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
In 1992,all crafts employees were offered early out with six months pay as incentive without much publicity.Some people choose to retire and some not,but nobody had any objection as it was a fair game.But this time VERA,s offered every 3 months,(the last one was offered only 3 weeks after the 2nd one)with all types of lies and manuplations.It can happen only in some third world country.
Where is my VSIP voluntary separation incentive pay?
I retired 12/31/2008 with 29 yrs 8 months service. at age 56 yrs 6 months. Columbus, Oh. I too was repeatedly told/ lied to: NO incentives!!! from so-called retirement counselors. Most of that staff has since transferred to other federal jobs outside the PO before being excessed up to 500 miles to NC. Wonder why they misinformed the earlier ver/vsip groups? Sign me up CLASS ACTION Right On. Nothing to lose. USPS owes us a VSIP- voluntary separation incentive pay just like those that took the 10/31/2009 ver/vsip offer. They offered a similar vsip in the early 1990’s that resulted in a mass exodus. I’ve still received no letter of acknowledgement, coffee cup, belt buckle, hat, watch, jacket or even the infamous WOODEN NICKLE!!!!!! Gotta love it right….
I retired 12/31/2008 with 29 yrs 8 months service. at age 56 yrs 6 months. Columbus, Oh. I too was repeatedly told/ lied to: NO incentives!!! from so-called retirement counselors. Most of that staff has since transferred to other federal jobs outside the po before being excessed up to 500 miles to NC. wonder why they misinformed the earlier ver groups? CLASS ACTION Right On. Nothing to lose.
You guys are absolutely right. I would like to have a 30 year refund of Union dues for the crappy way they let us retire “in the dark”. I did find that letter from Burrus on the APWU site. Click on “retirees” and that letter from ‘grievance filed’ is shown.
I agree with you, Carolyn, that a letter warning us of the upcoming incentive should have been sent out to all union PAYING employees. That is the least they could have done.
I think the union dues I paid my entire career would have AT LEAST entitled me to a “you may want to delay your retirement for 25 days” letter, because we are working for you.
If the union didn’t protect my interest as an employee, WHY would they do it now?
If nothing else happens, they ought to refund all the union dues we’ve all paid for years, but, NO, they are asking for more.
They have lied throughout the entire VER offer, and now we are suppose to believe they are telling the truth?
If this was authentic I would think something would be posted on the APWU website (which it is not).
That being said, I still hope someone, somewhere is investigating the DECEPTIVE manner in which the ENTIRE VER PROCESS was handled by both Potter AND the UNION!!!
Rick, where are you? Do you believe that was really William Burrus that wrote the above letter?
Message to Recent Retirees
(11/30/09) Congratulations on your retirement from the U.S. Postal Service! Throughout your career, you provided a great service to our country.
As a retiree, keeping abreast of union news will help you — and the APWU — protect your annuity, health insurance, and other benefits that will affect the quality of your new life.
The best way to stay informed is to join the APWU Retirees Department. As a member of the APWU Retirees Department, you will continue to receive vital information from the union.
For example, you will soon receive the first portion of the $15,000 incentive that was negotiated by APWU. The union has also filed a grievance seeking severance pay for workers who opted for voluntary early retirement. The grievance could result in an extra week of pay for each year up to 10 years and two weeks of pay for each year over 10 years up to a total of 52 weeks. In another grievance, APWU is protesting USPS efforts to collect debts from retirees’ annuities before they have exhausted their appeals. We will keep our members informed of the status of these cases. (If you experience problems in this regard, please contact us.)
And remember, union membership is required in order to participate in the APWU Health Plan, Accident Benefit Association, Voluntary Benefits Plan, and to receive Union Plus services and discounts. As a union member, you also will receive the union’s bi-monthly magazine, which contains important news and information.
Click here for an application [PDF] to become a member of the APWU Retirees Department for just $3 a month. Please complete the form and return it to Retirees Department Director Judy Beard using the postage-paid envelope. Be sure to check the box to contribute to COPA, the union’s Committee on Political Action, which helps us support legislators who will stand up for postal retirees and the benefits we treasure.
The sooner you sign-up, the sooner you will become part of an exciting, informative and active department of the American Postal Workers Union!
In union solidarity,
William Burrus
President
Is there a way to look up the grievance filed?
The union filed a grievance for severance pay for retirees who accepted VERA. It will be an extra week of pay for each year upto 10 years of service and two weeks of pay for each year over 10 years up to a total of 52 weeks. What about the extra 10% for each year above 40 years of age,as mentioned by apwu in its previous publications?
