NAPS Challenges USPS Network Plan, Questions Outsourcing
From the National Association of Postal Supervisors Legislative and Regulatory Update
The National Association of Postal Supervisors has questioned the Postal Service’s plans for the use of contracting out in realigning its mail processing and distribution network and has encouraged Congress to ask the Postal Service where it’s headed in its reliance on private contractors to process and transport mail.
In an August 5 letter to Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL), chairman of the House panel that oversees the Postal Service, NAPS President Ted Keating challenged the Network Plan the Postal Service recently sent to Congress and the Service’s lack of explanation of the role it intends outsourcing to play in modernizing mail processing and transportation activity. Keating pointed to USPS efforts to contract-out processing and transportation operations at its Bulk Mail Centers as raising significant policy concerns that “could represent a significant step toward the privatization of postal operations.”
The Postal Service on July 1 issued a draft Request for Proposal to create a “Time Definite Surface Network” (TDSN) that envisions outsourcing all mail processing and transportation activity currently performed by the 21 BMCs within the USPS mail network, starting with those in Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, St. Paul, Atlanta and Seattle. Bulk Mail Centers are highly mechanized mail processing plants that distribute parcel post, media mail, standard mail and periodicals in bulk form.
”If BMC activity is ultimately outsourced through the TDSN initiative, does the Postal Service intend to extend outsourcing to all of its Processing and Distribution Centers and related transportation activities?” Keating asked Congress. “What is the ultimate goal? Is this the first phase of wider reliance on privatization of mail processing and distribution? Does the Service ultimately intend to contract out all processing and distribution of mail, if it believes that service standards and customer service can be maintained at acceptable levels?”
Keating also took aim at the USPS Network Plan itself, criticizing USPS for providing few new details to Congress, which mandated in the 2006 postal reform law that the Postal Service provide a comprehensive report on how intended to modernize the processing/transportation backbone of the postal network. Keating called the plan the USPS sent to Congress a “strategy without a destination.” “The Postal Service’s faith in a ‘fluid approach’ toward network realignment, as evidenced in the Network Plan,” Keating said, “is largely a continuation of the zigzagging we have witnessed since 2001, from the Network Integration and Alignment program, to the Evolutionary Network Development program, to the most recent efforts involving ill-fated Regional Distribution Centers.”
”There is one potentially distinct difference in the latest iteration, however,” Keating warned. “The single-most important development in the Network Plan is the one whose possible consequences are left the most unaddressed. Left unanswered is the role of outsourcing in the Postal Service’s vision of network realignment and whether the Service intends to apply outsourcing toward the entirety of its processing and distribution operations …” “We regard these omissions as flaws in the transparency and completeness of the Network Plan, as well as the creation of understanding by the Postal Service stakeholders and the public of the implications of these steps.”
Keating encouraged the Postal Service to provide answers to the Congress and postal stakeholders, including the Postal Regulatory Commission, and explain the relationship between the TDSN outsourcing initiative and future efforts to modernize and cut costs in USPS processing and distribution centers and other facilities in the mail network.
The potential for USPS outsourcing to private contractors of the responsibility for processing and distribution of mail, in light of stalled USPS efforts to privatize mail delivery, holds huge implications — both financial and political — for the USPS, not to mention its 700,000 employee workforce. There are well over 300 processing and distribution plants in the Postal Service’s mail network, providing jobs to tens of thousands of postal workers and economic heft to the surrounding communities in which the plants are located. At the same time, considerable excess capacity in many plants exists, worsened by the continued decline in mail volume, likely necessitating further facility consolidations and closures, even if the work continues to remain within the Postal Service.
At a July 24 hearing of the House Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia on the USPS Network Plan, Subcommittee Chairman Danny Davis in his opening remarks focused on the need for USPS to adopt a smarter approach toward downsizing the postal network, saying, “For this effort to be successful the Postal Service MUST do a better job of realigning its processing and transportation networks, improve the data used in its computerized and statistical modeling, and minimize service disruptions. Failure to prevent and predict service problems will result in poor mail delivery, which in turn will anger the public and trigger political considerations.”
