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TOP POSTAL STORIES OF THE MONTH
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June 30, 2007-
USPS
fined for "serious" violation at Oak Ridge facility
(TENN) Asbestos dust from old
floor tiles that are coming apart in the U.S. Postal Service’s main
collection and sorting building in Oak Ridge “could cause health
hazards,’’ according to an OSHA report. Labeled as “serious,’’ the
violation was for lax housekeeping and not for asbestos contamination.
Ralph Markowicz said that shortly after he filed the first of
two OSHA
complaints, he was placed on nine weeks of administrative leave and
had to take physical and mental exams to determine if he was a threat
to himself or others. He cleared the tests and returned to work.
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June 29, 2007-
Postal workers, officials upset over USPS plan to consolidate
In front of hundreds
of postal service workers, local business owners and residents,
district officials from the USPS Kansas-Western Missouri division
took questions for more than an hour. The postal service is considering
consolidating operations at the Kansas City, Kansas facility into
its existing facility in Kansas City, Mo. According to information
passed out at the hearing, of the 301 employees at the KCK facility,
236 will be offered positions at the Kansas City, Mo., plant, with
the remaining 60 or so jobs not being filled due to attrition.
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New CSRS, FERS Retirement System
Goes Online
in 2008
From NAPUS: "Retirement System Modernization (RSM) is an OPM initiative designed to improve the
quality and timeliness of all aspects of the retirement process
following an employee's separation from Federal Service. It will
also serve to automate retirement claims transactions and
provide retirement modeling capability for employees using
electronic data. If you haven't checked your OPF personnel file
in some time I would do so soon. Make sure all data is correct
and times served are noted right. This new system is going
online and data needs to be accurate and clean. OPM will be
processing all active Federal employees by this system beginning
February 2008." The
Postal Service will be the next wave the OPM will take into the
system in May 2008.
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June 28, 2007-
Postal
workers protest use of contract labor
Picketers said they were there to
inform the public of the U.S. Postal Service's growing
outsourcing practice and the potential problems it could create.
According to the National Association of Letter Carriers, the
number of mail deliveries made by contracted postal employees
has increased by 34 percent since 2002.
Video: USPS officials say they
will start drug testing contractors later this year.
Postal
Workers Say Contractors Threaten Job and Mail Security |
Angry postal workers protest trend of outsourcing delivery
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June 24, 2007-
Letter
Carriers Protest 'Outsourcing' Mail Delivery
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On Friday
in Reno, NV: "The chant "Save Our Service, Save Our Jobs"
echoed up and down Vassar Street in Reno on Friday, as (roughly
250) local letter carriers marched for more than an hour to
protest a postal service plan to out-source some delivery
routes.
In Florida Letter carriers are set to picket June 27 - "This
will be the first statewide picket NALC is holding in its battle
to protect letter carrier jobs and quality service for Postal Service
customers. "|
New Jersey Letter Carriers to Picket July 1 |
Young
Joins Letter Carriers Picket Against Postal Contractors
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June 20, 2007-
Letter Carriers Set July 1 Picketing in
New Jersey to Oppose 'Contracting Out' by Postal Service
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"Members of Paterson Branch 120 of the National Association of
Letter Carriers will engage in informational picketing on
Sunday, July 1, at the Paterson Post Office to protest a growing
policy of the U.S. Postal Service to contract out to private
firms and individuals the delivery of mail in urban and suburban
areas. NALC Branch 120 President Joseph Murone said the Paterson
demonstration is one of many planned throughout the nation to
bring attention of the public to this new policy that will
diminish service to postal customers and endanger the future
viability of the Postal Service."
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June 28, 2007-
Mail goes
through despite dire odds
Postal workers
handle 2,000 certified letters for 4 routes -
The Mukilteo carriers, who work out of the Everett Mail Center
off Airport Way, were hit with the enormous job of delivering
2,000 certified letters in a time-sensitive manner. Normally,
the carriers deliver their standard letters first, then take
care of the special-care items. There were four different postal
routes involved, which meant approximately 500 certified letters
per route.
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June 27, 2007-
Senators
Take Up Postal Woes in Washington
U.S.
Sens. Pete V. Domenici and Jeff Bingaman said they will meet
with USPS officials to discuss staffing concerns and persistent
service problems throughout New Mexico. "We've had a hard time
getting straight answers at times in the past, and I'm hoping
this meeting will help us get those answers and start working
toward permanent solutions to the problems," Bingaman said."
USPS officials promise 13 full-time
employees in El Paso
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June 23, 2007-
NALC, NRLCA Presidents Debunk PMG Letter Justifying Contracting
Out Mail Delivery
NALC President Bill Young, joined by National Rural Letter
Carriers President Donnie Pitts, sent a letter to members of the
U.S. Senate on June 18 refuting a letter from the postmaster
general that tried to justify contracting out delivery work and
attacked legislation to draw sharp limits on contract delivery.
