Every year since I began working for the post office, I have had the honor of working on the day of The National Association of Letter Carriers' food drive day. It is always on ths day before Mothers Day. This food drive irritates the hell out of me for several reasons. I have nothing against collecting food for the hungry, in fact, I am all for it, but something needs to be done about the way that this service project is handled!
I am a rural carrier. As such, I am not a member of the union that sponsors this project. Rural carriers have their own union. Still, we participate in the drive in cooperation with the city carriers' union. Hell, rural carriers collect more food from their routes than the city carriers do. It only makes sense. Our routes are bigger. But when all is said and done we get no credit for our participation in this event. Postmasters and city carriers will get their pictures in the local newspapers with members of the food bank. Thanks and praise will be dished out to them. Rural carriers will not be recognised for their participation. We will not even get a thank-you!
Collecting all of this food is no easy task. The flyers that are sent out to customers are designed with city carriers in mind. They say to place the food near your mailbox. This is fine for a carrier with a walking route, but for the rural carrier...
Every time a cutomer puts a bag of food on the ground beside the mailbox, the carrier must park the vehicle to get out and collect it. This takes time, approximately one hour extra time, total, on the day of the food drive. City carriers are paid an hourly wage and are compensated for this extra time. Salaried rural carrirs are NOT! Once again we don't even get a thank-you! GRRR!
Praise God! This was the last year that I shall have to do this miserable thanless task. By next year I will have a sub and my Saturdays off. My future sub can deal with this crap! I feel sorry for him (or her).
