Senator Blunt Introduces Bipartisan Amendment To Protect Postal Service For Missourians & All Americans
WASHINGTON D.C. – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.), along with U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) introduced a bipartisan amendment to the “21st Century Postal Service Act” today that would provide rural communities facing post office or postal processing facility closures with an advocate in the process. Senator Blunt released the following statement regarding his amendment to the postal reform bill:
“As the U.S. Postal Service continues to face serious fiscal problems, we need to consider all possible options before closing post offices and processing centers. And rural communities and small towns in Missouri and across the country that rely on the Postal Service every day deserve to have their voices heard throughout the process.
“I’m proud to work with Senator Bennet on a bipartisan amendment to the postal reform bill that will provide communities facing postal closures with a citizens’ advocate to represent their interests. Through balancing the needs of local communities with the Postal Service’s serious financial challenges, we can work to protect the mail delivery service without harming the rural communities and small towns that make up America.”
Sanders’ Provisions Added to Senate Postal bill S.1789
Senate Takes Up Postal Service Reforms: Sanders’ Provisions to be Added to Bill
WASHINGTON, April 17 – The Senate today voted 74-22 to take up legislation to modernize the U.S. Postal Service. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) led a group of more than two dozen senators who pressed to make the bill stronger.
“Today’s vote clears the first of many hurdles that we face in our effort to save rural post offices, mail processing plants and the jobs of tens of thousands of postal workers,” Sanders said. “It’s a step forward but we have a very long way to go.”
The managers’ amendment that Sanders helped write strengthens the original bill by including the creation of a blue-ribbon commission to help the Postal Service develop a more entrepreneurial business model which could substantially increase revenue. A “chief innovation officer” would be created to oversee the development of new postal products and services to improve the Postal Service’s financial position.
“I hope we can agree that the Postal Service needs to change and become more entrepreneurial. I hope we can also agree that in the midst of a terrible recession it makes no sense to downsize the Postal Service by tens of thousands of workers, slow mail delivery service and devastate rural communities by closing their post offices,” Sanders said.
Under the managers’ amendment, the Postal Service would be required to maintain regional overnight delivery standards. As a result, the Postal Service would be required to keep at least 100 mail sorting centers open that are now scheduled for closure.
The Senate bill also was reworked at Sanders’ request to make it harder to shut down rural post offices. Before closing a post office, the Postal Service would have to take into account the lack of access to the Internet, broadband, and cell phone service, among other factors, and it could not shut down a post office if the Postal Regulatory Commission, an independent body, disagreed with its decision.
Saturday mail delivery would be maintained for at least two years. At that point the Postal Service could end Saturday delivery if it can demonstrate that cutting service would be the only way to achieve long-term financial stability.
APWU: One Week Left; Local Lobbying Efforts Take Off
Filed under: APWU, Congress, politics, postal, postal news, usps
APWU locals and state organizations are responding enthusiastically to the call to lobby their senators during the congressional recess, which began April 2 and ends April 13. In addition to rallies and meetings with senators during the break, locals will conduct informational leafleting at post offices around the country on Tax Day, April 17. The APWU is being joined in both activities by the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU).
Hundreds of APWU and Mail Handler locals have received fliers and are organizing to rally support for amendments to the Senate’s 21st Century Postal Service Act (S. 1789), which is expected to come up for debate soon after the Senate returns to Washington DC on April 16. With time getting short, APWU President Cliff Guffey is urging all APWU members to get involved.
“As it’s currently written, the bill will not prevent the Postal Service from degrading service standards or closing thousands of post offices and hundreds of mail processing centers around the country,” Guffey said.
The APWU and the Mail Handlers Union are involved in an all-out push to amend the Senate bill to maintain current service standards, keep post offices and mail processing centers open, and fix the Postal Service’s finances without drastic cuts in cutting service.
A moratorium on post office closing and mail processing center consolidations is set to expire May 15, and postal officials have indicated that they intend to proceed with plans to dismantle the network unless Congress acts before then.
Locals that haven’t done so already should download an April Actions Press Kit. The kit includes a sample press release, a fact sheet about the Postal Service, tips for working with the media, and news clips about the Postal Service’s “crisis.”
