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CTC Needs To Be Swept Out of the USPS

CTC Needs To Be Swept Out of the USPS
By By Dioenis D. Perez
Long Island, NY, Branch 202 Vice President and Postmaster of Syosset

Another new year and another process that simply doesn’t work to the expectations we were told it would: custodial team cleaning (CTC). This new process has a 169-page manual of instructions and a starting cost of nearly $9,000, depending on your office level. This idea is doomed.

I understand the USPS wants to eliminate personnel and reduce its footprint with regard to pay and benefits. CTC is exactly that, but so much more. Level-21-and-above administrative offices and all mail plants have been obligated to clean with this new method for a couple of years now.

This process has eliminated and reduced custodial staffing in many facilities across the nation. Not only is this bad for those who want to keep a clean facility, it’s nearly impossible when your staffing goes from three to two or from two to one. Who cleans when you are down to one custodian?

Oh, I forgot! EAS employees are cleaning and emptying the trash because they need their clerks to attend to important duties, such as distributing mail and working the retail window. I understand a clerk in a Level-18 office who may be a PTF in order to receive 40 hours of work will do custodial duties. But when you get to a Level-21 office and above, the majority of clerks are regulars. It’s highly unlikely they will perform custodial duties.

What happens when your one custodian is on annual leave or only works eight hours a day in a large building? It’s easy for upper-management to tell you to look for a PTF/PSE from another office to come and clean. Good luck counting on that happening consistently.

And here’s the beauty of it all. Back in the early 2000s, every postmaster was instructed not to use any vendors to clean their carpets. Now we are told it’s okay to have them not only clean our carpets, but also wash the different-color microfiber towels we use for cleaning. Even when we keep the colors together when they are sent to be cleaned weekly, they often come back mixed with different colors.

The CTC is an expensive disaster. And let’s not even discuss being obligated to order cleaning products that may be environmentally friendly, but cost more and don’t clean as well as the products we were using.

There’s another possibility why the USPS has gone to this new method of cleaning. If you’ve been informed your office no longer qualifies under the new CTC method with regard to the number of custodians you have because a custodian retired or left for another reason, you will not be allowed to find a replacement. Also, your SWCs are reduced when you lose a custodian.

Perhaps this is a way to eliminate supervisors from offices, as well, because they are reducing your SWCs?

Respectfully, always.