"...There will be an opportunity to those eligible to apply for a VERA to take a VERA with an effective date at the end of 2010.
The application process for obtaining a Maintenance position throughout the restructuring will be limited to EAS employees only. No craft employees will be allowed to apply for Maintenance positions until the restructuring is completed in December, 2010. All applications for positions must go through eCareer for processing – even laterals. ..."
"...the postal service is routinely falsifying employee clock rings, subjecting its employees to harassment, intimidation, and abuse, and forcing many of its employees to work between four and six hours a day without pay. Then, even though the Inspector General has documentation of the commission of a federal crimes in hand, the perpetrators are being allowed to walk away with impunity, and even promoted...."
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"...The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued the Postal Service $191,000 in fines for exposing employees to serious and repeat safety hazards at the Bulk Mail Center (BMC) in Kansas City, KS...."
"...Mail volume was up 0.9% year over year to 13.8 billion pieces. Of that, 13.7 billion pieces were handled by the USPS' mailing services unit...."
"...The USPS currently has LEED-certified post offices in Denver, Colo. and Southampton, N.Y., as well as mail processing centers in Greenville, S.C. and Troy, Mich. Other green building initiatives include implementing energy-efficient lighting and HVAC as well as solar photovoltaic systems and fuel cells...."
"...Subcontracting will be a topic of discussion when contract negotiations get underway next month, and will affect both drivers and mechanics, Pritchard said. The union’s goal will be to keep work in-house.
“The Postal Service is refusing to hire,” he noted. “We have always maintained that we give them a better product for less.”..."
"...Burrus reminded delegates that the next round of contract negotiations is set to begin just days after the conclusion of the convention, and said the union’s goals are to restrict excessing, gain access to information from the Postal Service without cost, win more opportunities for upward mobility, limit subcontracting, and increase wages.
While 2010 bargaining will be difficult, Burrus assured delegates that the union expects to achieve more gains in these negotiations.
“We expect a contract that adequately rewards members for maintaining the best postal system in the world.”..."
"...Accused of selling crack cocaine on his route, Bagarozzi..."
"...The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) slammed the Postal Service with $350,000 in fines for exposing employees to electrical safety hazards at the Portsmouth, NH Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC)...."
"... The APWU is asking union members to boycott USPS “Voice of the Employee” surveys in order to prevent management from manipulating the results to undercut the union during upcoming contract negotiations.
The results of the survey are likely to be misrepresented by the Postal Service in an effort to reduce employee wages and benefits, APWU Director of Industrial Relations Greg Bell wrote in an Aug. 6 letter to local and state union presidents...."
"...withdraw flawed management orders and instructions regarding safe electrical work practices. “The Department of Labor motion to consolidate the cases would merge these similar complaints so that the result of any litigation or, settlement discussions would be applied to every postal facility where APWU members are exposed to electrical hazards,” said Greg Bell, APWU Director of Industrial Relations. “It would provide a uniform remedy and prevent the Postal Service and OSHA from negotiating separate, individual settlements at different locations.”..."
"...relief may come with the proposed price increase for mail delivery requested in July, which would raise the price of a first-class stamp from 44 cents to 46 cents. The post office says the proposed increase, which would go into affect on Jan. 2, 2011, would raise $2.3 billion during its first nine months...."
"... In their ongoing effort to shift wealth to the richest Americans...continually attack the pay and benefits earned by average workers. Over the past 20 years, the transfer of wealth has been dramatic. Despite significant increases in productivity, workers’ real wages have declined, while salaries, bonuses, dividends and “golden parachutes” for executives have skyrocketed.A recent glaring example was the demand that auto workers agree to lower their wages — which were established over 50 years of often turbulent struggle..."
"...A man charged with stabbing a supervisor at a bulk mail center has been denied bond. ..."
If you are looking for more information on the National Reassessment Process, take a look at this forum and view
"...Post Office worker delivering mail noticed some boys gathered around the device. He took the device in order to keep the boys from danger, brought it to the Welch Post Office..."
"...While it might seem logical that the unions’ opposition to five-day-delivery is motivated by job preservation, Smith said most contracts include language preventing employee layoffs. Union members were given that assurance in exchange for their not being allowed to strike, he said...."
"...The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers
(CPI-W) increased 1.4 percent over the last 12 months to an index
level of 213.839 (1982-84=100). For the month, the index fell 0.1 percent prior to seasonal adjustment...."
"...A fire department spokesman says six postal workers had to be decontaminated Sunday after an unknown substance spilled out of a parcel at the U.S. Postal Service’s Bulk Mail Distribution Center...."
"...post office employee who vanished at work and turned up dead at a dump hours later ..."
"..."instead of reducing service from six to five days a week, the Postal Service ought to be looking at a 24-hour model like the competition," Connolly said.
He said looking at creative ways of expanding customer service is how USPS will be able to stay competitive. ..."
"...FedEx and its voluble anti-union chairman, Fred Smith, have spent the past year attacking the proposal as a "brown bailout" for UPS and the Teamsters. FedEx, based in Memphis, has more than doubled its lobbying budget during the campaign, to about $1.5 million a month, disclosure records show. ..."
"...Under the proposed increases, in addition to the 46-cent rate for the first ounce, the cost for each additional ounce would go up a penny to 18 cents. The cost to mail a postcard would go up 2 cents to 30 cents...."