USPS Unable to Justify Outsourcing, GAO Finds
APWU News
The Postal Service is unable to demonstrate that it saves money by outsourcing, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, because it has no comprehensive mechanism to measure savings.
“Without cost-savings data, postal managers, stakeholders and Congress cannot assess the risk and value of outsourcing,” the GAO concluded. Nonetheless, the USPS will continue to “explore outsourcing opportunities” and is considering another major outsourcing initiative involving its bulk mail processing network, the report noted.
The GAO recommended that the Postmaster General establish a process to track the results of outsourcing activities that are subject to collective bargaining and report the results to Congress. Although the Postal Service generally agreed with the report’s findings, the USPS disagreed with recommendation to provide Congress with the information about the results of outsourcing.
In its study, Data Needed to Assess the Effectiveness of Outsourcing [PDF], the GAO cautioned that the inability of the USPS to provide accurate data could make it difficult “to generate support for future outsourcing efforts.”
NALC: Contracting Out Moratorium Extended To September 30
NALC President William H. Young announced June 13 that he has obtained agreement from the Postal Service to extend the moratorium on delivery subcontracting called for by the Article 32 Committee Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in the National Agreement through September 30, 2008, the end of the USPS Fiscal Year.
The moratorium applies to city carrier offices not covered by the National Agreement’s life-of-the-contract ban on CDS routes in offices that employ only city carriers.
The NALC and the Postal Service, meanwhile, continue to update the list of city carrier offices covered by the MOU on Subcontracting. That MOU prohibits any outsourcing of delivery in covered offices for the life of the contract. Young said another list of affected CDS routes that will be converted to regular delivery in June will soon be released. The extension of the moratorium on subcontracting in offices where letter carriers work side by side with rural carriers and CDS contractors will permit the Article 32 Committee to complete its work, as outlined in the MOU contained in the 2006-2011 contract.
Young applauded the continued cooperation of Postmaster General John E. Potter and Vice President for Labor Relations Doug Tulino on the issue of the moratorium.
NALC Members Lobby Congress to Keep Close Watch On USPS Contracting Out
Carriers from Florida, Georgia, and Carolinas Take Union’s Message Directly to Congress
Letter carriers from NALC branches throughout Region 9 continued the union’s lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill April 15-17, pressing Congress to keep a close watch on any resurgence of contracting out by the Postal Service and reminding them of key issues on the union’s legislative
agenda.Hundreds of active and retired members from Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina visited the offices of their members in the House of Representatives and Senate, discussing in detail with members and staff the NALC’s position on significant legislation.
NALC Executive Vice President Fred Rolando, acting on behalf of traveling President William H. Young, welcomed the group to NALC Headquarters for a Rap Session on April 16 and gave them a rundown of major topics being handled by the national union.
Rolando said that the 2006-2011 National Agreement is at the printer and will be mailed to local branches by the end of the month now that the list of CDS-protected offices is complete. There are about 3,600 such offices. He said that the Postal Service has begun the process of terminating existing CDS contracts in those offices, and that the NALC is closely monitoring that process.
Rolando also said that the new JCAM reflecting the changes in the 2006-2011 National Agreement is expected to be ready for production about 30 days after the contracts are
shipped.Also discussed was the progress of the Route Inspection Task Force, including a subcommittee created to address pending Minor Route Adjustment issues. The members were also updated on issues related to the status of the Flat Sequencing System, as well as the ongoing discussions with the Postal Service regarding Transitional Employees.
source: NALC
APWU-Backed Bill Would Require Bargaining Over Subcontracting
http://www.apwu.org/index2.htm
APWU-Backed Bill Introduced in Congress; Legislation Would Require Bargaining Over Subcontracting
The APWU won a significant victory on Nov. 15, when Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) introduced legislation that would require the Postal Service to bargain with postal unions before making a commitment to significant subcontracting. H.R. 4236 would require the USPS to submit to arbitration if management and the affected unions were unable to reach agreement. The APWU has been strenuously advocating such legislation for several months.
AFL-CIO Transportation Unions Focus on Stopping Outsourcing At USPS
(Press Release- Sept. 20, 2007) The Executive Committee of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, committed today to make priorities of rebuilding America’s failing transportation system and infrastructure, stopping outsourcing at the United States Postal Service, and protecting the income and retirement security of public transit workers.
