Video: PMG on State of the USPS
Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe’s message to employees on state of the Postal Service (State of the Postal Service (May 2012)
Sen. Carper Launches Countdown Clock to Critical USPS Deadline
Calls on House to pass a postal reform bill by May 15th to avoid potential closure of over 1,000 facilities
WASHINGTON – Today, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), co-author of the 21st Century Postal Service Act and chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees the Postal Service, launched a page on his website – http://www.carper.senate.gov/May15 – that calls on the U.S. House of Representatives to pass legislation aimed at reforming the U.S. Postal Service before a critical deadline of May 15, 2012 – the date that the Postal Service can begin moving forward with closing over 1,000 postal facilities across the country.
“My friends in the House must move forward with consideration of postal reform legislation right away, or else we’ll begin to see the dire consequences of postal facilities shutting down across the country,” said Sen. Carper. “Failing to act would hasten the Postal Service’s financial decline, which would threaten a mailing industry that employs over 8 million people and generates almost $1 trillion in economic activity each year. We can’t let that happen. If Congress works together to finalize comprehensive postal reform legislation, we can ensure that this invaluable American institution, enshrined in the Constitution, will survive and thrive in a new century. But the clock is ticking.”
Although the Postal Reform Act of 2011 was passed out of the relevant House committee in October 2011, leaders in the House have yet to schedule a vote on the bill. Last week, however, the U.S. Senate passed the bipartisan 21st Century Postal Service Act, co-authored by Sens. Carper, Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.), on a 62-37 vote. This legislation gives the Postal Service the flexibility and resources it needs to right-size, modernize, and remain competitive in the 21st Century.
Senate Postal Leaders Urge House Leadership to Act Quickly on Postal Reform Legislation
WASHINGTON – The lead authors of bipartisan, comprehensive postal reform Tuesday released a letter they sent to the leadership of the House of Representatives urging prompt consideration of critical postal reform legislation on that side of the Capitol.
In a letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, the Senators call on the House to act on legislation before May 15 so that the two chambers can reconcile their bills to turn around the Postal Service’s daily loss of $25 million, prevent the unnecessary wholesale closing of regional mail facilities and local post offices, and save this iconic institution that delivers over 500 million pieces of mail a day and sustains over 8 million jobs. Last week, the Senate overwhelmingly passed the 21st Century Postal Service Act (S. 1789), which was introduced by Sens. Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., Susan Collins, R-Maine, Tom Carper, D-Del., and Scott Brown, R-Mass. Read more
Text of Postal Reform Bill S. 1789 As Amended
Filed under: politics, postal, postal news, postal reform, usps
The text of S.1789, 21st Century Postal Service Act of 2012, as passed by the Senate
Text of Postal Reform Bill S 1789 AS Amended
USPS puts Consolidations on “Hold”
Filed under: APWU, politics, post office closings, postal, postal news, usps
Northwest Illinois Area Local,American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO
Earlier this month USPS officials met with Postal Employees at the Carol Stream Mail Processing Center in Illinois and informed them of the following:
Carol Stream Meets with Employees..
Carol Stream met with employees on tour 1 and tour 3 in a series of one hour meetings to present information on staffing changes they will make when service standards change on 5-19-12, unless congress stops it. Mr. Colao and his staff worked up a power point presentation that aided in providing information on what is happening on the plant consolidations, what jobs will be posted for CS mail processing, and what the timeline of events will be for the staffing changes planned for 5-19-12. The change in service standards will change mail processing from a tour 1 to a tour 2 operation and bids will be shifted accordingly. Employees were given a hand-out listing the bids that will be posted in each unit as they left. As Mr. Colao said they want to give employees as much time as possible to review the new jobs because they will begin retreat right canvassing on 4-2-12.
