USPS In California To Post Combined City Carrier-Clerk Duty Assignment?
Filed under: APWU, NALC, letter carriers, postal, postal news, usps
USPS has notified a Local California APWU President of its intent ( it appears that the assignment has already been posted) to post a “combined full-time assignment” , consisting of six (6) hours of carrier duties and two (2) hours of clerk duties. The Postal Service has proposed to post this job as a City Carrier Craft assignment under the jurisdiction of NALC.
Here is a breakdown of the duties:
Manual Distribution, Breakout and Spreading: 1:59,
Office Time 1:16 and
Street Time: 4:45.
The Full-Time assignment also has a “scheme” attached along with qualifications necessary to be awarded the job.
Excerpts of the letter from USPS to the Local California President:
This is to inform you of my intent to utilize the provisions of Art 7.2A of the National Agreement to create a full-time assignment by combining duties from different crafts. The reason for establishing the combination assignment is to provide maximum full-time employment and provide necessary flexibility.
Attached you will find a copy of the combination assignment to be posted. This bid job will be designated to the NALC represented craft.
NALC: Cutting Saturday Delivery And Other Measures Are Not Long-Term Solutions
Letter carriers union says fixing pension errors will solve USPS’ financial woes
WASHINGTON – NALC President Fredric V. Rolando issued the following statement today in response to proposed measures to solve the USPS’ budget deficit, including rate increases and cutting Saturday delivery:
“What is at stake here is finding a long-term, common sense solution to the financial problems plaguing the Postal Service. The answer does not reside with penny-wise, pound-foolish service cuts, as proposed by the USPS. Neither is it to be found by making false and misleading claims about postal labor costs to avoid a postage rate increase, as some mailers are now doing. Of the options under consideration to solve the Postal Service’s financial crisis, the smartest solution is to reform the congressional mandate to massively pre-fund future retiree health benefits.
“The Postal Service is mandated by law to meet an aggressive pre-funding payment schedule of future health benefits for retirees. No other American entity in the public or private sector is required to pre-fund retiree health benefits. The Postal Service has already set aside more than $35 billion, enough to cover retiree health benefits for 15-20 years.
“Additionally, the Postal Service has been overcharged by $50-$75 billion for benefits Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) benefits, according to the findings of both the USPS Office of the Inspector General and the Postal Regulatory Commission. Without these burdens, the Postal Service would have been profitable in three of the past four years. If these burdens were eliminated altogether, the Postal Service would be able to pay down its outstanding operational debt and focus on strengthening and adapting its business model.
“The Postal Service has reviewed its operations repeatedly over the past three years and has reacted quickly to the changing economic landscape. Jointly with the NALC, it has evaluated and adjusted letter carrier routes four times in the past 18 months. These hard-nosed reviews have saved the Postal Service over a billion dollars and have significantly reduced its workforce while it reached record levels of productivity. Indeed, the Postal Service now employs nearly 100,000 fewer career employees than it did before the recession began.
“To make this a labor issue ignores the larger financial issues at play. We are committed to making changes that are in the best interest of consumers. But to address the problem, we should not resort to knee-jerk reactions and criticisms. The long-term solution is to urge Congress to lift the inequitable pre-funding obligation and refunding CSRS over-payment burdening the Postal Service so it can operate profitably.”
Postal Union Officers Indicted, Sentenced For Embezzlement
On April 28, 2010, in the 60th District Court of Muskegon County, Michigan, a misdemeanor complaint was filed charging Jamie Nielsen, former President of National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 13 (located in Muskegon, Mich.), with one count of embezzlement of $200 or more but less than $1,000. The charge follows an investigation by the OLMS Detroit District Office.
On April 1, 2010, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, David M. Matthis, former Secretary Treasurer of American Postal Workers Union (APWU) Local 205 (located in Alexandria, La.), was sentenced to three years of supervised probation, 200 hours of community service, ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $7,222.57, ordered to pay a fine in the amount of $7,000 and a special assessment of $100. On December 17, 2009, Matthis pled guilty to one count of embezzling union funds in the amount of $5,472.61. The sentencing follows an investigation by the OLMS New Orleans District Office.
On March 24, 2010, in the On March 5, 2010 in the United States District Court, District of Minnesota, an information was filed charging Steven J McDeid, former President of National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 388 (located in St. Cloud, Minn.), with one count of embezzling $51,639.61. The charge follows an investigation by the OLMS Milwaukee District Office and Minneapolis Resident Office.United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, Steven J McDeid, former President of National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 388 (located in St. Cloud, Minn.), pled guilty to one count of embezzling union funds in the amount of $51,639.61. On March 5, 2010, McDeid was charged in an information with one count of embezzling union funds in the same amount. The plea follows an investigation by the OLMS Milwaukee District Office and Minneapolis Resident Investigator Office.
