PostalReporter.com Blog

“The US Postal Service has placed a study of the possible consolidation of the Centralia (Illinois) mail processing center into the St. Louis distribution center on-hold indefinitely. Postal Service Spokesperson Mike Stancil says the Area Mail Processing study has been shelved until major changes are completed at the St. Louis facility. He says the St. Louis plant is undergoing technological and staff changes, and after those are completed, the study may be revisited. Stancil says the postal service will not pursue the study or make any changes unless they are beneficial to the mailing community. He says there is no time line for when the changes will be completed in St. Louis.” WJBD Radio

See USPS notification to APWU 12/5/05 

 Recent Testimony by David Walker, Comptroller of the United States before  the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, Committee on Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate on March 15, 2006

Recently, the [Postal] Service  issue an updated Strategic Transformation Plan (Plan) that details its goals and strategies for the next 5 years. We support the intent of the Plan, including the Service’s recent efforts to begin optimizing its operating network. However, as we recently reported, the success of the Service’s optimization efforts will require enhanced transparency of its decision-making criteria, effective coordination with all key stakeholders, and a process for evaluating and measuring performance. Furthermore, we continue to believe that the Plan’s incremental steps alone cannot remedy the major challenges facing the Service. Despite its efforts, the Service’s underlying business model depends on growing mail volume to mitigate rate increases and cover its universal service costs. This model is unsustainable because it lacks the necessary incentives and flexibilities to achieve sufficient cost savings needed to offset growing personnel costs, declining mail volumes, and the continued expansion of the Service’s delivery network. We continue to believe that comprehensive postal reform is urgently needed to modernize the Service’s business model.

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“Dogs can jump through screens and glass. They can break metal leashes and vault picket fences. Then they can bite the suspicious, the oblivious, the young, the elderly. And they go for mail carriers, who traverse their territory daily. More than 4 million people were bitten by dogs last year, half of them children and 3,475 of them mail carriers, said U.S. Postal Service spokesman Mark Saunders. The frequency of attacks increases as the weather warms. Hence, National Dog Bite Prevention Week, sponsored by the Postal Service - and this year to be observed May 21-28.”

source: http://www.sltrib.com/nationworld/ci_3658032

Postal Service Videos Promote Dog-Bite Awareness

 [Tony} Rudy agreed to “perform a series of official acts.”

These included:

_Working to get federal money for the Northern Mariana Islands, which both Abramoff and Buckham wanted.

_Getting DeLay to oppose a postal rate increase that was opposed by magazine publishers who were represented by Abramoff.

_Persuading DeLay and other leading Republicans to defeat legislation that would have restricted Internet gambling.

 [Tony] Rudy was referred to in court papers released in connection with Abramoff’s plea. The documents referred to Rudy as Staffer A, and said that Abramoff, on behalf of clients who wanted to stop Internet gambling and postal rate legislation, paid $50,000 in 10 equal monthly payments beginning in June 2000 to Rudy’s wife while Rudy was a top aide to DeLay.

(Associated Press) A former top aide to Rep. Tom DeLay has agreed to plead guilty to charges in the widening federal investigation of lobbyist fraud, a law enforcement official said Friday.

Rudy, who served as deputy chief of staff while DeLay was House Majority leader, resigned in 2001 to become a lobbyist. He would be the first person to plead guilty to charges in the case since Jack Abramoff, once a leading GOP lobbyist, pleaded guilty to fraud charges in January.

Rudy was referred to in court papers released in connection with Abramoff’s plea. The documents referred to Rudy as Staffer A, and said that Abramoff, on behalf of clients who wanted to stop Internet gambling and postal rate legislation, paid $50,000 in 10 equal monthly payments beginning in June 2000 to Rudy’s wife while Rudy was a top aide to DeLay.

The Abramoff court papers allege no wrongdoing by DeLay, and his attorney, Richard Cullen, said the former House Majority Leader “expects his current staffers and expected his former staffers to adhere to the highest ethical standards.”

Rudy joined Abramoff’s lobbying team at the Greenberg Traurig law firm in 2001. Soon after, he signed on with another former DeLay staffer, Ed Buckham, at the Alexander Strategy Group.

Update:  Former DeLay Aide Pleads Guilty (WashPost)

See: Will Abramoff Scandal Rock the Postal World

Employees need to be warned about the coming change in internal investigations.  Postal Inspectors will seem tame compared to these guys.  The OIG has taken a hard stance against the employee’s right to remain silent.  This is like a flashback to an earlier time. 
 
All new cases of employee misconduct, except for mail theft, will be handled by the OIG starting May 1, 2006.  As of Sept. 1, 2006, the OIG will be responsible for all new mail theft allegations involving employees.  The Inspection Service will continue to work open investigations, but will not open any new ones. - DC

From USPS Newslink
 
TRANSITION PLAN

Some responsibilities moving from Inspection Service to OIG

 Postmaster General Jack Potter has announced principles for implementing the transition of all employee misconduct investigations from the Inspection Service (IS) to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). In a message to officers yesterday, the PMG noted that there is a plan in place to gradually transfer certain IS responsibilities to the OIG. The principles announced yesterday are:

 §   Responsibility for investigating internal crimes will be with the OIG. An internal crime is one committed by a USPS employee.

 §   Responsibility for security and the investigation of external crimes will be with the IS. Security responsibility includes workspace violence (threats and incidents), dangerous mail (actual and hoax) and non-Information Technology security system sabotage investigations of employees and non-employees.