But recently the Postal Employees were told:
USPS puts Optimization Plans on “Hold”
Employees are by now aware that the staffing changes planned for 5-19-12 are on hold. Carol Stream In-Plant Manager John Colao stopped canvassing for tour 2 retreat rights and has not issued any abolishment letters at CS. CS will continue to get Fox Valley LO-11 mail. Palatine Plant Manager Chuck Sciurba called me on 4-19-12 to confirm that the changes are on hold per Headquarters and no staffing changes will occur on 5-19-12. He confirmed that all Palatine abolishment letters will be rescinded. The consolidation of Chicago PARS mail to Palatine is also on hold. The reason that USPS has placed optimization plans on hold is because the Senate is discussing S. 1789, the 21st Century Postal Service Act. The 79 amendments submitted as of 4-19-12 have been reduced to 39. There is talk of an early out being offered but no official announcement.
Editorial: GOP House Postal Reform Bill Includes Provisions Negative to Postal Employees
Filed under: politics, postal, postal news, postal reform, usps
Round One
The Senate passes S1789 to reform the Postal Service on a vote of 62 to 37, meeting the 60 vote requirement by Senate rule. Debate now commences on HR 2309. The House Committee and Subcommittee chairmen are Republicans and have expressed strong opposition to the union’s objectives. The Senate Bill includes the following:
- Refunds the retirement overpayment
- Restructures Health Benefit payment
- Requires arbitrators to consider USPS’ financial health
- Delays 5 day delivery
- Retirement incentives
- Delays change to Delivery Standards
- Establishes a process for the closing of facilities
- Changes FICA
- Medicare coordination
- Time limit on service changes
- Reduces compensation of top executives
In that 51 Senators are Democrats, to achieve the 62 vote total, 11 Republicans voted yes to approve. Senators McCain, Coburn and Paul offered negative amendments to:
- End mailbox monopoly
- Pilot privatization
- Prohibit collective bargaining
- Establish Postal Commission
- Require retirement eligible(s) to retire
- End monopoly
- Prohibit unions from using dues in political arena
HR 2309 will now be debated in the House which is Republican controlled and it has included provisions more negative to postal employees. After the House completes deliberations, members of the House and Senate will be appointed as conferees to resolve the differences between the House and Senate Bills. In that the Democrats have a majority in the Senate it is expected that the best opportunity at achieving the union’s objectives was in the Senate Bill that will not be improved in the House or the final Bill.
Bill Burrus
Statements from the USPS Board of Governors and the Postmaster General on Today’s Senate Action
Filed under: board of governors, politics, postal, postal news, press releases, usps
WASHINGTON, April 25, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The following statements are in response to today’s vote by the U.S. Senate to approve S 1789, the 21st Century Postal Reform Act.
Statement of the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service
The Board, in working with management, has spent the past two years preparing a comprehensive business plan to make the Postal Service viable so it would not become a liability to the American people. This plan was validated by outside experts. We stand behind this plan, and we are convinced it is the right approach.
Unfortunately, action by the Senate today falls far short of the Postal Service’s plan. We are disappointed that the Senate’s bill would not enable the Postal Service to return to financial viability. A strong Postal Service is important to the health of the entire mailing industry and the Postal Service’s ability to finance universal service for the American public. Given volume losses we have experienced over the past five years along with expected future trends, it is totally inappropriate in these economic times to keep unneeded facilities open. There is simply not enough mail in our system today. It is also inappropriate to delay the implementation of 5-day delivery when the vast majority of the American people support this change. Failure to act on these changes will ensure that the Postal Service’s losses will continue to mount.
We remain hopeful that Congress will ultimately produce legislation that will enable the Postal Service to return to financial viability.
Patrick R. Donahoe
Postmaster General & Chief Executive Officer of the United States Postal Service
“We appreciate the hard work of the Senate in addressing postal issues, and we believe that there are important and valuable provisions contained in the legislation. We would have preferred the Senate allow the Postal Service to move further and faster in addressing its cost reduction goals.
“Today the Postal Service incurs a daily loss of $25 million and has a debt of more than $13 billion. Based on our initial analysis of the legislation passed today, losses would continue in both the short and long term. If this bill were to become law, the Postal Service would be back before the Congress within a few years requesting additional legislative reform.
