"..."I've heard rumors that they're not offering cash -- this would be a buyout without cash, so they must be going to offer years of service," said Jones, a clerk at the drive-through service window. "I'm planning to stick around a couple of more years."..."
"..."Management is constantly harassing, intimidating, finger pointing, and bullying letter carriers on the workroom floor on a daily basis," said Williams. "Management is constantly standing behind us while we are prepping our mail, in order to try and see if they can intimidate us into speeding up in the office." Tensions are high because of the need to deliver mail on more routes with fewer employees. Representatives from the U.S. Postal Service say they are facing economic challenges and are looking for ways to work more efficiently while still treating their workers appropriately. ..."
"...“I also reiterated our request for all pertinent information,” he said, “including the Postal Service’s request to the Office of Personnel Management requesting authority to offer early-outs, and OPM’s response.” Under the law, federal agencies, including the Postal Service, must receive approval from OPM to offer Voluntary Early Retirement (VER) opportunities to their employees...."
"...The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) increased 1.0 percent in May 2008 according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS)..."
"...a statement issued to Federal Times July 8, the Postal Service said it will not offer buyouts to anyone taking early retirement. The Postal Service said further details on the early retirement offer will be released later this week...."
"...Union leaders warned management this would happen. If the U.S. Postal Service contracted out mail delivery in places like Beaverton, Ore., there would be accountability problems and breaches of mail security, said National Association of Letter Carriers officers like L.C. Hansen, president of Branch 82 in Portland...."
"...You know I don't like to brag, but I was reminded by the postal newsgroup that I was the very first customer to send out a mail order catalog. It only happen..."
"...The union learned unofficially on July 3 that the Postal Service had requested authority from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to offer early retirement to 40,000 postal employees.
No specifics of any early-retirement plan are available. “As information is provided, we will share it with our members,” Burrus said.
The meeting, which was rescheduled from July 7, is being held at the request of the APWU. As Burrus reported in an Update for union members last week, the union interprets the National Agreement as requiring bargaining over early-retirement offers. A written demand for notification has been sent to postal management..."
"...a better argument had she alleged that the Postal Service interfered with her FMLA rights by requiring that she provide FMLA medical certification. While the FMLA permits an employer to require the employee to abide by the procedural requirements for paid leave, it also provides that, if the paid leave certification requirements are less onerous than the FMLA certification requirements, an employer may only impose the less strict paid leave requirements. 29 CFR 825.207(h). ..."
"...There is a general lack of understanding by many postal processing facilities and personnel as to what the requested dates really mean. Because of that, there are times when postal employees go out of their way to ensure that mail is being processed and delivered by the dates on the mail. How do they go out of their way to ensure this? It could be segregating the mail by the dates requested which results in additional handling or utilization of additional floor space. It could be processing the mail in a separate pass on sorting equipment or, in the worst-case scenario, manual processing it to avoid waiting for the normal machine time. Or it could be "warehousing" mail that has been delivered too early...."
"...The union has learned unofficially that the Postal Service has requested from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) the authority to offer early retirement to 40,000 postal employees. In response to an inquiry from my office, a meeting with Postal Service headquarters has been scheduled for Monday regarding these reports...."
"...The union has learned unofficially that the Postal Service has requested from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) the authority to offer early retirement to 40,000 postal employees. In response to an inquiry from my office, a meeting with Postal Service headquarters has been scheduled for Monday regarding these reports.
No specifics of the early-retirement plan will be available until full discussions have taken place with the USPS. ... APWU is demanding bargaining on any proposal to offer “early outs.” We believe that all APWU-represented employees should be eligible, and that there should be monetary incentives for interested employees. ..."
"...offices of the postal-service area known as the Mountain Mini Cluster, which encompasses facilities from Nebo to Murphy and is managed from the General Mail Facility on Brevard Road in Asheville...."
"...recognized U.S. Postal Service employees at the Mohnton Post Office this morning for intercepting an illegal shipment of Asian beetles. ..."
"...Postal workers called police when they noticed a broken gas cap on the ground along with the nozzle to a gas can. Police then checked other cars in the lot. At least half a tank of gas was siphoned from the postmaster’s sport utility vehicle..."
"...The following House members added their names as co-sponsors of the bill between June 19 and July 1: Mail Network Protection Act —
Shelley Berkley (D-NV-1)
Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO-5)
Frank A. LoBiondo (R-NJ-2)..."
Answer: Yes ... a reference in the current Mail Handler National Contract found in Article 9.2 , page 21 identifies the "Step Progression" of a Level 6 Mail Handler. We can find no corresponding pay scale, so we do not know if a Level 6 still exist or not. Rumors of the past mention some position that either does still exist or held by a senior mail handler somewhere. If anyone else has information, please comment.
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"...held her against her will while they were working at the post office. A 25-year U.S. Postal Service employee..."
"... To retired mail carrier Durant Simon, these are the sounds of economic malaise:
Aging pipes creaking from beneath his house...."