On March 17, 2010, in the United States District Court for Southern District of Texas, Frankie Sanders, former Southern Regional Coordinator for the American Postal Workers Union (located in Houston, Texas), was indicted on one count of wire fraud in the amount of $1,753.78 and one count of embezzling union funds in the amount of $10,078.40. The charges follow an investigation by the OLMS Houston Resident Investigator Office.
On March 16, 2010, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Barbara Patton, the former President and Vice President of the American Postal Workers Union, Local 4469 (located in Johnstown, Pa), was charged with one count of embezzling union funds in the amount of $2,015.78. The charge follows an investigation by the OLMS Pittsburgh District Office.
On March 5, 2010 in the United States District Court, District of Minnesota, an information was filed charging Steven J McDeid, former President of National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 388 (located in St. Cloud, Minn.), with one count of embezzling $51,639.61. The charge follows an investigation by the OLMS Milwaukee District Office and Minneapolis Resident Office.
On January 21, 2010, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Sonia McGuire, former Treasurer of American Postal Workers Union Local 3434 (located in Decatur, Ga.), was sentenced to five years probation, the first 6 months on home confinement with electronic monitoring, and was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $16,023.12 within 120 days and a special assessment of $100. On November 18, 2009, McGuire, pled guilty to one count of embezzling union funds in the same amount. The sentencing follows an investigation by the OLMS Atlanta District Office and the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General.
Source: Dept. of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS)
Record 77.1 Million Pounds Collected in Letter Carriers’ National Food Drive
Despite Lingering Effects of Economic Recession Citizens Boost Donations to ‘Stamp Out Hunger’
Increases 18-year Total to More Than 1 Billion Pounds
WASHINGTON, June 1 - Americans donated a record 77.1 million pounds of non-perishable food to help ‘Stamp Out Hunger’ in their communities this year in the annual Letter Carriers’ National Food Drive, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) union announced today.
NALC President Fredric V. Rolando said 77,132,180 pounds of food were collected in the drive and delivered to local food banks, pantries and shelters to help needy families. It is the nation’s largest one-day effort to combat hunger. The results of the May 8 effort easily eclipsed the previous record, set last year, of 73.4 million pounds.
The 18th annual drive boosted the total donations collected since the drive began in 1993 to more than 1 billion pounds — 1,059,800,000 pounds.
“Despite the lingering effects of the recession, postal customers came through again this year in the continuing fight against hunger in America,” Rolando said. ”Our members and the thousands of rural letter carriers and other volunteers were proud to deliver the generous donations from millions of caring citizens who wanted to help needy families in their communities.”
The food was collected by letter carriers as they delivered mail along their postal routes in over 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states and U.S. jurisdictions.
Tampa, Florida NALC Branch 599 collected 2,062,529 pounds to emerge as the top local union branch in the country, edging out West Coast Florida Branch 1477, which includes St. Petersburg. Buffalo/Western New York Branch 3 was third, followed by southern California’s Garden Grove Branch 1100.
Rolando expressed appreciation to the union’s national partners in the drive – the U.S. Postal Service’s Priority Mail, Campbell Soup Company, the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, Valpak Direct Marketing Systems, United Way Worldwide, the AFL-CIO, and the Feeding America food bank network. Rolando also thanked “Family Circus” cartoonists Bil and Jeff Keane, who yearly provide special artwork, and actors David Arquette and Courteney Cox, television host Ryan Seacrest, and drag racing star Ashley Force Hood for their promotional support.
The 295,000-member NALC union represents active and retired city delivery letter carriers of the U.S. Postal Service throughout the nation.
SOURCE National Association of Letter Carriers
Unions Reach Settlement In Lawsuit Charging USPS With Intrusions Into Employees Medical Records
APWU News
The APWU and National Association of Letters Carriers (NALC) reached a settlement [PDF] with the Postal Service on May 20, 2010, ending a 2008 lawsuit in which the unions charged the USPS with “systematic and widespread intrusions” into members’ medical records. The settlement requires the Postal Service, agents of the USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG), and officers of the Postal Inspection Service to provide specific documentation to healthcare providers when they request medical information about postal employees.
