WASHINGTON, April 6, 2012 — In Speech at Rutgers, NALC President Calls on Congress to Take Time to Draft Comprehensive Reform Instead of Pushing Through Flawed Legislation
Fredric V. Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said Friday that Postal Service legislation pending before Congress lacks any long-term vision and fails to provide for the creation of an effective business plan for a vital American institution.
“What the Postal Service needs most is a new business model,” Rolando said, “built from the bottom up, one that looks above the immediate financial and structural problems to find opportunities to meet the evolving needs of the American people in the 21st century.”
Instead, he said, Congress and Postal Service management are so focused on cutting costs — including ending Saturday delivery, closing hundreds of post offices and other facilities, delaying delivery times and eliminating 150,000 jobs — that the inevitable result will be more long-term damage.
Degrading services to residents and business will only drive customers away from the Postal Service, further reducing revenue and eventually destroying the world’s best and most-affordable delivery network, Rolando said. It also will threaten the 7.5 million private-sector mailing industry jobs that depend on a robust Postal Service.
Rolando spoke at the Advanced Workshop in Regulation and Competition sponsored by the Center for Research in Regulated Industries at Rutgers University at Newark, N.J. His union consists of 284,000 active and retired letter carriers. Read the full speech here. http://nalc.org/news/speeches/NALC_RolandoRutgersSpeech_6Apr12_final.pdf
A successful business plan, he said, would be “strategic” and “far-sighted” and would better leverage the Postal Service’s unique and universal last-mile delivery network; expand the range of services it can offer; and give the Postal Service more flexibility in pricing its products.
NALC members, Rolando said, are well aware that the Postal Service must adapt to a changing American economy and society that have embraced the Internet and such tools as email and online shopping. For more than two centuries, the USPS has successfully adapted to technological changes, including the telephone, telegraph and fax machine, each time emerging stronger.
Adapting to the current changes, he said, “will require difficult sacrifices for all involved, including letter carriers and other Postal Service employees. Letter carriers are not afraid to make those changes. In fact, if it were part of a comprehensive plan to save this institution, we would be the first to step up.”
But Postal Service management and some in Congress seem to assume that the only possible way to cope with such changes as declining first-class mail volume and revenue is to reduce and degrade services, Rolando said.
“We have a postal management that, at the highest levels, has thrown in the towel,” Rolando said. That may sound harsh, but he noted that, just last week, the postmaster general said he supports practically all of H.R. 2309, by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., which is a bill that “would effectively dismantle the Postal Service” and “is a recipe for total disaster.”
The National Association of Letter Carriers has announced its opposition to a Senate bill, S. 1789, which also seeks to reduce Postal Service red ink by downsizing the postal network.
A sizeable share of what has been reported as red ink, Rolando said, was caused by something unrelated to the mail, a changing society or new technology: A 2006 congressional mandate that the Postal Service, within just 10 years, set aside enough money to pay future retiree health benefits costs for the next 75 years. That mandate — imposed on no other government agency or private business — already has cost the Postal Service more than $20 billion, accounting for the vast majority of the agency’s red ink.
In fact, in fiscal years 2007 through 2010, the Postal Service actually had a net operational profit delivering the mail of $611 million, despite the worst recession in 80 years, Rolando noted.
Rather than start slashing the Postal Service, or leaving it to current management to do so in an even more draconian fashion, Congress should allow time to draft a comprehensive reform plan that would adapt the Service to evolving American needs, Rolando said. For example, while more people are paying bills online, they also are ordering goods online – and those goods need to be delivered. A seven-percent rise in Internet shipping contributed to a $200 million net operational profit for the Postal Service during the most recent fiscal quarter – and a new business plan should focus on optimizing such opportunities.
Efficiencies also will likely be included in a new plan, but they need to be part of an overall business strategy that enables the Postal Service to offer new products and services, not simply steps toward dismantling the network, Rolando said. He noted that for 30 years the Postal Service hasn’t used a dime of taxpayer money, instead funding itself through the sale of stamps and services.
“Nothing is inevitable about the so-called decline of the U.S. Postal Service, and the National Association of Letter Carriers is prepared to lead the effort to revive and improve this vital national institution,” Rolando said.
