Category: News

NAPS/USPS Consultative Meeting Minutes – October 18, 2012

1. NAPS would like to be briefed on the projected Plant closings and consolidations now under development for 2013 and 2014. We would like to be provided with a spreadsheet that shows all changes and the Plants that will be gaining the workload from the closing or consolidations of workload in Processing & Distribution.

USPSResponse: The report is under development and the USPS will give to NAPS when available. It is constantly changing. NAPS is requesting an updated list, but nothing has been finalized.

NAPS understands things are in flux, but local management is telling members they are impacted, but we need to know if the USPS is looking or not looking at a plant. NAPS stated it would be good to know the plants involved to let our members know if their facility is under review. We have had instances where members are called in with EAP present, but not sure what is happening. Then members find out it is a restructure. There are facilities that are not closing but the structure is changing, so they are starting a RIF on the staffing changes, though the facility is not closing or consolidating.

USPS Response: A person who is officially impacted will be notified with a General RIF letter on November 6, 2012. In addition, the originally “potentially impacted” list of EAS was 3,029. USPS stated that there is no prohibition to take laterals, from impacted or non-impacted EAS.
 

2. NAPS would like an update on the implementation of EAS restructuring in the Network Distribution Centers. Although our briefings have indicated that the plan has been approved for implementation, we are being advised that the changes that are involved in the restructuring have not been implemented in the field.

USPS Response: The NDC changes were implemented on the same time line as the Plant Consolidations. USPS made all organizational changes on the NDC’s. The USPS went over the process and timeline with all NDC parties involved.

NAPS stated that there are Operation Support Specialists (OSS’s) in NDC’s that have not been told they are impacted or where they are to report. Though USPS HQ’s work appears to be done, the field it is not accomplishing their work. Nothing is being done in the NDCs to help impacted EAS be placed.

Click here for full Consultative Meeting Minutes.

No new buyouts on Postal Service horizon

No new buyouts on Postal Service horizon

federalnewsradiologo

 

Thursday – 11/8/2012, 8:10am ET

By Julia Ziegler
Federal News Radio                                                                                                             

After three separate buyouts in 2012, the U.S. Postal Service says it has no plans for any new offers in the foreseeable future.

“Right now, we have all our plans in place,” Anthony Vegliante, the agency’s chief human resources officer, told Federal News Radio. “So I don’t see anything other than to focus on completing, making the transition, and getting our employees in the right place.”

In an exclusive interview on Federal News Radio’s Agency of the Month show, Vegliante said he expects the number of buyouts taken by Postal Service employees to total 23,000 – 27,000 by the end of January.

He said 4,200 postmasters accepted buyouts after an offer released in May, while 3,000 were accepted by mail handlers under an agreement with the National Postal Mail Handlers Union. In October, USPS put another buyout on the table for approximately 115,000 members of the American Postal Workers Union. Vegliante said he expects 16,000 – 20,000 employees to take that offer.

If the projections hold, the Postal Service’s career workforce will drop to about 500,000 employees by the beginning of 2013 — its lowest level since 1966.

While the agency has no more plans for buyouts in the near future, it does plan to continue shrinking the size of its workforce. The agency has said it would like to have closer to 400,000 employees by 2016. In addition to the 25,000 – 30,000 people who retire each year due to normal attrition, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said he expects to lose another 35,000 – 40,000 employees if the agency moves to five-day delivery. Congress, however, has yet to pass the legislation needed to allow that.

Vegliante said the number of buyouts has allowed the Postal Service to avoid reductions in force, known as RIFs, for the most part.

       buyoutphoto

“The fact that we’ve RIF’d very few people is because we have a rigorous RIF- avoidance process, meaning we offer voluntary early retirements, we offer incentives, we offer the opportunity for people to move to other jobs and other locations. … When you get voluntary participation versus forced participation things go a lot smoother. People get choice, which we’re fine with people having choices.”

While jobs are being cut due to consolidation throughout the agency, Vegliante said USPS is doing everything it can to take care of its employees who aren’t ready to leave the Postal Service.

“In our collective bargaining process, we have a provision, which we implement, which allows us to reassign people to other facilities doing the same work or to other crafts doing different work within their own and other facilities. So, we have a pretty well-established process where we move people around to where the work is.”

Despite the significant drop in the size of its workforce, Vegliante said the Postal Service is still getting its job done.

