The carriers at the stations that will be reviewed under JARAP will notice similarities with the previous agreement, MIARAP. However there are a few significant changes. There will be more accountability from everyone involved in the evaluation and adjustments of routes.

All of the team members will consist of one person representing the Postal Service and one representing the Union. Teams at the station level, Local Office Contacts (LOC), will include the station shop steward and a supervisor or manager. Their duties will include such things as addressing data integrity issues, giving joint carrier consultations and resolving any disputes involving concerns the carriers may have about 3999 times and territory transferred between adjusted routes.

District Evaluation and Adjustment Teams (DEAT) will also be made up of two members just like the LOCs. This team will be responsible for resolving disagreements between the LOC. The DEATs will also be doing the actual evaluation and adjustments of routes. Once adjustments have been agreed to by the DEAT, a Form 1840r will be generated and passed down to the LOC for initial consultations with the carriers. Carriers will have a minimum of one day to look over the 1840r forms before giving any comments or suggestions on proposed changes to their routes.

A District Lead Team, one member from the Postal Service and one from the Union, will be overseeing the DEAT. The Lead Team chooses the stations that are to be evaluated and assigns the DEAT to those stations.

By now you might be asking yourself, "What about the carrier's role in all this?" The carrier is the most important part of the process. After all, it is the carrier who will be the most affected by any adjustment made to his/her route. It is because of this that I ask all carriers who are having their route evaluated, for their full input and cooperation in the process. A fair adjustment relies on this.

If I have failed to answer any questions you might have about the process, forward them to your LOC. I will make it my responsibility to make sure that you understand any and all aspects of JARAP as it pertains to route evaluations and adjustments.

The first thing to do immediately following an on-the-job- injury (IOD) is to notify management as soon as practicable. The proper form for a Traumatic Injury is a CA-1. This type of on-the- job injury can best be described as having occurred at a specific time and place on a given date. Under no circumstances should an injured carrier be denied the filing of an IOD claim. It is your right under Federal Law (FECA) and the forms are readily available to management from the Blue Pages on their computers. A CA-1 must also be filed as soon as possible.

A Fact of Injury has to be proven. For this you would have to be seen by a physician, preferably by one that handles FECA claims since you will need one anyway. The doctor has to give a firm diagnosed condition based on test/s results.
Be advised that pain is not a condition, it is a symptom. Your doctor needs to explain how the diagnosed condition relates to what you state caused the injury. This part of the claim is based solely on medical documentation and must make sense. The person reviewing the claim at OWCP is a licensed medical practitioner.

The injury must have been sustained during working hours; lunch does not fall under the definition of work hours since you are not covered while on lunch.

In order to qualify for Continuance of Pay (COP) a CA-1 must be filed within thirty days of the injury. The only entity that can deny the right to the forty-five days of COP is the Labor Department. Bear in mind that these are calendar days not workdays. Also, you must begin to take time off within the first forty-five days following the injury and must be supported by medical documentation within the first ten days.

In recent days the Branch has received calls from injured carriers that state management is giving them CA- 17 forms to be filled out by the attending physician. The problem with this is that although a CA-17 will eventually need to be filed if you will be out of work, it is "not" the form that is needed in order for the doctor to get paid for services rendered. An injured employee should request a CA-16 for this purpose. As with the denial of a CA-1, it is against the law to be refused the form. If this should happen, contact your local steward immediately. If he/she is not sure what to do the next step they should take is contact the Branch.

Although there are few things in life that are guaranteed, if these steps are followed, the chances of your claim being accepted are greatly improved.

Now that you have this information the most important thing to me is that you work as safely as possible. Getting hurt, hurts.

As a kid if you had asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, a mailman probably wouldn't have been any one of my many answers but here I am. I am not ashamed of what I do for a living. My job has provided for my family and myself. Realistically for me, any complaints that I may have are purely personal.

The Union has always protected me. My wages have always gone up throughout my career and the Union leadership at the local level has never ever failed me, as long as I was willing to do what I needed to do to help them help me.

One of the first things I learned was that in order to protect myself I needed to learn my job. If I followed the rules and did what was expected of me I could not get in trouble.

This is the message that I would like to pass on to you. If I do eight hours of work I expect to get paid for eight hours. If I do ten hours of work in eight hours it will only be a matter of time until that is what's expected of me. If I make an arrangement with management to do the same eight hours of work in six hours, it will only be a matter of time until more work is added to my workload. Trust me, it will happen, and when it does either, you and/or management won't be happy. Invariably one side begins to push back. "Do me a favor" becomes a direct order in a heartbeat.

Another of the valuable lessons I learned early on was to scrutinize where I was getting my information. Then as well as now does not mean shop around until you hear what you want to hear. It means be mature enough to accept what the correct answer is even if it's not what you want to hear.

