Hi y'all. Former USPS mail carrier here. The video I'm posting below is of the opponent in a NALC (National Association of Letter Carriers) union election being wrongfully arrested in 2018 while lawfully observing the vote count. The video goes into detail of the chain of events and show how some unions operate alongside, rather than against, systems of power.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_uupKlwVZM&ab_channel=CutAndPaste235
I first want to say this is not an anti-union post. This is a critique on how companies infiltrate and dismantle union power.
Some background on me and my experience with the NALC's current union leadership. I am a former CCA, and worked at the post office delivering mail for 7 months. It was, by far, the worst job I have ever experienced. I work 75 to 90 hours per week the whole 7 months. I would have 2 to 3 days off per month. This is not just peak season, but my whole term. I was charged by dozens of dogs, given incredibly dangerous vehicles, denied leave to go see a doctor for two days after a hernia scare, and had my paperwork for that hospital visit misfiled intentionally as retaliation ($4000 hospital bill I have to fight in court now).
The NALC did very little to intervene in these issues. For the workload, I saw that I was not supposed to be asked to work more than 11.5 hours a day, and was forced to work 14, sometimes 15 hours in a day. When speaking to my shop steward, I was told to comply with management and file a grievance later. The issue with the medical visit was where I got the most help from the NALC, I probably would have had to work through the pain and potentially hurt myself without their intervention. But I was still misinformed on the filing process (management basically “forgot” about the paperwork), and because I missed the paperwork window, the NALC has said I'm basically SOL.
Right now there is a two tiered system for mail carriers: regular carriers and CCA's. They are the same job, but newer carriers are paid less, do not have any labor protections for two years, and take 12.5 years to top out the pay scale rather than the 6 years older carriers got. This is all due to a series of terrible contract negotiations done by the current NALC leadership.
So what's my point? My point is that a Union is not the end of the process when fighting for worker's rights. This union has been left to it's own devices and is, at this point, more of an extension of management. I have seen so many accounts of shop stewards telling CCA's to ignore aspects of an already abysmal contract to make sure mail gets out.
In the video, you can see the use of state power by the NALC to interfere with the observation of a union election. It is pretty much always a red flag when you see an organization hire 12 attorneys to sick the state on a political opponent. So I wanted to share my experiences with this union and this hell hole of a job. If you are a current mail carrier, here are the Clean Sweep Slate campaign guides. Please vote in this union election if you are a mail carrier under the NALC. I may not work there anymore, but god I hate hearing about how screwed are mail carriers are.
https://cleansweepnalc.com/slate/
If anyone else has experiences with dismantled unions, please share. However, do NOT punch left. We are not here to say unions are bad. It's a discussion on how to FIX broken unions or examples of a broken union.