"...a mail-handler forklift operator. He worked in the same position until his last day of work Tuesday. "I've never really given it a thought (about retiring earlier), to be honest with you. My old supervisor would ask me, `Chester, when are you going to retire?' and I would tell her, `It's none of your business, you know," he said laughing. ..."
"...Shareen Wilson, 42, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and one count of theft of mail by a U.S. postal employee for her role in a scheme to steal ..."
"...“We expect management to make many concessionary demands,” Bell said. “But we must fight to improve the wages and working conditions of postal employees.” ..."
"...Cops quickly collared Barnett, a 10-year employee of the Postal Service, and charged him with assault, possession of a weapon and attempted murder...."
"...a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service based in Maine, said an “officer in charge” is an acting postmaster. “It’s the temporary head of that facility while there is a search going on for who will take over as the permanent postmaster of the facility,” he said...."
"...What are my best options for retiring at age 55? Also, would it still be to my advantage to buy back my military..."
"...“The USPS is anything but an anachronism on a slow march to oblivion. It is a national treasure that provides an immense and irreplaceable social service. … We must recognize that the Postal Service can and must remain public if we are to maintain the essential infrastructures of democracy.”..."
"..."All Huntsville Post Offices have (animal stamp) supplies in stock," Joseph Breckenridge of the U.S. Postal Service communications department for Alabama and the Florida panhandle wrote in an e-mail. "The stamps were flying out the door, but supply has now caught up with demand." ..."
"...Lane, based in Gaithersburg, visited the Dulles Processing and Distribution Center in Sterling on June 1 and allegedly argued with the center's manager, Kathleen J. Michaels. The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office responded to a 911 call at the building..."
"...Writing the court, a Seattle-based postal inspector said the U.S. Postal Inspection Service launched an investigation following a May 8 incident in which a postal employee's face was dusted with the white powder while handling Howe's letter to DeMint. Postal inspectors opened the letter two days later...."
"...Robin Quintin Parks, who was laid off from the U.S. Postal Service last December, went on a bizarre alcohol-induced shooting rampage from his car early Sunday morning in Lakeland, reports the Orlando Sentinel...."
"...The president of shipping and mailing services for the U.S. Postal Service, Bob Bernstock, will resign his position on June 4. Bernstock is currently under investigation for awarding about $5.8 million in no-bid contracts to his former business associates...."
Take a look at the FederalSoup forum (page 38) for the latest "early out retirement offer rumor" ...this one claims a July 2010 announcement. Additionally, the individual claims that the PMG was at their plant and spoke of it, along with other interesting information found in the post. Take a look!
Rumor
"... APWU President William Burrus has criticized a decision by the USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) to exclude postal unions from providing input into a recently-announced audit of postage workshare discounts. The OIG plans to interview a range of “stakeholders,” including mailers’ representatives — who are the beneficiaries of the discounts — Burrus noted.
In a May 21 letter to the Inspector General, Burrus said that he did not believe the exclusion of the unions was an oversight, since the announcement of the audit followed so closely a May 12, 2010, House Subcommittee hearing on the subject of workshare discounts. During the hearing, the APWU criticized postal management and the OIG “for turning a blind eye to the abuses,” he wrote...."
"...In accordance with the agreement, the Postal Service and its agents must present a “HIPAA letter” to healthcare providers before asking them to disclose any health information about employees. The letter must include a description of the information sought and a statement demonstrating how it is relevant to a legitimate law enforcement inquiry. The letter also must instruct healthcare providers to provide only information that is relevant to the investigation of the employee’s alleged violations of law...."
"...gives IRS the upper hand in its push to seize TSP accounts in the same way it can seize private-sector 401(k) accounts. IRS can already seize federal employees' wages to repay tax debts under the Federal Payment Levy Program...."
"...the United States Postal Service. As a Government agency, it is reasonable to assume that it will be interested in finding out what happened to its money once it was paid to Tailwind Sports, the company that owned and ran the team. When the United States Postal Service terminated its nine-year sponsorship of the team at the end of 2004, it was reported the agency's commitment had risen to around $8m a year....."
"... Bernie Madoff Would be Proud
“This is a PONZI-like scheme Bernie Madoff would be proud of,” he added in oral comments. The Postal Service diverts mail volume to the private sector, using an exaggerated per-piece cost to set postage discounts. At the same time, discount-funded private mail processing plants are opened, while more efficient USPS processing centers are consolidated, he said.
“The results benefit major mailers, while making the USPS less efficient and more expensive,” Burrus said...."
"...Toyota had received three packages since Friday and a fourth was intercepted at a post office in Princeton, Indiana, near a Toyota manufacturing plant, all from the same sender, Toyota spokesman Mike Goss said...."
"...By fall, the Postal Service won't have enough money to make payroll, Potter predicts. But big customers, regulators, lawmakers and organized labor still have to be won over. ..."
"...reduced work hours by 12.7% in mail processing and 11.6% in customer services. For the year to date, overall expenses have been reduced $1.4bn or 3.8% below the previous year. “Despite aggressive efforts to reduce costs, including the reduction in full-time equivalent employees by more than 120,000..."
"...The incentive program offers a 30 percent rebate to eligible mailers for Standard Mail letters and flats volume above a predetermined threshold — 5 percent over each mailer’s volume for the same period in 2009. ..."
"...the incident involved a light rail vehicle on the T-Third line and a FedEx truck.
Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Crash-delays-T-Third-line-92132819.html#ixzz0mJeIi4l8
..."
"...Postal workers contacted a postal inspector after they spotted the wiggling package...."