Contrary to the assertions made by Mr. Potter in his June 13
letter, the bill would not override our collective bargaining
agreements and would not interfere with the existing collective
bargaining process. Rather, the legislation restores the status
quo that existed before the Postal Service decided to begin
outsourcing urban and suburban mail delivery with the recent
creation of Contract Delivery Service.
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June 21, 2007-
USPS Requesting Information for
Experimental Retail 'Postal Lab'
The USPS
has created dedicated leased space in a postal retail center(s)
for the shared use by multiple vendors who will service small
businesses and home-based businesses, the business traveler and
walk-up postal retail customers. USPS is interested in exploring
an environment that provides our customers convenient access to
a variety of business and related retail services co-located
within selected postal retail lobbies. The design of new or
possibly converted postal retail offices could be an outcome of
the experiments in the Chicago site and possible Washington DC
site. The experimental site provides a contemporary USPS
environment featuring; stand-alone checkouts, self-service
options, open merchandising, a conference room and
consumer/visitor work area, and participants providing
complimentary services geared toward the small business owner,
offering the products and services germane to their needs.
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June 20, 2007-
Home Builders To PRC: Postal Service
Must Resume Curbside Delivery to All Homes (PDF)
- The
National Association of Home
Builders in a filing to the PRC said that "Receiving mail is as
much a right as sending it, and both the recipient and the
sender are equally postal patrons. Yet in recent years, the
Postal Service has degraded delivery service to the point that
it no longer delivers mail at all to homes in densely occupied
new subdivisions, preferring instead to deposit the mail in some
locked receptacles under the euphemism “centralized delivery.” NAHB contends that this system is a discrimination against new
housing that is not based on the cost of serving such housing;
rather it is an attempt to lower total costs by degrading
service to an arbitrarily chosen group."
Council, developers debate mailboxes
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June 17, 2007-
You've Got Mail
. . . a Block Away
New Homeowners Decry Cluster Boxes
- "The personal mailbox is the latest casualty of suburban sprawl.
Across the nation, the U.S. Postal Service increasingly is delivering
mail to communal cluster boxes as a way to keep pace with booming
residential growth while controlling labor costs. But many residents
and developers say cluster boxes -- traditionally reserved for apartments
and townhouses, not single-family homes -- are impersonal, inconvenient
and downright ugly."
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June 16, 2007-
Massive mail backlog found at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Army officials
scrambled to deliver thousands of undelivered letters and
packages — some with postal dates from May 2006 — addressed to
soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Army spokesman Paul
Boyce said late Friday that the backlog piled to some 4,500
pieces of mail because the contract employee mail clerk could
not locate the soldiers or staff members to whom they were
addressed, and instead left them in the mailroom without further
processing. |
June 15, 2007-
PMG: USPS Strongly Opposes the
'Mail Delivery and Protection Act'
In a
letter via
Postcom.org to every member of the Senate, Postmaster General John
Potter said that "the Postal Service strongly opposes S.1457,
the "Mail Delivery and Protection Act." This bill would override
current collective bargaining agreements and effectively
eliminate an important tool needed by the Postal Service to
continually introduce greater efficiencies into its operation.
If enacted, with an exception of a very limited use, no new
contracts for mail delivery could be initiated.
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June 11, 2007-
OSHA partnership helps reduce ergonomic
injuries at USPS
U.S. Postal Service employees are
experiencing fewer ergonomic injuries as a result of a 2003
partnership between OSHA, APWU, NPMHU) and USPS. The
organizations have released
Examples of Good Ergonomics Practices at the U.S. Postal Service
which outlines the achievements of the partnership and the steps
taken to help prevent ergonomic-related injuries in the
workplace.
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June 07, 2007-
Postmaster Arrested For Selling Drugs On The Job
The former postmaster of a rural Missouri post office is accused
of selling drugs while at work. Deborah Jo Eden worked in Cadet,
Mo. Eden was postmaster in Cadet for 27 years and was
responsible for day to day operations. She's charged with four
felonies, including misbranding prescription drugs. Eden and
another former postal worker in Cadet, Peggy Malloy, are also
accused of falsifying financial statements to conceal missing
money belonging to the post office.
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NALC President Young to Burrus: Which side are you on?
In the June issue of NALC's Postal
Record, NALC President William Young states: "On April 17, I was
among a dozen or so people called to testify at a House
oversight hearing on the Postal Service. On the Postal Service's
side were PMG Potter, Board Chairman James C. Miller III, the
usual right-wing think tanks and - wait-for-it - the President
of the APWU! I was flabbergasted by the President of the APWU.
He repeatedly—and hypocritically—lobbied the subcommittee not to
take legislative action, calling contracting out a “bargaining
issue” best left to the parties and to arbitration. That’s the
same disingenuous line being peddled by the USPS on Capitol
Hill. It’s no secret that I have never enjoyed a good working
relationship with the President of the APWU. It seems we inhabit
different worlds and see issues from entirely different
perspectives. Still, you don’t often see a national union leader
cozy up to ideologues to endorse union-busting and outsourcing."
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