On August 20th Separate Sort and Delivery (A.K.A. Systemic Service Destruction) went live at North Fraser Delivery Centre. Prior to the restructure we knew issues were in store for us when manager Kal Gil and superintendent Rod Morrison went to Laval, QC to see how the SSD system was working there. Upon their return it was announced that NFDC would be the second station in Canada to restructure as Separate Sort from Delivery. Canada Post higher ups had figured delivery values in the lower mainland were similar to those of Laval (pop. 420,000). The floor was told Laval carriers loved SSD and had adjusted to the new system well. REALLY? The Laval depot was partially converted to CMBs prior to the Trudeau government halting future CMB installations. SSD is less strenuous on carrier routes with CMBs and Apartment Panels. However, the North Fraser Depot delivers door to door in mainly residential areas. These routes are long with steep slopes and numerous stairs. At 7 pm at the end of the first day a carrier on wave 1 was heard to say in a deflated voice:
“So much for making it home for dinner and getting my kids to bed”.
Just two weeks later, NFDC had short floor visits from Superintendents from other depots. Based upon these visits, they spread the news to their depots that, of course…..wait for it….NFDC loves SSD. These lies must stop!
***Here’s the hard truth told from the NFDC floor.***
Day 1: Going live, it’s the GONG SHOW!
Imagine walking into your depot on day one of a restructure to something completely different than PT. It’s a whole new level of engineered chaos. As a carrier, you no longer have a sortation case. Your workspace is limited to your work station (a parcel cart) and a silver bullet that is shared with someone on another wave. Your manual mail from yesterday is sorted and pulled by your router, labelled by pull number and left in your cart. You have to sort your packets according to pull number. Admail is in a bunker and has to be collated, then parcels and sequenced mail are in the parcel area. It’s impossible to make it through the station without running into another carrier on their own journey. It’s a chaotic clustered rush, of letter carriers buzzing around pulling all the pieces together to begin their day. PDTs are on one side of the depot, keys for routes and trucks on the other. It feels as though you’ve already put 2 km in before even leaving the building. None of the routes have their SLB clearances loaded into their PDTs. The supervisor in charge of keys was seen sorting an entire bucket of keys at the end of the day that did not work on route.
Day 2: Meet your new neighbor!
Imagine putting a silver bullet vertically next to a parcel cart in an L shape. That’s how much space you have to work in. The person behind you has you boxed in with their silver bullet as you both frantically try to sort packets to pull numbers and organize them in some way that makes some sense to you. Of course, silver bullets were never designed to do this. The brakes of the cart barely work, and soon everyone’s carts are slowly encroaching on each other. Before the morning is over, you’ve reached a record level of frustration without even leaving the depot.
Day 3: IKEA catalogues!
How does it always seem to be that a massive restructure happens at the same time as heavy volume delivery? Not only are carriers dealing with adjusting to new routes, 2 days in and IKEA rolls around. Coincidence? Irony? Sheer stupidity? All of the above? For all we hear from management about health and safety on routes, this overburdening should have been planned a lot better. General mood on floor: Bleak, Frustrated, Dark, Alone.
Press time:
You try looking for a familiar face, but half of the depot’s carriers have already bid out. North Fraser Delivery Centre went live with 20 relief assignments uncovered and a dozen routes vacant. Several of these assignments have been filled by new hires still in their first year of delivering. These new hires have no training on SSD and North Fraser Delivery Centre is laid out completely different than any PT floor. The station is understaffed and carriers over worked more now than ever before.
Desperate pleas ring out over the PA daily as management scrambles to find anyone to take a section or more out. However, after 6-7 hours out walking a full route, most are hard pressed to take on another section. Further, overtime sections are still only valued at 1.75 hours despite many people needing 2 hours or more per section just to finish. Daily on both waves new hires arrive for their first assignment. It’s not enough. Relief are loaned to North Fraser so frequently that you would think they are assigned there. It’s still not enough.
SSD. We call it Systemic Service Destruction for a reason: With SSD you’re now managing manual, sequenced, packets, and admail in separate bundles. There’s only 20 – 30 minutes time value allotted for merging packets, sequenced, and manual mail, then loading the truck. To date, the staffing at the station has failed to cover routes. Sequenced mail is being sent back to PPC to be re-sequenced with the next day’s mail, and manual mail is being re-sorted for the next day by routers. How long can this continue?
Meanwhile, the routers were told that their sorting was their assignment; if they finished early, they could take a section out on overtime. However, Supervisor Katherine Greer threatened to lock the gates if everyone was not back by 7:30pm. Not only did this brazen act of bullying place even more stress on the carriers, it limited overtime for routers. If they are required to be in the depot until 6, a section is 1.75 hours, and the gates lock 1.5 hours after they start overtime, how do they take the overtime out? Seems as if the rug has been pulled out from under them
North Fraser Depot assignments are still available – only expert multi-taskers or octopi need apply. Those prepared to lose all control of routes and robotically follow unorganized, illogical madness be sure to send your bid and join the show.
la/CUPE-3338