“I don’t really have a concern about work falling between the cracks. And the reason I say that is because the Postal Service is probably at an all-time high of delivery service to its customers,” Vegliante said. “Our customer satisfaction measurements are all increasing. Our productivity has been solid for the last decade. … I believe we have the management team in place, the processes which keep us focused on what’s important. Obviously, at the end of the day, service to the customers and the indicators are what tell you whether you’re doing good or bad.”

Employee Reaction

Vegliante said employees understand USPS needs to make changes in order to deal with declining mail volume and how Americans are now utilizing the Postal Service.

“People are telling us, ‘We understand what’s going on. We understand the need to do certain things. We need to do it.’ I can appreciate that because if you’re the one that’s subject to change, once you understand it, once you accept it, you want it to happen.”

However, Vegliante said, he also recognizes that change isn’t easy.

“Any time you change, people perceive it to be unnecessary. There’s an old adage, ‘The only person who likes change is the one who thought of it.’ You have to overcome that.”

That’s especially true if that change means a job reassignment in a new location with different work hours.

“It’s not going to make [me] happy if I work 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. four blocks from where I live and now I have to work 3:30 p.m. to 12 a.m., 20 miles away. I don’t have a fix for that. But, the one thing I’m very comfortable with, we always have been able to find jobs for our employees.”

Priorities

In addition to overseeing the consolidation of the Postal Service’s workforce and keeping an eye on labor costs, Vegliante said he is also focused on the agency’s succession planning initiatives.

“One of my most important tasks this past year and going forward into the future is leadership, talent and development,” Vegliante said. “We have a lot of people in higher-level positions that are closer to the end of their career than they are the beginning of their career. Not that any particular person is going to leave, but you want a strong bench, you want people ready to step up.”

Vegliante, himself, has been with the Postal Service for more than 30 years. He began his career as a distribution clerk in New Haven, Conn., in 1978. In 2010, he was named a fellow at the National Academy of Human Resources — the first public sector employee ever to be given the distinction. According to the organization’s website, fellows are those who “have made sustained and exemplary contributions to the broad field of human resources and to their organizations and communities” and “have played a substantial role in shaping human resource management thinking and policy.”

 

Copyright © 2012 by Federal News Radio. All rights reserved.

The New York Times – Free the Post Office!

OP-ED COLUMNIST

Free The Post Office!

By JOE NOCERA
848
5/19/2012
The New York Times
English
Copyright 2012 The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.

 

In the short run, it’s not all that difficult to figure out how to stanch the bleeding at the United States Postal Service.

True, its losses seem downright scary. In just the first half of this year, it reported losses of $6.5 billion, more than double the loss for the first two quarters of 2011. That’s on top of the $25 billion it has lost over the past five years — not to mention the $21 billion it expects to lose by the year 2016 if nothing changes.

On the other hand, its pension is overfunded to the tune of around $11 billion. It is also required by law to make an annual payment of nearly $5.5 billion to prepay for health benefits for future retirees, a mandate imposed on no other company — or government agency — in America. Simply ending that onerous prefunding requirement and reclaiming the excess pension money would go a long way toward shrinking the losses.

It could also close money-losing rural post offices and outsource the work to the local general store. It could shrink its work force. It could end Saturday delivery. It could raise prices, which are among the lowest in the world. It could take steps, in other words, to get its costs under control, just like any other business grappling with red ink.

Even over the long haul, the Postal Service isn’t necessarily doomed to oblivion, as many critics believe. Everyone understands the basic problem: thanks to the rise of the Internet, first-class mail is in inexorable decline. Yet the Postal Service still generates more than $60 billion in annual revenue, and if you strip away the prefunding requirement, its ongoing operating losses are not crushing — at least not yet. Other businesses with a declining core product have been able to change business models and come roaring back. There is no good reason the post office couldn’t do likewise.

So why hasn’t it? The easy temptation is to blame the lack of progress on the unimaginative bureaucrats who run it, or on shortsighted unions. But that’s not really where the fault lies. With the aid of Evercore Partners, a respected Wall Street boutique, the Postal Service has put together a five-year plan that includes many of the above-mentioned steps, and offers a credible route to profitability.

The unions, meanwhile, aren’t shying away from acknowledging that the work force will have to shrink. ”Of course, you have to cut costs,” said Ron Bloom, a former Obama administration official who is advising the postal unions. ”That is not debatable” — though he also stressed the importance of finding new revenue.

Rather, the problem is that neither the management nor the workers really control the Postal Service. Even though the post office has been self-financed since the 1980s, it remains shackled by Congress, which simply can’t bring itself to allow the service to make its own decisions. It was Congress that insanely imposed the prefunding requirement in 2006. Laws restrict the post office’s ability to raise prices and cut costs. Over the years, when the post office wanted to get into new businesses, it was often prevented from doing so by Congress.