The United States Postal Service is jumping on the outsourcing and privatizing bandwagon at the expense of good jobs, safety and security, and reliable delivery of basic services.
According to a new USPS program, all new mail delivery locations will be considered for outsourcing to companies that often provide low wages, no benefits, and have no equivalent background check requirements. This program and other attempts to outsource core mail handling functions violate the spirit of the policy established by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, which reinforced collective bargaining obligations. In its effort to employ fewer union workers, the USPS is opening its doors to a far less accountable workforce.
“In this post-Anthrax era, it is counterintuitive that the USPS would entrust any portion of its service with unscreened subcontractors,” Wytkind said. “Mail can be sensitive cargo, and Americans expect first-class service for their bills, ballots, and prescription drugs, not to mention their identity protection.”
As Congress struggles to fund our nation’s mass transit systems, cuttinq employee pay and limiting pension programs should not be conditions for financial support. Legislation to fund Washington, D.C.’s mass transit system has been amended to cap overtime pay and exclude overtime pay from pension calculations. Management and workers agree that the real culprit of excessive overtime is inadequate staffing levels.
“Arbitrary limits on overtime pay do nothing to fix the problem, and they also run roughshod over collective bargaining agreements,” Wytkind said. “Congress should not micro-manage labor-management relations, but instead, allow employers to focus on inadequate staffing levels by hiring enough employees to meet scheduling and service requirements.”
For the full policy statements on each of these issues, please visit http://www.ttd.org/.
MISGUIDED EFFORTS TO OUTSOURCE POSTAL SERVICE WORK MUST BE STOPPED (PDF)
More Postal Districts Implement Phase Two of NRP
Filed under: APWU, districts, Injured On Duty, outsourcing, usps
From PostalReporter.com reader:
The Postal Service continues to implement Phase 2 of the National Reassessment Process (NRP) in USPS Districts across the country. There is no set schedule that establishes a date when a particular District will begin Phase 2.
Every USPS District should have already implemented Phase 1 of the NRP, which is the “information-gathering” phase. When a District completes this initial phase, they contact Postal Service Headquarters to seek approval to move forward into Phase 2, which is the “interview and decision-making phase.”
If USPS Headquarters agrees that a District has successfully completed all of the requirements of Phase 1, they will validate the completion of Phase 1 and authorize that District to begin the implementation of Phase 2. The Postal Service will then notify the APWU national office that Phase 2 implementation has been approved for that District.
The Postal Service has informed the APWU that they do not expect more than three Districts in a USPS Area to be in Phase 2 of the NRP at the same time.
USPS Districts that have been approved for the implementation of Phase 2:
USPS District Date of Implementation
Dakotas Mar. 08, 2007
New Hampshire/Vermont Mar. 13, 2007
Westchester Late April, 2007
Salt Lake City Late April, 2007
San Diego Mid-May, 2007
(offices not in NRP pilot)
South Georgia Mid-May, 2007
Mid-America May 24, 2007
Boston Jun. 28, 2007
Caribbean Jul. 09, 2007
Honolulu Jul. 09, 2007
Cincinnati Aug. 01, 2007
Related link: More “Injured on Duty” articles
GAO Recommends USPS Improve Consolidation Planning and Delivery Performance
Excerpts from GAO’s Report -
U.S. POSTAL SERVICE:Progress Made in Implementing Mail Processing Realignment Efforts, but Better Integration and Performance Measurement Still Needed
Several major changes have affected USPS’s mail processing operations, including marketplace changes, declining First-Class Mail volume, increased competition, increased mail processing by mailers, automated operations, and population shifts. These changes have led to excess capacity in USPS’s mail processing network and variations in productivity among plants.
