USPS and Union Did Nothing Wrong

[The Conservative]

you are an employee of the government, you need to hold yourself to specific standards.

That right there sounds like a contradiction.

I never said it made sense, especially in this day and age, but that is what I was always taught.

[Kazmyr]

you are an employee of the government, you need to hold yourself to specific standards.

That right there sounds like a contradiction.

Depends on your last name, IMO.

[Okeefenokee]

'Restricts' isn't 'eliminates'.

Union got time off for employees so they could engage in the democratic process as citizens.

Yeah, this issue reads like chicken shit. I admit maybe there is something I don't understand here. USPS employees can go on leave. Big deal. It's not the federal government's business what they do on leave.

That's not true, you are an employee of the government, you need to hold yourself to specific standards. If not, you can be fired.

TC, for fuck's sake. You don't know what you're talking about. Federal employees are allowed to participate in politics. They can even protest. You just have to abide by certain restrictions. Like not doing it while on the government's dime and not doing it while in uniform. Things like that.

There is no such thing as a ban on federal employees from being involved in politics. The hell are you smoking?

[Okeefenokee]

The more I read about it, the more I think Speaker's right about this. USPS isn't a fed. agency prohibited from partisan activity under the Hatch Act (list here: https://osc.gov/Resources/HA%20Pamphlet ... 202014.pdf).

They were on leave. They weren't on duty, on government property, wearing an official uniform, or using a government vehicle (if they were, good God - how dumb can you be). The Hatch Act — Permitted and Prohibited Activities for Employees

Employees (via union) asked for time off to go campaign. USPS says "ok, but it's LWOP." Union/employees agree and go shill for H. How would this be different than say a USPS employee telling his boss that he's taking time off and using his LWOP time to go to a Trump rally? Is that really a violation of the Hatch Act?

You just made me remember the mail man that flew his little gyrocopter onto the whitehouse lawn.



I think he had his official mailbag with him, too.

[clubgop]

This isn't a strike. They were taking leave to work on the Hillary Clinton campaign. I don't see how the USPS was doing anything wrong by coordinating their taking leave so many of them can do it during the campaign season without affecting the mail deliveries.

If the USPS were working directly with the Clinton campaign, I think there might be some lines crossed. Not sure. But I only got the sense from the article that they were working with the union to help as many employees take leave as possible.

This is why all public employee unions should be gassed.

[jseymour]

It seems to me and was written in the article that the problem was it was sent as a directive. Meaning no matter what I have to give you the time off even if someone else had already scheduled their vacation. Meaning I have to cancel one person's vacation to give you the time off to play politics. Or if someone wanted time off and scheduled vacation to work on Trump's campaign they could have their vacation revoked to allow someone else to work on Hillary's campaign, not saying that happened. Now if it's not a directive and a simple statement that hey some employee's want time off to go work on someone's campaign and we should let them as our needs allow then their would have been no problem.

[The Conservative]

Yeah, this issue reads like chicken shit. I admit maybe there is something I don't understand here. USPS employees can go on leave. Big deal. It's not the federal government's business what they do on leave.

That's not true, you are an employee of the government, you need to hold yourself to specific standards. If not, you can be fired.

TC, for fuck's sake. You don't know what you're talking about. Federal employees are allowed to participate in politics. They can even protest. You just have to abide by certain restrictions. Like not doing it while on the government's dime and not doing it while in uniform. Things like that.

There is no such thing as a ban on federal employees from being involved in politics. The hell are you smoking?

The Hatch Act does.

The 1939 Act forbids the intimidation or bribery of voters and restricts political campaign activities by federal employees. It prohibits using any public funds designated for relief or public works for electoral purposes. It forbids officials paid with federal funds from using promises of jobs, promotion, financial assistance, contracts, or any other benefit to coerce campaign contributions or political support.

Vacation time is paid leave since post office employees are federal agents, they are paid with public money. This is not a loophole this is fact. They cannot take vacation time and use it to help a political campaign. They have to do it on their own dime, not paid leave...

So yeah, I know what I'm talking about.

[Speaker to Animals]

It was leave without pay, TC. Read the article first.

Not that it's the government's business what political campaigns their employees support when those employees are not working.. Fuck, man. Think about what you are trying to argue here.

[Okeefenokee]

That's not true, you are an employee of the government, you need to hold yourself to specific standards. If not, you can be fired.

TC, for fuck's sake. You don't know what you're talking about. Federal employees are allowed to participate in politics. They can even protest. You just have to abide by certain restrictions. Like not doing it while on the government's dime and not doing it while in uniform. Things like that.

There is no such thing as a ban on federal employees from being involved in politics. The hell are you smoking?

The Hatch Act does.

The 1939 Act forbids the intimidation or bribery of voters and restricts political campaign activities by federal employees. It prohibits using any public funds designated for relief or public works for electoral purposes. It forbids officials paid with federal funds from using promises of jobs, promotion, financial assistance, contracts, or any other benefit to coerce campaign contributions or political support.

Vacation time is paid leave since post office employees are federal agents, they are paid with public money. This is not a loophole this is fact. They cannot take vacation time and use it to help a political campaign. They have to do it on their own dime, not paid leave...

So yeah, I know what I'm talking about.

You don't know how to read. Just stop. You don't know what you're talking about.

[The Conservative]

It was leave without pay, TC. Read the article first.

Not that it's the government's business what political campaigns their employees support when those employees are not working.. Fuck, man. Think about what you are trying to argue here.

You work for the government you give away some rights, the same with the military, the same with government employment. All your emails are stored, even the ones you are supposedly deleted, your life is exposed to them, especially if you have to go through a clearance check. Your background is combed through in some cases very uncomfortably.

You give up rights of freedom of political expression working for the government.