Today I received my first pay since the new evaluation came back. I hope you weren't disappointed with your pay for I had prepared myself  through calculating my losses  beforehand.
 I of course took the high option and therefore  am missing only about approximately  $110.00 from what would have been my pay prior to this loss.This is not nearly as severe as it could have been, but then  if I start to look at what else I'm losing  I begin to wonder the full extent of my damages.

If you will let me elaborate. My take home was what it was, but also I used 2 days of LWOP to cover my non-scheduled day, as I'm beginning to be a elder in the Rural community and can't do 6 days a week, so that starts accumulating towards a loss of annual leave after I wanna say 12 days but you can correct me if I'm wrong. Next I look at my gross income and have to realize the percentage invested towards my FERS has now dropped as I'm not making what i was prior to this new evaluation.

Then theres Taxes and Medicare and Social Security, if I'm not making as much, that will affect what I get in return if that system is around when I get to that age. All of these thoughts passed through my mind in an instant when I opened that letter from Minneapolis.  I can only imagine what you felt maybe shock, dismay, or even what one woman I work with said " how am I going to pay my Mortgage".

Of course that's the choice we have taken by being evaluated employees and relying on 2 weeks to pull us through for a year. Makes you wonder how many other crafts are taking a significant loss,( for the gipper) if you will, of course thats rhetorical as we all know that we are the only organized labor Association that relies solely on mail volume to determine their pay.Now being a seasonal route I have the blessing, of going through this all again, and to further complicate things as our station manager failed to get our seasonal deliveries in on time, I get to look forward to a letter of demand, for the week that they have been or supposed to have been taken off.

I know that this arbitrated settlement was shoved down our throat, and we really had no say in the outcome, but what would have happened if our leaders in DC told the  USPS to shove it in the first place? With the price of Gas what it is, and knowing that we spent millions on studies from outside corporations that specialize in this, how could a 3 cent increase over the term of a 4 year contract be comprehensible? Especially when we were going in, to achieve equity with what the USPS pays per mile.

And then that brings me to the pay increase, I received what is normal at least from the contracts that I have in file going back to 1990, yet was told we get our biggest increases from COLA of which due to timing we missed one. Then to further complicate things we receive the worst mail count in at least what my failing memory believes history. I've spoken on numerous occasions to my Station Manager and talked to him of our plight and his response was " I didn't see you lining up to give the money back when the mail volume dropped' and that is the perception of the USPS however we are and have been giving more and more of our time standards away so as to compensate for that loss, yet that's not good enough, we have to suffer for at least a year, (assuming we get any mail volume next count) and then pray for the best.

The evaluated system is broke and we will be also, if we believe that this Association of only 76,000 members will dissuade the USPS into a fair and equitable agreement in 2010. We are no longer in the position and wherewithal to bargain  for the members, and hope to achieve equity  with any of the other bargaining units. We better make changes or continue to suffer the consequences of our history all over again in 2010.

And That's The Way Jay Sees It