CDL District 4

Congressional Representatives

US Representative

US Senator

Lindsay Graham

Tim Scott

William Timmons

2025 Congressional Calendar

John Monta

January 2025

Good news for the civil service employees. The repeal of the WEP and GOP is now law. What the WEP was, it was a hit for all civil service employees. That means under Social Security if you had any years where you paid Social Security you were penalized, and your Social Security benefits were decreased. For each employee there was a complicated formula used to determine how much penalization you would have.

The GPO was for your spouse when you died. According to what your spouses’ income was, determined how much penalization the spouse would receive, unfortunately sometimes the penalty would be such that the spouse got nothing from your retirement.

With the repeal of this provision such penalties we're eliminated. For each person who was a civil service employee who worked Social Security before They worked for the government under civil service the penalty is gone. That means for everyone their Social Security benefits will increase. How much Depends on the individual. Each spouse will receive a different benefit depending on their income. I would like to say a flat rate, but this is not possible. You need to notify your Social Security online that you qualify for this increase.

Good work in contacting your representatives in senators to getting this bill passed. This is another example of your union protecting you. I encourage you if you're not already giving to our Pac fund that you do so. If you are already giving thank you. This was money was well spent.

February 2025

Write your text here...My article deals with the importance of being consistent. It is all too often that a letter carrier feels pressured to do his route in eight hours. This is unfortunately true when is route is actually 8 1/2 hours. He carrier must jump through hoops in order to get management to agree to that additional half hour. So, the letter carriers skip their lunch, The records look like the carries did the rout in 8 hours. Then comes the time for the evaluation of the route and it shows over a period that that carrier did indeed do the route in eight hours when it was really 8 1/2 hours.

By giving in to this harassment and absorbing that half an hour by skipping their lunch or 10 minutes gives a false reading as to how long your route really is. It is incumbent upon the carrier to notify management of the actual time it will take to do the route. Management may fuss and fume but it is the carers responsibility to notify management of the need of this extra time. Above all be honest because if you ask for extra time and they give you help and you were back in undertime it is not a good situation. When it comes to route inspection time you want that half an hour or 10 minutes to be included in your route evaluation. Management is going to take the lesser of the two times whether it be your actual inspection or your 8 weeks analysis. Although management cannot use the argument that it is shorter of the street times it does have power in making the argument that you demonstrated that you could do the route in eight hours.

It is your route. What you make of it you make. If you want that half an hour or 10 minutes built into your route it will be so. That depends on you. I encourage you to bite the bullet and let management know when you need overtime.

March 2025

This month I'd like to take some information from the national union about different bills that are in Congress.

The first is the PRO ACT.

““NALC is fortunate to be an open shop with more than 93 percent of letter carriers choosing to be members of our union,” NALC President Brian L. Renfroe said. “We do not take our right to organize for granted. We know that our country is stronger when workers are empowered and protected through unions. NALC fully supports the PRO Act, which would make it easier for every worker to form and join a union, and urges Congress to pass this bill”

The second is the USPS Fairness Act..

“Over 65 percent of current letter carriers began their USPS careers as casuals, transitional employees (TEs) or city carrier assistants (CCAs), all of which are non-career positions. More than 132,000 letter carriers who started in non-career positions, in most cases doing the exact same work as career employees, have time currently not credible towards their retirement. H.R. 1522 would allow these affected letter carriers the opportunity to purchase retirement credit for the time they spent in these non-career positions, providing greater retirement security.”

The third is the protection of the Carriers’ Act.

“The bills are identical to the House and Senate versions introduced last Congress and include three measures to deter the increasing crimes and assaults committed against letter carriers on the job:

· $7 billion in funding (appropriated over five years) to replace and modernize postal infrastructure that criminals often seek out.

· Designation for an assistant district attorney in each judicial district to prioritize cases involving an assault against a letter carrier in a timely manner.

· Standardizing sentencing guidelines for those who are found guilty of committing these crimes”

I would encourage each member of the union to contact their Senators and House of Representative members in their districts in support of these measures. It is important that we as letter carriers keep our representatives informed of our stand on these issues.