Neither do I.
I don’t believe it.
How do we know if we are included in the grievance?
Message to Recent Retirees
(11/30/09)
The union has also filed a grievance seeking severance pay for workers who opted for voluntary early retirement. The grievance could result in an extra week of pay for each year up to 10 years and two weeks of pay for each year over 10 years up to a total of 52 weeks.
Glad to be GONE: You told her! I’m so sick of these people and their opinions. They should just mind their own business. When the union sells them out next contract, are they going to just lay down and let their salary/benefits get reduced? Or are you going to fight for your rights?! When that happens, maybe we should tell them, “to bad, just deal with it!”
Glad to be GONE: Thanks for the update.
Kathy Root:
For your information the CLASS ACTION lawsuit is in the works. You might want to stick to selling stamps or pitching mail….rather than giving out legal advice!!!!!! Try not to let the idea of reporting to work each day “EAT YA UP INSIDE”. Especially when the next contract rolls around and your salary/benefits are reduced!
There will be no class action, just get over it! The people who got $15,000 really didn’t get crap! I would not go because i don’t even trust the PO to deliver on the $10,000 this year, then good luck next year….what are we gonna do? Sue em? What a joke. Too bad this crap happens, but i think it would be better to get over it, and quit letting it eat ya up inside. To Frederick..you are just plain not playing with a full deck retiring at 49 yrs of age, knowing of the penalty? That is just freaking crazy!
Anything new on a possible class action lawsuit?
To Steve C:
You asked: “If the USPS waited until 7/31/09 to offer an incentive would you still say you were lied to?”
Yes!!!
When Mr. Burras announced the incentive on August 25, 2009. He stated that he was in negotiations for two months. If we believe him, that means as early as June 2009, he should have made that information known to his paying members. Many have said, “Oh well, he told everyone, DON’T GO!” Along, with his advice not to go, he alluded to the fact that Potter was correct, the Postal Service was in dire financial straits. This could be debated for years to come, but the facts are that Mr. Burras did not look out for his paying members. During his negotiations, he had to have known that the incentive would not sit well with employees who had just retired on the recent VERA’s. He made no provisions for them, and walked away benefiting the Postal Service instead of the employees who paid dues, for him and other union officials to enjoy conferences in sunny Las Vegas. The thank-you I received as a paying member was to be BLAMED for his deficit as a Union President. Yes, I have been lied to during my career at the Postal Service and I Know the Postal Service pays very well. However, the Postal Service is a hotbed of corruption and so are the Unions that represent it’s employees.
I’ve handled it for 34 and I’ll handle it for 3 more (56) or 8 more (61) if I choose. I’ve watched management destroy the USPS for all those years! Is this new to you? And like lemmings we fall right off the cliff with them. The postal service, in most instances, has lied to you your whole career. Over the last two checks I have received over $1600 (net) in Overtime. That has nothing to do with any recovery or postal boon times. Next payday there may be no OT, oh well. But until the end of 2011 I’m guaranteed a job, if there is such a guarantee that we’ll even be open for business. Where else could you be employed that mgmt requires no accountability. Conscientious workers get treated the same as FMLA and OWCP scammers. You can use 40 hours sick leave in a year and be disciplined while a scammer uses 10X that amount and gets an award. Let’s not even talk about all the bogus EEO complaints! The list could go on and on. The question is,” If the USPS waited until 7-31-2010 to offer an incentive would you still say you were lied to?” Some would, if not all! Honestly though, I would probably be just as upset as you all. Good luck!
TO APWU Member, RIGHT ON! I couldn’t have said it better! I have very little patience with people like Steve C. They don’t look at the FULL picture which has been explained many times on this site. READ others comments before you decide to judge. Steve C. You have been at the Postal Service for 34 years and still can’t leave? You really need to get a life, before it’s too late.
To Steve C:
You are missing the point! It isn’t the $15,000 that angers the former employees that took the VERA. Personally, If the incentive was $1,000 I think they still would be angry. Why, because Burras and the Postal Service conspired behind closed doors! They plotted on how they could exploit employees/members. Potter went on record of saying, there would be “…NO INCENTIVE…” and Burras went along, by not alerting his PAYING MEMBERS that he was in negotiations for the long awaited incentives. Instead, he let his PAYING members retire, without the benefit of knowing his little “secret”. To add insult to injury, he( Burras ) went on record of saying that, “It was BECAUSE of the Employee’s that left, that negotiations were held up!” All the while he as a President, of the APWU, purposely WITH-HELD information, to save the Postal Service Millions, at the expense of his Brother’s and Sister’s in solidarity!