Locals are also asked to send photos of the events to the APWU Communications Department. Photos may be sent via e-mail to photos@apwu.org. Please include a description for each photo, including when and where it was taken, and identifying any elected officials shown.
PMG addresses Congress — Urges support for USPS plan to profitability
PMG Pat Donahoe went to Capitol Hill Tuesday to support the Postal Service’s plan to return the agency to fiscal solvency.
Donahoe told legislators during a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and Labor Policy the comprehensive plan USPS has developed will produce a reduction in annual costs of $22.5 billion by 2016. He said the plan provides a “clear path toward financial stability” for USPS.
The PMG urged Congress to consider the comprehensive plan favorably. He said its adoption would allow USPS to meet its universal service obligations and its employees would continue providing reliable and affordable service to the public. “We believe it’s a responsible approach that’s fair to our customers and our employees,” he said.
via USPS News Link – Mar. 28, 2012.
Largest Postal Union Calls on Senate to Reject S. 1789 As Currently Drafted
Filed under: Congress, NALC, politics, postal, postal news, usps
WASHINGTON, March 26, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — National Association of Letter Carriers President Details Union’s Concerns about Legislation in Letter to U.S. Senators
Fredric V. Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), has formally called on the U.S. Senate to reject S. 1789 — the 21st Century Postal Service Act — because as currently drafted, it provides only short-term fixes. He said that while the measure “might provide resources to allow the Service to limp along for a few more years, it will not change the downward trajectory of this vital institution.”
In a letter sent today to each U.S. senator, Mr. Rolando stated, “S. 1789 appears to be based on the Postal Service’s dangerously misguided business strategy, which relies almost exclusively on reducing the quality and value of its services to households and American businesses, the main users of the mail.” He added that it risks driving away customers and thereby reducing revenues. To read the letter, click here: http://www.nalc.org/downloads/fvr_senate-letter-03262012-FINAL.pdf
Mr. Rolando said NALC has “no choice but to oppose S. 1789.”
Rather than settle for harsh and counterproductive reductions in key services as S. 1789 would do, Mr. Rolando said, “What the Postal Service needs is a business plan based on a comprehensive rethinking of the institution, one that asks for shared sacrifice from all stakeholders but also allows this vital national resource to grow and prosper in the years ahead.
“Until a plan of this nature exists, it is dangerous to advance reform legislation, particularly when the legislation will do nothing but facilitate the Postal Service’s decline,” he told senators.
Mr. Rolando noted that just last week, a USPS witness before the Postal Regulatory Commission acknowledged that a study ordered — but later stopped — by the Postal Service on its own plan for service reductions indicated that the “combined effects of all the service cuts under consideration, including the elimination of Saturday delivery (and 80,000 delivery-related jobs), would reduce mail volume by an extraordinary 10.3 percent.” The practical effect of such a drastic reduction in mail volume means that the cuts could exceed the projected savings.
NALC represents 284,000 USPS letter carriers, about a quarter of whom are military veterans.
Other key points from Mr. Rolando’s letter about the flaws in S. 1789:
It fails to adequately address the single biggest cause of the Postal Service’s recent financial distress, the mandate imposed by Congress in 2006 that the Postal Service pre-fund future retiree health insurance benefits. That mandate — required of no other government agency or private business — has cost USPS $21 billion over the past five years. It is money that could have been used to restructure USPS in light of changing economic, technological and social needs. The Senate bill would reduce that funding requirement, but “any burden at all is indefensible at a time when 150,000 jobs are at risk,” Mr. Rolando said.
It fails to let the Postal Service introduce new products and services that take full advantage of its unique “last-mile” delivery network. Nor does it provide the Postal Service flexibility to price its services appropriately.
While Mr. Rolando acknowledged that some provisions in the bill have merit, such as the return of the Postal Service’s surplus in one of its two pension plans and the limited allowance for the Postal Service to use its networks to generate new revenues (e.g., the delivery of beer and wine). Unfortunately, he said, the bill is too deeply flawed otherwise and — unless fundamentally revised — should be rejected.
