Branch News December 28, 2025
Fellow Members- One last post to send off 2025, especially since somebody pointed out that it’s been over a month since my last composition. Thanks, Luis. Anyway, 2025 has been a mixed bag of events but no huge shock waves reached the Lehigh Valley. Overall, the employees here have had a pretty good stretch. We have had a glut of overtime caused by the mass retirement buyout and the lack of desire by Philly HR to hire replacements. Towards the end of the year now, they have gotten us staffed better and that led to a bit of a dent in the cross-craft and supervisor working grievances. I say a little dent because we have still shattered our previous grievance record of 623 set in 2021. We are currently at 826 grievances filed with four more days to go. There has been more than $102,000 paid out to our members this year in grievance money and that number will climb because there haven’t been payouts for a couple of weeks due to the holidays and some supervisor leave. As we have brought new MHAs and members in, we continue to be 100% Union strong and I feel that we are the best building in the best Local in the country. That status is because of our members keeping a watchful eye on the work floor for violations and because of our stewards following through and filing grievances based off of our members’ witness statements. Kudos to the stewards and the members of this branch for their great and tireless work of keeping management in check. You can’t spell Union with U…corny slogan but a true one. Between the overtime and the grievances, there have been some all-time wages earned this year too. I am positive that it has been a record-setting year for some people’s bank accounts. That is good news for those Mail Handlers, but we also know that when the calendar turns to January then the hours will begin to be cut like every year that I’ve been here. You read that right, overtime will slow down and be cut after the first of January. This is nothing new, it happens every year and will do so this year too. This year was an exception, not the rule. On that subject, I’ve been told from a reliable source that there will be several changes coming in the new year in order to try and increase productivity. The first one is, as you would expect, a crackdown on attendance; after all, you can’t be productive if you aren’t even in the building. While I am hopeful that management will police their own staff that isn’t always here, you can be damn sure that they will be watching the craft employees. It is neither unexpected nor unreasonable for an employer to expect their employees to show up regularly for work. As I have preached so many times before though, attendance is cut and dry, you are either here or you aren’t. The clock rings don’t lie and the Union or management isn’t responsible for you showing up…you are. As always, if you receive discipline, get it to the Union to grieve to try and amend the severity or the length of the discipline. Rumor is that there will be incentives for perfect attendance again like the olden days…we shall see, but if you weren’t showing up to make your paycheck or 100k, then you may not show up for an umbrella. I have also heard that there will be crackdowns on bags on the work floor, ear buds in PIT drivers’ ears, and people leaving the premises on the clock. These are all common sense and enforceable policies. Get ready for the changes. I just hope that a change in 2026 will also be maintenance keeping the machines productive, because even if our people are in attendance they can’t do squat if the machines are inoperable and nobody knows what to do with them. We send way too much mail out of this building than we should; we should be showing how much better we are than other facilities at running our own mail but yet machines sit idle or broken way too often and trailers of Lehigh Valley mail go to Lancaster or Harrisburg. I am all for productivity and accountability, but that means chasing and correcting the inefficiencies all the way up the leadership ladder and placing the blame firmly on the shoulders of those with whom that blame should rest. Nominations for Local Union officers and Branch President close on January 3rd at Local 308 HQ. See the posting that has been up for a month for details. The Winter Bowling Event is scheduled for March 14th. See the flyer for details and sign up in the Union office. I remind everyone that they should watch the bulletin board for job bid details (like the one currently up or the one that just closed), postings like this, info on events or changes, and postings from the Local and National. You should also join the Facebook group if you are not already in it; it is only open to NPMHU Lehigh Valley Union members. Job bids should go up on 1/9, but I have already noticed a problem with them, so management is working on trying to get them all posted. Good ole’ HR is going to start the new year off by pissing us off right out of the gate. See you next year!!! (Right, Tim) Stay United, Stay Strong Sean Lehigh Valley-Scranton 2025 Picnic |
Branch President Sean Craig Your Union Representatives
Local Memorandum of UnderstandingUpdated 2023
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