PostalReporter.com Blog

Networld reports: 

The United States Postal Service is promoting its online Click-N-Ship service by sending spam to customers — in apparent violation of its loophole-ridden privacy policy and certainly the spirit of federal law — according to a pair of longtime anti-spam activists who say they themselves have received the unsolicited e-mail.

John Levine, a consultant, author and holder of leadership positions in various anti-spam organizations, reports on his blog:

“I was somewhat surprised to get spam last week from the United States Postal Service. It was advertising a new feature of Click-N-Ship, a Web shipping service, sent to an address that I think I gave them when I signed up to try out some other online system for validating postal mail addresses. The message did not have the postal mailing address of the sender (pretty ironic, huh?) nor opt-out instructions, both of which are mandatory under CAN SPAM. Did the USPS break the law?”

Eastern Area Operations VP to assume new duties January 2007

Postmaster General Jack Potter announced the appointment of Eastern Area Operations VP Alexander Lazaroff to serve as Chief Postal Inspector of the United States Postal Inspection Service. Lazaroff will become the 36th Chief Postal Inspector when he assumes his new duties following the retirement of current Chief Postal Inspector Lee Heath at the end of the year.

The Postal Inspection Service is the investigative and security arm of the Postal Service, responsible for the protection of postal employees, security, crime prevention programs and enforcing criminal and civil statutes against individuals who misuse the mail.

“Al is uniquely qualified for this position, having worked as a craft employee, a Postal Inspector and as an operations manager during the course of his 33-year postal career,” said Potter. “Al has a solid record of service, accomplishment and commitment to our employees and customers that will serve him well in his new position.”

As Eastern Area Operations Vice President, Lazaroff manages an area that has 10 districts and 6,800 Post Offices. Prior to that, he served as District Manager in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Boston and Connecticut. He also was Northeast Area Manager, Operations Support.

Lazaroff began his postal career as a distribution clerk in Massachusetts in 1973 and joined the Inspection Service in 1977. A United States Navy veteran, he holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts and a master of business administration degree from the University of Rhode Island.

source: USPS Press Release

This report presents the results of an Audit conducted by the U.S.Postal Service Office of Inspector General on the service implications of Area Mail Processing (AMP) consolidations. USPS OIG conducted the audit to addres a request from USPS management to review the initial AMP consolidations and it is one in a series of audits.

Excerpts from the OIG report (PDF):

We concluded the Postal service could improve the way it documents service impacts in AMP proposals and Post-Implementation Reviews (PIRs). Management did not fully document changes to service standards (both upgrades and downgrades) in the AMP proposals. Management also did not include an analysis of service performance data in the AMP proposals for the affected facilities or require an analysis of actual service performance after a consolidation for PIRs. Lastly, the consolidation proposals did not consistently address other potential changes affecting customer service such as collection box pick-up times, access to business mail entry units (BMEUs), and changes to retail services that may be associated with AMP consolidations.

OIG recommendation in part:

Management needs to produce complete service data on AMP consolidations so it can support executive decisions. In addition, providing incomplete information to stakeholders could negatively afect public perception of the AMP process and reduce needed support for the Postal Service’s efforts to consolidate the mail processing network.

Management is revising Handbook PO-408 and expects to publish a draft in early 2007.

At the beginning of fiscal year (FY) 2006, there were 10 approved AMP proposals for consolidating mail processing operations. AS of September 2006, the Postal Service had implemented none of them. Implementation dates ranged from January to June 2006. The 10 consolidations (with implementation dates in parentheses) are: 

OIG’s objective was to assess the service related aspects of the 10 AMP proposals which were pending implementation at the beginning of FY 2006.

Related link: News article on Kansas City consolidation(PDF)

APWU reported in 2005:

With the intent being to fix an inequity in how retirement annuities are calculated for part-time postal and federal employees, a federal law was changed in 1986. In instituting the change to solve a problem, however, Congress wound up creating, for many older workers, a new problem. Many postal workers found that their retirement benefits were drastically reduced because they finished out their careers by working part-time.

The way it has worked out is that employees who convert from a long career as a full-timer to a few years as a part-timer get roughly the same retirement annuity as those who work part-time their entire careers.

Fast forward to 2006 Govexec.com reports:

President Bush’s proposal to ease the transition to part-time work for federal employees near the end of their career got lost in the shuffle in the 109th Congress.

Last February, the Office of Personnel Management announced it would ask lawmakers to remove financial penalties on the pensions of employees in the Civil Service Retirement System who switch to part-time hours

OPM transmitted the proposal, called the Federal Retirement Improvements Act, to Congress as part of its fiscal 2007 budget. According to an OPM spokesman, Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., who chairs the House Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce and Agency Organization, was considering including the fix in a larger federal employee bill. But time ran out and no such bill was ever introduced.