Throughout my postal career I have seen too many carriers through tantrums right to the unemployment line. I am not, by any means, advocating to accept what is presented to you without question; what I am asking is to be mature enough to understand that although it would be nice to always have things your way, it would be more beneficial to have what you're entitled to. There will be no complications with the latter as long as you do the "right thing" not just what you feel like doing.

The Union will always be there for you, it always has been there for me. The only decision I had to make was to accept the correct answer or listen to someone who was standing on a soapbox preaching what I wanted to hear. Too many people are willing to follow the person with the loudest voice as opposed to the voice of reason. I compare that to a bunch of wildebeests following the leader into a raging river only to drown or a flock of mountain sheep following the leader right off a cliff.

Make your choice, follow the leader because he/she knows what they're talking about or follow the person with the loudest voice to certain doom.

That being said, the current route adjustment process is far better than the traditional count and inspection. Everyone who has been through a route inspection can testify to that The mail got counted for aix days and a route inspector went out with you one day. The amount of mail that you usually have disappeared during that week and all of a sudden you had "down time". Whether you knew it or not that inspector had the ability to deduct every second or minute that he/she felt was not part of your regular workday.

The current process takes an average of your daily work hours and workload. Your recommendations as far as adjustments are considered and applied to the extent possible. Although far from being perfect carriers, the routes are being adjusted much more fairly. BELIEVE IT!

For the first time in my postal career the union has an equal part in route adjustments. We have access to all the data being analyzed .In the event that there is a legitimate integrity issue, the matter is addressed immediately.

However, access to data is useless if carriers are hitting on the wrong operation codes. It has come to the attention of the Union that management may be instructing carriers to do just that. It seems that carriers are delivering mail on truck driving operations. If this is occurring in your station it should be brought to the atention of your shop steward.

If you are receiving assistance on the route, in the office, and/or the street, make sure that the person giving the assistance is clocking in on the route. All the time spent on the delivering of routes should be accounted for. If you are receiviing two hours of assistance on any given day and do eight haurs work, on paper it shows that on that day the route only had eight hours worth of work.

Also, on the day that the route is walked (3999) the amount of mail should be representative of an average day. Do not run through your assignment. Take all of your contractual breaks, both in the office and on the street.

If you adhere to the above, the person you will be helping the most is yourself . If you don't, the only person you will be hurting is ...you figure it out.

I'm sure that when these words were first uttered they were meant to inspire a change in the attitude of those who were being addressed at the time. It's not different today.

For the life of me, I can't understand why people would not want to get involved in helping themselves. Even worse are those who think that things will get better on their own, and therefore no effort is required on their part. How sad that is

.I have.been a union member since I began working for the postal service. The importance of being a part of something greater than my self was instilled in me almost from my first day on-the-job. The fact that the first station I worked. in as a carrier in Manhattan, was Grand Central, didn't hurt. It was there that the Strike of 1970 began.

Not only did the carriers back then understand that in order to effect change, something needed be done, they knew to a man that strength lies in numbers, and together they could do what could not be done apart. Think for a moment, if only a handful of carriers would have taken the chance of striking against the feded government. How different do you think our livehoods would be if just a few decided they had had enough?.

I will be foreyer grateful to those who came before me and took up the struggle. The working conditions.that too many take for granted as well as the benefits we enjoy came at a price that too few today would be willing to pay.

Today, at the local level we have a dental and eyeglass voucher that is offered to members of Branch 36 a yearly scholarship program, a health plan that belongs to the members, a life insurance program that is also member-owned which accrues interest and can be borrowed from.

If history were to repeat itself, how many of yon would be willing to stand side by side with those who have never given up the struggle? I thank those of you who are union members. I am grateful to those'who make the small sacrifice of coming to union meeting and events, Every new face.is an addition to a family,that understands the importance of being united and of being there for each other.

The union to me has never been about one person standing alone trying to better his or her own situation. Rather, it has been about challengers on the workfioor, as well as bettering their living conditions through better wages and health benefits.

Now comes the$25,000.00 questions. What will your response be the next time you're asked if you're a union member? What, will you say if someone asks you to go to aunion meeting or event? What will you do when asked to contribute to COLCPE? Will you come and stand next to those of us who understand the meaning.of the phrases in the first paragraph of this article; or will you continue standing alone?

The answers to these questions have never been more important than they are today.

I have to admit that before I became a union activist my political activity was limited to voting in mayoral, senate and presidential elections. It never occurred to me that there was so much more I could do to help those I supported to get elected.

Before I became a union activist it new passed my mind that I should consider how the person I was voting for stood on postal issues, before entering the voting booth. I know better now. The contributions given to COLCPE are used to back politicians who are carrier friendly during their respective campaigns. Our political allies are both Democrats and Republicans. At the risk of being redundant, the Union's only concern is their record on postal issues.

