Teaching in the Time of Obedience. So true. Ms Katie's Ramblings are impressive.

[hay rick]

16. The public sector.

I am not a teacher. I was a mailman until I retired last year. Still, the stories I read about what is happening in education today resonate with me personally because they track my experience over the last 35 years with the Postal Service. During that time, I witnessed a seismic shift in workplace conditions.

The macro-climate shifts in conditions during this time should be obvious to every working person. Republicans don't bother to hide their hostility to labor unions and working people and Democrats offer the alternative of indifference to their interests. Reagan gave us PATCO, Clinton signed NAFTA, and Obama pretended Madison, Wisconsin was not on the map. Right-to-work laws spread like wildfire and union membership declined precipitously. Micro-climate shifts in working conditions are local and much more personal. The details vary, but the bottom line is predictable- more stress and abuse in the workplace.

My awareness of the changes was brought into focus by my experiences as a shop steward. I was a steward for NALC early in my career. Our local merged with a larger local and I remained active in the union, but not as a steward. After an almost 20-year hiatus, I was drafted to be a steward again for the last two and a half years of my career.

The second tour was a nightmare. In my earlier years, contract grievances were rare and were usually the result of foolish or impulsive behavior on the part of a single manager. Resolving them was generally straightforward. The second time around, contract violations were routine, almost daily occurrences, and were largely driven by management policies put in place by higher-ups. The new grievance procedure was also more cumbersome, requiring much more documentation and therefore, preparation time. The sheer volume of violations forced me to pick and choose which ones to pursue- and which ones to ignore. It became a complaint-driven process.

Worse than the never-ending contract violations was management's constant resort to discipline. Our workplace was all stick and no carrot. Discipline was supposed to be corrective, not punitive. In fact, it was used to intimidate. Because the Postal Service has done very little hiring in recent years, most of my carriers were proven veterans with 20, 30, and 40 years of experience. USPS tried to fire 10 of my 40 carriers- one at a time. This tended to be an arduous affair as the Postal Service had to go through the steps of "progressive discipline" - typically- official discussion, letter of warning, 1-week paper suspension, 2-week paper suspension, and then removal. The "violations" could be unrelated and trivial. Typical violations: driving without a seat belt, leaving the vehicle unlocked, missing an express mail deadline, or calling out sick once and being 6 minutes late twice during a quarter ("irregular attendance&quot .

They never were able to fire any of my carriers, but the constant conflict took its toll- on me and them. I would wake up in the middle of the night- angry- and then not be able to get back to sleep. And even though nobody got fired, none of the carriers wanted to be put in that vulnerable position. They tolerated verbal abuse and contract violations every day without complaint rather than risk retribution.

I sympathize with teachers who are confronting the dystopian corporate-dominated environment in education. Likewise, postal employees face a much harsher and less secure future than I experienced. In both cases, much of the deterioration is a function of public policy. Education has been battered by NCLB , RTTT, and stagnant funding. The Postal Service was sabotaged by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. Our political class does not have faith in public services. The result appears to be self-fulfilling prophecy.