In accordance with the agreement, the Postal Service and its agents must present a “HIPAA letter” to healthcare providers before asking them to disclose any health information about employees. The letter must include a description of the information sought and a statement demonstrating how it is relevant to a legitimate law enforcement inquiry. The letter also must instruct healthcare providers to provide only information that is relevant to the investigation of the employee’s alleged violations of law.
HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which protects the security of health data. The law outlines rigorous rules for safeguarding the privacy of medical records, but permits healthcare providers to disclose information to law enforcement officers and “health oversight” agencies without patient consent for legitimate law enforcement purposes and other activities authorized by law.
In accordance with HIPAA rules, the letter requesting medical information instructs healthcare providers to refrain from notifying employees of the disclosure of their records for a period of 30 days, unless OIG agents or Postal Inspection Service officers request a longer period.
The settlement addresses two major concerns that prompted the lawsuit: The alleged intimidation of healthcare providers by OIG agents and Postal Inspectors, who frequently demanded employees’ medical records without explanation, and the indefinite prohibition against healthcare providers notifying postal employees about the disclosure of their records.
“The OIG can no longer violate employees’ rights by using police state tactics when conducting sick-leave or workers compensation investigations,” said APWU President William Burrus. “The obligation to provide details about a request — instead of demanding access to private records — prevents the OIG from abusing its power when investigating routine personnel matters.”
NALC: Memorandum signed on Joint Alternate Route Adjustment Process
President Rolando announced May 4 that the NALC and the Postal Service have reached an agreement on the next phase of a Joint Alternate Route Adjustment Process. However, the agreement makes it clear that finalizing a number of incomplete revisits of 2009 MIARAP adjustments must be given priority over the evaluation and adjustment of routes/zones under the new JARAP.
Included among several positive changes to the process are automatic reviews of specific forms to ensure the integrity of the data being reviewed. Additionally, rather than reviewing all routes/zones nationwide, only routes/zones requested by either party will be evaluated and/or adjusted under JARAP. Local parties may also submit locally developed alternatives for adjusting routes to the national parties for review and possible approval.
“NALC is pleased to reach an agreement that improves the joint alternative process,” Rolando said. “The new agreement builds on the key principles established in the IRAP and MIARAP—no decision at any level regarding the evaluation and/or adjustment of any route can be made without the agreement of both the union and management.”
- M-01720: The 23 page joint guidelines to the new Joint Alternate Route Adjustment Process (JARAP) This includes the shaded MOU language itself.
- M-01717: The JARAP Memorandum of Understanding itself
- M-01719: MOU on prioritizing incomplete 2009 MIARAP revisits first
- M-01718: MOU on Alternative Evaluation and Adjustment Processes.
source: The National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO
Valpak Helps NALC Stamp Out Hunger by Promoting Nation’s Largest One-Day Food Drive on May 8
LARGO, Fla., April 20 — /PRNewswire/ — For the seventh year in a row, Valpak announces its support of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Stamp Out Hunger food drive, the nation’s largest one-day effort to help needy families. On May 8, postal carriers will collect non-perishable food from customers along their routes and deliver the food to local food banks.
Valpak pledges to help the NALC by featuring the event on some 40 million Valpak envelopes distributed across the United States as a donation to support the cause. This year, in addition to the in-kind donation worth more than $1 million, Valpak will donate $1 for every new Valpak Facebook fan (up to $5,000) to Feeding America.
“Hunger is a reality for people in every community across America,” said Deanna Willsey, director of corporate communications for Valpak. ”By making it easier for people to donate food, the NALC is making a big difference in the fight to stop hunger. Valpak is proud to support the NALC and promote Stamp Out Hunger again this year.”
The NALC food drive began 18 years ago, noting the severe shortage of food that families encounter in the summer months. Because many children receive food from school programs, families are hit extra hard when children are out of school for the summer.
In addition, late spring is often the time when food banks are struggling, as the donations received during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays have long been donated.
Last year, the NALC Stamp Out Hunger food drive set a record of 73.4 million pounds in non-perishable donations, bringing the total for the 17 years of the drive to 982.7 million pounds. In 2010, letter carriers have the opportunity to break through the 1 billion-pound level.
Although last year the NALC was able to collect more food than ever, this year there are more people who need support. In a survey cited by Feeding America, “More than half (55 percent) of food banks reported that they or the agencies who help distribute the food they provide have had to turn people away in the last year.”