SOURCE National Association of Letter Carriers
NALC Letter to Senators on S 1789
House Oversight Committee Hearing: Can a USPS-run Health Plan Solve Its Financial Crisis?
From Federal Times:
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe will testify Tuesday that the U.S. Postal Service could save nearly $7 billion in the first year of running its own health care plan, largely through eliminating the need to prefund retiree health benefits.
But a leading federal health care expert will blast the Postal Service’s plan as unrealistic and disastrous. Walt Francis, who writes the annual Checkbook guide to health plans, will say the Postal Service would “massively disrupt or destroy” the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan by withdrawing nearly a quarter of the 8 million enrollees in the federal government’s employee health care plan, according to his written testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. And it could drive the Postal Service’s own costs up by at least $1 billion a year, Francis says. The committee posted the written testimonies of Donahoe and Francis online on Monday. Read more
Postal Supervisors: Congress is Causing the Postal Service’s Problem
Filed under: Congress, NAPS, postal, postal news, postal supervisors, usps
From the National Association Of Postal Supervisors:
March 14, 2012
A new survey by the National Association of Postal Supervisors shows that managers and supervisors in the United States Postal Service believe that Congress is the foremost problem standing in the way of the Postal Service, either because Congress has interfered too much in postal affairs, or failed to enact necessary reforms to fix the Postal Service’s financial crisis.
Postal reform legislation remains stalled in Congress and the Postal Service, as a result, is preparing to reduce mail service to households and businesses and close thousands of post offices and mail processing plants later this summer.
The continuing lack of action on Capitol Hill on postal reform legislation has triggered high levels of concern by postal managers about the future of mail service and considerable anxiety about their own job future, the NAPS survey shows.
“The nation cannot afford to wait any longer for Congress to act,” NAPS President Louis Atkins warned. Atkins said that six-hundred members of the National Association of Postal Supervisors will visit Capitol Hill on March 13 and 14 to press House and Senate lawmakers to enact sensible postal reform legislation.
The NAPS survey, conducted among more than 2,000 postal managers, supervisors and postmasters, shows that the greatest number of respondents – 34 percent — believes Congress is the foremost problem facing the Postal Service, among an array of challenges. Given that attitude, one in three survey respondents described themselves as “not at all confident” in the future of the Postal Service and 86 percent reflected anxiety about their employment future. Smaller numbers cited leadership failure by top USPS management officials (19 percent) and bad management practices (17 percent) as their greatest concern. Only four percent identified the internet as the greatest problem currently facing the Postal Service.
A sizable majority of postal managers were worried about Postal Service plans to eliminate overnight delivery of First Class Mail and reduce delivery standards. Sixty-six percent feared those plans would hurt the Postal Service in the long run. A strong majority (71 percent) favored an alternative approach, growing in popularity on Capitol Hill, that would preserve current delivery standards and keep more mail processing facilities open, while cutting costs through reductions in operations and personnel.
For the past two years, the United States Postal Service has suffered more than $13 billion in losses, triggered largely by a Congressional mandate, imposed in 2006, requiring the Postal Service to prefund its future retiree health benefits. No other federal entity is required to prefund future retiree health benefits.
The NAPS survey was conducted among more than two-thousand postal managers, supervisors and postmasters from February 26 to March 7. Nearly 30,000 active and retired postal supervisors, managers and postmasters belong to the National Association of Postal Supervisors.
3/9/12 NAPS Leg Update: Postal Supervisors: Congress is Causing the Postal Service’s Problems
Arizona Congressman Introduces Bill to Prevent Post Office Closures In High-Growth ZIP Codes
Filed under: Congress, postal, postal news, press releases, usps
Grijalva Introduces Bill to Prevent Post Office Closures In High-Growth ZIP Codes, Correcting Oversight in USPS Closure Planning
Wednesday March 07, 2012
Washington, D.C. – Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva today introduced a bill that prevents the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) from closing any post office or postal facility that serves a high-growth ZIP code, correcting an oversight that has skewed USPS closure planning since the announcement several months ago that thousands of postal centers would be closed nationwide.
