PostalReporter.com Blog

From NAPUS:

On 6-28-2007, I attended a briefing at Postal Headquarters requested by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Tom O’Keefe, a manager of OPM, has established a program aimed at modernizing both the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employee’s Retirement System. (FERS) 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 first agency to be process is the GSA. The Postal Service will be the next wave the OPM will take into the system. Under this new system, there will be NO Intern Pay. Postal employees will be able to retire on any day (if qualified) and get their first full check (5) days later. OPM presented a very promising picture.

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Retirement Systems Modernization Frequently Asked Questions  - OPM

From USPS:

In 2002, Team Brewco Motorsports approached the Postal Service with a request — allow NASCAR driver Jamie McMurray to enter the July 5 Daytona race in a car featuring an image of the newly issued “Heroes of 2001” semipostal stamp honoring 9/11 victims.

We did. McMurray and his USPS-themed car carried the torch for many Americans that Independence Day weekend in Daytona and helped raise awareness of the semipostal stamp.

McMurray and the Postal Service are joining forces again. On Friday, July 6, he’ll be driving the #37 USPS car in the Winn-Dixie 250 — the NASCAR Busch Series race at Daytona. The race will be broadcast on ESPN2.

“It would be great to win one for my postal family five years later,” McMurray said. “I still receive comments from fans touched by what we did to honor America in 2002.”

Watch ESPN2 Friday evening, July 6, and cheer him on. For more information on the USPS associate sponsorship, go to: www.usps.com/racing.

Mail Boat in Halibut Cove AK

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APWU News

The Wachovia Bank Corp. has stopped airing a television commercial that strongly implied that home delivery of mail is a primary cause of identity theft.

On June 18, G. Kennedy Thompson, the bank’s CEO, responded to a letter from APWU President William Burrus that objected to the commercial’s characterization. Thompson said that the ad, also criticized by Postmaster General John E. Potter, had been pulled from the airwaves.

The ad featured an unidentified motorist stopping at a curbside residential mailbox, taking mail out, and speeding away, “I assure you that this commercial was in no way intended to put the U.S. Postal Service in a negative light,” Thompson wrote. “Wachovia is a significant customer of your services, and we consider the Postal Service an important ally in efforts to combat identity theft.”

In his May 30 letter to Thompson, Burrus noted that mail delivery was the dominant image of the TV commercial. In fact, only a miniscule portion of identity theft occurs through the mail.

The Federal Trade Commission does not include postal services among its six principal methods – such as skimming credit card numbers from transactions – which thieves use to gather personal information from victims.

Potter, in remarks at the National Press Club in Washington on May 30, commented that “phishing” for information via e-mail was widely perceived as an easy way to illegally obtain information. “To me it’s absurd that the bank is pointing to the mail when we know that [the Web] is like the Wild Wild West,” Potter said.

In the letter to Burrus, Thompson said, “I have reviewed the commercial and I do not believe it portrays the Post Office as negligent; rather it points out that identity theft and fraud are risks consumers face, and promotes Wachovia’s ability to help. However, I do understand your concerns, and your thoughts are important to us. As of last week, this commercial is no longer airing.

“As we plan for future commercials relating to fraud protection,” Thompson added, “we will certainly be cognizant of your concerns and will avoid any reference to the Postal system.”

“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. Both union leaders support Sen. Tom Harkin’s bill, S. 1457, to curb postal subcontracting. Support for S. 1457 continues to grow, with 31 Senate co-sponsors.”

NALC President William Young noted:

 …we have no right to negotiate for private contractors—and the problems they create for our delivery system will not go away just because they work cheaper. (We should have learned that lesson from the mess at Walter Reed hospital.)

Excerpts from NALC-NRLCA letter sent to members of the Senate (PDF)

On behalf of the nation’s 325,000 letter carriers, we write to respond to the misleading letter sent to you by the Postmaster General of the United States concerning S. 1457, the Mail Delivery Protection Act, a bill introduced by Sen. Harkin and co-sponsored by 25 members of the Senate.