NALC: GAO Report Attacks Postal Labor, Stiffs Congress
Statement of NALC President Fred Rolando on the GAO Report
U.S. Postal Service: Strategies and Options
to Facilitate Progress toward Financial Viability
April 13, 2010
The Government Accountability Office was directed by the Congress in 2006 to produce a report by December 2011 “evaluating in-depth various options and strategies for the long-term structural and operational reforms of the United States Postal Service.” GAO was instructed by Congress in the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act to make recommendations regarding how the “Postal Service’s business model can be maintained or transformed in an orderly manner that will minimize adverse effects on all interested parties and assure continued availability of affordable universal postal service throughout the United States.” The directive in the law also said: “The Government Accountability Office shall not consider any strategy or other course of action that would pose a significant risk to the availability of affordable, universal postal service throughout the United States.”
The Congress outlined, in detail, what it ordered GAO to do, and how to do it.
GAO ignored Congress.
Instead, it delivered an obviously hurried and haphazard audit report. GAO virtually ignored the most critical ingredient in the Postal Service’s current financial squeeze, the $5.5 billion per year payment, imposed by Congress in 2007, to pre-fund retiree health obligations. And its conclusion that the USPS business model was not viable was based on the false premise that the USPS has not been able to cut costs as much as its revenues have declined in recent years. In particular, the report states that “USPS lost $12 billion over this period [2007-2009], despite achieving billions in cost savings, reducing capital investments, and raising rates.” But this assertion is completely misleading. It glosses over the critical fact that if it were not for the excessive pre-funding payments, the USPS would have been profitable over the past three years—USPS prefunding payments totaled $12.4 billion over the past three years, more than accounting for the $11.7 billion in reported losses. In fact, the Postal Service has been able to adjust its costs to a decline in its revenue—a decline resulting from the worst recession in 80 years, which the GAO soft-pedals as a simple “economic downturn.”
Instead of the report requested by Congress, GAO has issued a full-throated attack on collective bargaining, our contractual COLA clause, our contractual limits on contracting out, our contractual protections of full-time career positions.
GAO outlines a series of disastrous future options, including moving part or all of USPS to “a private corporate model;” increasing “the percentage of part-time employees, who could work more flexible schedules” and allow the USPS to flexibly adjust to workload, “which varies greatly depending on the day of the week and the time of the year;” and changing the law’s interest arbitration rules to put a thumb on the scale for the Postal Service.
Rather than conducting the five-year “in depth” detailed review and analysis of this key national institution that Congress directed, GAO “conducted this performance audit from August 2009 to April 2010 in accordance with generally accepted government audit standards.” (p. 3). An “audit,” not an “in-depth” evaluation. But even with that crabbed green eyeshade view of its mission, GAO cut corners: “[W]e did not assess the reasonableness of these projections [retiree health valuations] or OPM’s actuarial assumptions and methodology. We utilized OPM’s valuation results to analyze the financial impacts of selected options for funding USPS’s retiree health benefit obligations. We did not assess the validity of USPS’s financial and mail volume projections due to time and resource constraints.” (p. 2).
The problem with this quick once-over approach is that it is precisely OPM’s “actuarial assumptions and methodology” that are at the heart of a dispute between the USPS Office of Inspector General and OPM over whether the USPS has been over-charged by $75 billion in pension costs—funds that could be returned and transferred to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund to relieve the USPS of the need to make crushing pre-funding payments. If the OIG is right (and NALC believes OIG is right), that $75 billion cures USPS’ principal financial problem … and then some.
And it is precisely the validity of USPS’s “financial and mail volume projections” that define the extent of the long-term challenge facing the USPS and establish what the future needs may be. To simply accept USPS projections—notoriously and regularly off-target—due to “time and resource constraints” is simply irresponsible—not what Congress ordered, and not what the public interest requires.
The media’s appetite for news of any threatened disaster being what it is, the GAO report will make an initial big splash.
But it is Congress, not the news media or the GAO, that will decide whether the Postal Service is worth saving, and how.
And it is the NALC that will spare no effort in bringing the truth—and the real data—to the Congress for its deliberation. And it is NALC’s membership that will rise to the challenge to make sure that the real public, their patrons, and the mailers, know the facts and act on them. The country deserves nothing less.
source: National Association of Letter Carriers
Injured Letter Carrier Fired For Failing To Report Income From Rock Band
Filed under: Injured On Duty, NALC, legal cases, letter carriers, postal
Illinois Letter Carrier fired for failing to report income earned playing bass guitar for a rock band called BANG!
Truhlar sued the Postal Service and NALC Branch.
