National Rural Letter Carriers' Association - QWL/EI Termination

QWL/EI Termination

On November 14, 2008, the NRLCA withdrew its support from the Quality of Work Life/Employee Involvement (QWL/EI) program effective January 1, 2009. QWL was intended, as the title suggests, to work toward improving the “quality of work life” for rural carriers and their managers alike at all levels of the organization as a joint, cooperative venture between USPS managers and rural letter carriers.

The Postal Service funded all QWL-EI activities, and became more insistent upon QWL/EI working exclusively on issues that support its corporate goal. Thus, the NRLCA viewed the QWL/EI process headed in a different direction than its original intention, and concluded that the Postal Service’s commitment to improve the workplace environment has been pushed to the bottom of the list of concerns. On December 12, 2008, the Postal Service confirmed that QWL/EI will be closed entirely. As NRLCA President Don Cantriel put it, "They were looking for an excuse to get rid of it; we gave it to them."