Postal News

House Approves FERS Sick Leave and Thrift Savings Reform
"The FERS sick leave approach approved by the House last night is more generous than that originally proposed in FERS sick leave legislation introduced earlier this year by Rep. James Moran (D-VA). Under the measure approved by the House, FERS employees who retire within three years of the bill's enactment would receive service credit, in the computation of their pension, for 75 percent of their accrued sick leave at the time of retirement. Those who retire three years after enactment would receive 100% credit for all of their unused sick leave." - NALC: FERS Sick Leave Reimbursement Moves Forward - NAPUS: House Passes Sick Leave Legislation (PDF) -

Postal Service Wants Limits On Its Universal Service Obligation
"The U.S. Postal Service wants to exempt its competitive products - like Priority Mail and package services - from the universal service obligation. Doing so would allow it to cut back on offerings in sparsely populated areas where business is thin. The Postal Service argues that those services shouldn't be treated differently than those of competitors such as FedEx, DHL and UPS. An exemption would allow the Postal Service to choose which competitive products it offers in a given market, and what standards of service to apply. Products covered by the universal service obligation - such as first-class mail - must be offered in a uniform fashion across the country." -

NALC: Update on 'Early Retirement'
"President Young told delegates at the NALC Convention in Boston last week that "very little has been decided" about the possibility the Postal Service will extend to city letter carriers its pending "Voluntary Early Retirement" program for clerks, mail handlers and their supervisors. Young, who is in close contact with USPS on the issue, emphasized that if there is an "early out" offer to city letter carriers, it would be limited and not likely to occur before 2009. Even with the advent of flat sorting equipment and the decline in volume, he reminded the delegates there are still 145 million delivery points that need service by carriers. If any substantial information becomes available, members will be notified promptly, President Young said." -

Capital One, USPS in NSA Dispute
"The Postal Regulatory Commission may rule in August on the dispute between Capital One Services Inc. and the US Postal Service, regarding the issuance of a contract between the USPS and the mailer that would provide customized pricing incentives. Capital One filed a complaint about the negotiated service agreement (NSA) with the PRC on June 19, alleging that the Postal Service "unduly discriminated" against the company because it was denied a NSA under the same terms as one granted to its competitor, Bank of America Corp." -

NPMNU: Hegarty Testifies on USPS Network Realignment Issues
"It makes absolutely no sense to this Union to give away mail volume to the private sector, when the nearby postal plants, as is well documented, are suffering from a major loss of mail volume themselves. If the FSS is going to cause work to be moved out of the Bulk Mail Centers, it would make perfect business sense to relocate that work to the nearby plants. There simply is no need to outsource this work!" - APWU Testimony Assails Latest 'USPS Network Plan' -

Postal Service Seeks Flexibility in Closing Facilities
"Facing falling mail volume and limited control over its prices or costs, the U.S. Postal Service is relying on post office consolidation to stem losses, but the effort faces stiff political resistance. The self-supporting agency on June 19 sent Congress an outline of how it hopes to save money by streamlining a network of 37,000 post offices and 400 large mail-processing plants. The outline did not provide any details indicating how many facilities the Postal Service might consider closing or consolidating." -

GAO Report: Data Needed to Assess the Effectiveness of Outsourcing (PDF)
"To determine the effectiveness of postal outsourcing, improve management accountability, and support congressional oversight, GAO recommends that the Postmaster General should establish a process to track the results of outsourcing activities that are subject to collective bargaining and report these results to Congress. The Service generally agreed with our findings and first recommendation, but not to provide Congress with information about outsourcing results." -

Burrus Addresses Letter Carriers Convention
"In a historic moment for the two major postal unions, APWU President William Burrus delivered a speech at the biennial convention of the National Association of Letter Carriers. It was the first time that the top leader of either union had spoken at a national gathering of the other organization, and Burrus said it was symbolic of the need for solidarity among those whose livelihood depends on the Postal Service." -

Direct Mail Tries to Go Green. No, Really
"MOST marketers readily concede it: getting rid of direct mail - or junk mail, as environmentalists and most recipients call it - would save a lot of trees. But they are not about to render bulk mailings obsolete. So a group of direct-marketing companies, along with a handful of their corporate clients, are banding together to make an inherently unsustainable practice at least a little bit greener." -

USPS Announces 'Green Fleet' Testing Strategy
"The U.S. Postal Service will outline its strategy for converting to an environmentally friendly, non-petroleum based alternative fuel vehicle fleet to replace 195,000 delivery vehicles and will announce an alternative fuel vehicle test. On July 23, General Motors will turn over the keys of a Hydrogen Fuel Cell (HFC) vehicle to the USPS for testing in a mail delivery environment. HFC vehicles are unique in that they are battery powered and have no ill effects on the environment and their only emission is water. The USPS's director of R&D will outline the strategy for testing alternate fuel vehicles and for converting to a green delivery fleet." -

