APWU Seeks to Stop Consolidations Until PRC Issues Opinion

APWU Web News Article 72-2012, June 8, 2012

The APWU assailed a “modified” USPS consolidation plan at a hearing before the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) on June 7, and notified the panel that the union will file a complaint seeking to stop the Postal Service from consolidating mail processing facilities and reducing service until after the PRC issues an advisory opinion on the plan.

The USPS intends to implement the plan July 1. Federal law requires the USPS to seek an advisory opinion from the PRC when it plans to make nationwide changes in service.

Under the modified proposal, the USPS plans to consolidate 48 mail processing facilities and reduce overnight mail delivery, beginning July 1. After a hiatus in the fall, the USPS plans to resume the first phase of the plan early in 2013, with the consolidation of 92more plants. Phase 2 calls for an additional 89 plants to be consolidated by the end of 2014. Beginning in 2014, overnight delivery of First Class mail would be available only to large presort mailers. Delivery of periodical mail, which is to be slowed beginning July 1, 2012, will be further slowed in 2014.

At the hearing, the APWU asserted that the Postal Service’s modified plan cannot be justified by relying on testimony and evidence presented to the commission in March about an earlier version of the plan, as a USPS witness suggested. The Postal Service provided only one witness at the June 7 hearing and only indirect evidence to support the modified plan, the APWU noted.

Under cross-examination from the union’s attorneys, the USPS Manager of Network Analytics was unable to say how the Postal Service arrived at its estimated cost savings for Phase 1 of the modified plan. She admitted that the Postal Service is still working on “a more tailored breakdown” of Phase 1 and will continue to analyze it as the plan is implemented.

“Given the complete lack of analysis and evidence, there appears to be no justification for management’s claims of an estimated $1.2 billion in savings from Phase I of the plan,” APWU counsel told the panel.

“The Postal Service is attempting to make an end-run around the requirement to seek an opinion from the PRC before implementing a nationwide change in service,” APWU President Cliff Guffey said. “This is a disservice to the American people, who rely on the USPS to deliver mail, medicine and packages in a timely manner.”

The commission is currently considering four separate USPS proposals to cut service, including its proposal to downgrade service standards and a proposal to reduce the hours at approximately half of the nation’s retail offices.

In May, in response to stiff opposition to a plan the USPS presented in October 2011, the Postal Service announced it would implement the consolidations over a two-year period. The USPS projects savings of $1.2 billion per year during phase 1 and $2.1 billion after Phase 2, but the Postal Service cannot support the projected savings, the union noted at the hearing.

The APWU also insisted that the planned service cuts are unnecessary, and said the Postal Service is underestimating the loss of revenue the change in service will cause.

The commission expects to issue a formal opinion on the USPS modified plan by Labor Day.

9 thoughts on “APWU Seeks to Stop Consolidations Until PRC Issues Opinion

  1. I support Goofey’s final hurrah before he takes final bow this August in Los Angeles and exits with his APWU Officer Only Retirement Plan that your dues money paid for but you can’t use! That and whatever VERA money is offered along with his USPS pension and he’ll be sitting pretty…prettier than you and me but then again aren’t they always? At our expense?!

  2. I am behnd President Guffy all the way! The Postal Service should be held to the federal guidelines before the servvice standards are changed and facilitties are closed and jobs are put in jeporady. Cuffy has every right to get nvolved in the PRC and Postal Service business, since he’s the APWU national president and is responsible for over thousnds of union members rights and working conditions! I hope PRC board listen and act on the members favor!

  3. sorry folks..i think guffey is doing whatever he can to preserve clerk jobs…in our area illegal use of stand-by is encouraged to start the excessing process…postmasters in small offices are desperate to transfer anywhere they could get 40 hours and retain their generous salary, and frankly, they do need to go. we’ve all said it for years, and this contract gave us the chance to do the same work at a lesser wage than management. it does not take a rocket scientist to do data entry, notr does it take a level 16 to do level 6 work. this contract, though it may take time to work out, gives us that shot.

    do you think management, our elected representatives or our customers care about us? any government employee is bottom scum….so don’t be looking for retirement incentives, or for your union to agree to any. bottom line, what is going to be offered to you is a series of employment disincentives……the longer you stay, the more they will take away from you….

    these are not good times, people. but comfort yourself with that knowledge the we do have a contract, and every other postal union and NAPUS, they are totally screwed! after 2015, when that contract expires….well….good luck….

  4. PRC needs to make decision immediately as keeping many non needed neighborhood offices open is a waste and service is not an issue.. Revenue wil never esceed expenses as many postmasters make $63000-$72000. a year selling stamps and boxing mail. The USPS has no concern with operating cost effective and increasing efficiency. Craft and management unions exert pressure on politicans whose only concern is creating favortism to get votes. Politics and pressure groups manage the USPS from PMG to local officies.

  5. Talk, Talk , Talk!, ( Cliff Guffey stopping the consolidations with one hand) Start the campaign against the union called APWU, well it has started, email, fax and phone, and send Guffey packing home!, if he fails to negotiate the incentive and VER, he is a goner , if not now, later, unfortunately, many are getting their anniversary date and dropping out, as Rome Burns, Guffey was Nero, and then was born again as the captain of the Titanic then again as the Captain of the Costa Concordia, the man is a waste, and his National Flunkies are goners too, any NBA who supports him , will be on a hit list, this is war, and Guffey is offering up those who need the VER to go, they cannot stomach the USPS hostile work environment, being excess-ed with infirmities and age to become carriers, nor being used as fuel for the fire of Guffey’s Damnation, Cliff Guffey is the end of the Union, who is he working for?, definitely not the members, oh!, wait, for that big paycheck and all the bottled spring water he can drink, or all the parties he can attend with his Boyfriend, did not know that did you, your dues support Guffeys “Big man Friend”, go to hell Guffey!, and take all your fairy national pukes with you!, I failed anger management, loose cannon.

  6. Guffey, just negotiate a good early out with good incentives for us so we can hop off this sinking ship! And make sure you include Maintanence!

  7. haven’t we been down this road the first time? if you think you
    are right guffey then you should have filed a federal lawsuit the first time around when donahoe said point blank that he wasn’t waiting for the prc to give an advisory opinion before he consolidated AND reduced service. my guess is that the law only requires the usps to “seek an advisory opinion” when it makes significant changes to service. apparently, the law dosen’t require them to wait to hear the opinion or listen to anything the opinion says. i know it sounds *ucking stupid and ludicrous to even have the rule or even to have the prc for that matter. why do we have a very expensive prc/postal regulatory commission if
    they yield no power or no one gives a shit what they say? only in america
    baby, only in america.

  8. I thought the UNION represented the employees? What business do they have getting involved with our interaction with customers and the PRC? They represent employees that feel agrieved. I did not know the average citizen could join the APWU? They should stick to what they know, representing Joe Slug employee when they did not get overtime, and stay out of using dues money to pay for business plans on behalf of the USPS. Does Cliff really think anyone cares about his opinion on how to run the PO? If the union had it their way we would have over 2 million clerks half of which would be sitting home paying themselves to do nothing.

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