USPS to Implement Two Tour Initiative Nationwide
The following is a memo Memo sent to the Postal Plant Managers:
Subject: RPG Two Tour Initiative
Importance: High
Plant Managers,
On this week’s MOS telecon, it was stated that the two tour initiative to “close the GAP” must be given top priority.
The entire nation is expected to move to a 2 tour operation, while still protecting service.
Given the continued workload decline and recent RPG scenarios, the NYMA agrees with moving towards a 2 tour operation because of the economies of scale that it would provide. The first step in this process is moving to a 2 8-hour tour automation operation (AFSM and APPS/SPBS operations to follow). For the month of October, the weekly RPG telecons will be focused on your efforts to make this move. Every plant needs to be progressing on this initiative along the following timeline:
October 3rd - Validate all of the volumes used in your 2 tour automation RPG model (AVG heavy weekday); ensure that you have contingency machines for your operation so that service is protected; ensure that your PM schedule for all machines can be supported by your maintenance staff,
October 10th - Present your overall staffing impact to clerk craft and EAS (net reduction in employees),
October 17th - Present your new bid package for clerk, maintenance, and EAS,
October 24th - Present your overall implementation plan, including timeline and transition plan.
We are working towards an early January 2009 implementation date. Each week we will be providing suggestions and tools on how to effectively develop your plan.
October 14th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
protect service??? you cant be serious
usps closed stations in our area on a saturday prior to a holiday. how is that protecting service. please answer that. otherwise you have no credibility. 2 tours meaning tour 2 is gone? what will happen to them? lots of senior people there who earned that right to be there thru seniority bidding.. do you care about them? truly care where they can go and what happens to them? what will happen to supv who are on tour to be eliminated? will you take care of them? protect them?
October 14th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
All of the decreased volume of mail and coversley the decreased revenue and not one INCOMPETENT POSTAL MANAGER laid off?Potter is given a 39% pay increase and constantly creates new V.P positions,thank goodness I am retired and don’t have to deal with INCOMPETENT POSTAL MANAGERS anymore!
October 14th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
we can no longer sustain anybody’s seniority
October 14th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
I spent a few years with the po .
I spenta few years in private sector .
I spenta a while on wall street .
Wish i woulda spent a few years……….
Call’n their wives and accountants……
Oh yeah….
Thats what i do now………
So when you are enjoying a large fisted audit by your local………….IRS , agent….
I AM LAFFN MY ASS OFF !!!!
And guess who she’s doing to-nite….
How do I taste ?
October 14th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Don’t you find it absurd that the Officers of the Postal Service gave themselves huge pay raises then announced more than a billion dollars in debt?
October 14th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
The survival rights of other employees trump the right of a few who want day jobs.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
btw,don’t ever forget that you’re expendable.
October 15th, 2008 at 2:46 am
Don’t forget YOU are expendable too.
October 15th, 2008 at 2:58 am
Fewer Tours and more Vice Presidents. This is what is making the US Postal Service great. I believe our 2 tour plan will cause a need for more MDO’s. Can’t have enough of those do-nothing blood sucking, bottom feeders.
October 15th, 2008 at 3:44 am
to dve
No, I don’t.
October 15th, 2008 at 5:38 am
So, this is not really a forum for intelligent conversation, just complaining about things they were unwilling to face earlier, or blaming management. When the truth of the situation is that no one should be paid, like you are, for a job that requires no education, special skill, or tremendous physical labor to complete. And Americans wonder why the rest of the world dislikes us, oh yeah, let’s blame the president for that!!!!!!
October 15th, 2008 at 6:57 am
Do you think dumb people would know where the good jobs are?
October 15th, 2008 at 10:01 am
If they are not closing down the tour completely, what is the savings? Their office will continue to work tour 2. PM’s on machines still need to be performed. Transportation will continue. Trucks need to be unloaded.