“The Postal Service does not seek to be a burden to the American taxpayer, and we believe such an outcome is entirely avoidable. The Postal Service has advanced a comprehensive five-year plan that would enable revenue generation and achieve cost reductions of $20 billion by 2015 ― restoring the Postal Service to long-term profitability. “The plan we have advanced is a fair and responsible approach for our customers, our employees and the communities we serve. We are hopeful that the legislative process will continue and that enacted legislation will put the Postal Service on a sustainable path to the future.”
The Postal Service does not receive tax dollars for operating expenses; it relies entirely on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, the U.S. Postal Service was ranked number one in overall service performance, out of the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world, Oxford Strategic Consulting. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.
Follow the Postal Service on Twitter @USPS_PR and at Facebook.com/usps
SOURCE U.S. Postal Service
NALC disappointed, but determined, as Senate passes S. 1789
“Keep your chin up; this fight is far from over,” Rolando says
Amendment to save door-to-door passes
April 25, 2012 — The United States Senate adopted a deeply flawed postal reform bill on Wednesday, voting for S. 1789, the 21st Century Postal Service Act, by a vote of 62 to 37.
The legislation embraces a downsizing strategy and fails to fully lift the onerous burden to fund decades of future retiree health benefits decades in advance. If it were to become law, it would be almost impossible to save Saturday mail delivery for the American people and their businesses.
The bill gives the postmaster general the authority to propose a switch to five-day delivery in two years—at a cost of 80,000 jobs—if he believes such a change is necessary to preserve the “solvency” of the Postal Service, subject to review by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Although the bill reduced the level of required pre-funding, the cost of the mandate is still too heavy to allow the USPS to regain a sound financial footing.
“We’re disappointed, but we are determined to fight on,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said after the vote. He reminded letter carriers that the legislative process is far from over. “It may take months to get a bill through the House of Representatives,” he said, “but we will not rest in this struggle to defend a strong and viable Postal Service.”
Despite the truly regressive nature of the House Republican bill, H.R. 2309, the NALC’s top priorities—preserving six-day delivery and fixing the pension and health care funding provisions of the law—have a lot of bi-partisan support in the House. Indeed, a majority of representatives support both H. Res. 137 (regarding six-day service) and H.R. 1351 (regarding pension equity). President Rolando vowed a spirited campaign in the House. Once that body acts, the process will not be over. A conference committee would have to reconcile the competing bills, and President Obama would be able to weigh in on the legislation—since a final bill that passed both houses would not become law unless he signed it.
“I want to thank the thousands of letter carriers who joined together to lobby the Senate this week,” Rolando said. “We flooded the Senate this week with tens of thousands of calls and other contacts. We did not prevail in striking the five-day delivery provision or the regressively unfair FECA cuts in S. 1789, but we did protect tens of thousands of letter carrier jobs by winning the adoption of the door-to-door delivery amendment sponsored by Senator Chuck Schumer [D-NY]. We also removed an anti-FEHBP health care proposal thanks to an amendment from Senator Jay Rockefeller [D-WV].
“We thank both of those senators as well as Senators Udall of New Mexico and Akaka of Hawaii for leading the fight on all our amendments. Thanks also go to Senator Bernie Sanders [D-VT] for his months of relentless work to support the Postal Service and its workers.
“Last, but not least, I want to thank the staff of our Legislative and Political Affairs Department who worked ’round the clock for the members. We are grateful for all their hard work.”
“Keep your chins up, brothers and sisters,” Rolando concluded. “This fight to save America’s Postal Service is far from over.”
NALC: Senate Voted To Begin Slow Dismantling of USPS and Attack Injured Workers
Filed under: NALC, politics, postal, postal news, postal reform, usps
Statement of NALC President Fred Rolando following today’s Senate vote on S. 1789
April 24, 2010 — The Senate voted Tuesday to begin the slow dismantling of the United States Postal Service and to attack injured postal workers by slashing their workers’ compensation benefits.
