Western States Conference 2025
Colorado delegation in Helena, Montana
The facts you missed
Cortney Clark, WSC Delegate
What an interesting time it is for our country and our union! I attended my 3rd Western States Conference (WSC) in Helena, Montana. My father and I drove there, which took about 11 hours. My Dad went for the adventure!
Since I traveled through a large portion of Wyoming, it is important to note here, there are only about 68 rural routes! I try to look and see where some of them are whenever I am in the state. Most of those super rural routes are highway contractors, maybe one day some of that will change, but Wyoming has crazier weather than we do in Colorado.
Being in Helena, MT is semi-confusing for direction. I am personally used to the mountains being to the west like in Colorado!
Day 1 of the Convention was only registration sadly. I wished there would have been a meet and greet or some more information to be had. Day 2, Thursday was a fuller day! Colorado had nine members in attendance and one Auxiliary member there! Auxiliary President Lesa Routh Halcomb spoke that morning about the benefits of the Auxiliary. (Bring your partners with you to the next meeting!)
Our union’s attorney Michael Gan also spoke Thursday morning. He always gives so much good information. He expressed concern about the timeline of labor events that have occurred since inauguration day this year starting with the firing of Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB oversees union organizing and collective bargaining disputes and hears cases where violations of the National Labor Relations Act are alleged. The firing of her put the board without a quorum and therefore unable to conduct business. Her firing was appealed and she won. The summary of his speech was that we all need to be on high alert, especially with the threats of privatization looming and that a lot of the timeline of events going on in Labor are in Project 2025.
There was a huge concern due to TSA not having any contract and the implications of what that says about collective bargaining. Overall, the privatization effort and the push back will ultimately be decided in the “court of public opinion.” We must all continue to educate the public on what would happen to there mail delivery if privatization occurred. Rural communities that we serve would be impacted the most.
Paul Swartz spoke and gave us legislative updates. Currently Congress is at Recess for two weeks, so there is not a lot of updates since the Legislative Seminars. We are still hardcore pushing to get more house and senate members to sign on to House Res 70 and Senate Res147 to help stop the privatization efforts. There is an NRLCA Legislative tab that goes in depth into all those issues along with letters to send to your congressional representative.
President Don Maston spoke after lunch. He stated that we would have an update on the contract negotiations within the next few days that there are a few things being buttoned up. Much to my surprise the tentative agreement (TA) was released at 2 p.m., immediately following WSC the next day. He spoke about plaques that are at our national office where they display the names of the rural carriers who died on route. Most of them died due to not wearing a seat belt. I think it is important for him to note this. Our rural family members who did not get to sign there ps4240 and return home after delivering that day. Please keep them in your thoughts.
There are a lot of shake ups going on due to Dejoy not being postmaster, Doug Tulino is now acting Postmaster General, but still doing a few other positions at postal HQ. He spoke about the Rallies all being amazing and great but we must keep up the grassroots effort and protect the Postal Service. It is the Postal SERVICE not postal business.
During the questions and answers section a question was asked about Step 4 grievances and it was stated that there are 16. John Adams has been meeting weekly trying to get through them’ five have been signed off on since October, and they are close to settling 4 other ones. It was stated that new vehicles are on the way but not a timeline on that. The Postal Services work force is 12% veterans and the public needs to know this. There were 21,000 overburden routes and it is down to over 16,000 now.
I could ramble on, but Western States is an excellent way to get more information from our union. Now more than ever before we must stand together. Participation is down and I just hope next year Western States is more attended due to it being in Las Vegas (Henderson, Nevada) please put in for time to go to it and plan now! This was probably the most information I have ever gained from a WSC due to everything going on!
In closing, now that we have the TA it is important to attend a ratification meeting to ask questions about the TA. Utilize this benefit you have of being a union member and when the ballot comes VOTE! Your voice matters! Educate yourself, attend as many meetings gain information. Be safe.