Therefore still need lighting, heat, AC. Think about it. Change for Change.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:01 am
The plan has been out for some time. Not possible for AADC’s but it is for all of the smaller plants. To move the mail they will have to make up the difference with more machines. Currently Tour 2 is processing Tour 1’s mail because they do not have the machines available. Employees are pushing down the service with the games “I’m the senoir loafer and I earned it” welcome to the soup line and we owe it all to you.
October 15th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Why do we have so many nonproduction positions in the PO? Why do we need so many high level supervisor, 20 - 25, We even have new VP for Toilet time monitor. Too many meetings with higher level supervisors just sitting around in a.m. and P.M. telecoms getting their butts chewed, or finding out who the dog of the day is and giving that poor soul a merciless a_ _ chewing. Why can’t they have a positive input on
how operations can be improved instead of what didn’t get done.
Quit playing games VPs. Micro-Management is the Number 1 killer of all businesses.
October 15th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
15 Oct 08
Hey
I thought the P.O. wanted to cut cost, then why eliminate Tour 2(day shift) This is where you need to staff the most, this way you eliminate night diff to most of the senoir people, also reduce staff on the weekends esp Sundays, this reduces Sun premium.
Also you need to reduce Supervisors with fewer people to supervise you don’t as many supervisors.
Also ask Jack and his 7 dorks for their pay raise’s back since we are suffering a financial loss.
Also eliminate all Eas positions that have nothing to do with movement of mail ie all detail.
October 15th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
it doesnt say get rid of tour 2!it is saying two tours.
October 15th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Yes, I’ve had enough of Supervision without any common sense. I’m retiring in 6 weeks!!! I use to enjoy going to work but not anymore!!!
October 15th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
BL,
Guess we know who you’re voting for. That’s the biggest problem facing postal employees. One of the first things GW did to repay his good pal at FEDEX was enact postal reform. As for blaming mgmt for the problem, I sat in on a recent budget meeting and instead of discussing the fact that our competitors, who we could put out of business if we had someone with a brain in charge, are also facing the same problems without panicking they discussed how the use of sick leave is causing our budget problems. I’m sorry; I thought leave was part of our budget and a right negotiated by both parties. How was it left out of their budget but their bonuses and raises were not? How can they justify the continued outsourcing when it has been proven that it is not cost effective? How does a Plant Manager continue to sell off tour II mail and put her employees on 340-time to prove the tour is non-productive when the truth is they are hiding the mail? When does the American public get notified that a Constitutional right is about to be taken away? How does a district manager get away with an MVS re-bid without first pulling all outsourcing contracts to show the actual work load prior to re-bid? GW has been systematically dismantling the service without anyone noticing just as he did when he spent the largest surplus in the country’s history and created the largest deficit and he is not done yet. He bailed out his buddy at AIG (one of his biggest campaign supports) and then did nothing about the big exec retreat they hosted days later for incompetent people who failed miserably and you have the never to say that we, the uneducated postal employees have no right to earn what we do? For your information, most of the people I work with are educated but have been forced into the service in order to acquire security and keep a roof over their heads while they pursue their true chosen profession. It is clear to me however that you are probably one of the people you are talking about, in which case I agree, you don’t deserve to earn the money you do or for that matter have the right to vote.
I don’t know what offends me more, management’s blatant disregard for the Collective Bargaining Agreement or the fact that any postal employee in this country is voting McSame given his and his parties voting history against the service, the current economic state of the Country and that the above mentioned is looking to eliminate the middle class, Postal Employees!!!!!
Hey BL, snap out of it or do the world a favor…
The public should be made aware is going on. This will affect them greatly.