Udall Takes Postal Service to Task
"Albuquerque isn't the only place in New Mexico that's having post office problems. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., on Friday sent a letter to Postmaster General John E. Potter saying he has received numerous complaints from citizens in Santa Fe and other areas of District 3 about shoddy mail service. In the letter, Udall asks for "further written explanation of the situation, as well as monthly updates from both your Washington, D.C., office and your local (USPS) representatives on the steps being taken to address this situation." "The large number of complaints and recent news stories regarding serious delays in mail delivery has made me very concerned about the management of postal facilities and operations in New Mexico," Udall wrote." -

Gas prices fuel postal experiment
"Michelle Wilson, 47, has been a letter carrier seven years. She said she has gone from walking three hours to between four and five hours a day. Wilson said she and many of her co-workers have been working longer hours - sometimes 10 to 12 hours a day. Mike Williams, president of the Denver branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said he generally disagrees with changing routes to walking routes. "I have e-mails in the double digits from carriers forced to work overtime that didn't sign up for the overtime," he said. "Adding delivery stops to each route in Colorado and walking routes increases hours." -

Postal worker shot and killed at W. Virginia post office
"A West Virginia postal worker who was shot at a Moundsville-area post office Friday has died from her wounds. Lua Wolverton, 35, was pronounced dead at Ruby Memorial Hospital. Wolverton was the Post Master for the small community of Dallas. Police have arrested 39-year-old Todd Dolin, who was found in Zanesville, Ohio. They plan to charge him with 1st degree murder in Wolverton's death. Sheriff John Gruzinskas said Wolverton was shot twice at work, but was able to describe her attacker in a 911 call to police. Gruzinskas said Wolverton and Dolin had a "familiar relationship," but did not elaborate."

USPS Releases Details About VER Timeline
"On Aug. 18, an annuity estimate will be mailed to all VER-eligible employees from Eagan, MN. In addition, on Aug. 22 a VER offer packet will be sent to all eligible employees containing a cover letter, an application and a list of questions and answers. Interested employees will have from Aug. 25 to Sept. 30 to submit their application. It's important to note that Sept. 30 is the date when an employee's voluntary choice to retire becomes irrevocable." Frequently Asked Questions -

Postal Service uses more walking routes
"Because a one-cent increase in the price of fuel raises USPS costs by more than $8 million per year, the postal service is exploring options such as increasing walking routes, bicycle routes and fuel-efficient vehicles to reduce its energy consumption. "There are a lot of different elements that we're trying, none of which by themselves sound like an awfully big savings," said Gerry McKiernan, USPS spokesman in Washington, D.C., "but when it's accumulative, and when you take into account that we have 195,000 vehicles in America's neighborhoods six days a week, even a small savings on one route can add up." -

Burrus to VER-Eligible Employees: 'Don't Go'
"An employee who retires after 25 years of service can expect to receive an annuity of less than half of the average basic salary of the last three years," Burrus said. He noted that this would exclude most of the time period covered by the 2008 upgrade and the September 2008 Cost-of-Living Adjustment, which is expected to be over $1,000 - one of the largest in postal history. "Employees who can work for another 15 years before reaching their annuity maximums can expect pay hikes over that time equal to the nearly $18,000 in raises over the past 15 years," Burrus said of the increase from $34,000 to September's $52,000." OPM Approval Letter (PDF) - Blog: Will remaining employees be forced to work more OT after VER? -

Catalog Choice Service Putting a Dent in Catalog Mailings
According to Catalog Choice's Website "the Catalog Choice community is presently 949,452 persons strong, having already opted out of 12,634,515 catalogs." The catalog service was mentioned in the May 2008 AARP Bulletin. -

USPS Wants Quality Over Quantity
"After years of managing volume, the U.S. Postal Service wants to instead manage mail quality, according to Hamilton Davison, executive director of the American Catalog Mailers Association. "The post office is not just making sure that mailers get stuff delivered, it's making sure that the mail is really wanted," Davison said during a session Thursday at the MeritDirect Business Mailers Co-op and Conference. Davison's information stems from discussions with Postmaster General John E. Potter during ACMA's National Catalog Advocacy & Strategy Forum last month. Potter suggested then that the USPS may soon become a much smaller organization that would not longer be handling more than 200 billion pieces a year, including 50 billion flats." -

Denver postal workers tired of violence in the workplace
"About 50 letter carriers walked the picket line Thursday to get their message out. "We demand a safe and harmonious workplace, that's our right," said Mike Williams, president of the local Branch 47 of the National Association of Letter Carriers. Union employees want to see improvements in how management treats them, both mentally and physically. Union representatives claim there have already been over seventy grievances citing abusive management filed in the metro area this year." -

Post office to cut 20K employees
"On Wednesday, Freda Sauter, a Postal Service spokeswoman for the Eastern Region, said the OPM approval allows for the development of an early retirement program, a process that postal officials said would offer no incentive package. The Eastern region -- nine Maryland counties on the Delmarva Peninsula and a part of Anne Arundel County -- employs 1,296 workers. Postal officials say it is too soon to determine the impact on the region that includes Salisbury's close to 40 postal clerks among an estimated 150 workers." -

