Unions, grievances, and labor relations

You are the postmaster. Clerk and carrier unions are separate crafts. You cannot hire or appoint a union boss. Labor Relations starts at 75. Employee satisfaction starts at 70. Both meters live under Operations, then Staff. The election itself is on Staff and traits.

Union bosses

Each craft elects its own boss in the Break Room once that union has at least 5 members. Contractors do not count. Fewer members means no election. A boss who is already elected stays if membership later drops. The seat clears when that person leaves the roster.

An elected boss stays a clerk or a carrier and can still handle mail. That is not a separate hire. A facility grievance that the game attributes to a steward needs a seated clerk boss or carrier boss. A person's own schedule grievance does not.

Contractors

Only clerks and carriers can be hired as contractors. Janitors, maintenance, the postmaster, and managers are not contractors.

Hiring too many contractors angers the union. The warn line is 40 percent of floor staff. The hard line is 60 percent. Click a contractor to Convert to Union. That costs three days of the step up from contractor pay to union fair, plus a 50 admin fee, and keeps the wage at least at union fair. Conversion raises Labor Relations.

Wages and the contract

Union and contractor wages below fair hurt Labor Relations on hire. Salaried postmaster and manager accepted wages do not. Union clerks and carriers use a 1.15 wage multiplier. Contractors use 0.70. See Hiring and wages.

Each New Year, non-contractors may get a small raise of 3 percent of fair daily wage. It applies automatically when relations are at least 50 and cash covers payroll. Otherwise you Grant, Partial, or Deny. Operations, then Staff, can grant a mid-year raise once per civil year. Union raises boost Labor Relations. Salaried and contractor raises boost employee satisfaction only.

Periodic union contract talks can set a wage floor at fair pay, cut the overtime relations hit to 0.70 of the usual hit, and lengthen the soft break from 0.5 hours to 0.75 hours. Accepting adds an 8 percent efficiency perk for 14 days. Refusing hurts relations.

Work to rule and strike

Below 50, the floor is on work-to-rule at 0.55 speed. Below 25, it is a strike at 0.40 speed. Staff keep working. They do not walk out. Contractors keep full speed. Managers, the postmaster, and janitors are not slowed.

Employee satisfaction at or below 28 puts strike pressure on the relations meter. Salaried staff may quit when satisfaction is below 25. Contractors may quit below 40. When a worker's morale drops to 35, a toast pans the camera to them. Unresolved complaints drain morale until someone may quit (morale at or below 15 while complaining).

A strike lists up to five grievances. The live set includes wages below fair rate, overtime authorized, Sunday overtime on a locked day off, holiday full-capacity override, too many contractors, no break room, sorting floor overcrowded (more than one floor worker per 4 sorting tiles), employee satisfaction critically low, and labor relations collapsed.

Schedule grievances

Editing a person's shift, days off, or duty preference can please them, anger them, or make them file a grievance. Traits decide which. Anger at 40 or higher files. A grievance snaps shift, days off, and duty back to the last accepted terms and locks those three for 2 days. It also hits morale and stress.

Overtime is 1.5 times the hourly wage for the hours worked, and it hits morale and labor relations. It clears at midnight. It is blocked during a holiday shutdown. See Holidays.