Postmasters: Action Needed to Oppose Efforts to Close Small Rural Post Offices
From the National League Of Postmasters:
Status: Urgent.
Issue: Fresh efforts are underway in Congress to close small rural post offices. These efforts encompass not only eliminating existing statutory protections against closing small rural post offices solely for operating at a deficit, but also eliminating the Postal Service’s statutory mandate to provide a maximum degree of effective and regular postal services to rural areas, communities, and small towns where post offices are not self-sustaining. There is also talk of a post office closing Commission, designed to close thousands of post offices. These efforts tend to focus on post offices as retail facilities and generally ignore the role post offices play in the distribution system.
League Position: The League strongly opposes these efforts.
Action Requested:
1. Recruit Local Civic Leaders to contact your Senators and Congressman and urge them to oppose efforts to close small rural post offices.
Please have your local leaders—such as County Commissioners, Mayors, Council Members, Community Development Chairs, Small Business leaders, etc.—explain why small rural post offices are critical to the economic, cultural, and social well being of your rural community. Please have them explain all that small rural post offices do beyond the mere provision of postal services. Having hundreds or even thousands of
government bodies passing resolutions that oppose closing their local post offices would be most helpful. Send them to you Congressmen and Senators.
2. Add your voice to those contacts going to your Senators and Congressmen opposing the closing of small post offices.
Facts and Arguments: The cost of all small rural Post Offices is roughly seven-tenths of one percent (7/10s of 1 percent) of the Postal Service’s budget. You and your leaders know why your post offices are important to the community. Please have them tell Congress, and have them do so very loud, very clear, and very soon. See our League Position Paper for further information and talking points.
National League Of Postmasters
The League takes Postmasters working condition issues to Congress
Issue:The Abusive Treatment Of Postmasters And The Inefficient And Ineffective Post Office Management Practices Of Upper Level USPS Managers
Mr John Potter
Postmaster General
US Postal Service RM 10022
475 l’Enfant Plaza, SW
Washington, DC 20260
Dear Mr. Potter,
This letter will serve to inform you of our intention to take our Postmaster issues to Congress. These are the
same issues over which the National league of Postmasters has been unsuccessfully attempting to positively
engage the Postal Service for the last 3 X years. You know the issues; they include Postmasters putting in
horribly long work weeks due to the Postal Service’s failure to properly staff supervisors, clerks and carriers
and to properly budget work hours, the caustic workplace environment in many districts, a failed pay for
performance system, and the Postal Service’s failure to fill level 16 and below Postmaster positions. Manyof
your Postmasters have reached the point of physical and mental exhaustion, their health and personal lives
jeopardized. These are dedicated, loyal, professional Postmasters who deserve better from the organization to
which they’ve given their all. We are hopeful that we can get to a place with the Postal Service where we can make some meaningful progress on our Postmaster issues.
The league of Postmasters knows full well of the financial challenges that continue to face the Postal Service,
but that cannot be used as an excuse for the poor treatment of your Postmasters, especially in light of the fact that most of our issues began before the Postal Service fell into the economic downturn..
read remainder of letter here
Postmasters Say USPS Management Styles Are Like Some Banana Republic Dictators
Excerpts from National League Postmasters President Charley Mapa:
I just returned from the LEAGUE’S Western Area II meeting held in Kansas City Missouri. In the thick of times when the constant message of the Postal Service is doom and woe, here was a group of LEAGUE Postmasters gathered to do the things that the LEAGUE does so well; train, brainstorm, problem solve, network, train some more and take time to have fun!….Where the Postal Service seems to spend an inordinate amount of time in some districts tearing Postmasters down and humiliating them, LEAGUE Postmasters gathered to support one another and build one another up. There was no Area VP, no district manager, and no POOM. The entire atmosphere of the conference was refreshingly positive.
I don’t want to make the 3 day meeting sound like some it was a modern day Postmasters’ Woodstock love fest, for it was not. Serious issues were discussed, issues like the future of an NPA/PFP program that might have lost its effectiveness, districts hounding Postmasters for having the courage to stand up for other Postmasters, districts whose management styles reflect something more in tune with some Banana Republic Dictators than with what should be expected of Public Servants treating their managers with respect, dealing with the threat of a Postal Service turning its back on the American people by wholesale closings of post offices and the constant shifting of workload from hardworking clerks, carriers and supervisors to the backs of Postmasters. Read more
Postmasters League No Longer Support USPS Voice Of Employee Survey
Last week the National League of Postmasters President Charley Mapa sent the following letter to its members:
Dear Leaguers,
Recently your National Board met and decided that the League would no longer support the VOE survey. While the intent behind the survey may be good, the fact of the matter is that the work situation for Postmasters continues to deteriorate.
In so many districts dignity and respect for PMs have ceased to exist. The Postal Service deliberately does not staff in order to pile workhours on to Postmasters. Reports and logs continue to proliferate, thereby stretching a long day into a longer day. Discipline for trivial reasons continues and micromanagement reduces Postmasters to mindless robots.
You may not be suffering personally from any of these situations, but thousands of Postmasters nationwide are. I urge you, in support of Postmasters everywhere, to simply not fill out the survey. This is one report that you are not required to complete.
Please spread the word; the more of us who refuse to participate, the louder our voice of the employee will be.
Respectfully,
Charley Mapa
President
National League of Postmasters
5904 Richmond Hwy Ste 500
Alexandria VA 22303
703.329.4550