October 15th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Billy B–The answer is because there is really no mail to be processed during the day–the night shift basically has it all cleaned up and the day shift only does stragler things as the mail comes in and don’t forget the collection mail does not come in until after 5:30 because many places took away the collections and the carriers have to bring that mail in at the end of their day when they get back at 5:30 p.m. (if they get back on time!) Don’t forget they changed the carriers start times to 8:00 a.m., thus all the mail is coming into the plants later and later–thus tour 2 doesn’t have that much to process. Most plants with tour 2 people are basically doing little or nothing–some are running the fsm100’s and their fsm1000 tour 2 is already impacted to be gone, which only leaves a few transit clerk jobs, which they will shift that mail to the later shift. There is no mail in 030 to oitch during the day, thus most of the 030 is done later in the day as well. But as it was said here, they still have to have the lights on, etc. for the tech’s to do daily pm’s on the machines, still have to have it on for the cushy office people, still have to have it on for mail that’s coming in off of trucks from other facilities and standard drop offs as well, thus what they think they will gain is beyond me other than harassing most of the older people with the senority to be on tour 2 to leave due to not wanting to work nights and weekends. This is their mentality–harass the people until they leave versus getting everyone together to help figure out the best changes to save money that Potter and his croonies and other mismanagement management squanders. In order to save the night shift premium and the stuff you mentioned they have to turn the clocks back and bring people and the mail in earlier–not later!!!
October 15th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
consolidate to 2 tours; continue to cut clerks throughout offices; tell carriers if you don’t 6 yrs in you are good as gone…
VP’s you’re Golden… here.. take some stock to
back it up Daddy’s got your back…
The recent controversy over a minimum wage, however, cannot hide the fact that the slashing of postal jobs and wages and deteriorating working conditions are all a result of the privatisation of postal services. At the expense of its workforce, DP has been transformed from a former state-run enterprise into a company making huge profits, which rewards its major shareholders with massive dividends. In 2006, DP made a profit of €3.87 billion based on a turnover of €60.5 billion. In the first half of 2007, its profits rose by a further 9 percent
Sound familiar??! Is what Germany going through.
Wow… Hitler comes to mind….
You heard it here… (oh crap i’m brown hair//brown eye) gotta go….
October 15th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
They went to two mail processing tours a long time ago at the Atlanta BMC. Immediately thereafter, the afternoon shift started getting 2 to 4 hours OT daily at the end of the shift, and the day shift started coming in for two hours OT up front. Some of the equipment drivers here made $75K or more in 2007. Where is the big savings in cutting out a third tour?
Then they decided to excess 70+ clerks and 50+ mailhandlers. I’ve been told that excessed personnel who can’t pass the tests in their new positions are immediately released from employment at the USPS; no opportunity for retraining is offered. Postal Mismanagement is making craft personnel pay for their really bad decisions, and running the business right into the ground in the process. How sad. I never thought I’d see the day the organization would come crashing down around me.
October 16th, 2008 at 3:04 am
BL is a moron. And as such, he is my kind of guy. Maybes I can use him in my cabinet. 3 more months and I heads back to Tex-Ass. See ya around
suckers.
October 16th, 2008 at 5:19 am
This is a government job. Since when do they REALLY care about what they spend? I thought the goal was, “how much can I spend?” Basic democrat ran operation.
Come on, when the cost of a plastic orange hamper is $800, that makes the $500 hammer a deal!
October 16th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Forget the Post Office; “The old Blue Ox is in the Ditch!” Hairy Potter and his Trolls (all 200,000 of them EAS’ers) have sucked the life out of this company with unwarrented pay levels similar to the likes of Kenneth Lay former CEO of Enron!
WHAT WORRIES ME IS THIS ELECTION!! So many things to consider. About a year ago I would have voted for Obama. I have changed my mind three times since then.
I watch all of the news channels, jumping from one to the other. I must say this drives my family crazy. But, I feel if you view MSMBC, CNN and Fox News, you might get some middle ground to work with. About 6 months ago, I started thinking “where did the money come from for Obama?” He claims a background of poverty in his youth, but now is a millionaire! I have two sons who went to College, and we are lower middle class, and money is tight. We (including my sons) worked hard, and there were lots of student loans.
