r/fromatoarbitration

I work in a small office, 5 city routes and an aux, a total of 10 city carriers between regulars and PTFs. I have been in the office for almost 4 years, and at no point during that have we had a steward. Whenever we have an issue we have to reach out to a union rep and have them come by our office.

As a result, management has been pushing all kinds of violations (and getting away with it). They case up our aux route, the rural aux route, and any route with a sub they don't feel confident in. They schedule PTFs to nearby offices. They pressure city PTFs to provide help to the rural side. They are consistently telling people to move to our aux route to cover up management casing and such, or telling PTFs to move to our "expresses" route to go deliver rural packages. And this is just off the top of my head.

I've been considering going out for our vacant steward position, but I have concerns. We have a problem employee who for whatever reason cannot finish his route 2-3 days every week. We have a PTF who has consistently been an attendance issue since he got past probation. Obviously other issues, but these are the two glaring ones that are keeping the spot vacant. Work/Life balance is supremely important to me, and I am concerned that dealing with issues such as these will cut into my personal time with my family.

I apologize for the novel, but this is not a decision I want to make rushed or emotionally. I appreciate any insight.

Seemed like a loud supporter and then poof now he just talks smack about CLC on fb.

The City Letter Carriers Move America!!! The service and the public need to understand and acknowledge our worth!! USPS likes to say we’re “paper boys/girls” when it comes to the comparability law. What would happen the paper boys/girls didn’t move the mail?! We weren’t paper boys/girls during Covid. Delivering Covid tests. Delivering stimulus checks,keeping our democracy alive delivering and collecting ballots. Day(and night) in and day out were the eyes and ears of the community. We check in on our seniors,watch out for the neighborhood children,find those lost dogs and cats,when something on the route seems different/sketchy,we’re the ones that notice first and keep an eye out for all our customers. Not the police,we do the City letter Carriers!!! USPS is definitely not broke,it’s mismanaged. The scraps they call a wage is a joke. Especially in this economy we live in now in 2026. WE NEED AND DESERVE MUCH BETTER!!!📬💪🏽✊🏽

So no matter what the post office offers if an all career workforce isn't included we go to arbitration? So if they agree to move us all to table one but keep CCAs the membership doesn't get to vote on that? I have no problem fighting for an all career workforce but blanket statements are wrong. To be fair it's just not the CLC that's doing all this pandering for the CCA vote. A bunch of promises of an all career workforce are so misleading. That's going to be the hardest thing to achieve but we have candidates making it seem like it's a simple process of just going to arbitration.

I’m gn try to make a long story short . A route went up for bid online(8/7-8/16) . It wasn’t posted in the office only on bidding. A carrier saw it bid and won. Can they put the bid back up bc it wasn’t posted in the office?

I don't have trouble getting my time to work on grievances but once I put in a request for the time, I have to be ready everyday for the possibility that "Today is the day you get your time." A few times, I've come unprepared and left my laptop/jcam/items I requested at home and had to use my Steward Time to go retrieve them. I know a lot of offices have trouble just getting the time without a hassle so I'm thankful for that part. I'm not complaining but just wondering if there's any language for getting a mutual heads up from the management team? Also, I have tried asking for a heads up but was told by them "We just have to provide the time not a heads up." thanks in advance

We had our station inspected beginning of the year which they added routes..then after the adjustments, around March or April they did a one day walk to see if everything was ok..we now got word they’re doing another inspection next month because people keep running the routes (at least this is what the word is)..now I know they can’t use June, July, August and December data during inspection but can they use that data as an excuse to do an inspection?..the majority of our data would be from May-til now..I know they’re not just using May so can they see people who set routes up or do pivots and be back in 8 and say we need to reevaluate them?

Lew Drass is dilusional…after listening to his Next Gen podcast episode. Especially the first couple questions. Completely side stepped the shorter steps questions and talked about higher pay and sick leave for CCA’s as if he was answering a different question. As the episode went on and he answered more questions it’s evident he’s knowledgeable but delusional to think he can just come out of the shadows and be relevant again. Talked about being the best negotiator as if we haven’t heard that before. He might be…but that’s not something I would campaign on after the stain Renfroe put on that disclaimer.

If your goal is to end this Union, keep pushing for locality pay (roughly 1,900 to 1,800 vote) our members will abandon ship if there are different tiers and pay scales for those who think they're entitled to special privileges for where they live.

There is a reason that the UAW and Teamsters have "Equal Work for Equal" pay as their motto.

I got stung by a yellow jacket on Friday and told my supervisor of course but it only seemed to get worse and I went to an urgent care. Im on two antibiotics and the rash thing I have is one ive never before. Im going to request union time but do stings if severe enough get covered under OWCP?

Does anyone actually have the life insurance from the post office? If so how does it work or should I ask if it’s any good?

I believe the election are this year around October? I've seen a lot of contract violations that I don't like in my office. The ODL is not really respected. People off the list are working OT, but they'll find a way to blame the carriers for not filling out a 96 and going through the necessary steps. Even though there's no way they realistically expect this carrier to have that much undertime, or any at all.

The stewards tell me that the carriers in our office are all weak and its hard to get stuff done. But I think they just say things that sound good so people don't bother them.

I wonder how hostile management might turn on me. I also wonder if carriers might expect me to do something when its something management can do.

I'm also willing to be lenient on certain things if no ones really hurt by it. I'm wondering if people might start to piss me off by getting mad that I'm not doing something. But I have good rapport with all my coworkers and they've talked to me enough that they always tell me to run for steward. I've been told that by more than a handful of people. It seems like the natural thing to do. I think I could climb the union ladder. This is a workforce that I believe should be protected.

Sunday. August 23rd. 7pm-est

2026 NALC candidates for the title of ‘NALC President’ will be sitting down for a roundtable.

Zoom Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/43gFGpSOR1C1KzEpAY20SA#/registration

An educated union worker is the best weapon against management. Knowledge is power.

I bid on a route in my office . Once it closes on 8/16 is there a way to see if I won or not ? Kinda nervous about how it’s going to go . I have an overburdened route in a nice neighborhood so I have a positive Outlook either way but It doesn’t make me any less nervous.