Update 12/14/06: Summary of Mail Handlers Tentative Agreement All mail handlers will receive six general wage increases during the five-year term:November 25, 2006, will be 1.2%; November 2007, will be 1.2%; February 16, 2008, will be 0.6%;November 22, 2008, will be 1.2%: November 21, 2009, will be 1.2%;November 20, 2010, will be 1.2%…..casual employees “in lieu of” career employees also will remain in the National Agreement

According to NPMHU:

National President John Hegarty and National Secretary-Treasurer Mark Gardner today announced that representatives of the NPMHU and the U.S. Postal Service have reached a tentative agreement over the terms of their 2006 National Agreement.

The precise terms of the settlement, which will cover five years through and including November 20, 2011, will be released at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 14, 2006, when the NPMHU National Officers will conduct a nationwide telephone conference call with the Presidents from all thirty-seven Local Unions. At the same time, the precise terms of the agreement will be posted on the NPMHU website, and will be mailed to thousands of Local Union officers and representatives throughout the country.

In the coming days and weeks, the National Executive Board will adopt procedures to allow for a ratification vote by all members. The package circulated with that ballot also will contain all of the additions and deletions in the new National Agreement.

President Hegarty expressed satisfaction with the outcome of negotiations. “Although it has taken a lot of hard work since bargaining began in August, especially during the three weeks since the expiration of our 2000 National Agreement on November 20, I believe the new contract has been worth the wait. Our tentative agreement is an excellent contract, and will provide wage improvements for all mail handlers throughout its five-year term.

——

USPS Press Release

Contract to run through Nov. 20, 2011

The Postal Service and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU) have reached a tentative five-year contract agreement. Upon ratification by union members, the agreement will run through Nov. 20, 2011, and affect approximately 55,000 career employees who are engaged in bulk transfer, loading and unloading of mail. The Postal Service and NPMHU formally opened national contract negotiations Aug. 21, 2006.

The Postal Service and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU) have reached a tentative five-year contract agreement. Upon ratification by union members, the agreement will run through Nov. 20, 2011, and affect approximately 55,000 career employees who are engaged in bulk transfer, loading and unloading of mail. The Postal Service and NPMHU formally opened national contract negotiations Aug. 21, 2006.“This tentative agreement is fair to our employees, responsive to the needs of the Postal Service, and serves the interests of the public upon whose business we depend,” said Labor Relations Vice President Doug Tulino. “At the outset of this year’s negotiations we stressed the importance of reaching negotiated settlements. Achieving tentative contract agreements with three of our largest unions demonstrates our commitment to the collective bargaining process,” added Tulino.

Last week, the Postal Service and the American Postal Workers Union and the National Rural Letters Carriers’ Association agreed to tentative four-year contracts. Negotiations with the National Association of Letter Carriers were not successful and the two parties are entering into the dispute resolution process, which may include binding interest arbitration.

Giordano takes over post formerly held by Azeezaly Jaffer effective December 9, 2006.

From USPS News Link

Postmaster General Jack Potter has announced the appointment of Joanne Giordano as Vice President, Public Affairs and Communications. Giordano most recently served as Senior Advisor to the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where she spearheaded a campaign to brand U.S. foreign assistance as coming “from the American people.” She joined USAID in 2001 as head of Public Affairs, developing and directing all internal and external communications to support the agency’s mission and operations in more than 100 countries.

“Joanne is a seasoned communications executive with a 20-year career in the public, private and nonprofits sectors,” said Potter. “Her extensive experience provides an excellent background for her new role.”

Before her work at USAID, Giordano was Senior Vice President, Communications, at America’s Promise — The Alliance for Youth, founded by General Colin Powell. She also spent 11 years with communications consulting firm Burson-Marsteller in their New York and Singapore offices, rising from account representative to vice president and leaving the firm in 2001 as Global Client Leader.

“During her time at Burson-Marsteller, Joanne was instrumental in generating a great deal of positive publicity for USPS during our 1992 Olympic sponsorship,” Potter said. “So she is no stranger to the Postal Service.”

——

sidebar: This position was formerly held by Azeezaly Jaffer.

The 50,000-member National Postal Mail Handlers Union (Mail Handlers) returned to the AFL-CIO today and became the 54th affiliate union in the 10-million-member AFL-CIO. (pictured at left - Mail Handlers President John Hegarty, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney)

The union—an affiliate of the Laborers (LIUNA) which left the AFL-CIO in May—is the first union to take advantage of an August AFL-CIO Executive Council decision to allow the re-issue of charters to once-independent unions that were AFL-CIO affiliates before merging into one of the unions that disaffiliated from the AFL-CIO in 2005 and 2006.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney presented the charter to Mail Handlers President John Hegarty and other union officers this morning. Hegarty says he is:

 confident that nearly 50,000 Mail Handlers across the country will benefit from this continuing partnership between the [Mail Handlers] and the AFL-CIO. Mail Handlers have a long history with the Federation, with our first affiliation beginning nearly 70 years ago, and we certainly look forward to a long and productive relationship well into the future.