When USPS officials calculated which post offices, sorting centers and other facilities would be closed, the high pace of population growth in Arizona and other quickly growing areas was not taken into consideration. That oversight led to the recent announcement that the Tucson sorting center would be closed and all Arizona postal sorting would be moved to a single center in Phoenix. Grijalva’s bill would ensure that USPS officials work with the Department of Commerce – which conducts the U.S. Census and keeps annual demographic data – to ensure that no closure would negatively impact a “high growth” ZIP code, as defined by Commerce officials at the beginning of each year.
Arizona has been one of the fastest-growing states in the country over the past decade, and Grijalva said he is confident the bill would save the Tucson sorting center from closure.
“If this is about planning for the future, let’s really plan for the future instead of saving a penny today by costing ourselves a dollar tomorrow,” Grijalva said. “Cutting off economic activity in the highest-growth areas in the country is the opposite of responsible long-term budgeting. This is about saving Tucson and other rapidly growing parts of the country from getting cut off at the knees. It’s as simple as that.”
The bill will be referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Rep. Markey calls on USPS to delay closures until Congress can act on postal legislation
Filed under: Congress, politics, post office closings, postal, postal news, postal reform, press releases, usps
Lawmaker calls on U.S. Postal Service to delay closures, consolidations until Congress can act on comprehensive postal legislation
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-Malden), dean of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation, this week sent a letter to Deputy Postmaster General Ron Stroman declaring his opposition to the consolidation of the Northwest Boston Area Mail Processing (AMP) Center and called on the United States Postal Service (USPS) to delay further action on any postal closures or consolidations until Congress can act on comprehensive postal legislation. Rep. Markey’s letter comes in response to the USPS’s decision to close the facility in Waltham, Massachusetts as part of its plan to reduce the size of its infrastructure. The Waltham plant employees 400 employees and processes 1.8 million pieces of mail per day.
“It’s no secret that the postal service is facing considerable fiscal challenges, but cutting jobs and creating a poorer service standard is not the way to fix it,” wrote Rep. Markey in the letter to the USPS. Rep. Markey continued, “AMP closures will result in slower delivery time for USPS customers. These delays will hurt consumers and businesses not only nationally, but especially here in the thriving high-tech Route 128 area, Greater Boston and MetroWest business community.”
A copy of the letter to the USPS can be found HERE.
Rep. Markey is a cosponsor of H.R. 1351, the United States Postal Service Pension Obligation Recalculation and Restoration Act of 2011, which would reform the way the Postal Service funds its pension plan. A moratorium on postal closures until May 15, 2012 was enacted with the purpose of giving Congress enough time to pass comprehensive postal legislation before any further actions are taken.
In October 2011, Rep. Markey queried Deputy Postmaster General Stronham about the USPS study to determine the effects of consolidating mail processing operations performed at the Waltham facility. Read more
NALC: Congress might try again to use our pensions to help pay for H.R. 7
Filed under: Congress, CSRS, FERS, NALC, politics, postal, postal news
From the NALC Activist Alert:
The NALC is on high alert as we await action as early as next week on H.R. 7, The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012. Once again, it looks like the bill will be offset largely on the backs of current and future federal and postal employees. Initial reports indicate that they might use $30 billion from federal pensions hits to help pay for it.
While we have no firm details at this point on what exact hits will be included, those that have been raised include:
Current employees
- Increasing pension contributions for FERS and CSRS employees 1.5 percent over three years, starting in 2013.
- Eliminating the Social Security supplement for those who retire after 2012.
- Reducing the multiplier from 1.1 percent to 1 percent per year of service when calculating the FERS annuity for those who retire at or after age 62, cutting benefits 9 percent from the current formula. (There is no change for those who retire under age 62.)
Future employees
- Increasing pension contributions an additional 0.9 percent—this on top of the 2.3 percent that was included in the recent payroll tax extension, raising future hires from 0.8 percent to 4 percent in pension contributions.
- Moving from a high-3 average salary to a high-5.
- Using a multiplier of 0.7 percent per year of service when calculating the FERS annuity.
These provisions may change and, at this point, I am only asking that you continue to check your e-mail for action alerts as we monitor the situation. Your efforts will be critical as we move forward.
Thank you for your continued activism.
In Solidarity,
Fredric V. Rolando, President
National Association of Letter Carriers