SOURCE National Association of Letter Carriers
Went Postal:
I post a lot of crap on this site and I too blame the unions, management and some employees for the demise of USPS, however, your post nailed it all on the head for everyone. Life at the PO was at the expense of our lives and…you are absolutely right. Once you leave, a great burden is lifted from your shoulders and you will come to enjoy life again. And, your blood pressure will go back to normal levels.
Great post…hope all take it to heart! Peace to you and your family! Enjoy !
This is a reply to Travons comment and I have attached it.
Let me begin by letting everyone know I use to work for the US Postal Service for 7 long years. 6 of those years I was a sub at one of the hardest post offices in our state.
After I was hired on and I began my carrier as a postal carrier I never dreamed or even had a idea of the hell and torment I would eventually go through. There was always a presence of evil that surrounded our office and to this day it still haunts me.
Our supervisor enjoyed seeing us suffer day in and day out and a lot of times it was like war but I put up with it only because of the money and to keep my seniority. Ya MONEY
Little did I know it became all I thought about that pushed me to keep going.
I put that job before anything or anyone because thats what they expected out of me. Then came not only the hell from the job itself but my foot was slowly breaking due to the high number of hours I was made to stand. So I worked like that for months until it broke.I was off work almost an entire year due to the healing process and I came back fighting and still trying to hold the job that was destroying my life. It took a lot to open my eyes up even to the point of being close to death.
Most of you that read this know what I’m talking about when I say Pure Hell and it was.
So let me give a little advice here if I may. From someone whos been on the inside as prisoners would say ,working for the USPS will either make you or break you and for all of the employees that are so worried about losing a day or a cut in pay.Please dont let a decision like this about cutting a day continue just freakin do it. If not the postal service will BE LOST FOREVER . Stop being greedy or here is what the bible says WILL HAPPEN.
New Testament (1 Timothy 6:10) starts “For the love of money is the root of all evil” (in the King James translation)
Greed, one of the Seven Deadly Sins, the excessive love of money and other possess.
Because of the corruption and Greed and how its run it was bound to fall sooner or later.Its all about the money that is made. and not about the employees at all.
Before I walked out the door never to return I was placed on a medication that is now known to make people go crazy and kill people. Little did I know this at the time and Who would have known that a medication to
help people stop smoking would finish me off as a USPS one of the BEST OF THE BEST carriers. ( chantix lawsuit) Google it.
The route I covered was the biggest and richest sub. in our city and I can truly say once I was out of the office I had some peace.The last day I worked was the day before the US Postal Service went straight into the recession Dec 29,2006 with the rest of the world. I’ll never forget that day and when I walked out a peace come over me that I had not felt in 7 years.
I was fixing to be poor and disabled with no money but I had one thing back that was stole from me and that was my children and I had my life back.Its like a prisoner must feel after spending time in the pen.
Since then I have been on so many vacations with my kids its unreal and I was here for them through their teen years. No amount of money can replace time with your family. You will all wake up one day and realized life just passed right by you.
I guess you could now call me one of those people that belong in the GOING POSTAL group and you all know what I mean.
But I hope and pray the man in charge will make a decision that will save the postal service and I’m sure thats a tough one but unless people dont stop and prays God and give him the glory your all doomed. Then a lot of you will have no jobs like most of America . Stop the GREED PEOPLE if they need to cut to save the US POSTAL SERVICE then CUT IT.
Put your faith in Christ and he will see you through.
I wish you all the best
Travon Zimmerman on Sat, 7th Apr 2012 10:41 am
No need to keep the management we have that has always been abusive and corrupt, need to clean house, offer Early Outs, the USPS never really changed, they lied about it, but the corruption in management which has been protected by the OIG and Inspection Service ( real law Enforcement?), will continue, the good old boy network will continue, unless real Privatization is accomplished, why is it we all say change, and the Workplace environment is ready to explode into “Going Postal”, this USPS is a ticking time bomb, Management needs to be replaced from top to bottom, and the Unions also, the two are a deadly combination, Customer Service is dead, the USPS is dead, a real company with proficient workers and managers needs to be instituted in its place.