TRUHLAR v. U.S. POSTAL SERVICE
KENNETH T. TRUHLAR, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
No. 09-1652.
United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.
Argued December 3, 2009.
Decided April 12, 2010.
Before EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge, and MANION and EVANS, Circuit Judges.
EVANS, Circuit Judge.
In 1998, Kenneth Truhlar was working as a letter carrier for the United States Postal Service in Westmont, Illinois, when a car rear-ended his mail truck, injuring his back and neck. Truhlar sought partial disability payments but failed to disclose in the disability compensation paperwork that he was earning money playing bass guitar for a rock band called BANG!. When the Postal Service discovered the omission, it launched an investigation to determine whether he had engaged in misconduct. It ultimately concluded that he had, and in 2005, Truhlar was fired. He sued the Postal Service and his local union, John Grace Branch #825 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, under § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 (LMRA), 29 U.S.C. § 185, claiming that the Service breached the collective bargaining agreement by firing him without just cause and that the union breached its duty of fair representation. Truhlar’s suit, which is a form of hybrid litigation, came to an end when the district court granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment. Truhlar appeals that decision.
Although the parties disagree over a number of (ultimately immaterial) details, the following facts are undisputed. In order to collect partial disability payments following his injury, Truhlar periodically submitted a Department of Labor (DOL) form called the CA-7, which includes the following question: “Have you worked outside your federal job during the period(s) [for which you are claiming disability]? (Include salaried, self-employed, commissioned, volunteer, etc.).” Truhlar responded “no” to this question or failed to answer it on 24 CA-7 forms he submitted between 2000 and 2001, despite the fact that he earned between $8,775 and $11,000 performing with BANG! during that period. After a Postal Service inspector videotaped Truhlar playing with the band, another inspector interviewed him about the discrepancy. Truhlar claimed he misunderstood the question on the form. In June 2001, the Postal Service notified Truhlar that he was being placed on off-duty status for “failure to provide correct earning information on your Form CA-7.” A local union steward filed a grievance on Truhlar’s behalf, and when the grievance was denied, union representative Eric Smith appealed in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement’s (CBA) three-step grievance procedure. Read more
Letter Carriers’ Annual Food Drive Set for May 8 Throughout Nation
Donations Critical as Thousands Join Hunger Rolls; Effort Will Help Feed Needy Families in All 50 States
WASHINGTON – The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) announced today that the nation’s largest annual food drive to combat hunger will be conducted this year on Saturday, May 8. On that day, letter carriers will collect non-perishable donations from homes as they deliver mail along their postal routes.
The 18th annual NALC National Food Drive to “Stamp Out Hunger” is the largest one-day food drive in the nation. Carriers collected a record 73.4 million pounds of food in last year’s drive. The drive is held annually on the second Saturday in May in over 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.
Donations from this year’s drive are expected to push the overall total since the annual drive began 18 years ago to over 1 billion pounds. The total currently is 982.7 million pounds.
Donations will be collected by more than 1,400 local branches of the 295,000-member postal union and delivered to food banks, pantries and shelters that serve the communities where they are collected. Assisting in the effort are rural letter carriers and other postal employees, as well as members of other unions and thousands of civic volunteers.
NALC President Fredric V. Rolando emphasized that as successful as the food drive has been in the past, it simply must be even better this year.
“Millions and millions of families are suffering – struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table,” Rolando said. ”Food banks, pantries and shelters need our help more than ever this year. As families count on them for support, they’re counting on us and we will not back off on our commitment.”
Rolando also noted that donations are particularly critical at this time since most school lunch programs are suspended during the summer months and millions of children must find alternate sources of nutrition.
In New York City, where transportation limitations preclude mailbox pickup, citizens are asked to take donations to their local post offices between May 3 and 8.
Persons who have questions about the drive at their location should ask their letter carrier or contact their local post office.
Over 125 million postcards, sponsored by the Campbell Soup Company and the U.S. Postal Service, will be mailed to postal customers to remind them of the drive. Valpak Direct Marketing Systems is also focusing 44 million of its envelopes on encouraging food donations. Television and radio public service announcements featuring David Arquette and Courteney Cox are being made available throughout the country.
Other co-sponsors of the drive with the letter carriers’ union are the U.S. Postal Service’s Priority Mail; Campbell Soup Company; Valpak; National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association; Feeding America, the nation’s food bank network; United Way Worldwide and its local United Ways; and the AFL-CIO.
SOURCE National Association of Letter Carriers