APWU: Movement on Maintenance Craft Jobs Memo
Finally!
Finally, we have some movement in the Maintenance Craft on implementation of key provisions the 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement! On Feb. 1, 2012, President Cliff Guffey and postal management signed a Questions-and-Answers document [PDF] regarding specific sections of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Maintenance Craft Jobs. The document does not address all outstanding items, but resolves items 1a, 1b, 1c, 2 and 3 of the Jobs Memo.
Under the terms of the Q-and-A document, the Postal Service must return custodial duties to stations, branches and other facilities of an independent installation no later than May 23, 2012. Read more
CRS: The USPS’s Financial Condition: Overview and Issues for Congress
Below is a summary from The Congressional Research Service’s report on “The U.S. Postal Service’s Financial Condition:Overview and Issues for Congress”
This report provides an overview of the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS’s) financial condition,legislation enacted to alleviate the USPS’s financial challenges, and possible issues for the 112th Congress. It also includes a side-by-side comparison of two of the postal reform bills, H.R. 2309 and S. 1789.
Since 1971, the USPS has been a self-supporting government agency that covers its operating costs with revenues generated through the sales of postage and related products and services.
In recent years, the USPS has experienced significant financial challenges. After running modest profits from FY2004 through FY2006, the USPS lost $25.4 billion between FY2007 and FY2011.Were it not for congressional action, the USPS would have lost an additional $9.5 billion. Read more
Democrats Oppose Additional Cuts to Federal Pay and Benefits
17 Members of Congress call on Conference Committee to Oppose Salary or Retirement Security Cuts, Citing Previous Sacrifices
Washington, DC – Congressman Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, led 17 Members of Congress today in urging the conference committee considering legislation to extend the payroll tax cut through 2012 to oppose any additional cuts to the pay or benefits of Federal employees.
“Federal workers have already made significant sacrifices to help reduce our government’s budget deficit,” the Members wrote. “Subjecting these dedicated public servants to additional pay cuts and retirement benefit reductions in order to pay for such expenditures as a payroll tax cut for all middle class Americans is unfair and illogical, particularly as the vast majority of federal workers are middle-income earners as well. Such cuts would also impede the federal government’s efforts to recruit and retain the best and brightest individuals.” Read more
AFGE Statement on Federal Employee Retirement Hearing
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2012 – American Federation of Government Employees National President John Gage today issued the following statement in response to the congressional hearing on federal employees’ retirement security before the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on the federal workforce, U.S. Postal Service and labor policy:
“Congress created the Federal Employees Retirement System in the mid-1980s to mirror leading private sector practices. The vast majority of a federal employee’s retirement income comes from personal investments in the government’s 401(k) plan and mandatory payments into Social Security. Federal employees also receive a very modest pension that provides an average of $939 a month when they retire. As NARFE Director of Retirement Benefit Services David Snell so eloquently stated in his testimony before the subcommittee, ‘federal employees are not retiring rich.’ Read more
Legislative Attacks On Federal Retirement Compensation Is Based On Misguided Assumptions
STATEMENT BY DAVID B. SNELL
DIRECTOR OF RETIREMENT BENEFITS SERVICES
NATIONAL ACTIVE AND RETIRED FEDERAL EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION
ON BEHALF OF THE MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS OF THE FEDERAL-POSTAL COALITION
note: Full testimony below
Unfortunately, recent legislative proposals have sought to unravel this basic bargain, unfairly singling out middle class federal employees for disproportionate sacrifice. Last month, the House passed legislation (H.R. 3630) that would use cuts to federal retirement compensation of middle class federal and postal workers to pay for a payroll tax holiday. It would offset over half of the cost of the holiday ($65 billion over ten years out of a $121 billion cost3) on the backs of less than 2 percent of the nation’s workforce.4 This would add financial strain on top of the prospect of job loss through the sequestration process mandated by the debt ceiling agreement and the more than $60 billion that the federal government has already saved by freezing federal employee pay for the past two years, which itself has permanently diminished long-term annuities for recent retirees.
Attacks Based on Misguided Assumptions
The legislative attacks on federal employee retirement compensation seem to derive from: (i) the misguided assumption that most private sector 401(k) retirement plans provide adequate retirement income security – they do not; (ii) the related assumption that federal retirement benefits are overly generous – they are not; and (iii) the questionable opinion that instead of pursuing policies that would improve private sector retirement income security, Congress should pursue policies that diminish federal retirement income security – it should not. Read more
Rep. Lynch: Hearing On Reducing Retirement Benefits is Really Attack On Federal Workers
Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., on Wednesday introduced a bill that would increase how much federal employees pay toward their retirement and steeply reduce pensions for new employees.
