USPS Presentation On Proposed 5-Day Delivery Operations
USPS Presentation on 5-Day Delivery Operations, Reasons, stakeholder and mailer issues at last month’s MTAC meeting
Download PDF file on presentation
USPS Update On Flats Sequencing System
Filed under: automation, flat sequencing system, FSS, mtac, usps
USPS Update on FSS presented at the MTAC meeting last montn.
Download PDF file of the presentation
USPS Says It Needs To Eliminate 9,200 City Carrier Routes in FY 2009
Association for Postal Commerce
“From today’s MTAC meeting: ‘The USPS today at the MTAC meeting announced an unprecedented route adjustment process as a result of a joint effort between the USPS and the NALC. The USPS said it needs to eliminate 9200 city carrier routes in FY 2009 in order to meet its budget goals. It said the route adjustments could impact 50 million addresses, 85,000-90,000 carrier routes and 5,000 delivery units. The USPS already has eliminated 1100 routes a change that took effect November 15. Adjustments will begin again on January 5 and continue until early April. The USPS urged mailers to update their address lists on a monthly basis over the next 4-5 months because a significant number of routes may be changed or eliminated. The USPS plans to post the information on its RIBBS web site as the adjustments are made.”
District Court Dismisses APWU Suit Against USPS, Mailers Group
Union to Challenge USPS Secrecy in Other Forums
APWU News
A federal court has dismissed a lawsuit by the APWU and the Consumer Alliance for Postal Services (CAPS), which sought access to the meetings and records of the Postal Service’s Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC).
The APWU suit alleges that by excluding representatives of individuals and small businesses, MTAC violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which requires the federal government to give the public access to the meetings and minutes of agency advisory committees. MTAC is composed exclusively of high-ranking USPS officials and representatives of large mailers, and portions of its activities are closed to public scrutiny.
In rejecting the APWU suit, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia concluded [PDF] that the Postal Reorganization Act gives the Postal Service a “broad exemption from many of the laws that constrain modern day-to-day administration of other federal agencies.” The court concluded that the APWU’s “ argument is plausible, but it fails in the face of precedent.”
Commenting on the court’s decision, APWU President William Burrus said, “The APWU is deeply concerned that the Postal Service has relinquished its strategic policy-making to the largest mailers, and that it has done so in secret. Using MTAC and similar forums, big mailers have set the USPS agenda. This may explain why the Postal Service has repeatedly proposed postal rates and policies that favor large mailers at the expense of individuals and small businesses.”
Burrus vowed to pry open the USPS decision-making process and its secret strategies.
Burrus: Union Gains Admittance To USPS, Mailers Secret Meetings
APWU President William Burrus announced that the union had prevailed in its efforts to gain admittance to the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee, a panel composed of large mailers that meets secretly with postal officials to develop long-term plans for the Postal Service. He called the agreement a “major accomplishment for the union.”
Every piece of equipment that postal employees interact with and every major management initiative — including network consolidation — began in the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee, Burrus said.
“This is the group making the plans for tomorrow’s United States Postal Service,” Burrus said, “and we only find out what their plans are once they are willing to go public.”
“If they are going to develop a new flat sorter, we don’t want to find out about it when they start putting it in our facility,” Burrus said. “We want to know five years before — when the idea begins.”
Despite MTAC’s role in influencing postal policy, the APWU had been denied admission to the panel. In May 2007 the union filed a lawsuit, charging that the secret policy meetings violated federal “government in the sunshine” laws. Faced with the prospect of losing the court case, Burrus said, he received written confirmation within the last few days that the APWU would be permitted access to the committee.
“We’re going to be there; we’re going to get that information; we’re going to monitor their activities,” Burrus said. “In short, we won!”
APWU Sues USPS, Advisory Committee
APWU Sues USPS, Advisory Committee For Conducting Policy-Making in Secret
The APWU, together with an organization representing a coalition of consumers and nonprofit mailers, has filed a suit challenging secret policy-making by a Postal Service advisory committee.
The panel, the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee, is made up of trade associations that represent large business mailers. Co-chaired by major mailer representatives and postal officials, MTAC — acting through “work groups” — commissions studies and makes recommendations to senior USPS management on postal operations, postal rates, and postal regulations.
Under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, government panels such as MTAC must open their meetings to all interested persons, and must make their reports and the minutes of their meetings public. MTAC has refused to comply with this law, holding its meetings in secret, and refusing to release any details, despite the APWU’s repeated requests for access to the information. As an advisory committee to a federal agency, MTAC is not legally permitted to conduct its activities in such secrecy, the suit asserts.
MTAC also has refused to admit to its membership the Consumers Alliance for Postal Services (CAPS), which is made up of nonprofit associations, small mailers, and individual consumers that rely on the Postal Service to communicate with their members. CAPS is chaired by William Clay Sr., the former Chairman of the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee.
MTAC claims that its current members, “in serving their respective constituencies, are already representing at the grass-roots level the millions of Americans which CAPS serves.”
And while shutting out consumers and small mailers, MTAC apparently has no problem with secretly working with the government regulators that oversee the USPS. According to a publication that serves large mailers, the MTAC workgroup that is advising the Postal Service on service standards includes “observers” from the Postal Regulatory Commission
Read Full Story