You really, can call us anything you want, it doesn’t matter. If we are successful or if we fail, is not dependent upon what you think. It is our time to spend, and we choose to spend it letting ALL KNOW…THAT THE POSTAL SERVICE AND THE APWU UNION ARE CORRUPT. THEY HAVE ENGAGED IN UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES, AND CONTINUE TO ENGAGE IN UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES, AS YOU WILL SEE IN THE 2010 CONTRACT.
Since, you are so smart, to STILL be working after 34 years. I hope you are clever enough handle the plans they have in store for you. YOU MAY JUST GET TO CRY THAT RIVER!
Hey SteveC and PatR. Is retirement is not on auction put by the p.o.? What is the meaning of discrimination? Is it not that a set of people treated unfairly for the same cause? In my city,we have two plants and both have different standards of seniority for excessing for the same craft.In one plant more people excessed and forced to accept the early VERA’s than other.If p.o. is one company and APWU is one then why there are different rules applied in the same city and in same craft. In the early VERA’s many were forced to accept those by excessing them and some were forced to believe that there is no money for incentive as told by Potter again and again.
The only thing we can do now is stand on a corner with a protest sign and get beat up by the public as they drive by! I gave 20 hard, and all I ever got was a shaft up my pie hole after a running start! It Hurts!
I’m in the same Boat. But I retired a year earlier. We both should have known better. Management/Unions both lied during my Career. This only puts Icing on the Cake. I should have known better to believe anything both of these outfits spue!
How did Burrus negotiate a buy-out. And if so then why was it offerred to Mail Handlers, also. I don’t hear Haggerty saying the Union(s) negotiated a buy-out. I think what Burrus suggested was that if noone takes the VERS then management would have to take other measures such as incentives to decrease the work force. And guess what? They did to the tune of a measly $15,000. They offerred the VERS because the majority of employees who were eligible to retire aren’t leaving. The economy sucks!! So they offerred it to the poor downtrodden, overworked Postal employees who hate the tyrannical Post Office but weren’t yet old enough to retire. At a penalty!! I don’t hear you bitchin about the varying penalty that you took to get out and actually WORK for another employer paying you approx. 50% of what you made for the USPS. At 34 years I was not willing to take even a 5% penalty. It ‘s not Burrus’s fault, or the USPS fault. It was your own stupidity, numb nuts! Get over it!
Cry me a River!
The process is still on-going as I stated to many of you through personal e-mails. It will probably be a slow process. I’ll e-mail you personally if I need any additional information from you. Take care.
Rick, Thanks for handling this for all of us and for getting back to us in a timely matter with answers to all our questions.
Becky,
As of now I’m accepting names of ALL vera retiree’s, however, its up to the attorney’s to decide which segment that they will represent. Janice, don’t be discouraged! What do we have to lose? Only positives can come from this or at worst status quo.
Rick,
Do you just want names that retired under the VERA that ended 7/31/09 or names that retired under the VERA that ended 12/31/08, too?
Becky
I too will sign the class action law suit. Also, I just read where the president signed the FERS sick leave credit into law. I was one of those employees who worked diligently only using maybe one day of sick leave a year. It was always disturbing to me working for co-workers who called after holidays, Mondays,Fridays,etc. and some who rarely worked a 40 hours work week. Mngment could not discipline them (supposedly)and let this pattern continue. Guess there are no rewards for doing a good job other than piece of mind.
2505 employees retired July 31, dont be discouraged, write your senators and congressmen and remind them negotiations began 2 months before Aug 25! they publically testified before Congress they were not paying incentives! We are not going to accept this injustice!
Rick,
Do you really feel that we have a chance to go any where with this? I am starting to feel disillusioned because it’s just too difficult to get the names of all the people involved. I went to a luncheon a few days ago. There were about 35 retired Postal employess. Many retired last year or two years ago. A few retired at the end of Sept. and a few at the end of Oct. 2009. The Sept. and Oct. people got the incentive money. There was no one there that retired at the end of May, June or July of 2009. I had hoped to get more names there to add to our list. It would have been so very easy to work the extra 2 or three months, had we known that they were going to pay out that incentive. That’s what I can’t get over!!!
I hope everyone is well. Please keep locating retirees in your district and ask them to e-mail me at rickytx20@aol.com with their name, e-mail address, and the facility where they worked. Thanks.
add my name to the list. My e-mail address is vlhagan at yahoo.com
I was happy to retire with 26 years at age 54, I was so tired of the BS from Mangement and APWU. I will support what ever is done.
