From PostalReporter Reader:
My name is Fredric ****. I was a data collection technician in Houston, Texas. I took the early out and retired on July 31, 2009. We were sent a memo(which I still possess) that the post office would not be offering early outs in the near future. The memo stated that they would lengthen the time needed to June 30st to be eligible to take the July 31st offer. Postmaster Potter also indicated before a congressional hearing that there wouldn’t be any incentives offered. Three weeks after retiring I find out that the memo and statement from the postmaster were all lies. I took them at their word and retired at the age of 49 with 26 years of service. I had to incur a 12% penalty (2%for every year under 55). I feel totally used and would like to know if I and the other recent retirees can dispute what is now happening. Thank you
Were you independently wealthy? My calculations have you retiring at 38%. I’m assuming you’re working full time to be able to survive. The unions all said, “Don’t do it!”
Hi Rick I retired 212/31/2008. I would like to be added to your list.
Hi! Rick:
How are you! my name is Hsiu Hsiu Yeh, I am retiree on 6/30/2009, I Was working in the Oakland PEDC, 1675 7th St. Oakland Ca 94615, please put my name on the list, thank you so much!!
My e-mail : hsiuyeh66@gmail.com
Hsiu Hsiu Yeh
Rick,
Happy to hear that you are still with us. GOOD NEWS?
When will you be able to share that with us? I’m excited!
Janice,
Yes, I’m still here. Still gathering names and information. We have good news on the horizon.
Haven’t heard from Rick in awhile. Rick, are you still with us?
on youtube, the video Hitler goes postal
Check the YouTube video, we need to put this story on, who can handle it, must have web cam.
I say forget about contacting the APWU about anything. After all, they can NOT be trusted any more than POTTER himself. I think the Attorney (once selected) should subpoena HR Shared Service Center for ALL the names of VER retirees from Dec 31, 2008 to the present. The entire VER retirement process was handled deceptively by both POTTER and the union. The money for incentives did not just suddenly surface! In actuality the USPS was in much better financial shape back in the DEC 2008 than it is presently yet POTTER repeatedly cried “no money”
We need to find an Attorney that can subpeona the APWU for names and addresses of people that took the July 31st. VER. But HOW do we find one?
please include all who retired July 31st, as incentive was for old timers too who based their decisions on the vera offers.
An attorney who knows postal rules and regulations can find out and contact all VERA clerks who took earlyout in july or before.A few years ago,employees on limited duty or light duty filed a case for discrimination in promotions and all the employees who were on limited duty or light duty,even they were not aware of the law suit,got the letters from the attorney.
A lady went on u-tube to protest her 30% credit card rate, Bank of America then lowered her rate! Would someone volunteer to u-tube this postal story? The media will catch on then!
I see where President Burrus is retiring at the end of his term. I guess he doesn’t want to be apart of the postal service demise or maybe he’s advoiding the inquiries that may come his way. President Burrus you left out 2.505 employees in the cold when you knew another ver was being negotiated. Happy Retirement.
I will keep everyone updated through our personal emails.
I also emailed the people I knew, that worked in 5 other offices and ask them to email there friends in other offices and gave them Rick’s email.. Maybe other people could do the same. It would be like a snowball effect.
Rick keep us updated on how many names we are getting.
The numbers are in and only 23,000 (at the most) took the latest early-out offer with the monetary incentive. Since the Post Office planned and had the money for 30,000, they should be willing to give the 2,505 of us that went last time the same money.
At least in our lawsuit, Management shouldn’t be able to argue that they can’t afford it.
Rick,
I think that is a GREAT idea that Carolyn has! Start your own NEW link on Postal Reporter and ask all the VER people to respond to your email address. I’m sure that we could get alot more names that way.
Rick,
Maybe your sentence above should be posted on the main page of Postal Reporter..
Everyone,
Please email Rick, rickytx20@aol.com to give your name and location. Please spread the word as we are in the process of talking with a lawyer
I accepted the early retirement in December, 2008. I was employed for 22 years. Due to the economic climate, all Ver employees should receive the $15,000
incentive. I support the Class Action Law Suit.
Savannah, GA.