I started looking into Obamma’s life:
Around 1979 Obama started college at Occidental in California. He is very open about his two years at Occidental, he tried all kinds of drugs and was wasting his time but, even though he had a brilliant mind, did not apply himself to his studies. “Barry” (that was the name he used all his life) during this time, had two roommates, Muhammad Hasan Chandoo, and Wahid Hamid, both from Pakistan.
During the summer of 1981, after his second year in college, he made a “round the world” trip. Stopping to see his mother in Indonesia, next Hyberabad in India, three weeks in Karachi, Pakistan, where he stayed with his roommate’s family, then off to Africa to visit his father’s family. MY QUESTION - where did he get the money for this trip? Neither I, nor either of my sons, would have had the money for a trip like this when they were in college. When he came back, he started school at Columbia University in New York. (It is at this time he wants everyone to call him Barack - not Barry). Do you know what the tuition is at Columbia? It is not cheap, to say the least. Where did he get the money for tuition? Stundent Loans? Maybe.
After Columbia, he went to Chicago to work as a Community Organizer for $12,000 a year. Why Chicago? He was already living in New York?
By “chance” he met Antoin “Tony” Rezko, born in Aleppo Syria, and a Real Estate Developer in Chicago. Rezko, has been convicted of fraud and bribery only this year. Rezko, was named “Entrepreneur of the Decade” by the Arab-American Business & Professional Association. About two years later, Obama entered Harvard Law School. Do you have any idea what tuition is for Harvard Law School? Where did he get the money for Law School? More student loans?
After Law School, he went back to Chicago, Rezko offered him a job, which he turned down. But, he did take a job with Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland. Guess what?? They represented “REZAR” which was Rezco’s firm. Rezko was one of Obama’s first major financial contributors when he ran for for office in Chicago.
In 2003, Rezko threw an early fundraiser for Obama, which (Chicago Tribune reporter) Davis Mendelland claims was instrumental in providing Obama with “seed money” for his U.S. Senate race. In 2005, Obama purchased a new home in the Kenwood District of Chicago for $1.65 million (less than asking price). With all of those Student Loans - Where did he get the money for the property? On the same day Rezko’s wife Rita, purchased the adjoining empty lot for full price. The London Times reported that Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-born BILLIONAIE, loaned Rezco $3.5 million dollars, three weeks before Obama’s new home was purchased. Obama met Nadhmi Auchi many times with Rezko.
Now we have Obama running for President. Valerie Jarrett, was Michele Obama’s boss. She is now Obama’s Chief Advisor, and he does not make any major decisions without talking to her first. Where was Jarrett born? Ready for this? Shiraz, Iran. Do we see a pattern here? Or, am I going crazy??
On May 10, 2008, the Times reported, Robert Malley, advisor to Obama was “sacked”, after the press found out that he was having regular contact with “Hamas”, which controls Gaza and is connected with Iran. This past week, buried in the back of the papers, Iraqi newspapers reported that during Obama’s visit to Iraq, he asked their leaders to do nothing about the war until after he is elected, and he will “Take care of things”.
Oh, and by the way, remember the two college roommates that were born in Pakistan? They are in charge of all of those “small” Internet campaign contributions for Obama. Where is that money coming from? The poor & middle class in this country? Or, could it be coming from the Middle East??
And, the final bit of news. On September 7, 2008, The Washington Times posted a verbal slip that was made on “THIS WEEK WITH GEORE STEPHANAPOULOS.” Obama, on talking about his religion said: “MY MUSLIM FAITH.” George Stephanapoulos had to “correct” him by saying: “You mean your Christian Faith, don’t you sir?” To which Obama said: “Ofcourse!”
When Obama was questioned later by the press, “he made a mistake”. SOME MISTAKE!!
All of the above information, I got online. You can too if you would like to check it for accuracy.
Wikipedia, encyclopedia, Barack Obama; Tony Rezko; Valerie Jarrett: Daily Times-Obama Visited Pakistan in 1981; Washington Times- September 7, 2008; The Times, May 10, 2008.
Now the BIG QUESTION??? - If I found out all this information on my own, Why haven’t all of our “intelligent” members of the press reporting this?