Even now, with a crisis approaching — the Postal Service simply doesn’t have the money to make the next prefunding payment, which is due in August — Congress can’t stop meddling.

Last year, the post office announced an ambitious cost-cutting plan, including the closure of 3,700 rural post offices, for potential savings of $6.5 billion. The Senate reacted by insisting on a six-month moratorium, during which it was supposed to come up with a bill that would fix the problems. It passed the bill, all right — one that grudgingly gives the post office a bit more wiggle room but also continues to tie its hands in a hundred different ways. (It does, however, eliminate the prefunding requirement.)

A parallel House bill, which has not yet reached the floor, would allow for rural post office closings — but only after they’d been vetted by a commission, similar to the way Congress allows the military to close bases. Meanwhile, the Postal Service is doing what it can. Last week, it unveiled a rural post office strategy that would only save it $500 million, and, just a few days ago, it said it would begin consolidating its big mail-processing centers. But, without legislation, there are severe limits to what it can do to save itself.

There is nothing ideological about fixing the post office. It’s not like the debt ceiling. The Internet notwithstanding, the country still needs a viable Postal Service. What is mainly required is for Congress to get out of the way and allow it to begin truly operating like a real business.

And if it can’t? If Congress can’t do this one, nonpartisan thing, then it’s worth asking whether it can do anything at all.

Candidacy Letter

                                                                                                                                                           March 8, 2012

NAPS Branch Presidents
Northeast Area

Dear Branch & State Presidents,

I would like to let the leaders of the Northeast Area know that I will again be seeking your support to serve as your Northeast Region Vice President for the next 2 years at our upcoming National Convention in Reno Nevada.

It does not seem possible that 12 years has gone by since I first asked for your support in advance of the 2000 National Convention in Alaska. In the past 12 years we have been through a lot together and I hope that you have been satisfied with the work I have done representing the members of the Northeast Region.

In addition to providing you with representation and support during my tenure, I have developed highly successful training seminars held in various locations in New York State, Boston, and Puerto Rico to make sure you have the tools to represent your members. I have gone to bat for you at the Area office and USPS Headquarters to resolve the problems our members have with the Postal Service.

I want to continue to bring my many years of experience to bear for the members of NAPS for the next two years as we work together to maintain our quality of life, both at work and at home. We are indeed in difficult times, and in these times you need someone who has been there, in the tough times-someone who works every day, just like you do, someone who knows the problems that our members face.

I look forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming State Conventions where we can share our current issues and work towards solutions I have set up the best communication network any Regional Vice President could have in order to get you the latest news regarding the changing times in the Postal Service.

NAPS in the Northeast Area is the best- because of you! I would appreciate your consideration and support for my candidacy to return as your Northeast Region Vice President.

Sincerely yours,

Thomas Roma
Northeast Region Vice President NAPS.

NAPS/USPS Consultative Meeting Minutes – January 4, 2012

1. NAPS request a briefing on all aspects of mail scanning. We have received inquiries from our members on several issues that involve scanning including the practice of entering missing scans and scanning mail as attempted when it remains in the delivery unit at the end of the day.

NAPS would like to have an expert from delivery available at the meeting to provide an explanation of the entire cycle of scanning from acceptance through to delivery, attempted delivery, entering data for missed scans and return to sender and for the representative from management to be able to respond to any follow-up questions. NAPS would also like to be provided with any documents that pertain to scanning.

USPS Response: The Postal Service explained the scanning process; from acceptance to delivery, including en-route scans. USPS is now using ring-scanners in some plant and customer service operations. The Postal Service provided NAPS with scanning procedures dated August 2011.

According to USPS HQ, there are only two reasons for a manual scans—one is a scanner malfunction at time of delivery and the other is when a scanner is not present for a scanning event. There should be no other reason for entering manual scans other than for these two purposes.

Scans are important to the external customer for tracking visibility and internally for the USPS to show how packages are moving through the processing and delivery network. The Postal Service wants scans to provide accurate information at every part of the shipments journey. If a scan is missed in the process the USPS would rather have a missing scan than bad/inaccurate scanning information. Although there are parts of the country that place a great deal of emphasis and time into completing missed scans, the Postal Service at the headquarters level does not count or credit manual scans as a success. Therefore, there is no credit for manual scans in scanning performance and manual scans do not increase performance measurement.

