I understand the debate of hourly verses evaluated is raging, and the entirety of a system from which we have appreciated and prospered from, and now are losing from, has exacerbated us all. Our forefathers created for us in the early 70s a system that was not only beneficial to the USPS but to the members as well.

Never would they have imagined the impacts that modernization and poor decisions from Arbitrators and NRLCA leaders, have had such a negative impact upon our craft. We are charged this very year with the making of decisions that will determine our future and that of those that follow. I to am cognizant of the hourly vs evaluated debate and the impact that this will have on our lives.

I will try to make an argument of behalf of both sides of this debate and bear with me if I fail to do one side or the other the justice they deserve.

On one side is the evaluated system, the system that my entire career has been under. The evaluated system has many pleasures that we have enjoyed, that of Saturdays off, going home at the end of our tours, the lack of oversight of management, not having to pivot routes to make an 8 hour day, the use of leave and it's benefit of loss or gain in the use of 8 hours (if in higher status being paid for overtime or if under the loss of time), and the ability of overtime hours going towards our high three, and most importantly a RCA for every route and the benefits that come from that. These in and of themselves are great attractors to the evaluated system. I know that I missed many more but for this argument these will suffice.

In the other camp is the hourly system, we will be paid for what we do, we will be able to use leave in increments, we will be able to have 8 hour days no matter what, we will slow down as the opportunity to go home early will no longer be available and therefore we will have less accidents, we will have different time standards that will be approximate to those that are enjoyed by the NALC, and we will no longer be under the false guise of difference of duties that has been the cornerstone of the argument of pay equity. As I said before there are more, yet this will do.

Next I would like to briefly address an alternative, that being an modified evaluated system. As we are unaware of the pluses and minuses I have no ability to speculate, but I will bring to your attention something that I have heard for many years " Are you sure you want the time standards to be opened to interpretation?).

These are the options and I'm sure there are more but let's call these the big three. All three are risky as we know with downsizing, outsourcing and excessing we are a craft under attack, having said that we know which one the USPS wants to see us endorse, that of evaluation. Why? I think we know that the USPS and the NRLCA will continue to diminish our time standards. A few examples of course the most damaging the implementation of FSS this will be even more damaging than the Wells decision of 5 inch to 6 1/8 of letters and flats, also we know firsthand of the manipulation of mail counts and the inability of the NRLCA to correct same, we also are or will be impacted by signature capture, this will be implemented and our scanners are capable of this, thus eliminating 3849s, and most importantly the MOUs that our National Office continues to lambaste us with at every opportunity with diminishing standards. Once again these are only a few of the potential impacts of a evaluated system that Arbitrator Wells called " grossly outdated"

So here we are deciding the future of this craft and even its viability as a bargaining entity! We will need to take into our prospective State and the National conventions an open mind into the possibility's of a different model of the Rural Carrier of the future. We have 2 conventions to make these changes that will forever more affect the NRLCA and its members. I ask simply this, are you prepared to make the changes that will require a new way of thinking? Or is the past so embedded in our psyche as to close off any change!

In conclusion, I pray we have the wherewithal to do whats in the best interests of not only ourselves but of those that follow, just like those entrepreneurs that came before us?

And Thats The Way Jay Sees It