Thanks,
Ve Etta Hagan
Madison, FL 32340
The reason that the union had decided to publish the article at this time is because of the negative press that they’re receiving from this “INTENTIONAL” oversight. Continue to write to your congressmen(women), media outlets,etc., and let them know that we won’t accept being treated unfairly. Please continue to locate employees who recently retired and ask them to send me an e-mail at rickytx20@aol.com. We will not go down without a fight.
Where is Rick? What is Rick’s opinion of this?
Janice,
That article is disgusting. I remember Burrus saying that the APWU had filed a grievance on the first VERA, because severance pay should have been offered. However, he distinctly said that he expected it to go all the way to arbitration. To my knowledge, he never said he was working on an incentive deal.
Becky
Did anybody receive a letter in the mail or anything that remotely resembled a message to “wait for an incentive”? The only thing I read was from Mr.Potter himself letting us know there was NOTHING coming down the road. Mr Burris should have let the union paying members know personally there was an incentive planned. There couldn’t have been that many of us in June, July and August. Just include us in the incentive. We have all paid in to the union all of those years. (30 for me). Reward us for that.
OK Folks. Yesterday I received our APWU Local newsletter. This is what the Vice President of our local had to say. APWU was able to negotiate retirement incentive. He stated that many employees who recently retired under the last two VERAs were visibly upset that they were not aware that a buy out was in the making. President Burrus stated to the membership as far back as December that he was working on an incentive for those wishing to retire and suggested that those considering the VERA that was on the table not to take it. I believe that he stated something to the effect of making the Postal Service pay if you are contemplating early retirement. You are worth alot of money, and the Postal Service should pay for you to leave. True to his word, President Burrus was able to negotiate a buy out for $15,000 to those who waited.The article makes me want to barf! He’s trying to make a hero out of Burrus! Burrus was NEVER around to tell us to hold out for a buy out when the VERAS of May, June and July of 2009 were offered. All I heard him say, was that the PO was in dire straits financially and that retirement is a personal decision. I would like to hear comments from all of you on this article.
P.O. has lot of money from somewhere that is why it offered pay raise recently. And p.o. offering these VERA’s to match with the low volume of mail and at the same time hiring equal no. of casuals.
Only 18,000 people have accepted the VER incentive cash offer. Far less than the 30,000 that they had expected. THIS IS GREAT NEWS!!!!!
Now they will have plenty of money available to pay the cash incentive to ALL those who accepted earlier VER OFFERS when they were crying they had “NO MONEY”
Bring on the CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT! It is an EASY WIN!
Carolyn,
The Union doesn’t care about us. We are no longer paying Union dues. They didn’t even care about us when we WERE paying dues. Burrus proved that when we got screwed over for the incentive.
I can’t believe, I just read on the union web page. They union just negotiated a raise for the employees.
No money for us, but they have enough money for raises?
I didn’t retire at the age of 49, nor did I take a 12% penalty. Senor ploppie, go someplace else to plop and post. This site is for honest and sincere, and mature people. You don’t even make any sense at all.
If you were able to retire at age 49 and take a 12% penalty, then you don’t need the $15,000.
To B.P.S.
I felt like you, I was afraid to stay and I had planned on staying one more year. With all the doom and gloom reports from Potter and Burrus I figured I better get out on the July 31, 2009 VER because I would be able to collect the special social security supplement. I had NO idea they would be offering another VER and no idea they would be offering an incentive SO SOON after the last VER. We were told by both Potter and Burrus, there is NO MONEY! Did they suddenly just pull it out of a hat? I will never forget, reading about the incentive on my 25th day of retirement. I felt like some one kicked me in the stomach. Burrus HAS NOT been there to tell us not to go since September of 2008. So, you people that want to say to us, “the union told you not to go” You show me this in print AND the date and where was it published? William Burrus and John Potter worked out their own deal to save money. Burrus was not on our side at all. He negotiated in bad faith. We can’t just sit back and give up on this.
Every time I write to Burruss to do something to include those too, who took VERA earlier,for incentive.He mails me a package to be a retired member of union for $3/month. How can he help those retired union members when he can not get justice for incentive,to all the active union members at that time.I did not took VERA by choice but was forced to accept it,as I was excessed from my fecility.When you are excessed and you are told that there is no money to pay the salaries of employees in sept.,every rational person will choose to retire than to be a carrier at this old age or to go to a distant place. There was a very cheap game played by union and mgmt.together to deprive of some employees from incentive in a deceiptive manner to save money.