Missed Scan Report – IMS Assistant – pieces not scanned. For pieces that are time/date sensitive it is important to get a scan. The intention of IMS Report is to see if carriers/clerks are scanning correctly. The intent of the report was not for the field to go back and input scans missed by the carrier/clerk. Manual input of scans does not count toward scanning performance, but “keyed” entries do.

IMS Assistant was to give responsibility to a specific carrier and identify scanning issues of employees. The IMS Assistant was a tracking tool. It was never intended nor should it be used as a disciplinary tool.

The field is using a lot of unnecessary extra hours having employees scan packages to generate the IMS Report and for the manager to review and then correct IMS Report for missed scans. We were advised that there is now under development the next generation of scanners that will pilot a “smart phone” for real-time scanning. Smart-phone won’t use the laser but a picture of the barcode for tracking.

Download complete Consultative Meeting Minutes here.

The Postal Service lies to the people of the Bronx

OpEdNews

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Postal-Service-lies-to-by-Chuck-Zlatkin-120103-433.html
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Associate Member, or higher).

________________________________________

January 4, 2012

The Postal Service lies to the people of the Bronx

By Chuck Zlatkin

The United States Postal Service is planning to close thousands of post offices and hundreds of mail processing centers all over the nation. As part of this process public hearings are held. The author attended a number of these hearings in the Bronx in this capacity as the legislative and political director of the the New York Metro Area Postal Union.

::::::::

In May, the Postal Service held a hearing on the ending of mail processing at Bronx GPO. It was supposed to be the chance that residents, churches, business and cultural institutions would have to comment on the impact that the closing as detailed in the Bronx AMP would have on them. Postal management failed to notify the community sufficiently that the hearing was taking place. As reported in The Union Mail, the Postal Service contracted for the use of the Pregones Theater, which has a seating capacity of 130. The Bronx has a population of 1.3 million people. The Postal Service knew that it had done a lousy job of promoting the meeting, no need to book the 367-seat theater at Hostos Community College a few blocks away.

At the meeting, the community voiced its fears that the ending of mail processing in the Bronx would delay the mail for everyone in the Bronx. The Postal Service argued that there would be no change in mail delivery. The Postal Service cited the short distance between Bronx GPO and Morgan as the main reason there would be no negative impact. They lied.

The Postal Service said that the Bronx AMP was going to be implemented primarily to save money. When mail processing operations were shut down at Bronx GPO in October, chaos ruled. Morgan was not prepared to handle the influx of mail that was now descending upon it following the change. Trucks were backed up on Ninth Avenue waiting to find a space, truck bays were filled with trucks waiting to be unloaded, transportation platforms were saturated with mail and equipment. Too few employees were there to handle the work. Overtime was everywhere. There weren’t enough drivers to handle the new schedule; motor vehicle operators were getting penalty overtime on a regular basis. In addition to that, the Postal Service had to be paying for a lot more gasoline.

When you consider that everyone who was excessed from Bronx GPO would have a job with the USPS somewhere and you add in the cost of overtime and gasoline, you see clearly that when the USPS said they would save money by ending mail processing operations in the Bronx, the Postal Service lied.

The Postal Service’s next move against the Bronx was to “study” the closing of 17 post offices in the borough. 50% of the post offices to close in New York City would be in the Bronx, one of the two boroughs that had a population that was growing.

The Postal Service is required to hold hearings to get input from communities before it decides to close a post office. The Postal Service scheduled hearings and then sent out notices of the hearings obscured in a hard-to-read mailer instead of using an easy to read and cheaper post card. People received the notices a day or two before the hearing, if they received them at all.

The inconvenient venues selected by the Postal Service, make it difficult for impacted communities to attend. The University Heights station hearing was held at Bronx GPO, two miles away. The Postal Service knows better than anyone that the people who most depend upon its services are the elderly, the disabled, the poor, and small business owners. But despite the attempt to keep these people away from the hearings they continue to come. Yes, there were seniors and disabled people at the University Heights hearing. What wasn’t at the hearing was a translator. In addition to sending out the hard-to-read notices, the Postal Service only sends them in English, even in communities that predominantly speak other languages. Julio Pabon, President of the South Bronx Community Association helped his Spanish-speaking neighbors by translating for them as a volunteer. At the end of the hearing, he told Postal management that they should be ashamed of themselves for not providing translation, and that he should submit a bill to them. At the next hearing for Stadium station, also held at Bronx GPO, the Postal Service provided a translator.

Getting Community Input?