The union also will continue its affiliation with LIUNA. After the Mail Handlers expressed an interest in rejoining the AFL-CIO, Sweeney says he consulted with the union’s leaders, the nonaffiliated LIUNA leadership, other postal unions and the Executive Council. Says Sweeney:

The union movement will be strengthened by the Mail Handlers’ decision to rejoin the AFL-CIO, which will bring together all the major postal workers’ unions and benefit working families nationwide.

Along with its 47,000 regular members, the Mail Handlers include nearly 150,000 associate members.

The Mail Handlers first affiliated with the AFL-CIO in the 1930s. The union continued that affiliation through the Laborers, following their merger with LIUNA in 1968.

source: AFL-CIO

From NPMHU.org:

Mail Handlers Granted Direct AFL-CIO Affiliation

Click here to view a PDF copy of the NPMHU AFL-CIO Charter

Click here to read the AFL-CIO Press Release
Related link: National Mail Handlers Union Respond to Burrus Raid Letters

Mail Handler Contract Update #17 

NPMHU/USPS STILL BARGAINING
 
PARTIES CLOSE TO RESOLVING DETAILS ON BOTH WORK RULES AND ECONOMIC PACKAGE

          Representatives of the NPMHU and the U.S. Postal Service continue to work diligently to resolve the remaining details of their 2006 National Agreement, with both parties optimistic about their ability to hammer out all of the final particulars relating to both the economic and non-economic provisions to be contained in their next contract.

          As reported earlier, to facilitate these discussions, the parties previously agreed to extend their current contract indefinitely, with either party able to declare impasse and terminate negotiations upon twenty-four hours notice to the other side.  During this period, all contractual provisions and protections of the 2000 National Agreement remain in place; in addition, the next contract’s new bid count was implemented as of November 21, 2006.

          If and when a tentative agreement is finalized, its terms will be released, and a special conference call of the Local Union Presidents is likely to be called.  Under the NPMHU Constitution, moreover, the terms of any contract are subject to ratification by the entire NPMHU membership.

          National President John Hegarty has refused to speculate about the precise timing of any announcement.  “Only when we have a signed agreement will an announcement be made.  We’re not going to rush into a contract, just to say we have a contract.  In the meantime, we appreciate the great patience that is being shown by mail handlers around the country.  We understand that some of our members may be anxious about their 2006 National Agreement, but they can rest assured that the NPMHU National Office is working hard to conclude discussions over a fair and equitable contract.”
 

From OPM:

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has experienced tremendous success with our first-ever Dental/Vision Insurance Open Season. The response from Federal employees and annuitants has been remarkable.  To accommodate the late rush of enrollees, we will accept belated enrollments from persons unable to enroll during Open Season through December 15.

Federal employees and annuitants should visit www.BENEFEDS.com <http://www.benefeds.com/> or call 1-877-888-FEDS (1-877-888-3337), TTY 1-877-889-5680 to enroll.

Burrus: Legislation Good for Major Mailers, Bad for Postal Workers

Burrus Update #18-06, Dec. 11, 2006

In a flurry of activity on the last day of the 109th Congress, the House and Senate passed postal “reform” legislation and sent the bill to the president for his signature. If this were a football game, the score would be recorded as “Large Mailers 42 - Postal Employees zero.” In sports terms, that is a rout. Unfortunately, some postal employee organizations played for the other team.

Despite the lofty public pronouncements, this legislation will not add a single letter to the mail stream, and there are no redeeming features for postal workers. In fact, this bill could more appropriately be referred to as “The 2006 Postal Employee Wage Reduction Act.” Those fools in the postal community who joined with large mailers to champion this legislation did so at the expense of the very members they are sworn to serve.

The American Postal Workers Union fought hard — and successfully — to preserve restrictions on excessive worksharing discounts. These discounts have subsidized the major mailers at the expense of small businesses and individual citizens for more than a decade. We intend to use the provisions of the new law to end these subsidies.

We also supported the transfer of responsibility for military pension payments from the Postal Service to the Treasury (as is the case for all other military veterans), and we advocated the release of the escrow account that was created in 2004 after overpayments to the Civil Service Retirement System fund were discovered. These provisions were included in the legislation, as was the Harkin amendment, which requires public involvement in plant consolidations.

These were all positive achievements, but they will not offset the devastating long-term affect the law will have on employee wages and benefits.

The choice was postal “reform” designed to serve the big mailers on the one hand, or free collective bargaining and equal service with uniform rates for all American citizens. Regrettably, Congress sided with the large mailers.

The legislation gives the Postal Service freedom to increase postage rates without lengthy regulatory proceedings, but the increases must be less than the rate of inflation. This limit on rate increases — without regard to the actual costs the Postal Service incurs — will result in an artificial cap on postal workers’ wages. (more…)