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.

S. 1457 would permit the Postal Service to renew and create new Highway Contract Routes (HCRs), the contract routes the USPS has traditionally used in rural areas to transport mail in bulk between rural post offices, as it has for decades. HCR contractors do perform incidental deliveries on their routes, but their main function is to transport mail in bulk – a function specifically authorized by existing law. The legislation would, however, prohibit the Postal Service from attempting to evade other public policies firmly established by the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 (PRA), as amended and reaffirmed by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA). These policies include a preference for Veterans in hiring and the right of collective bargaining for workers employed by the Postal Service. Neither the contractors employed by the Postal Service nor any association to which they belong are afforded these rights or covered by these policies. The creation of CDS contractors was designed specifically to evade these obligations.

But perhaps the most outrageous claim in the letter is the assertion that “99 percent of our contract delivery services are performed by small, minority- or women-owned businesses.” Combining unlike categories (company size, race and gender) is a cute device to get a large percentage to cloud the issues and to mislead your reader, but it is really beneath the Postmaster General to do so in a communication sent to all 100 members of the Senate.

It is not accurate to assert that the individual contractors who bid on part-time, low-wage, no-benefit CDS contracts to deliver mail in urban and suburban neighborhoods are “small businesses.” In fact, they are exploited workers, working in urban and suburban neighborhoods alongside career postal employees who enjoy decent pay and benefits. There are tens of thousands of minorities and women who would love to work as career letter carriers for the U.S. Postal Service.

These workers deserve the same pay and benefits as career postal employees. It is true that the USPS has long used contractors to transport mail. But to suggest that delivery has been contracted out since 1785 is misleading. The Post Office began city delivery with career employees in the 1860s and rural free delivery began in the early 20th Century. What happened before that may be interesting as a historical matter, but is largely irrelevant.

Contractors do go through background checks, but to suggest that they are subject to the same level of oversight as career letter carriers is to be blind to reality. Once a contract is signed, very little supervision occurs and the widespread use of sub-contractors leads to a total loss of accountability.

Postal Record article | PMG letter to Congress| July President’s Message

Related link: More news on Contracting Out Mail Delivery

Taopi, MN Post Office

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 From USPS:

A clerk recently pleaded guilty in federal court after he was arrested for stealing DVD movies at the Houston P&DC.

Inspectors observed the clerk, a 32-year employee, placing DVD movies into a plastic grocery bag. They took him into custody and recovered the grocery bag — containing 122 DVD movies still inside their mailing envelopes — from the clerk’s vehicle. The clerk admitted stealing DVD movies from the mail for about a year. A search of his residence yielded a total of 8,177 DVD movies worth more than $117,000.

Letter Carriers Set July 1 Picketing in New Jersey to Oppose ‘Contracting Out’ by Postal Service

PATERSON, N.J.- 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, the postal union announced today.

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.

Murone said the Paterson picketing is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the post office, 194 Ward Street. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) is scheduled to participate with the local letter carriers in the protest, along with other local and state officials.

NALC National President William H. Young said letter carriers in the Paterson area “have witnessed first hand this destructive policy of the Postal Service to outsource the delivery of mail to low-wage, no-benefit, part-time contractors instead of career government employees who have gained the trust and respect of American families for the past 118 years.”

“This policy must be reversed quickly before more damage is done,” Young said.

The NALC’s effort to fight privatization of mail delivery has gained strong support in Congress. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) has introduced legislation (S. 1457) to outlaw most contracting out, and in the House of Representatives, Rep. Albio Sires  (D-NJ) has authored H. Res. 282 which would condemn the practice and urges the Postal Service to halt the practice immediately. The entire New Jersey House delegation has joined as cosponsors of the Sires resolution.

The NALC represents 298,000 active and retired letter carriers of the U.S. Postal Service is all 50 states and U.S. jurisdictions.

SOURCE National Association of Letter Carriers

Mailbox located in Nashville, TN 

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