Postal COLA Update: Letter Carriers To Get $1,498, APWU $1,477

The next regular cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) under the (NALC)2006-2011 National Agreement will be $1,498 annually, based on the Consumer Price Index for July. The COLA, effective the pay period beginning August 30 (pay date September 19), is the third of eight COLAs included in the 2006-2011 contract.

The new COLA is equivalent to 72 cents per hour, or $57.60 per pay period.

source: NALC

APWU

For Employees Covered by the National Agreement and the Operating Services Agreement:

 In July, the Consumer Price Index (CPI-W) rose to 644.303. After the last month of the six-month measuring period, the fourth COLA under the 2006 National Agreement will be $1,477 per year, which works out to $56.80 per pay period or 71 cents per hour. The COLA will be effective Aug. 30, 2008 (pay period 19-2008, pay date Sept. 19, 2008).

USPS FMLA Recertification Requirements Appealed to Arbitration

“The APWU has appealed to arbitration a dispute over the Postal Service’s policy of requiring employees to automatically submit new medical certification for an FMLA-covered condition simply because the leave year has ended and a new leave year has begun. It is the APWU’s position that this policy violates the Collective Bargaining Agreement, FMLA regulations and the mutually accepted past practice.”

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NPMHU: All VER-Eligible Postal Employees May Not Be Approved

 ”On August 18, 2008, an annuity estimate will be mailed to all VER-eligible employees from Eagan, MN.  However, there is no guarantee that everyone who applies will be approved.  In other words, just because a mail handler gets a VER offer in the mail will not – we repeat, NOT – guarantee a VER.  The extent of this VER is still undetermined, according to what we have been told by management.  Management claims that it still needs to consult with Areas and Districts to determine if there are any locations not to be covered.  We have also been told that the numbers of VERs in any Plant may be limited if operations dictate, and that if they are so limited, those mail handlers having the earliest retirement computation dates will be allowed to go.  The Union is demanding that this be VER be available to all Mail Handlers.”

source: National Postal Mail Handlers Union

Postal Worker Indicted On Charge of Threatening To Kill Supervisor

ROANOKE, Va. – A 59-year-old postal worker in Roanoke faces up to eight years in prison after being indicted for allegedly threatening his supervisor.

Federal prosecutors say Samuel Davis Kemp was indicted Thursday. Kemp works as a mail handler at the U.S. Postal Service Processing and Distribution Center in Roanoke.

According to the indictment, last month Kemp was called into the supervisor’s office to address the concern that he allegedly was under the influence of alcohol while on duty. Officials called police to have Kemp removed after he became belligerent and allegedly threatened to kill his supervisor.

He is charged with one count of forcibly assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating and interfering with his supervisor while he was engaged in his official duties
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/virginia/dp-va–postalworkerindic0808aug08,0,4549911.story

NAPS Challenges USPS Network Plan, Questions Outsourcing

From the National Association of Postal Supervisors Legislative and Regulatory Update

The National Association of Postal Supervisors has questioned the Postal Service’s plans for the use of contracting out in realigning its mail processing and distribution network and has encouraged Congress to ask the Postal Service where it’s  headed in its reliance on private contractors to process and transport mail.
 
 In an August 5 letter to Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL), chairman of the House panel that oversees the Postal Service, NAPS President Ted Keating challenged the Network Plan the Postal Service recently sent to Congress and the Service’s lack of explanation of the role it intends outsourcing to play in modernizing mail processing and transportation activity.  Keating pointed to USPS efforts to contract-out processing and transportation operations at its Bulk Mail Centers as raising significant policy concerns that “could represent a significant step toward the privatization of postal operations.”
 
 The Postal Service on July 1 issued a draft Request for Proposal to create a “Time Definite Surface Network” (TDSN) that envisions outsourcing all mail processing and transportation activity currently performed by the 21 BMCs within the USPS mail network, starting with those in Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, St. Paul, Atlanta and Seattle.  Bulk Mail Centers are highly mechanized mail processing plants that distribute parcel post, media mail, standard mail and periodicals in bulk form.
 
 ”If BMC activity is ultimately outsourced through the TDSN initiative, does the Postal Service intend to extend outsourcing to all of its Processing and Distribution Centers and related transportation activities?” Keating asked Congress.  “What is the ultimate goal?  Is this the first phase of wider reliance on privatization of mail processing and distribution?  Does the Service ultimately intend to contract out all processing and distribution of mail, if it believes that service standards and customer service can be maintained at acceptable levels?”
 
 Keating also took aim at the USPS Network Plan itself, criticizing USPS for providing few new details to Congress, which mandated in the 2006 postal reform law that the Postal Service provide a comprehensive report on how intended to modernize the processing/transportation backbone of the postal network.  Keating called the plan the USPS sent to Congress a “strategy without a destination.”  “The Postal Service’s faith in a ‘fluid approach’ toward network realignment, as evidenced in the Network Plan,” Keating said, “is largely a continuation of the zigzagging we have witnessed since 2001, from the Network Integration and Alignment program, to the Evolutionary Network Development program, to the most recent efforts involving ill-fated Regional Distribution Centers.”  
 
 ”There is one potentially distinct difference in the latest iteration, however,” Keating warned.  “The single-most important development in the Network Plan is the one whose possible consequences are left the most unaddressed.  Left unanswered is the role of outsourcing in the Postal Service’s vision of network realignment and whether the Service intends to apply outsourcing toward the entirety of its processing and distribution operations …”  “We regard these omissions as flaws in the transparency and completeness of the Network Plan, as well as the creation of understanding by the Postal Service stakeholders and the public of the implications of these steps.”
 