Good Morning Everyone,
We need to locate more individuals who took the ver offer. Presently I have a list of 13 names. There are power in numbers.
You know if all the major news networks ABC,CBS, NBC
had it as a news story, and then added a contact number or website, they could contact us.
The more letters to Senators and Congressmen the better to show interest in seeing this matter resolved, they may hold the best key to solving this injustice, especially the Senators who heard the Postmaster General state no incentives! Someone on this site might be able to give attys phone # when they have signed onto this action. Thank you for caring about this matter.
Becky,
I don’t think it would hurt to notify our congressmen.
This message is also for Rick. I have no doubt we could find an attorney to take this case. The biggest problem we face is locating the other thousands of people that could be, and I am sure would WANT to be involved in this case. I’m up for suggestions.
Janice or Rick,
Do you think it would help to notify our Congressmen?
I mean in addition to the class action lawsuit.
Becky
Janice,
I agree that we have to locate an attorney on a contingency contract. It will get rather expensive but what do we have to lose. The more employees we locate the more attractive it will look for the attorney(s).
I called one of the attorneys listed on this Postal Reporter. I was told that he does individual cases only. We need to find an attorney that will do a class action suit. We may have to dig in to our own yellow pages for an attorney that will take this on a continuancy contract. Rick, what are your feelings on this?
On the main page of Postal Reporter, down the right side of the page, is a list of several attorneys that fight for Postal Workers..Has anyone called any of them?
Rick,
Discrimination is the right word. I’m sure that most of us that left were senior citizens and paid union dues the longest of all employees. I think age discrimination pretty much sums it up.
Somone on another blog suggested that we take it to all the media outlets. Make it public. Do you think that would do anything?
I retired June 30 with every confidence I made the right decision. My retirement specialist (North Carolina) assured me there was no reason to wait because there would be no incentives offered. The letter from Potter only sounded more positive that there would be NO incentives offered. Where was the union letter advising me to wait? I paid union dues all thirty years of my career, and I honestly never heard a word from them. I realize I lost out on a $15,000 cushion to my retirement years, but I feel worse knowing this whole incentive offer was done behind our backs. Hope all those union dues helped fund this underhanded offer.
Rick,
I sent you an email. I hope that you got it. It’s going to be very interesting to see how they are going to pay the $15,000 to 30,000 people that want to leave. What if $35,000 want to leave? ALSO, I know a girl that submitted her retirement papers months ago to leave on Sept. 25th. She planned on leaving before the incentive was even offered. Now she will get the incentive money. Email me if you need more information. I’m still with you people if we go for a class action lawsuit. Rick, I also agree with you. It’s not all about the money, it was the way that it was handled. Very fast and very poorly done.
I also retired on July 31st and I also believed the mumbo jumbo about no incentives. However; i look at this way, I retired with 34 yrs service at 54 yrs old, got a lump sum check for my 480 hrs annual leave and with no regrets. I never had the $15,000 in my hand, so I didnt loose anything. Heed the advice of all those stand up talks…SAVE YOUR ANNUAL…SAVE YOUR SICK LEAVE. Believe me it comes in handy.
Carolyn,
It takes numerous discussions and signing off on documents before another early out with incentives is approved. OF COURSE they knew! That’s what makes the whole situation discriminating. Its not about the money but the way the process was handled. And now Potter is asking Congress for help when he turned his back on us. I hope Congress is aware of how this postmaster has failed his employees.
Theresa,
As of this time I have 8-10 names. If anyone knows an attorney who will work on a contingency plan for a group of employees pls. let me know.
Rick, do you realize that all of our paperwork was sitting there on someones desk, while and after this decision was made? They didn’t just wake up 25 days later and decide this………
I spent the last year checking this out before I decided to leave. The answer was always “NO,nothing”
Even when I talked to the retirement counselor, I asked him and he said “No” I have seen some low things over the years at the PO, but this takes the cake..Everyone of us that retired, should have gotten a certified letter, as soon as our name hit the list, that said “you may want to reconsider….”
Everyone interested in a class action suit…….
email the info to Rick (above)
There is power in numbers!!
Rick, how many names do you have so far?
you should have listened to your union. they told us don’t go.