The NALC has argued for months that S. 1789 would fail to preserve the long-term viability of the Postal Service because it embraces the downsizing plans of Postmaster General Pat Donahoe. Today, by voting against an amendment offered by Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) to preserve six-day delivery (by a vote of 56 to 43) and by voting to slash federal employee workers’ compensation benefits (by a vote of 53 to 46), the Senate has failed to improve a deeply flawed bill.
Senators ignored more than 25,000 phone calls from NALC members around the country Tuesday urging them to adopt these amendments. Now we have no choice now but to strongly oppose final passage of S. 1789, a vote on which is expected Wednesday in the Senate.
We cannot give up the fight for positive reform. So our first task must be to do everything we can defeat the 21st Century Postal Service Act when it comes up for a final vote tomorrow.
I urge you and every city letter carrier to call 1-888-863-6103 to be connected to your two senators’ offices. Tell your senators to vote “NO” on S. 1789. (If you have trouble getting through, call the Capitol Hill switchboard, 202-224-3121, and ask to be transferred to your senators.)
I know all of you share my deep disappointment with today’s action on the amendments. But we cannot let that disappointment diminish our energy or silence our voices. We must send a message to our representatives in the Senate that we cannot save the Postal Service by dismantling its greatest asset—the last-mile delivery network that our members make real every day. And no reform can justify the punitive workers’ compensation reforms shoe-horned into this bill.
We’ve been knocked down, but we have to get up right away and continue the fight.
Call 1-888-863-6103 and tell your senators to vote NO Wednesday on final passage of S. 1789.
Whatever happens tomorrow in the Senate, the fight to save America’s Postal service will go on. A bill doesn’t become law until both houses of Congress passes it and the president signs it.
We have a long battle ahead of us. If we stay together and mobilize all of our resources, we can prevail.
See below for how your senators voted.
NAPUS: Senate Begins Consideration of Postal Bill — Then Takes Intermission
Filed under: NAPUS, politics, postal, postal news, postal reform, usps
Today, the Senate cast votes on 15 of 40 amendments to S. 1789, the Lieberman-Collins-Carper-Brown postal relief bill. The legislative body will resume its voting tomorrow at 2:00 PM EDT. The proceedings may be viewed on CSPAN-2 or at www.senate.gov.
During the course of consideration, two amendments were withdrawn by their sponsors; most notably, Sen. John McCain elected not to offer SA 2001, his amendment that replicated H.R. 2309, the Issa-Ross postal bill. It is possible that McCain did not offer this amendment, since its defeat would “prejudice” consideration of the Issa-Ross bill in the House. However, McCain did offer an amendment to create a post office closing commission, SA 2033. Such a commission is included in H.R. 2309. The amendment was defeated by a whopping 30-69 vote, sending a clear message to House-advocates of such commission.
As anticipated, right out of the box, Senate Budget Committee Ranking Republican Jeff Sessions raised a budget point-of-order against the bill for violating last summer’s budget agreement. To waive this procedural roadblock required a 60-vote super-majority, which was achieved by a 62-37 vote. Senators Collins and Lieberman pointed out that the only reason that the bill “scored” was because unfair and arcane budget rules were applied to the postal bill. Had the 60 vote threshold not been attained, S. 1789 would been stillborn. Surviving the budget point of order could be a predictor of the outcome on final passage.
As series of post office protection amendments were adopted by voice votes, including NAPUS-promoted amendments SA 2031 (McCaskill-Merkley) and SA 2056 (Tester). SA 2031 includes a 1-year moratorium on post office closures.
Two amendments were proposed and defeated relating to delivery frequency. S. 1789, as drafted, would permit the USPS to move to 5-day delivery in 2 years. Sen. Tom Udall proposed an amendment (SA 2043) to maintain 6-day delivery; it was defeated on a 43-56 vote. And, Sen. Corker proposed an amendment (SA 2083) to implement 5-day delivery immediately; it was soundly defeated by a 29-70 vote.
Check in tomorrow evening/night for more updates, depending on when the Senate completes action.
via NAPUS