LATEST POSTAL NEWS  

APWU, USPS Hold Informal Discussions on Early-Outs, Incentives

The APWU has engaged in informal conversations with the Postal Service about financial incentives for retirements and separations, (06/04/12) |   

PRC to Review USPS Second Proposal to Cut Post Office Costs and Operations

On May 31, the Postal Regulatory Commission issued Order No. 1361 establishing Docket N2012-2 to provide a public hearing and issue an advisory opinion on the U.S. Postal Service’s Post Office Structure Plan (POStPlan). The primary focus of the proposal is to reduce costs by changing operating hours at approximately 17,700 of the 32,000 postal retail locations nationwide. The Service’s previous plan, the Retail Access Optimization Initiative, to close 3,700 post offices has been put on hold. (06/04/12) |   

POStPlan: Estimating post office revenues

Save The Post Office - The Postal Service does not give out much information about the revenues post offices bring in, but it has provided enough data to make it possible to calculate estimates.  So we've done a little figuring and made a table with estimated revenues for FY 2011 for all 17,700 post offices on the POStPlan list.   (06/04/12) |   

House must deliver on postal reform

by Lieberman, Collins, Carper & Brown - The Senate bill represents a now rare occurrence in Washington: bipartisan compromise. No one got everything he or she wanted — but our bill puts the Postal Service on a path toward financial stability in a way that is economically responsible. Postal Reform Goes Quiet   (06/04/12) |   

USPS OIG Seeks Help From Postal Employees To “Pick Out the Bad Apples”

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) is distributing a new fraud awareness poster. Poster 204 encourages employees to help the OIG “pick out the bad apples” by reporting postal crimes or misconduct. (06/04/12) |   

USPS: Automated Retreat Rights on eJob Bidding

USPS has improved the methods eligible craft employees use to exercise their retreat rights. Involuntarily reassigned employees are entitled to “retreat” to their previous installations when job opportunities become available. Now, employees can use an efficient and reliable new automated method to enter, track and manage their retreat rights on eJob Bidding at LiteBlue.   (06/04/12) |   

APWU: PSEs to Be Eligible for Health Insurance Soon

PSEs may sign-up for federal employees’ health benefits after they complete one full year (365 calendar days) of continuous employment with no breaks in service of more than five days. To be eligible, they must maintain sufficient earnings each pay period so that premiums can be withheld from their pay after mandatory deductions for Social Security, Medicare and federal tax are made.  (06/04/12) |   

Why Does the Postal Service Cling to a Money-Losing Monopoly?

The U.S. Postal Service and American publishers are locked in a lose-lose relationship. Maybe they should consider a divorce. For every dollar it spends on delivering newspapers and magazines, USPS claims it only receives 75 cents in postage. Meanwhile, notes the Columbia Journalism Review (in Postage due: The USPS is running out of money. Where does that leave magazines?), magazine publishers are growing worried about the increase in customer complaints regarding lost, damaged, and late issue. They fear coming changes will only make matters worse. . (06/03/12) |   

POStPlan: How to save $500 million without really trying

When the Postal Service gave the Postal Regulatory Commission its request for an Advisory Opinion on POStPlan — the plan to reduce hours at 13,000 post offices — it provided no cost-savings analysis.  In his testimony, USPS witness Jeffrey Day says only that "the Postal Service anticipates that the POStPlan will provide significant labor cost savings due to lower salary and benefit costs and a reduction in overall retail window hours."   While putting a number on the savings can cause problems with the PRC, publicly the Postal Service has been more forthcoming, and there's a press release on the USPS website saying that the plan would save a half billion dollars annually.  The press release provides no details, but the following analysis illustrates how that might happen. (06/02/12) |   

SEC Said to Select Postal Inspector General for Watchdog Probe

The U.S. Postal Service’s inspector general has been asked by the Securities and Exchange Commission to oversee a probe of possible misconduct in the SEC’s watchdog office, according to two people briefed on the matter. David Williams, who has been at the Postal Service since 2003, will use his investigators to review allegations against former SEC inspector general H. David Kotz, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision hasn’t been announced.   (06/02/12) |   

USPS Form 8-K filing with PRC regarding Final Rule on Service Standard Changes - The Postal Service expects that its network consolidations will result in significant annual cost savings and will lead to workforce reductions of up to 28,000 employees.  (05/31/12) |   

APWU: Revised FMLA Forms

The union has posted revised FMLA forms for use by healthcare providers to certify serious illnesses of APWU members and their family members.    (05/31/12) |   

Postal Workers, Community Allies Increase Pressure as USPS Cuts Loom

As Congress dallies, postal workers and community activists are turning to civil disobedience to combat the sweeping cuts planned for the Postal Service. Ten postal worker and community activists in Portland, Oregon, were arrested May 24 when they occupied the city’s University Station post office, refusing to leave and blocking the closure of the office’s retail desk.   (05/31/12) |   

Video: A day on the city’s toughest postal route

Mail carriers contend with many obstacles in the course of a day. And every day, no matter what time of the year, these obstacles can push carriers to their physical and mental limits.Few people understand this better than Jeromy Shafer, a Charleston mail carrier who has one of the toughest routes in Charleston, West Virginia. .    (05/31/12) |   

OPM contractor accidentally exposes retirees' Social Security numbers

An Office of Personnel Management contractor last October accidentally mailed postcards to about 3,000 federal retirees on which their Social Security numbers were printed, according to an inspector general report released Wednesday.   (05/31/12) |   

Contract Post Offices No Longer Accept International Packages

Most contract stations were already refusing international packages due to the complicated regulations.  Now there is a nationwide ban as of May 21, 2012 (see article ).  Finding an open retail service counter at a real Post Office is going to be more difficult after implementation of the POStPlan.   (05/31/12) |   

Congress muddies waters around postal service

The problems stem from multiple sources. But despite the known problems of First-Class diversion to email and electronic bill paying, a stubborn recession since 2008, high payroll costs and generous benefits, and a no-layoff policy in union contracts, there is at least one other problem not often mentioned. That would be the U.S. Congress, known abusers of the postal service by those who work with postal issues on a daily basis. Congress regularly takes money from USPS, and then beats them up for being poor. And so it goes for S 1789, a bill the Senate passed recently to help USPS.(05/30/12) |

Hunger Strike to Save the Postal Service

A group of postal patrons and postal workers will declare a hunger strike the week of June 25th in Washington DC. We will shame Congress and denounce the Postmaster General. We will engage in dramatic actions in the halls of Congress and at USPS Headquarters to raise public awareness and turn up the heat on decision makers.   (05/29/12) |   

APWU Tells Members: Get Ready for a Busy Summer

Despite stiff opposition to the House bill (H.R. 2309), according to published reports, Republican leaders plan to try to win support for the measure in the coming weeks. The bill would gut collective bargaining – prohibiting postal unions and the USPS from negotiating protection against layoffs and allowing an appointed board to reject labor contracts it considers too costly. The legislation also calls for $3 billion in cuts to mail processing facilities and post offices in two years.   (05/29/12) |   

USPS Pacific Area Network Optimization Timeline

USPS Pacific Area Network Optimization Timeline as of 5-17-12 from August 2012 through January 2014. The Timeline includes Employee Impacts by District, Craft and Operations.   (05/28/12) |   

 Calendar/ Postal Holidays:

USPS 2012 Calendar (PDF)  

2012 Pay Periods and Holidays

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