“To carry out these principles and to ensure an effective transfer of responsibilities,” Potter said, “there will be a phased transition of some work currently preformed by the IS to the OIG between now and the end of the calendar year. “

 The PMG said the first step will be to transfer all new non-mail theft issues of employee misconduct to the OIG May 1, 2006. As of Sept. 1, 2006, the OIG will be responsible for all new employee mail theft allegations. Potter said the IS will continue to work open investigations, but will not open any new employee mail theft investigations.
 
Related link : APWU to OIG: Postal Workers Have A ‘Right To Remain Silent’

A year or two ago our TSP Plan mailed us a statement that included a note stating that to save money on printing and mailing that the TSP Plan will no longer mail statements to everyone. They went on to say that they will continue mailing statements to anyone who fills out an enclosed form requesting that they continue to mail statements to you.
 
I am embarrassed to admit that I overlooked that information at that time and it resulted in me missing a statement or two before I followed up and requested that they continue to mail me my statement.
 
Unfortunately in speaking to co-workers I learned many others missed that message [that they must mail in a request to continue getting statements mailed home] … others were aware and either forgot to mail in that request or misplaced form. Most are still not getting statements although they really wanted them.
 
Now I find in my last TSP statement that although I have only recently requested that statements be mailed…. that we all are again going to have to make a “new request” for statements to be mailed to your home. [see Statement taken from TSP Web site below].
 
As postal workers do any of us want to help our mail volume decline? …..plus I find it to be a ‘time saving’, ‘money saving’ convenience to receive hard copy in mail.
 
I can take it into backyard or wherever to read rather than sit in front of computer or use my time and my supplies to print a copy that by rights should automatically be provided by the TSP PLAN. 

- TM

Taken from Thrift Savings Plan “What’s New in March 2006″ Web Site  

“If you are currently receiving mailed participant statements and want them to continue, you must renew your request. You can do so at Account Access or by completing and returning the Mailed Participant Statement Renewal“

(PRNewswire) GoodStorm (http://www.goodstorm.com ), a progressive e-commerce company, is helping BringThemHomeNow.com, a coalition of groups calling on President Bush to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, to launch a tax day protest by selling an anti-war postage stamp online. Approved and licensed by the U.S. Postal Service, the $.39 cent first class stamp is available at Bring Them Home Now’s online store at http://www.BringThemHomeNow.com . The stamp features the symbol of the growing movement — a peace sign festooned with a yellow ribbon.

Decision Comes after Higgins’ Letter and Calls to Postmaster General’s Office

Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-27) announced that the Postmaster General’s office had agreed to a third party medical review for Sergeant Jason Lyon.  This comes after a March 22 letter to Postmaster General John Potter and phone calls to Deputy Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, requesting that USPS) review Sergeant Lyon’s case.

Sergeant Jason Lyon is a member of the National Guard who served in Iraq for the U.S. Army.  He has been denied an appointment to serve as a Letter Carrier in Western New York because of a sprained ankle received while serving in Iraq and which has subsequently healed.  While the U.S. military has deemed him fit for service, the USPS has not.

The appointment for the third party medical review will take place April 12, with a doctor in Buffalo.

source: New York Congressman Brian Higgins

(Multichannel)The U.S. Postal Service’s efforts to modernize and cut costs apparently are resulting in sluggish catalog deliveries this spring. And although some mailers say that mail to the West Coast, New Mexico, and Texas has suffered the most, “you can’t really define exactly what areas are being affected,” says Gary LaBarre, distribution manager for Maple Grove, MN-based printing and production services provider Banta Catalog Group. “It’s like trying to hit a moving target.”

LaBarre adds, “There have been rumblings from the West Coast that carriers are delivering mail as late as 11 p.m. In general, it’s difficult to get a straight answer.”

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one mailer says, “We’re not sure if this is a process problem, a union slowdown, or a combination of both, and the USPS has been slow to give a clear explanation.”

Another mailer who asked not to be identified reports that some catalog deliveries during February and March in Texas, California, and Florida were as much as two weeks behind schedule.

http://multichannelmerchant.com/news/slow_USPS_service_03292006/

Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) Program: Insurance Misrepresentations and Deceptive Sales Practices

 (Excerpts)

Background
We have become aware in recent months of instances in which agencies and employees are being contacted by insurance company salespeople who may be misrepresenting themselves as either having permission from OPM or being connected to the Office of Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance (OFEGLI), (the administrative unit of MetLife that processes claims for deceased Federal employees) or the Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance Program.

No Sales Agents or Telephone Solicitation
Neither OPM nor OFEGLI has endorsed any kind of privately-sponsored life insurance plan. The FEGLI Program is the only government-wide group life insurance program authorized by OPM. OPM has no connection with, nor responsibility for, any other life insurance product, whether or not it is represented as “supplemental” to the FEGLI Program. Furthermore, the FEGLI Program does not use sales agents nor does it use telephone solicitations of any kind. No one from the FEGLI Program or OFEGLI will ever contact employees at their worksite (or at home) in person or by phone to sell life insurance. If agents are trying to sell life insurance to employees, they are most assuredly NOT connected with the FEGLI Program.

Premiums for FEGLI coverage are withheld from employees’ salaries. FEGLI premiums are not withheld through voluntary allotments. A request from a life insurance company to set up a voluntary allotment from an employee’s pay means that the life insurance product is not connected in any way with the FEGLI Program.

The second major issue is whether the salespeople have permission to be on Government property or to be soliciting on the job in the first place.

Please alert your employees about these important issues and thank you for your help.

Download  Complete Letter as a PDF File