 Keating encouraged the Postal Service to provide answers to the Congress and postal stakeholders, including the Postal Regulatory Commission, and explain the relationship between the TDSN outsourcing initiative and future efforts to modernize and cut costs in USPS processing and distribution centers and other facilities in the mail network.
 
 The potential for USPS outsourcing to private contractors of the responsibility for processing and distribution of mail, in light of stalled USPS efforts to privatize mail delivery, holds huge implications — both financial and political — for the USPS, not to mention its 700,000 employee workforce.  There are well over 300 processing and distribution plants in the Postal Service’s mail network, providing jobs to tens of thousands of postal workers and economic heft to the surrounding communities in which the plants are located.  At the same time, considerable excess capacity in many plants exists, worsened by the continued decline in mail volume, likely necessitating further facility consolidations and closures, even if the work continues to remain within the Postal Service.
 
 At a July 24 hearing of the House Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia on the USPS Network Plan, Subcommittee Chairman Danny Davis in his opening remarks focused on the need for USPS to adopt a smarter approach toward downsizing the postal network, saying, “For this effort to be successful the Postal Service MUST do a better job of realigning its processing and transportation networks, improve the data used in its computerized and statistical modeling, and minimize service disruptions.  Failure to prevent and predict service problems will result in poor mail delivery, which in turn will anger the public and trigger political considerations.”

USPS Posts $1.1 Billion Loss For Third Quarter

WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Postal Service ended its third fiscal year quarter (April 1 – June 30) with a greater-than-expected net loss of $1.1 billion. The national economic slowdown reduced mail volume at an accelerated pace and continued inflation in fuel prices produced rapidly escalating transportation costs. Despite these financial challenges, Postal Service employees delivered record-breaking service performance in the third quarter.

For the third quarter ending June 30:

Operating revenue was $17.9 billion, a decrease of $437 million, or 2.4 percent, compared to the same period last year.

Operating expenses totaled $19.0 billion, an increase of only $178 million, or 1.0 percent, from the third quarter last year, despite substantial increases in fuel prices.

Expenses include $1.4 billion of the $5.6 billion payment to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund that the Postal Service is required to make by Sept. 30, 2008, under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006.

Mail volume was 48.5 billion pieces, a 5.5 percent drop from the same period last year. First-Class Mail and Standard Mail volume were each down 5.5 percent in the third quarter, reflecting the challenging economic environment.

The fiscal 2008 year-to-date net loss totals $1.13 billion. The Postal Service had essentially broken even in the first half of the fiscal year. With no economic recovery in sight, the Postal Service expects an end-of-year, economy-driven net loss.

“When the economy does rebound, mail volume may not return to previous levels,” said Postmaster General John Potter. “This requires that we significantly accelerate process improvements and the realignment of resources in order to achieve long-term financial success. Failure to do so will threaten our ability to meet our mission of providing universal service at affordable prices.”

Record-Breaking Service Performance
In the third fiscal quarter, on-time delivery performance reached record highs for all three categories of First-Class Mail the Postal Service tracks. Overnight service was 97 percent on-time, up from 96 percent the same period last year. Two-day service was 95 percent on-time, up from 93 percent the same period last year. Three-day service was 94 percent on-time, up from 91 percent the same period last year.

“These outstanding results show the tremendous dedication of our employees to provide excellent customer service, especially as we continue to work with our unions to further reduce costs and increase efficiency,” said Potter.

Postal Service Recommends VERA for Postmasters

From National League of Postmasters President Charley Mapa: 

This afternoon, July 23, League President Charley Mapa was contacted by Bill Jones, HQ Labor Relations. Mr. Jones stated that, in response to the letter that his office had received from League and Napus, today the Postal Service had sent to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) their own letter recommending a VERA (early out) for Postmasters. For this process to go forward, OPM must approve the request.

Mr. Jones was careful to point out that even if OPM approves the request, the Postal Service may not choose to exercise the option of an early out for Postmasters. If approved, and if the Postal Service decides to offer the VERA to Postmasters, the VERA will occur over the next two years. The request sent to OPM would cover all Postmasters, levels 11 through 24.

As always, the League will stay on top of this issue and communicate any updates to you as soon as they become official.

source: http://www.postmasters.org

Anthrax suspect dies in apparent suicide

The LA Times broke the story

One of the nation’s top biodefense researchers has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide, just as the Justice Department was to file criminal charges against him in the anthrax mailing assaults of 2001 that killed five, the Los Angeles Times has learned.

Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who for the past 18 years worked at the government’s elite biodefense research laboratories at Fort Detrick, Md., had been informed of the impending prosecution, people familiar with Ivins, his suspicious death and with the FBI investigation said.

Ivins’ name had not been disclosed publicly as a suspect in the case that disrupted mail service and Senate business three weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Maryland scientist had for years played a pivotal role in research to improve anthrax vaccines, preparing anthrax formulations used in experiments on animals.

Regarded as a skilled microbiologist, Ivins also had helped the FBI analyze the powdery material recovered from one of the anthrax-tainted envelopes sent to a U.S. senator’s office in Washington, D.C.

Ivins died Tuesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital after having ingested a massive dose of prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine, said a friend and colleague who declined to be identified out of concern, he said, that he would be harassed by the FBI.

The death — without any mention of suicide — was announced to Ivins’ colleagues at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID, through a staffwide e-mail.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-anthrax1-2008aug01,0,3772533.story

 

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