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TOP NEWS STORIES |
Dallas: NALC Appealed 2,100
Grievances in Last Six Months
"The meeting was scheduled as a result of a memo by the
postmaster general, who directed his USPS Officers and PCES
Managers to honor the terms of our collective bargaining
agreement. There can be no doubt that the Dallas District is
not in compliance." - Linda Welch Named
Acting VP of Delivery and Post Office Operations -
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APWU: Senate to Consider Legislation Giving Sick Leave Credit
to FERS Retirees
"The legislation would credit postal and federal workers with
unused sick leave when determining the amount of their FERS
annuity. Currently, only employees covered by the Civil
Service Retirement System (CSRS) receive credit for unused
sick leave. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has found
that FERS employees approaching retirement use significantly
more sick leave than CSRS employees." -
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Postal Inspection Service: Post office's blue boxes not safe
at night
"The U.S. Postal Inspection Service tells The Watchdog that
those blue collection boxes outside post offices are no longer
safe to use at night. Why? People are "using a device to pull
letters back out of the collection box," spokeswoman Amanda
McMurrey said. "Postal inspectors advise that if customers
miss the last posted collection time on the blue collection
box, they should consider waiting to deposit the mail until
the next day or go into the post office to deposit the mail,"
she said." -
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 Chrysler pitches electric minivans for mail carriers
"To mark Earth Day, the automaker said it will apply for
funding from the Department of Energy's program that would
enable it to build a demonstration fleet. The postal service
also has signed letters of intent from Consolidated Edison,
DTE Energy and Duke Energy. The utilities will develop
recharging stations at post offices in Ann Arbor, downtown
Detroit, parts of North Carolina and Long Island, N.Y." -
Chrysler Debuts All-Electric Minivan -
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USPS to Reduce Fleet by 10,000 Vehicles
"According to Donahoe, the year-end goal is to remove 10,000
vehicles from the existing fleet of 220,000 vehicles. This
will involve transferring some 3,000 right-hand drive vehicles
to rural routes, redistributing under-utilized vehicles to
where they are needed, and selling surplus vehicles. Area and
district offices also will re-evaluate their needs for
administrative vehicles and share resources." -
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Going Postal: The Imminent Death of the U.S. Postal Service?
"While the standard mail revenue stream has helped keep the
USPS apparently solvent, it has amounted to a huge gamble that
the increases in volume, paid for again in part by out-sized
increases in other rates (first-class, parcel post,
international mail), would go on essentially forever. This
amounted to a Ponzi scheme, and that scheme has now collapsed.
Driven by Internet cannibalization and especially the economic
downturn, mail volumes have been plummeting off a cliff at a
rate several times faster than the USPS's own experts
predicted in their worst-case scenarios." -
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NAPUS: USPS Canceling Associate Supervisor Program (ASP)
"On April 10, 2009 Susan M. LaChance, Vice President Employee
Development & Diversity, USPS notified the Managers, Human
Resources, Area that the Associate Supervisor Program (ASP) is
being canceled because of the current business conditions." -
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Burrus Update: 'Summer Sale' Will Discount Our Future
"The model of uniform rates has been turned on its head with
workshare discounts, drop-ship discounts, Negotiated Service
Agreements (NSAs), and now the Summer Sale and Saturation Mail
Incentive Programs. Each of these giveaways was portrayed as
an effort to reduce postal costs or increase volume. Why then,
when the giveaway programs are at their zenith, are we
suffering the lowest mail volume in a decade? How does one
justify giving away more money for lower volume day after day?" -
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Trade Mag Lunch Meeting: Grim News From USPS
"The USPS this year, said Mayhew, is facing heavy revenue
losses, a significant downturn in mail volume, facilities
consolidation and a reduction in workforce - including the
departure of many top-level executives, resulting in "cubicle
wars with unqualified people making decisions." -
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USPS Playing 'Let's Make a Deal'
"To counteract it's declining revenues, the U.S. Postal
Service is rolling out incentives to certain organizations
that increase the number of items they mail. Postal officials
are reportedly working on a "Summer Sale" program to encourage
businesses and non-profit groups to send more direct mail,
catalogs, and other Standard-class mail this summer. Sources
say it would offer rebates of 20% to 30% for mailers that
increase their Standard mail during July, August, and
September of this year." - DMA: USPS
Proposes 'Summer Sale' for Many Standard Mailers -
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NALC, USPS Reach Agreement on Modified Interim Alternate Route
Adjustment Process (PDF)
"The National Association of Letter Carriers and USPS
recognize the importance of maintaining routes in proper
adjustment throughout the year. The parties agree that in a
stable and consistent mail volume environment, a historical
review of data over a longer period would be preferred and the
parties will continue to pursue a permanent process which
encompasses the regular carrier's office and street time."
- Federal Times: Postal Service to slash
carrier routes -
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Postal Service Looks to Consolidate City Carrier Routes
"The U.S. Postal Service could reach an agreement with
one of its largest unions as early as this week to consolidate
letter carrier routes in the face of dropping mail volume,
according to Postmaster General John Potter. The Postal
Service is negotiating with the National Association of Letter
Carriers, which represents more than 214,000 city letter
carriers. It would merge some of the routes in the city
delivery networks, a move that will reduce the total number of
routes but won't impact universal service." -
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Flats Sequencing Hits Some Bumps
"Declining mail volume, budget cuts, and equipment problems
are forcing the U.S. Postal Service to rework its plans for
the Flats Sequencing System. The deployment schedule for Phase
I of the system has been pushed back a couple of months, while
the coverage area for the 100 machines has been expanded. Some
of the 32 original Phase I facilities will get fewer of the
enormous machines than originally planned as postal officials
adjust to declining volume for catalogs, magazines, and other
flat mail." -
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Postal Service to Close 3 REC Centers, Eliminate 1,490 Jobs in
3 States
"The U.S. Postal Service says it's closing three mail
processing centers and eliminating approximately 1,490 jobs in
West Virginia, Indiana and Arizona. They are among five of 55
opened in 1990 to handle mail that couldn't be read by optical
scanners. Centers in Wichita, Kansas, and Salt Lake City will
remain open." - USPS Closing Charleston
Center - Fort Wayne Encoding Center
Closing -
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House Approves Bill To Give Sick-Leave Credit to FERS Retirees
"The House of Representatives approved legislation on
April 1 that would give employees covered by the Federal
Employees' Retirement System (FERS) credit for unused sick
leave when calculating their retirement benefits. The Federal
Retirement Reform Act of 2009 (H.R. 1804), introduced by House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Edolphus
Towns (D-NY), was approved by a voice vote." -
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San Francisco Passes First 'Do Not Mail' Resolution in Nation
"The San Francisco Board of Supervisors today passed a
resolution calling on California to create a Do Not Mail
Registry giving its citizens the choice to stop receiving
unwanted junk mail. Though non-binding, the resolution
represents the first time American lawmakers have withstood
pressure from the direct mail industry and the U.S. Postal
Service to side with the majority of Americans." -
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