The Postal Service is supposedly holding these hearings to get community input as part of the decision-making process. It is 2011, block associations, church groups, political clubs record their meetings using audio or video, not the Postal Service. Most public hearings use a stenographer to take minutes for the record, not the Postal Service. No, the Postal Service has someone taking notes, not using a laptop, but by longhand. And what if you want to see a copy of the minutes submitted as the official record? “File a freedom of information request” was the answer to that question by LaTrayer Sumter-Moreau, Discontinuance Coordinator for the Postal Service.

Incompetence or disrespect?

But something unusual happened, even for the Postal Service, at the hearing on December 15, 2011 at the Hunts Point Recreational Center where the “discontinuance” hearing for the Hunts Point post office was taking place. There was Postmaster Howard Sample flanked by a number of postal managers. There were more people from every aspect of the Hunts Point Community wanting to speak than there were chairs for them. There were TV cameras from Bronx Channel 12 and NY1 and reporters from the Amsterdam News and The Chief. There was the postmaster’s opening remarks followed by dozens of impassioned pleas for the maintenance of the Hunts Point Station. There was someone ready to translate if necessary. There was one thing missing: someone taking notes!

With no record of this hearing, there is no input from the community in the decision-making process, making this the biggest lie of all.

The Postal Service announced a moratorium on postal closing until May 20, 2012

This article originally appeared in the January 2011 edition of The Union Mail.


Submitters Bio:

Chuck Zlatkin is the Legislative and Political Director of the New York Metro Area Postal Union, APWU, AFL-CIO.

Civilian Service Recognition Act of 2011 – a Thank You

Dear Mr. Killackey:

This morning, President Obama signed the Civil Service Recognition Act of 2011 into law. This step could never have been achieved without your help.

When we began our effort to ensure that an American flag is provided to the next of kin of every federal civil servant who is killed in the line of duty, we knew that we would need broad support. In short, we had what we thought was a great idea, but great ideas are not enough. It takes dedicated people and their energy and hard work to turn ideas into reality. Thank you for being one of those people.

As you know, the legislation passed both Houses of Congress without a dissenting vote. Your timely letters, the support of the National Association of Postal Supervisors and your leadership, and your personal commitment to do the right thing for civil servants who make the ultimate sacrifice for their country were a joy for us to witness.

We have always believed that this nation’s federal workers represent the very best in America in their traditions of serving with honor and excellence. Thank you so much for helping us recognize them for their devotion to the nation.

We wish you the very best this holiday season and in the coming year. We know that many others benefit as well from your wonderful work. We’re proud and thankful to count ourselves among those fortunate to have your help.

Sincerely,

Robert Gest III and Terry Newell


Response:

Robert and Terry,

I was more than glad to offer my assistance in your efforts to provide proper recognition to federal employees who give their lives in service to our country. I was more than happy to intercede with the organizations that were objecting to your worthwhile cause.

Once I explained what the meaning of your bill was, the organizations seemed more than willing to change their objections and now federal civilian and law enforcement authorities who make the ultimate sacrifice for our country (and their families) will be recognized accordingly. You have made my day by sharing this news with me.

Merry Christmas!

Jay Killackey
Executive Vice President
National Association of Postal Supervisors

Pay-for-Performance, Fiscal Year 2011, End-of-Year Rating

The economic downturn and unprecedented weather conditions have contributed significantly to National Performance Assessment (NPA) ratings. The national corporate NPA score is a low contributor. Employees who worked diligently and contributed to the organizations performance may receive an end of year rating of 3 or less and a personal adjective rating of non-contributor. This may not be an accurate reflection of their work throughout the year.

Download complete letter here.

NAPS to Return to Pay Talks

Executive Board Members,

NAPS to Return to Pay Talks

December 8, 2011

The executive board of the National Association of Postal Supervisors voted today to accept the Postal Service’s offer to return to the table for an additional round of pay consultations. NAPS will continue their efforts to reach a new pay agreement that would cover over 28,000 active association member’s pay and benefits for the period from 2011 through 2014.

Prior consultative meetings with the Postal Service ended without an agreement on November 16, 2011. NAPS exercised their rights to request to enter Fact Finding, a statutory right they have within 39 USC Section 1004. The Postal Service made the offer to re-open pay consultations to NAPS on December 7th after a request had been made by the two other management associations to re-open pay talks.

President Atkins advised the membership of NAPS that the officers and executive board have considered all the factors involved in obtaining a fair and reasonable pay and benefit package for the members of NAPS and believed that continuing discussions would be advantageous at this time.

The new deadline for pay talks is January 27, 2012.

NAPS still maintains the right to invoke Fact Finding should the extended deliberations not be fruitful.

NAPS Headquarters