A phrase that keeps ringing in my ear- “BEWARE OF THE ENEMY FROM WITHIN”!!!
October 16th, 2008 at 9:25 am
This statement by Burrus was on the APWU website yesterday. “The termination of Tour 2 mail processing may be intended to force senior employees to retire or accept unfavorable hours of work: If that is the intent, my advice is to reject this insidious option.” — We have no choice in the matter if we receive an abolishment letter. Of course, it is an insidious option but it is out my control. And besides he states the National has yet to hear about the 2 tour plan. How can the National not know this?
October 16th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
i’m really scared about losing my job !
October 16th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Hello: Read it again it says 2 TOUR, not 2 hour!
October 16th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
“TruthSeeker”’s nonsense about Obama is debunked at http://snopes.com/politics/obama/money.asp
Let’s stick to the postal business at hand, everybody
October 17th, 2008 at 2:56 am
“truthseeker”, you are a moron.
October 17th, 2008 at 10:31 am
i really dont think i can work a 10 hour day ! i get tired during the course of a normal 8 hr day because i do alot of work
October 17th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Truthseeker…if Obama wins, will you leave the Country??
October 17th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Its just a proposal as of now. I highly doubt that the APWU will go for this. They see it for what it is….a ploy to force people out, no matter what youre seniority is. Management isnt going to get people to voluntarily retire when they want to penalize your pension 2% per year for every year your short of age 55. It amazes me how management is always claiming that its losing money, going over budget, but they magically always seem to find enough $$$ for their own pay raises and bonuses(PMG Potter got a big raise in Jan 2007).
Sounds like the corporate CEO bank and loan parachute umbrellas we’ve been hearing about in the news recently. Can you say AIG? or Lehman Bros?! USPS?!
October 17th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
The APWU has no choice in this matter TC. The USPS is within their right to eliminate tour 2. They have to do something, we are sinking fast.
October 18th, 2008 at 2:08 am
So Long USPS, you are so correct. My staff (which is huge) is taking care of getting craft out. My 39% raise was last year and I need another one. Also the same for my 48 Vice Presidents. You are so smart you should be in management.
October 18th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Donde esta El Guapo when you need him?
October 19th, 2008 at 2:59 am
I am looking for a few good Vice Presidents. 39% raise every year and good working conditions. (you won’t do anything but fly around and play golf) We currently have about 50 and could use another 20 or so.
October 19th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Skip the whole thing.
Price of gas is dropping which will go a long ways towardbalancing the budget.
three things worth doing:
1. stop bringing people in on holidays, save a ton of money.
2. regain control of the plant mail from the M/Hs who are robbing the place blind by fucking things up unless they get overtime.
3. dump bad supervisors, use testing or require diplomas only for promotion.
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:00 pm
the post office is always trying make cuts and scale back the work force. how about cutting all the fat at the top first and then work your way down. the p.o. is without a doubt top heavy.
October 23rd, 2008 at 4:08 am
Mailhandlerboston, you are just craft and don’t know anything. I, on the other hand, are management and your new Vice President of 10 hour tours. I, and my 58 fellow VP’s, will decide staffing and we are more important to the mission than workers. Now get to work or I will report you to the Senior Vice President of Mailhandlers/Boston.
November 13th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Now let’s see how this works. The senior offices all get hefty pay raises and they ask the managers and supervisors to give it up. Nice way to pay for Potter and his associates salaries. Get rid of the Area offices and cut HQ staffing. Major mail volume has NOT gone away. The revenue stream has changed because of the drop in First Class Mail. The USPS is a vital link to the economy of this country and needs to stay healthy. Right now the plans seem to be putting it on the “drip system” waiting to watch for it’s demise. Suck it up guys and go to Congress and ask for subsidies. While your there ask the Congress to bring equity between the agencies on what the USPS pays and/or supports that other agencies are not required to fund. You are a federal agency with the extraordinary rights. Let’s be more responsible.
dve