Weird things are coming
Charles Harper, WSC Delegate
At Western States Conference, Jeanette Dwyer conveyed some very interesting data. Although I think it is quite ironic that management believes having ten fewer terminations during the probationary period this year to date in comparison to the last year’s same time period is a great improvement, this article will be focusing on route cuts and adjustments with RRECS.
Before the last Mini Mail Survey (MMS), the Colorado/Wyoming had 78 zip codes needing cuts with 97 routes over 62 evaluated hours and 234 overburdened routes. After the mail survey, Colorado/Wyoming had 83 zip codes with 256 overburdened routes and 104 routes evaluated over 62 standard hours. There are 16,633 overburdened routes nationwide.
Spring brings route cuts and in the WestPac area, there are 619 zip codes targeted for adjustments with effective dates from May 17th through June 14th. Smaller offices will have less time to adjust. Large zip codes will have June 14th. The Post Service estimates it needs six SMEs or Subject Matter Experts in Colorado to help the offices with routes cuts. Jeanette does not believe they have any. In fact, my station manager got “drafted” to be an SME. Management in the targeted offices are responsible for doing the route cut worksheets. Basically, an adjustment packet is sent to the office and the local management is supposed to review the packet and inform HQ if there are errors. A couple items that can remove a facility or zip code from adjustments: No more overburdened routes or an assessment has been done and has determined there is a space constriction.
Management uses the Rural Adjustment Playbook guidelines to cut, square off, and add boxes to routes that need them. Has our Union seen this Playbook? No. Jeanette has seen one worksheet page only, and that was sent to her accidentally by HQ. Strange things are coming from that playbook and Jeanette has demanded to see it.
What else is strange? Management has a policy of not adjusting/cutting routes that have been frozen for a year through a prior cut. So, if you want a cut and your route is frozen management has a policy of not touching those routes. Management also has a policy of not adjusting routes that have a seasonal route. Why? No one knows in our union and this has been grieved.
What else has been grieved? Some individuals do not like being frozen. So, if you are going through route cuts, Good Luck! My route was “squared off” because I was in a targeted zip code and I now have five more miles and more boxes and the Post Service says it doesn’t take any more time. See, weird things are coming from the Playbook!
The facts you missed
Cortney Clark, WSC Delegate
What an interesting time it is for our country and our union! I attended my 3rd Western States Conference (WSC) in Helena, Montana. My father and I drove there, which took about 11 hours. My Dad went for the adventure!
Since I traveled through a large portion of Wyoming, it is important to note here, there are only about 68 rural routes! I try to look and see where some of them are whenever I am in the state. Most of those super rural routes are highway contractors, maybe one day some of that will change, but Wyoming has crazier weather than we do in Colorado.
Being in Helena, MT is semi-confusing for direction. I am personally used to the mountains being to the west like in Colorado!
Day 1 of the Convention was only registration sadly. I wished there would have been a meet and greet or some more information to be had. Day 2, Thursday was a fuller day! Colorado had nine members in attendance and one Auxiliary member there! Auxiliary President Lesa Routh Halcomb spoke that morning about the benefits of the Auxiliary. (Bring your partners with you to the next meeting!)
Our union’s attorney Michael Gan also spoke Thursday morning. He always gives so much good information. He expressed concern about the timeline of labor events that have occurred since inauguration day this year starting with the firing of Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB oversees union organizing and collective bargaining disputes and hears cases where violations of the National Labor Relations Act are alleged. The firing of her put the board without a quorum and therefore unable to conduct business. Her firing was appealed and she won. The summary of his speech was that we all need to be on high alert, especially with the threats of privatization looming and that a lot of the timeline of events going on in Labor are in Project 2025.
There was a huge concern due to TSA not having any contract and the implications of what that says about collective bargaining. Overall, the privatization effort and the push back will ultimately be decided in the “court of public opinion.” We must all continue to educate the public on what would happen to there mail delivery if privatization occurred. Rural communities that we serve would be impacted the most.
Paul Swartz spoke and gave us legislative updates. Currently Congress is at Recess for two weeks, so there is not a lot of updates since the Legislative Seminars. We are still hardcore pushing to get more house and senate members to sign on to House Res 70 and Senate Res147 to help stop the privatization efforts. There is an NRLCA Legislative tab that goes in depth into all those issues along with letters to send to your congressional representative.