On April 24,2008, retiring representative Michael McNulty received a standig ovation at a breakfast sponsored by the NALC. Congressman McNulty served for 20 years and had a 100 percent COLCPE voting record. Heis one ofmany friends the NALC has in Washington DC

Last year the Union was supporting a bill, (HR1804), that would remove the disparity between CSRS and FERS employees, in reference to unused sick leave upon retirement, On April 1, 2009, the House of Representatives (Congress) passed that bill. It is now before the Senate for their consideration. This did not happen by chance.

Also, last year the Union urged Congress to pass HR 282. This bill would stop the postal service from expading the contracting out of city delivery routes. Be bill passed. For those who are asking why should they care the postal service contracted out routes in the Bronx last year. If it were not for the alertness of the steward at the station and the passage of tliis bill, ydur route might have been the next affected.

More recently, NALC President William Young testified against the eliminatio of the six-day delivery before Congress. You can be sure that our friends were listening. I know that there are some who would welcome a. five-day week but take this into consideration. Your days off would NOT be Saturday and Sunday and with approximately 158,000 routes across the country,there would be no need for about 32,000 cycle floaters.

I am not asking you to contribute to COLCPE for me. I'm telling you that through your contributions you are helping yourselves. If you would like to participate but don't know how, ask the steward at your station. The Branch 36, has come up with a form that you can fill out and we will do the rest. All records are completely confidential and treated with the utmost security.

I know that there are not many of you who were around before the strike of 1970, but if you know somebne who was, ask them how bad it was to work for the postal service back then. Those who forget are doomed to repeat.

So please, do the right thing for yourselves and your families, give to COLCPE; find out how the people you vote for stand on postal issues and if.you have become complacent after these many worry free years, I suggest that it's time you come place ysur @#? in a seat at the next union meeting.

The two most common compensation claims are for traumatic injuries and occupational diseases. A traumatic injury can be best described as having happed within a single workday or shift, and location, and to a specific part or parts of the body.

The first order of business after sustaining an injury is to inform mamgement immediately. Some carriers fail to do so because they either-continue to work out of a sense of obligation, or they don't feel any pain or discoinfort. In both cases the carrier is putting himself/herself in jeopardy. First by continuing to work the injury may be made worse. Secondly, management may dispute the validity of the claim because of the delay in being notified. As a rule inform your supervisor as soon as possible after the injury.

The next thing to do is file a CA-1 (Notics of Traumatic Injury and Claim for Continuation of Pay/compensation). In the event the injury is so serious that this cannot be done immediately, do so as soon as possible.

Management cannot refuse to supply the CA-1. To do so would be a violation of federal law. It is also against the law to threaten a carrier with discipline for filing a claim. If either of these situations occurs, contact your shop Steward at once.

The injured employee is responsible for filling out the first 15 lines of the form. Make sure to indicate all parts of the body injured Item 15a should be checked. This indicates a choice of continuation of pay (COP), rather than the usage of annual or sick leave, for any time spent out of work due to the injury. You can receive up to a total of 45 days COP. Then ask management to sign the notice of receipt and obtain a copy. If the total disability lasts for less than 14 days, the first three days will require the use of sick or annual leave. For disabilities of 14 days or more, the entire period will be COP.

Total disabilities of more than 45 days will require the filing of a CA-7. Payments received from the CA-7 come from the Labor Department and will be either 2/3 or 3/4 of your gross pay tax-free. The only deductions taken from these payments are life and health insurance.

You must inform any treating physician that your injury occurred on-the-job and that you will be filing for workers compensation. The doctor must now come to a firm diagnosis based on test results (i.e. X-Rays, MRIs or nerve tests). Then the doctor must make a well-reasoned connection between the diagnosed condition and what caused the accident. Failing to make this connection will result in the claim being denied.

Finally, if the.Postal Service ever sends you a waiver of medical information form, don't sign it! Instead, call the branch for instructions on how to proceed.
Therefore, if you get hurt on-the-job:
1. Notify management immediately.
2. Seek medical attention.
3. Inform attending physician that injury occurred on-the-job.
4. Ensure that there is a firm diagnosis and that a connection is made between the injury and what caused said injury.

However, let's not forget that we need to have as many carrier-friendly representatives in Washington as possible. Contributions to. the Committee on Letter Carrier Political Education (COLGPE) is a solution eoward that end.

There are a number of ways to sign up for automatic deductions. You can go online to the Liteblue pages and do so through the Postal Ehse website. You will need your employee ID number. If you have forgotten your PIN it can be reset once you reach the webpage.

In the very near future, the Branch will be able to assist anyone wishing to make contributions automatically by coming to you directly. If you have any questions or need more information, contact your station Steward or call the Branch office.

If you want to keep what was fought for so hard, I encourage you to participate.Remember that what Congress giveth. Congress can taketh awav.