NALC Initiates Lawsuit For Consolidated Casing

Consolidating Casing is going to court. The NALC is suing the Postal Service, looking for an injunction in the U.S. District Court: District of Columbia against the job altering Consolidated Casing Initiative implemented earlier this year at a number of facilities around the country. The NALC states in the suit that the new process, “radically refashions” the way we do our job.

At a time we carried 5 hours, and spent 3 hours in the office. With automation our street times have increased, presently to 6 1/2 to 7 hours. With this program they would have us on the street for 7 hours and 45 minutes, and that’s not including if you have to work overtime. The USPS has unilaterally implemented these changes, which is in direct violation of our collective bargaining rights! These work conditions put us all at risk for increased frequency of injury due to the expanded street times, the physicality that inherently comes with that work, and additional exposure to the elements. The 5;30 AM start times for the new “Caser” position forces some carriers to start later because the mail will be processed in phases during the morning, expending even more Letter Carriers to delivering in the dark, which is another unsafe working condition the initiative expands.

The NALC suit also states that delaying the program will not bring any harm to the USPS while waiting for the arbitration to be adjudicated, and hopefully this program will be exposed for what it is: Dangerous for Letter Carriers!