President Don Maston spoke after lunch. He stated that we would have an update on the contract negotiations within the next few days that there are a few things being buttoned up. Much to my surprise the tentative agreement (TA) was released at 2 p.m., immediately following WSC the next day. He spoke about plaques that are at our national office where they display the names of the rural carriers who died on route. Most of them died due to not wearing a seat belt. I think it is important for him to note this. Our rural family members who did not get to sign there ps4240 and return home after delivering that day. Please keep them in your thoughts.
There are a lot of shake ups going on due to Dejoy not being postmaster, Doug Tulino is now acting Postmaster General, but still doing a few other positions at postal HQ. He spoke about the Rallies all being amazing and great but we must keep up the grassroots effort and protect the Postal Service. It is the Postal SERVICE not postal business.
During the questions and answers section a question was asked about Step 4 grievances and it was stated that there are 16. John Adams has been meeting weekly trying to get through them’ five have been signed off on since October, and they are close to settling 4 other ones. It was stated that new vehicles are on the way but not a timeline on that. The Postal Services work force is 12% veterans and the public needs to know this. There were 21,000 overburden routes and it is down to over 16,000 now.
I could ramble on, but Western States is an excellent way to get more information from our union. Now more than ever before we must stand together. Participation is down and I just hope next year Western States is more attended due to it being in Las Vegas (Henderson, Nevada) please put in for time to go to it and plan now! This was probably the most information I have ever gained from a WSC due to everything going on!
In closing, now that we have the TA it is important to attend a ratification meeting to ask questions about the TA. Utilize this benefit you have of being a union member and when the ballot comes VOTE! Your voice matters! Educate yourself, attend as many meetings gain information. Be safe.
Weird things are coming
Charles Harper, WSC Delegate
At Western States Conference, Jeanette Dwyer conveyed some very interesting data. Although I think it is quite ironic that management believes having ten fewer terminations during the probationary period this year to date in comparison to the last year’s same time period is a great improvement, this article will be focusing on route cuts and adjustments with RRECS.
Before the last Mini Mail Survey (MMS), the Colorado/Wyoming had 78 zip codes needing cuts with 97 routes over 62 evaluated hours and 234 overburdened routes. After the mail survey, Colorado/Wyoming had 83 zip codes with 256 overburdened routes and 104 routes evaluated over 62 standard hours. There are 16,633 overburdened routes nationwide.
Spring brings route cuts and in the WestPac area, there are 619 zip codes targeted for adjustments with effective dates from May 17th through June 14th. Smaller offices will have less time to adjust. Large zip codes will have June 14th. The Post Service estimates it needs six SMEs or Subject Matter Experts in Colorado to help the offices with routes cuts. Jeanette does not believe they have any. In fact, my station manager got “drafted” to be an SME. Management in the targeted offices are responsible for doing the route cut worksheets. Basically, an adjustment packet is sent to the office and the local management is supposed to review the packet and inform HQ if there are errors. A couple items that can remove a facility or zip code from adjustments: No more overburdened routes or an assessment has been done and has determined there is a space constriction.
Management uses the Rural Adjustment Playbook guidelines to cut, square off, and add boxes to routes that need them. Has our Union seen this Playbook? No. Jeanette has seen one worksheet page only, and that was sent to her accidentally by HQ. Strange things are coming from that playbook and Jeanette has demanded to see it.
What else is strange? Management has a policy of not adjusting/cutting routes that have been frozen for a year through a prior cut. So, if you want a cut and your route is frozen management has a policy of not touching those routes. Management also has a policy of not adjusting routes that have a seasonal route. Why? No one knows in our union and this has been grieved.
What else has been grieved? Some individuals do not like being frozen. So, if you are going through route cuts, Good Luck! My route was “squared off” because I was in a targeted zip code and I now have five more miles and more boxes and the Post Service says it doesn’t take any more time. See, weird things are coming from the Playbook!