I’ve gotten a couple of responses from retiree’s interested in joining the possible lawsuit. We need a plan of action to proceed. Please e-mail me at rickytx20@aol.com if you would like your name added or contact Theresa above. We have nothing to lose.
Janice,
Pls. add me to this list. E-mail me at fpj77489@aol.com and I’ll help with anything you would like. That way we can discuss what procedure we need to follow first.
Thank you Rick…..WHERE DO WE START? Anyone that took the July 31,2009 VER Please post your first name, city and state. We are going to file a class action suit against the President of the APWU, William Burris and Postmaster General John Potter. Total lies from both of them!
I will start this. Please add your name, city and state, if you want to fight this.
Janice, Phoenix Arizona
Theresa, Screwed Over,
You can get an attorney to file a class action suit on a contingency plan. What that constitutes is that if you win the lawsuit then the attorney’s would be paid a percentage of your winning. For instance, they could be paid 20% of the $15,000 which would be $3,000 per person who signs on. If you can find 100 people nationwide then the firm would receive $300,000. I think its an open record policy for apwu to release the names of the July 31st early retiree’s. Maybe you can solicit someone from different facilities to get those names. Someone would have to use their personal e-mail address to collect those names so that confidentiality could be kept. I’m willing to help.
Theresa……Yes, we all got duped! First of all, in order to file a class action lawsuit, we need to get the names and addresses, or emails of all the people that took the recent VER. That’s not going to be easy to do. Who wants to list their personal information on the internet? If any one can come up with any ideas on this, please let me know. I think that we have a good case again’st Burris and Potter.
Why don’t we all get together a file our own class action or get a lawyer????????????????
I guess all us early out July31,2009 victims were duped
To lavenderlady purple. Very well written, and I thank you for posting. I would not trust Burris AT ALL! I truly believe that all the people that took the July 31st, 2009 VER need to band together to file a class action lawsuit agains’t William Burris and Postmaster John Potter. They LIED to us! Burris states that he repeatedly told union memebers over and over to wait for an incentive. SHOW that to me Burris, that is a BLATANT LIE! He told us that last September. After that he said very little about it. He spoke about the Postal Service being in dire straits financially and that retirement was a personal thing. He needs to show union members documents where he advised us OVER and OVER again, NOT to leave. I need to see the DATES on these documents. John Potter lied that the Postal Service may not even be able to make payroll by Oct. If that were the truth, where is this money coming from to pay $30,000 people an incentive of $15,000? Burris and Potter have been scheming about this for months! Way before I even left my job! This
TRULY needs to be investigated.
The $15,000 incentive that the service is offering is a bad deal. First, of all the actual amount you will be given is approximately $10,000, with $5,000 going for taxes. Secondly, what is not being told is that if the service does not get enough people to accept this offer, they still have to pay your salary. The union made a bad deal. If the service really wanted to have 30,000 employees to accept this offer they would have made the offer of one-half year salary, no penalty on early retirement, and the half year salary would be tax free. Burris is a lousy negotiator, he did not know how to respond to the postal service’s stance “we do not have the money”. His response should of been “if you want to achieve the goal of the said amount of employees to retire you have got to make it worthwhile, otherwise you will continue to pay them their salaries, which will be way more than the amount for the incentive.” Remember, it was Burris who allowed management to siphoned off our jobs as clerks, and give them to themselves and “so called light and limited duty carriers.” This was the deal when the carriers’ union decided to negotiate their contracts separate from the clerks’ union. Burris has never raised a hand to actively defend the lost of the clerks’ technical jobs. do not trust him.
Fredric,
You could come back as a Casual. You can make $9 with no benefits or insurance, instead of the $20+ with benefits and insurance you were making. The USPS needs more dedicated employees like you, you saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars. Besides if you get stressed you can just quit, what do you have to loose, besides your sanity?
Its a small price to pay for being freed from the hole. I wish I could afford to go, but I can’t. Move on but keep your eyes and ears open, maybe if you all bitch enuff the LIARS from management will here about it.
Who said 30 days? And where would I find the statement made that said to wait for an incentive. All I saw was a letter that said there would be NO incentives given because of our financial crisis.