Congress is blind to the coming disaster,The NALC strike and demonstrations on April 12, 2012, will do absolutely nothing but hold up legislation, and the death spiral will continue.
How many older clerks were excessed to the carrier craft and made it, very few, very sad , and the APWU said;, but you have a job, but not for long, goodbye career, unless you get Disability retirement.
Been a Carrier foa long time. Yes getting rid of Saturday delivery wood affect how many carriers we have on the rolls. But let’s face it. No one really cares about Saturday mail anymore. It would actually help the post office. Promote New ideas a a Saturday class of mail, like the old days. When we had special delivery. There are and would be a lot of opportunities for alot of New ideas. My personnel opinion. All Rolando is worried about is his pocket, approx amount of dues loss would be around, 60 million. If that happens, he would just raise the dies to recover from his loss of money.
don’t fire the team, fire the managers.
USPS Letter Carriers to Protest in Support of Postal Legislation, S.1789, This Week
Auction Bytes On April 12, the National Association of Letter Carriers will hold demonstrations outside of Senate offices across the country in order to pressure senators to pass S. 1789, which it believes will be brought up in the Senate after the Easter recess. Letter carriers say the legislation would save the Postal Service
and offer the better retirement incentives, if this bill does not pass, there will be no Early retirements,and the USPS will continue the systematic destruction of the Service. (04/09/12) | Comments (10)
Ciff Guffey really cares
All, Liz has an idea and would like some feedback in regard to your Local’s
interest. At the National Convention after the Parade of States, she want to
set up Regional hospitality parties, at the same location of the Parade of
States. It would be called Regional Street Parties. We have a band called
Haute Chili. Food wagons will be available to buy food and they will have Bars
set up.
Since 1991 the Post Office has Made a profit, in some years it was as high as 4.5 billion. In 2006 congress decided the Post Office needed to prefund the retirees health benifits, in 2007 the Post Office lost money. Where is the broken Business Model. Maybe Congress and the greedy way they take to P.O.’s MONEY. I believe someone should see if upper management is on the take and stands to gain from the destruction of the USPS. Money figures came form the Annual Report of the Postmaster General.
Well , basically what the Letter Carrier Pres is saying is that Senate Bill 1789 lacks “Six Day Delivery Service”, not vision. He must realize that 5 day delivery service is going to happen, even Obama agrees to it. Might as well and get S1789 to pass and get on with it. Something needs to be done now, let’s not throw a “monkey wrench” into the situation and delay this thing any longer.
Monetary Incentive Negotiated For Retirement, Separation
APWU News Bulletin #02-2009, Aug. 24, 2009 | PDF
APWU-represented employees who retire or separate on or before Nov. 30, 2009, will receive a monetary incentive of $15,000, in accordance with an agreement negotiated by the union. The incentive will be paid in two installments to eligible employees.
“This agreement [PDF] achieves a long-standing objective of the APWU,” said union President William Burrus.
The incentive will be offered to eligible full-time employees who terminate their service through regular retirement, Voluntary Early Retirement, or voluntary separation. (Eligible PTR and PTF employees will receive proportional percentages of the incentive.)
To qualify for early retirement, employees must have at least 20 years of service and be 50 years of age or must have 25 years of service at any age. (The annuity is reduced 2 percent for each year workers are under 55.)
Eligible employees who do not qualify for regular or early retirement but wish to receive the incentive may resign.
Not covered by the agreement are employees who were issued a notice of discharge on or before Aug. 24; MPE 9s, ET 10s, and ET 11s who cannot be replaced without training; Operating Services employees; employees in the Accounting Services section of the IT/ASC bargaining unit, and Transitional Employees.
Eligible full-time employees may, at their option, end their service on or before Sept. 30, or they will be assigned a date of Oct. 31 or Nov. 30 by management, based on operational needs. Employees will be paid $10,000 within two pay periods after separation, and will receive an additional $5,000 on Oct. 29, 2010. Part-time employees will be assigned a date of Nov. 30.
Negotiations over the agreement, which was finalized Aug. 24, took two months, Burrus said. “Our goal was an incentive of 50 percent of a year’s salary. Because of the difficult economic times, however, the agreement had to be structured to avoid adding to the deficit. Nonetheless, we feel that the settlement will provide a modest incentive to employees to end their service.
