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TOP NEWS STORIES |
Senate Passes Bill That Contains Postal Financial Relief
"The Postal Service could delay $4 billion in payments due
next month to a health care fund for retirees. Some $5.4
billion is supposed to be paid, but officials say they don't
have enough money to make the payment. The measure, approved
by a 62-38 vote that sends it to President Obama's desk, would
keep the government open for one more month. Obama is
virtually certain to sign it before day's end." -
eNAPUS: President Signs Postal Reprieve Bill
(PDF) -
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Mailman loses both legs after car slams into him during work
"Through rain and sleet and gloom of night, New Orleans
mailman Roy Rondeno was always there for the people he served.
Now, they are coming to his aid. Saturday, the 37-year veteran
letter carrier lost both legs in a traffic accident at St.
Charles and Valence. Police say a driver blew through a stop
sign on Valence, hit a car on St. Charles that then spun into Rondeno as he sorted the mail in the back of his van."
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Archives: Is
working out of back of vehicle unsafe? (scroll down) -
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APWU: H.R. 22 Included in Stopgap Spending Bill
"A House-Senate panel included the provisions of H.R. 22,
which would provide temporary financial relief to the Postal
Service, in a stopgap funding bill that would keep the federal
government afloat for a month after the new fiscal year starts
next week. The House, which approved H.R. 22 as an independent
measure on Sept. 15, voted in favor of the combined spending
legislation (H. Con. Res. 191) on Sept. 25 by a vote of 217 to
190. The Senate is expected to take action on the bill early
next week." - eNAPUS: House Grants
Postal Service 1-Year Reprieve (PDF) -
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Politico.com: A $4 billion bailout for the Postal Service?
"Republicans made no effort to target the postal provision but
complained it had been added without warning to the otherwise
non-controversial 30 day resolution. Moreover, to doubly
protect their work product, the Democratic leadership for the
Appropriations Committees has wrapped it into an otherwise
non-controversial $4.65 billion budget bill covering the
operations of the Capitol and such agencies as the Library of
Congress." -
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APWU: Union Address Concerns About Incentive Offer
"The union has received inquiries about the possibility
that some applicants for the $15,000 retirement/separation
incentive may be excluded because the agreement negotiated by
the union limits the number of recipients to 30,000. This
concern is especially troubling for employees applying for
Voluntary Early Retirement (VER), because the right to revoke
applications will expire on Sept. 25, before employees know
whether they will receive the incentive." -
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PMG Potter: Six-Day Mail Delivery Doesn't Make Sense
Potter also says he is considering shutting down more
facilities
"If nothing else, service should shift to five days per week.
I've been out there advocating that. We can think about
changing the rules about retail sales in our locations as
well. There will probably be other changes, too. Remember, it
wasn't until Abraham Lincoln that we had regular rural
delivery. It wasn't until catalogs that we had free rural
delivery. And it wasn't until the 1930s that the Postal
Service regularly delivered packages over 4 pounds." -
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PMG Addresses Current Climate, Lays Foundation for Future
Growth
"Potter cited three key areas in which the Postal Service
is seeking legislation: (1) Changes to the accelerated payment
schedule to pre-fund retiree health benefits statutorily
mandated by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of
2006. (2) Ability to adjust the capacity of the Postal
Service's network to bring it in line with reduced mail use.
Eliminating Saturday delivery could save the Postal Service as
much as $3.5 billion a year. (3) Flexibility to expand product
offerings into new areas that leverage the Postal Service's
unmatched scope, reach and presence of its distribution,
transportation and retail networks to achieve their full
revenue potential." -
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House votes to prevent Postal Service shortfall
"The House voted Tuesday to let the struggling U.S. Postal
Service cover a budget shortfall by reducing its annual
payment to a health care fund for retirees by $4 billion.
Under current law, the Postal Service is required to transfer
$5.4 billion to the Retiree Health Benefits Fund by Sept. 30,
the end of the budget year. Postal officials have said they
don't have enough money to make the payment. The House voted
388-32 to reduce the transfer to $1.4 billion, which would
keep the Postal Service from defaulting on the payment."
- NALC Applauds Passage -
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NALC: House Republican Conference Escalates Attack on Postal
Service
"On September 11, 2009, in anticipation of floor action on
H.R. 22, leaders of the House Republican Conference (HRC)
issued a one page brief entitled "What Every Member Needs to
Know About the Postal Service Relief Act (H.R. 22)" that is
filled with the same kind of inaccurate and misleading
information about the Postal Service featured in a similar
'One Page' brief issued in August. The GOP organization that
claims to speak for the GOP caucus in the House falsely
characterized H.R. 22, a bill that a majority of Republicans
(103) have co-sponsored, as a "taxpayer bailout" of the Postal
Service." -
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APWU: House to Vote Soon on Postal Relief Bill
"The House of Representatives is expected to vote soon -
perhaps as early as Tuesday, Sept. 15 - on legislation that
would provide the USPS with short-term relief from severe
financial difficulties. The measure is a substitute for H.R.
22, which would have allowed the USPS to pay for the benefits
from the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund (PSRHBF)
for three years." -
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USPS: Legislative Relief or Bust?
"With no legislation, USPS CFO Joseph Corbett notes, “we
would literally run out of cash” if required to pay the $5.4
billion health-care retiree benefits on Sept. 30. “We continue
to work feverishly with the administration and with Congress
and are making all efforts with the goal of passing something
before the end of the fiscal year." -
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Paid to do nothing: 11,000-plus postal workers idle at any
given time
"Employees are often forbidden from doing almost anything
while on standby time. In some facilities, the employees
aren’t allowed to do anything they couldn't normally do on the
job. That means no books, no playing cards, no watching
television.
"We want to make sure they uphold the rules and regulations of
the Postal Service," D.C. Plant Manager Edward Jackson said. "So we try to rein them in
while they're in those rooms." -
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Postal Service Must Borrow to Pay Retiree Health Benefits by
End of Month
"By the end of this month, when its fiscal year ends, the U.S.
Postal Service will have lost $7 billion in 2008-2009, and it
will need a loan from the U.S. Treasury just to pay for health
benefits for retired postal workers. USPS cash on hand,
which will be $700 million in the red by September 30, will
make it impossible to meet a $5.8 billion obligation to cover
retiree health benefits unless Congress adopts emergency
legislation raising the Postal Service's ability to borrow
more money." -
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Letter Harriers: Post Office Transfers Workers to 7-Hour
Commutes
"It's enough to make you go postal. Five New York City
letter slingers face crazy commutes of up to seven hours a day
after being transferred in July to remote Long Island outposts
like Montauk and Shelter Island, The Post has learned. Using
trains, automobiles and even boats, the US Postal Service
workers rise in the dark at 3 a.m. for their bleary-eyed
voyages, and don't get home until as late as 10 p.m. in some
cases." - The Distance One Will Go to
Keep a Job -
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USPS Loses $865 Million in July
"Unaudited financial statements filed with the Postal
Regulatory Commission report the Postal Service lost an
additional $865 million in July. That's better than the $1.3
billion loss reported in June, but brings the total fiscal
year to date net loss to $5.6 billion, with two months left to
report in the fiscal year, which ends September 30." -
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