dictionary has defined “commitment” as “the state or an instance of being obligated or emotionally impelled, a commitment to a cause” … When your committed, you accept no excuses, only results. A commitment is a binding pledge that obligates you to assume a position or carry out a course of action. Here’s how it plays out. You’ve completed your office work, now you’re on the street and something unplanned happens. There’s a dog loose, a police action, roadblock, or other events. You begin to feel stressed and pressured because you won’t make your “commitment”. Perhaps, you skip your breaks and lunch, disregard your safety to make your committed time. You arrive back at the office and run to clock out, so you won’t receive discipline. You are mentally and physically exhausted.

Fremont PTFs Nathaniel Velasco, Shelly Russell and Nancy Maharaj

My Estimate There’s another way and another word. “Estimate” as seen on USPS Form 3996 item “K”. Webster’s Dictionary defines the word estimate as a “rough or approximate calculation.” When Management asks you in the morning to make a commitment regarding time needed to complete your assignment don’t argue. Let them know you are committing to do the best job you can and give them your estimate. If you need overtime or auxiliary assistance this is requested by completing a PS Form 3996. Sometimes (often) Management will tell you DOIS projections indicate you don’t need overtime or assistance. Multiple national-level settlements have held these time projections are not the sole determinant of your daily workload. You’re the expert, you know your route. Don’t argue. Complete the PS 3996. Handbook M-39, Section 122.33 requires managers to provide you with a copy when you request it. Always request it. This is your proof you notified management. If Management fails to provide a copy let your Shop Steward know. 10

Fremont PTF Susan Johnson is ready to hit the street

February 2022

Branch 1111 News

February 2022

The 2022 NALC Food Drive is tentatively scheduled for May 14 But it may be cancelled at any time if conditions worsen. The need for food is ongoing

Alameda County

To Donate:

https://donate.accfb.org/

Contra Costa/Solano County

https://www.foodbankccs.org/give-help/donate.html

February 2022

Branch 1111 News

February 2022

NALC Branch 1111 Balance Sheet As of January 31, 2022 ASSETS Current Assets Bank Accounts 100 - Petty Cash 213.96 126 PPCU-50 166,332,69 Mechanics Bank Accounts 202,262.75 PPCU-Acct 70 25,635.67 United Bank Accounts 252,739.35 Total Bank Accounts $647,184.42 Other Current Assets Total Current Other Assets 39,901.40 Total Current Assets $687,085.82 Fixed Assets 189 - Accumulated Depreciation -142,194.57 190 - Accum Deprec - Furn./Eq. -68,743.00 191 - Accum Deprec - Computer Eq. -11,561.00 192 - Accum Deprec - Copier -6,896.60 193 - Accum Deprec - Building/Improv-153,573.66 197 - Accum Deprec - Storage Shed -430.00 198 - Accum Deprec – Prior -61,391.17 Total Fixed Assets $ 404,014.56 TOTAL ASSETS $1,091,100.38

Branch 1111 News LIABILITIES & EQUITY Total Liabilities Net Revenue 3900 Unrestricted Net Assets Equity

$8,790.29 -43,860.90 1,126,170.99 $1,082,310.09

TOTAL LIABILITIES AND EQUITY

$1,091,100.38

Danville Stewards Oscar Espinal and Justin Kaiser hard at work protecting their carriers

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS GREATER EAST BAY BRANCH 1111 402 –37TH STREET RICHMOND, CALIFORNIA 94805- 2134 (510) 237-5111

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID CONCORD CA Permit 1

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS Munkhbayar Byambaa Desiree Mansapit Nanette Sage Michael Concepcion André Dorton Yongyu Wu Jhordyn Tinsley Mario Mendez Jessica Cabrera Sunny Palatvong Jhordy Bahena-Polvo Ernesto Cruz Jason Ompok Vernon Cunningham Doreen Ruffin Guo Xiong Ronald Bermejo Emilio Perez Clarence Henderson Jerry Easley Jr. Alexis Hernandez Alvin Binag Mark Anthony Verdadero Alexander Rejas

Alameda Antioch Benicia Benicia Berkeley Berkeley Concord Concord El Cerrito Fairfield Fremont Fremont Moraga Oakland Oakland Oakland Pinole Pinole Pittsburg Richmond San Ramon Vallejo Walnut Creek Walnut Creek

President Ed Fletcher congratulates Oakland Eastmont carrier Rose Marie Haymon retiring after 27 years. We wish her the Best! Also, we love the shirt.

On February 22, the Branch will hold a virtual Informational Meeting. Call the Branch Office at 510-237-5111 if you’re interested in taking part. Meetings will now be counted as official