“The USPS financial condition is precarious,” Burrus said. “The congressionally-imposed obligation to pre-fund retirees’ health insurance benefits has caused tremendous deficits over the last two years, and without legislative relief, improvement is not in the forecast.
“Management has been forced to reduce costs, but unfortunately, the cuts have been applied disproportionally to bargaining-unit employees, especially to those in mail processing,” the union president said.
“Because our contract prohibits layoffs, the only means for cutting work hours have been to reassign full-time employees and to reduce the hours of PTFs,” Burrus noted. “Excessing and work-hour cuts cause severe hardships for our members,” he said, “so finding a way to make voluntary complement adjustments became an urgent matter.”
If more than 25,000 employees indicate they wish to accept the offer, the parties will discuss implementation, based on a proportion of the number of employees in the complement of the APWU and Mail Handler crafts. Mail Handlers are expected to receive an offer virtually identical to the APWU-negotiated agreement.
i also find it appalling the way the post office is going to handle our veterans. God bless america???????
in the long run, the po ends house to house deliveries by having your cvs, hess, walmart, etc , distribute the final product. no need for carriers. the po really only wants to process the mail. they don’t don’t want to pick it up or deliver it, just sort and ship. some federal service! i’m telling you we are all expendable.
in regard to what wingman said about t6 first if post office goes to five day deliver maybe post-office goes to 4 ten hour work days and then u would need a t 5-also why would u need to get rid of carriers-right now in our office every-day but tuesday our carriers get mandate to work over-time and what i have heard that is pretty much the norm across the states-in regard to what day will get cut out i say saturday with 4 10 hour work days this is alot easier sale to the union and carriers because every carrier would then get every week-end off and one day during the week now tell me will the carrier craft buy this?
No need to keep the management we have that has always been abusive and corrupt, need to clean house, offer Early Outs, the USPS never really changed, they lied about it, but the corruption in management which has been protected by the OIG and Inspection Service ( real law Enforcement?), will continue, the good old boy network will continue, unless real Privatization is accomplished, why is it we all say change, and the Workplace environment is ready to explode into “Going Postal”, this USPS is a ticking time bomb, Management needs to be replaced from top to bottom, and the Unions also, the two are a deadly combination, Customer Service is dead, the USPS is dead, a real company with proficient workers and managers needs to be instituted in its place.
Congress is blind to the coming disaster,The NALC strike and demonstrations on April 12, 2012, will do absolutely nothing but hold up legislation, and the death spiral will continue.
How many older clerks were excessed to the carrier craft and made it, very few, very sad , and the APWU said;, but you have a job, but not for long, goodbye career, unless you get Disability retirement.
NALC: April 12 Strike ,Demonstrations to Save America’s Postal Service
April 3, 2012 by postal
Filed under: NALC, postal, postal reform
On April 12th, the National Association of Letter Carriers will hold the “Save America’s Postal Service” wildcat strike, some will demonstrate outside of Senate offices across the country. They are designed to put pressure on each senator to support S. 1789.
S. 1789 likely will be brought up in the Senate following the Easter recess, the week that follows the April 12 demonstrations. The timing and impact of these events will be critical in helping us to pass S. 1789 and save America’s Postal Service.
If S. 1789 were to pass, the bill would help the Postal Service by:
Saving six-day mail delivery.
Saving door-to-door mail delivery.
Fully addressing the Postal Service’s pre-funding requirement.
Offering 25k and other Incentives for Early Retirements,which will alleviate the ongoing excessing due to Office closures.
These events are meant to engage the public through the use of speeches, handouts and demonstrations to make our voices heard, we ask the PMG, “What is holding up the VERA’s?
The Postal Service has a wide variety of supporters, many of whom may wish to participate in your “Save America’s Postal Service” strike, demonstration, including small-business owners who use the mail to advertise, veterans groups, local elected officials, labor union members, faith leaders, and progressive allies who have concerns for the plight of working men and women, and offer these workers decent retirement Incentives in April , 2012.
Actually Saturday has been specifically mentioned several times. I have not heard the Tuesday or Wednesday option mentioned for years (other than by commentators on internet bulletin boards). Not saying Saturday will be the day, but it has been mentioned and studied more than any other day.