GAO’s 2005 report concluded that USPS’s strategy for realigning its mail processing network lacked clarity, sufficient transparency and accountability, excluded stakeholder input, and lacked performance measures for results. Since then, USPS has developed several initiatives that are at varying stages of development to address these issues and major changes with an overall goal of reducing costs while maintaining service. In 2007, GAO reported that while USPS has made progress in implementing its realignment initiatives, (1) USPS still did not have answers to important questions about how it intended to realign its network, (2) it remains unclear how various USPS initiatives are individually and collectively contributing to achieving its goals, and (3) the area mail processing (AMP) consolidation initiative, to which USPS attributes most of its progress in reducing excess machine capacity, still presents significant issues. These issues include unclear criteria used in selecting potential AMP consolidations, inconsistent data calculations, limited measures of the effects of changes on delivery performance, and a lack of appropriate stakeholder and public input. USPS is developing new policies to address some of these issues. Nevertheless, questions about USPS’s selection criteria continue as USPS has decided not to implement 34 of the 57 potential AMP consolidations it considered in 2005 and 2006 as shown in the table below. With limited data on the effects of changes, USPS cannot consider actual delivery performance in making consolidation decisions or in evaluating results.
GAO reported in 2006 that USPS does not measure and report its delivery performance for most types of mail and that its progress to improve delivery performance information has been slow and inadequate despite numerous USPS and mailer efforts. Postal reform legislation enacted in December 2006 requires USPS to submit a plan to Congress describing its strategy, criteria, and processes for realigning its network and provide performance measures for most types of mail. USPS is preparing its response to these requirements.
GAO made recommendations to USPS to enhance the planning, accountability, and public communications related to its realignment efforts and to improve its delivery performance measures. USPS’s response to the statutory requirements enacted in December 2006 is an opportunity to address GAO’s recommendations.
Burrus To Senate: USPS on Path to Privatization
APWU News
The USPS “has begun to travel resolutely down the road of privatization,” APWU President William Burrus told a Senate subcommittee on July 25, “without authorization from Congress” — or the American people. The subcontracting of postal work, he warned, “is just one aspect of a dangerous trend: the wholesale conversion of a vital public service to one performed privately for profit.”
Burrus called on the Senate to act. “On the critical issue of privatization of the United States Postal Service,” he said, “it is imperative that Congress take a stand and insist on its right — its responsibility — to set public policy.”
“For more than a decade,” Burrus told the subcommittee, “virtually all of the legislative focus on the United States Postal Service was based on the belief that absent radical reform, this great institution faced imminent demise.” Because the APWU viewed the postal reform drive as “a veiled attempt to undermine collective bargaining,” the union did not support the legislation, Burrus said. “However, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act has become law, and we promise to lend our best effort to making it work.”
But some proponents of the law are now active behind the scenes, “on the unfinished business of the reform mania — the subcontracting of postal services,” Burrus told the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security.
In testimony [PDF] before the panel, he shared the words of a mailing-industry spokesman who was quoted in the Washington Post on July 7: “In the not too distant future, the Postal Service could evolve into something which could be called the master contractor, where it maintains its government identity, but all the services would be performed by private contractors.” Read more
Burrus Tells Congress: Compel USPS to Bargain Over Subcontracting
If Congress wants to limit USPS subcontracting, lawmakers should enact legislation compelling the Postal Service to bargain over the issue, APWU President William Burrus told a House subcommittee on July 19, rather than intervening in specific contracting-out disputes.
In informal remarks to the subcommittee, NALC President Bill Young endorsed Burrus’ message. “Last time we testified before this committee, it seemed we were in total disagreement,” he said. “Today we are in total agreement.” It was the intervention of Congress that helped the NALC secure a tentative contract, he said. Requiring the Postal Service to engage in collective bargaining on subcontracting “is a good approach,” Young concluded.
At a hearing in April there was debate over whether subcontracting was a matter of public policy or collective bargaining, he noted. “It turns out, everyone was right.”
[full story]
Related links:
Outsourcing Hearing Generates Sparks – But No Fire
Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) questioned Vice Chairman Alan Kessler about the Board of Governors’ deliberations in evaluating outsourcing postal functions. In response, in addition to fiscal considerations, the Vice-Chair implied that the contracting-out discussions could have been colored by the composition of the Board of Governors – 5 Republican members and 4 Democratic members. (eNAPUS Legislative & Political Bulletin)
Union seeks mandatory bargaining over mail delivery contracting (Govexec.com)