APWU Meets With USPS, Seeks Bargaining Over Early-Outs
"APWU President William Burrus met with postal officials July 8 regarding USPS plans to offer early-retirement opportunities to 40,000 employees. "I conveyed our strongly-held belief that the Postal Service is required to bargain with the union over Voluntary Early Retirement opportunities," Burrus said... "We do not oppose Voluntary Early Retirements," he explained, "but we do object to any plan to offer them selectively and exclude some employees from eligibility," he said. "We also believe that for this VER, which is not the result of contract negotiations, severance pay must accompany an offer of early retirement." -

Burrus: High Gas Prices Are No Justification for Five-Day Mail Delivery
"Since there is little direct connection between demand and the ridiculously high gas prices, how can we account for the spate of recent proposals to reduce mail service from six days per week to five? Unfortunately, the suggestions are merely a smokescreen designed to lead to the demise of mail delivery by the USPS. Throughout our history there have been forces who have attempted to profiteer in the performance of public services." -

Cleveland Hopkins airport post office may Close
"Cleveland's airport post office branch - where customers can deposit their packages and envelopes with a clerk until midnight - may close by year's end. Closing of the branch, whose official name is the Cleveland Airport Mail Center, is being considered as part of an overall streamlining plan, U.S. Postal Service spokesman David Van Allen said Monday." -

Hidden camera crew trails 'contracted' letter carrier
"The unions also make the point that the "contractors" couldn't be trusted with the mail the way regular Letter Carriers are trusted. To prove the case, NALC's national office decided to hire a film crew to document the struggle against postal privatization. Their work will be shown at NALC's July 21-25 convention in Boston. Last year, as part of a union contract settlement, USPS declared a moratorium on further subcontracting, but that expires July 31. The camera crew first traveled to Miami in late May, where they filmed one side of postal privatization - worker exploitation. They followed a poorly paid Haitian-born legal immigrant as he drove his postal route, all over town. Hansen said the Beaverton case shows another side of privatization: Waste, inefficiency, and possibly nepotism." -

National Early Outs for Craft and Supervisors Coming Soon
"The USPS is currently waiting for OPM approval to offer early outs to craft employees and supervisors. Proposed VER date for clerks, mail handlers, and supervisors will be Dec. 31, 2008. City carriers, rural carriers and maintenance will follow." Memo (PDF)
APWU to Meet With USPS Over Possible 'Early Out' Offer
The Postal Service is experiencing serious revenue shortfall as a result of the slumping economy. Mail volume is down significantly, and revenue is not keeping pace with inflation. What was touted as "a new business plan" in the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA) serves only to place a cap on rate increases in response to the mail-volume loss. Excessive workshare discounts and the increased focus on contracting postal activities generate budgetary losses that cannot he recovered through internal efficiencies. It is within this environment that the postal monopoly and six-day delivery are being re-evaluated, which guarantees we will be seeing proposals for revolutionary change." - NAPS.org Forum: No Incentives, ETs Excluded - OPM: Voluntary Early Retirement Authority -

Postal Service plans to overhaul delivery network, close facilities
"The U.S. Postal Service plans to close dozens of facilities across the country as part of a major reorganization, a move that could save millions of dollars and create a more flexible postal network. But the plan is certain to spark a fresh round of bickering with the agency's strong labor unions. Last month, the agency released a plan for overhauling its delivery network. The so-called network report calls for closing airport mail facilities, consolidating bulk mail centers and streamlining the computer software that maps postal routes. The closures could lead to the elimination of hundreds of jobs and more outsourcing. Postal officials say the changes will help revitalize a decades-old network." -

Mike Causey's Federal Report: Don't Go Postal Over This
"I thought this might be a good time to run this column again. Keep in mind that the Post Office this week announced a major reorganization. Wonder why? Although many rank-and-file feds don't know it, employees at a number of agencies, especially those that regulate banks, march to a different drummer. That drummer, in most cases, pays better than regular federal agencies. Examples include the Federal Reserve, Comptroller of the Currency and the FDIC. But the biggest independent of all, and the one agency that touches nearly all our lives, is the U.S. Postal Service. And while the USPS is composed mainly of relatively low-paid clerks and letter carriers, its officer corps does fine." -

Postal Service Announces Reorganization
"The Postal Service on Monday announced a reorganization that officials expect to streamline agency operations. The change will create two "focal points" for the agency, one to deal with shipping and mailing services and the other to work with customers and others outside the post office. Robert F. Bernstock has been hired as president of the newly created Shipping and Mailing Services Division, Postmaster General John Potter said. Bernstock has served as president and chief operating officer of Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., senior vice president and general manager of the Dial Corp., president and chief executive of Atlas Commerce and executive vice president of Campbell Soup Co." USPS: Key Organizational Changes -