Cliff Guffey -APWU, Fred Rolando -NALC, corrupt, dues hungry, power hungry, but the membership?, Oh yeah, we care!, just keep paying dues, work environment deteritorates into Postal Violence, keep paying dues, when will members learn, these Unions are not the Unions that at least tried to protect us, why try to stop the Early Outs/ VERA’s ?, so we can stay and pay dues ?, so Rolando and Guffey can roll in the dough!.
“dtash” has it right…USPS has NEVER said “no Sat. delivery” but says “5 day delivey.” Fed statutes say the only times there can be two consecutive non-delivery days are Federal Monday holidays or presidential order ([ike Pres. Nixons’ funeral, or something like that). Studies have been done showing Tuesday is the most obvious day (light mail volume) and Thursday would be next. Supposedly it has already been studied that a 4 day delivert week would be Mon, Wed, Fri, and Saturdays. The Postal Service is not going give everyone a 2 day weekend every week.
ssi checks for new people are plastic cards, soon to be auto deposit and now paper mailings. what happend no ver offered today. after all the stupid comments about early outs being offered today. Nothing. We need to monitior this site for truth not rumors or comments heard from uncitable resources. It makes us look stupid. We need public support and need to practice good honest debate at a professional level.
The first postal worker to be laid off should be Postmaster Donahoe himself! Then maybe he will know how it feel to be without a job! Second thought, at least he will have hundreds of dollars in his pocket, though! All of the big salary and bonuses, plus perks he and other upper management gave themselves even with the postal service finanical situation! He should have never been put in this office! He doesn’t care anything about the postal mail service or it’s employees who depend on their job and mail to be delivered on a daily basis to the american public and around the country, where our military personnel are!
I am curious. What does our NALC prezs Rolando make per year plus the perks. Any one know. ?
By the time they finally pass any bill I’ll be retired! This has been going on now for 3 years. When are the elected officials going to actually vote for a reform bill? Any bill!
Call Your Senators:
202-224-3121
(Capitol Switchboard)
[Click here for direct #s]
Tell them you Support
S. 1789
Letter Carriers President Says S.1789 has Vision, Will Solve USPS Problems and offer Voluntary Early Retirements.
April 6, 2012 by postal
Filed under: NALC, postal, postal news, press releases, usps
WASHINGTON, April 6, 2012 — In Speech at Rutgers, NALC President Calls on Congress to speed up and Draft Comprehensive Reform, and offer craft employees Early Retirement Incentives.
Fredric V. Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said Friday that Postal Service legislation pending before Congress has long term vision and is urgently needed.
Improving services to residents and business will drive customers to the Postal Service, further increasing revenue and eventually saving the world’s best and most-affordable delivery network, Rolando said. It also will enhance the 7.5 million private-sector mailing industry jobs that depend on a robust Postal Service.
Rolando spoke at the Advanced Workshop in Regulation and Competition sponsored by the Center for Research in Regulated Industries at Rutgers University at Newark, N.J. His union consists of 284,000 active Carriers, who are all supporting S.1789.
A successful business plan, such as S.1789, he said, would be “strategic” and “far-sighted” and would better leverage the Postal Service’s unique and universal last-mile delivery network; expand the range of services it can offer; and give the Postal Service more flexibility in pricing its products, and would alleviate excessing of employees to distant places, by offering a decent incentive to retire, such as the ones being negotiated by his union and the APWU for April 2012.
I may be mistaken but I think carriers are under the (maybe) false impression that we will be cutting back delivery on SATURDAYS. I don’t think Donahoe or Potter has ever specifically mentioned cutting Saturdays….just cutting ONE DAY delivery. Potter suggested Tuesday, if I recall, and said ideally we would cut the total delivery days to 3 per week. In their master plan of eventually turning over our business to UPS & Fedex they would not be cutting a day that their workers are off. We’d still deliver on Saturday but THEY would deliver on Tuesday (for example). Don’t trust these scumbags and don’t start making plans on Saturdays!!!
a lot of responsibility for the success of the future po depends on the mailers. remember the person paying the postage is the value. the public receiving the mail doesn’t have much say. money talks. so less delivery days, slower service due to fewer workers and lousy idle machinery ,poor communications, low morale,and programs that fail time and again are presented to the trillion $ mailing industry. now add on rising postage rates and tell me this is the SERVICE the mailing industry want? this is definitely a death spiral. it began years ago when mail started to decline. so crap on the crafts and unions and remember everyone of us in the po is hanging on to our jobs by a thread, management included. when the po is run like walmart you will be saying to yourself what happened? so stay tuned, SHOWTIME is coming soon. for all you incentive hopefuls keep on dreaming.
