90-Day Casuals Were In the Bargaining Unit until 1975

Posted on by Don Cheney

1975-1978_cbaFew people remember when noncareer employees (90-day casuals) were part of the bargaining unit and received the same pay as career employees. The four national craft unions, negotiating together, made the fateful decision to exclude the supplemental workforce from the bargaining unit in July 1975.  Former Clerk Craft Director Robert Tunstall used to remind people of this.

The Postal Service soon cut the pay of the supplemental workforce and began using them big time in lieu of career employees despite language that they wouldn’t. Thousands of grievances were filed. It took 36 years to return noncareer employees to the bargaining unit, but look at the huge cost.

1975-1978 Collective Bargaining Agreement (new language is in bold print)

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One thought on “90-Day Casuals Were In the Bargaining Unit until 1975”

  1. Union and NAME of Local/Branch
    Santa Clara
    Office held, if any
    no office ever held

    I was a casual right after this contractual change in February 1976. Management really used the “whips” on us casuals big time. Psychological torments and mind f*cks were gratuitously used. Forty years later and thirty years as a regular non-casual retiree I’m still recovering mentally. Thanks to being able to subsequently join the union as a regular employee the pay for “blue collar” work was good at the USPS and job security was good too. Those benefits “made up” for an otherwise difficult workplace environment. We “little people” can’t have it all, it’s either “put up” or live at the curb and eat dog excrement. I chose the former.

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