HR 3813, the Securing Annuities for Federal Employees Act, would raise contributions for current Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) employees by 0.5 percentage points per year for three years, beginning in 2013. This would make FERS employees contribute 2.3 percent of each paycheck toward their pensions, and require an 8.5 percent contribution from CSRS employees.
The bill would eliminate the so-called FERS annuity supplement for new retirees beginning in 2013, except for employees facing mandatory retirement such as air traffic controllers. Today, FERS employees who retire before reaching age 62 receive a supplement equal to the Social Security benefit they will be eligible for once they reach age 62. Read more
House GOP rejects 2-month payroll tax cut
Temper Tantrum on Capitol Hill
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress lurched toward Grinch-like gridlock on Tuesday as the Republican-controlled House rejected a two-month extension of Social Security tax cuts that President Barack Obama said was “the only viable way” to prevent a drop in take-home pay for 160 million workers on Jan. 1.
“The clock is ticking, time is running out,” Obama said shortly after House voted 229-193 to request negotiations with the Senate on renewing the payroll tax cuts for a year.
House Speaker John Boehner, told that Obama had sought his help, replied, “I need the president to help out.” His voice rose as he said it, and his words were cheered by dozens of Republicans lawmakers who have pushed him and the rest of the leadership to pursue a more confrontational strategy with Democrats and the White House in an already contentious year of divided government.
This time, it wasn’t a partial government shutdown or even an unprecedented Treasury default that was at stake, but the prospect that payroll taxes would rise and long-term unemployment benefits end for millions of jobless victims of the worst recession since the 1930s. Read more
NALC: Congress postpones USPS pre-funding payment for 8-months
Over the weekend, Congress approved an omnibus spending bill to keep the government operating through September that included a provision to again move the deadline for the Postal Service’s 2011 future retiree health benefits pre-funding payment for another eight months, to August. The spending measure also included language to keep the Postal Service delivering mail six days a week, rather than slashing service when the Postal Service needs to grow.
NALC applauds Congress and President Obama for acting swiftly, for avoiding partisan bickering and for not shutting the government down. We are enthusiastic that Congress chose not to make unwise decisions that could bankrupt the Postal Service.
While this bill is a temporary victory, Congress can still take legislative action through other bills next year to shutter post offices, end Saturday delivery and layoff hundreds of thousands of valuable employees.
So NALC’s work is far from over. As members of the House and Senate plan to move legislation that would damage the Postal Service, they seem thus far uninterested in addressing the unique and unfair burden that they created in 2006: that the Postal Service pre-fund its future retiree health benefits.
source: NALC Activist Alert
Opinion: Congressmen Issa-Ross Ignores 226 of their colleagues on Postal Reform legislation
Opinion by William Stevens:
The United States Postal Service has been vilified by the private sector of our country. Deficit reduction is the order of the day and some politicians are misinforming the citizens of the country into thinking the Postal Service is bankrupt and contributing to our deficit. House Resolution 2309 “The Postal Reform Act” introduced by Rep. Issa, R-Cal., and co-sponsored by Rep. Ross, D-Fla., is a point in question. It is important to know these gentlemen chair the Oversight Committee and determine what is placed on the floor of the House for debate. House Bill 1351 is co-sponsored by 202 Republicans and Democrats alike; Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick, R-8, is a co-sponsor as well as a co-sponsor of HR137. The problem arises when two gentlemen can disregard the feelings of 202 of their colleagues. They alone establish what comes out of committee for debate on the floor of the House of Representatives. That is correct, HR 1351, co-sponsored by 202 members of Congress, will stay in committee, while HR 2309 sponsored by one member of Congress is on a fast track to be presented on the floor of the House.
Full story: Phillyburbs.com – Postal Service is not bankrupt, and it is not funded with tax money
PostCom: White House pressuring Congress to insert postal legislation into Super Committee package
Filed under: Congress, politics, postal, postal news, usps, white house
From Postcom
“Word has it that the authorizers in both the Senate and the House are under pressure from the White House – and even from elements of their own Leaderships – to provide a package of postal legislation that can be inserted into the Super Committee package that is now being negotiated – including the President’s proposal to enact the exigency rate increase”
PostCom: Postal News and Information from Around the World