Carrier technicians, or T-6’s, in old parlance are only concerned about Saturday in offices with fixed rotations. The fact is, for those who don’t work for the Postal Service and yet seem to think they know everything about us (it’s amazing how many “experts” are out there who actually have their ignorant heads up their asses), T-6’s are in no danger of being replaced because they are regular full time employees who run the same series of five routes each week. Should Saturday delivery be eliminated, the positions of carrier technicians will be gone, but all routes lower than those T-6’s in seniority will go up for bid.
At that time, carriers will have the opportunity to bid on the open routes until they’re filled, and it is the leftover positions, i.e., the lowest ranking positions that will be in danger of being laid off.
It is not bullshit that the NALC is concerned for its members. I’ve read as much as 80,000+ could lose their jobs across the country if we go to five day delivery. That is a huge number, and totally unnecessary. To eliminate a day of service is to make ourselves less accessible and make it more attractive for customers to look at other options.
And yes, we do deliver a lot of junk, but we deliver a lot of very important stuff too. SSI checks (I can just hear the GOP idiots running down these customers already as welfare cheats- some are but some aren’t), house mortgage packages, insurance documents, car payments, utility bills, and the parcels people order from the internet. If all you’re getting is junk, then it’s because you’re not using the Service at all.
It’s too bad some people have to be so stupid and mean for no good reason other than personal entertainment. Nobody deserves losing a good career job and those who think for whatever perverted excuse that it would be good for tens of thousands of hard working people to go unemployed are mean, selfish and incredibly stupid.
Letter Carriers President Says S.1789 has Vision, Will Solve USPS Problems and offer Voluntary Early Retirements.
April 6, 2012 by postal
Filed under: NALC, postal, postal news, press releases, usps
WASHINGTON, April 6, 2012 — In Speech at Rutgers, NALC President Calls on Congress to speed up and Draft Comprehensive Reform, and offer craft employees Early Retirement Incentives.
Fredric V. Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said Friday that Postal Service legislation pending before Congress has long term vision and is urgently needed.
Instead, he said, Congress and Postal Service management are so focused on cutting costs — including ending Saturday delivery, closing hundreds of post offices and other facilities, delaying delivery times and eliminating 150,000 jobs — that the inevitable result will be more long-term damage.
Degrading services to residents and business will only drive customers away from the Postal Service, further reducing revenue and eventually destroying the world’s best and most-affordable delivery network, Rolando said. It also will threaten the 7.5 million private-sector mailing industry jobs that depend on a robust Postal Service.
Rolando spoke at the Advanced Workshop in Regulation and Competition sponsored by the Center for Research in Regulated Industries at Rutgers University at Newark, N.J. His union consists of 284,000 active Carriers.
A successful business plan, such as S.1789, he said, would be “strategic” and “far-sighted” and would better leverage the Postal Service’s unique and universal last-mile delivery network; expand the range of services it can offer; and give the Postal Service more flexibility in pricing its products, and would alleviate excessing of employees to distant places, by offering a decent incentive to retire, such as the ones being negotiated by his union and the APWU for April 2012.
Nobody wants to work saturdays, unless you area T-6. What’s wrong with these people. They will say they are worried about their Union brothers. That’s the biggest bunch of BS they throw.
Who wants to work saturday anywho?
Why does the union live in some world that no longer exists. Do carriers see what they deliver everyday, third class garbage. Thats all they deliver, garbage. First class is going and will be dead soon. He should have some inteligence and see where the future is going. Take the 5 day delivery, let them close down unnecesary Processing centers and Post Offices. This is not 1936, we don’t need a Post Office in every town. Wake up before it’s too late.