Postmaster General Briefing
July 14, 2009
USPS Headquarters
On Tuesday, July 14, 2009, Louis Atkins, NAPS Executive Vice President, represented NAPS at a briefing with Postmaster General Jack Potter. Also in attendance were the leaders of all of the craft unions and the other two management associations.
Postmaster General Potter briefed the attendees on the current situation facing the Postal Service:
Continued losses in volume are crippling the finances of the Postal Service. Between 2008 through 2010, the Postal Service expects that it could lose as much as 25 – 30 billion pieces of mail volume. Every time the Postal Service loses a billion pieces of mail, the Postal Service looses $ 360 million dollars in revenue at current rates.
Employees need to know that the Postal Service has already taken steps to bring our Health Benefits in line with the rest of the federal government by the agreements that were reached with the unions and management association in the last round of pay agreements by increasing the employee contribution by 1% each year.
There are no plans to have any new equipment deployments in the near future. Right now the Postal Service has enough equipment power to process all of the world’s originating mail in just six hours time.
The “Summer Sale” was explained to the attendees. Mailers who use this opportunity will be required to maintain their expected volume of mailings through October, 2009 to earn a rebate on summer mailings. Customers who simply advance their mailing cycle will not get the discount rebate.
PMG Potter then provided information on the Postal Service’s strategies for FY 2010 and beyond:
• The Postal Service needs to continue to cut costs
• Grow the Business
• Protect Liquidity
Key Strategies are expected to include:
• Continued freeze on hiring
• Additional Tour compressions
• Restructuring Delivery Routes
• Continued integration of Network Distribution Centers
• Flat Sequencing
• Station and Branch consolidations
• Further reductions in administrative positions
The Postal Service continues to stress that relief from the passage of HR 22 alone will not bring the Postal Service the financial relief that it needs and the implementation of five-day delivery is vital to the future solvency of the Postal Service.
Although there has been much discussion of the change to five day delivery, and that the change must have congressional approval and a change to the current law, it now appears that Saturday would be the day that delivery would be eliminated. In a five-day proposal, retail units would remain open on Saturday to provide service to customers.
Post Office boxes and Caller Service would also be maintained under the Postal Service’s plan. Remittance mailers could use Post Office boxes and/or Caller Service to maintain their cash flow.
Under the Postal Service’s proposal, there would be no delivery or collection of mail for city routes, rural routes or contract routes. Express Mail would continue to be delivered as it is currently.
• Mail processing would process originating mail Monday – Friday.
• Mail processing for destinating street addresses processed Monday – Friday.
• Mail processing for destinating PO Boxes and Callers Monday – Saturday.
• Mail processing for destinating remittance mail Monday – Sunday
The Postal Service is also considering options to increase the sale of non-postal items in retail units. As these plans are finalized there will be information provided to employees and the public.
PMG Potter stated that the new Priority Mail initiative with flat rate boxes is performing well and helping us improve our revenue. Employees should tell everyone they know about the benefits of the flat rate boxes’
source: http://haloscan.com/comments/rehema/deljuly1409/#463271
Wow, how sad some of these comments are. If you don’t like your job….GET OUT!! It is people like you that makes our company unproductive!! There are so many things to be thankful for and if you can’t say something nice than we don’t need you!!
USPS is not a company We are the GOVT
We have too many bosses who don’t do squat
Postal SERVICE….put service first. profit should not be a part of the USPS. postal service for all Americians. Rethink the USPS NOW
I’m confused. If we go to five days of sorting the mail, what happens to mail that is entered on a friday? Does it get cancelled and then sit around until sunday night to get run through the dps?
all postal managers should never be respected, they are the lowest form of scums in this planet. I will respect a street gangster but never a postal manager and that includes the freaks, the mutants they call 204b’s.
Ever notice all the lousy workers who went on into management. Especially the men; how can you respect them
Scott, if it went through a machine, that’s your answer.
scott, that’s the efficiency of the go slow for more dough mantra lol.
With all the talk of low mail volume why does it take up to 6 days to get a letter 7 miles then?
I’m real sad that our wonderfull jobs are going too dissappear. I got another letter of warning for using sick leave to go to a doctors appointment.I have 1600 hours on the books and haven’t called in sick in over 3 years.
PMG is going to push for 5 days. For one of 2 reasons. He is smart and trying to manipulate congress for relief or 2 his ego is too wrapped around 5 day delivery that he won’t back down.
I think its the second reason. No matter what savings or route compressions are all he will see is 5 day delivery.
Can’t we all just get a long
woooooooooooooooooo ! weekends off
The 5 day work week sounds good to me people.
we just have a stand up talk about missing sandwiches from our ref inside the office hahahahahahahahahahahahha….. honesty!!!
HONESTY in the postal service? wake up also!
Congress MUST wake-up and realize that protecting all of the tiny town Post Offices in their voting district is bankrupting the USPS. They cost us an average of $200K/yr and never make a profit. Private Business in a Free Enterprise Economy would close a loser down in less than 18 months. It could not afford to go in debt just to say it has a store at the corner of Main & 1st Street in a city of 300 residents! If saving their post mark is the goal then collect their outgoing mail and just change the key code at the processing center to post mark with their city’s name. We can NEVER justify paying a Postmaster to sit and read his favorite novel waiting for another customer. In our geographic area (centering around Yakima, WA, the only 100K city in a 50 mile radius) we have White Swan, Brownstown, Harrah, Wapato, Granger, Zillah, Buena, Parker, Moxee, Naches, Tieton & Cowiche Post Offices (12) that loose big money every year! 12 Postmasters who are paid top EAS wages even though their job requirements only take less than an hour out of their 8 hour shift. Some of these Postmasters had worked in much larger offices (with tougher responsibilities & much harder work but chose to transer to a postmaster’s “Retirement Office” like one of the 12 named above, BUT TAKE THEIR HIGHEST PAY LEVEL FROM THE LARGE OFFICE WITH THEM TO THEIR TINY TOWN SNOOZER! WHY???? They are no longer working at a high & difficult level so why do they continue to get paid while working the equilivant of 1 hr. per day? ANSWER: The Postmaster’s UNION!!!! I say combine all unions: Postmaster’s, Postal workers, letter carriers clerks, rurual, etc. into one union: “The USPS employee’s union”, and ELIMINATE ALL OFFICES THAT DON’T GENERATE A PROFIT. Or else, tell Congress that they must pay for these losers. Either eliminate the unprofitable or take the USPS back into the Cabinet Office. If you don’t breakeven or make a profit you will be closed because the economic times dictate drastic actions to prevent our complete colapse! WAKE UP FOLKS, LET’S BE HONEST!
POINT IS:
Let’s save this institution, somehow we need to come together!!!!!
excess all clerks to walmart! then give the mailhandlers a big raise!
Lets be fair. If the American People are going to be responsible for bailing out our major failing industries & businesses, then the union workers need to do their share and take a pay and benefit cut. If the USPS can’t make money and is continually Billions of dollars in the whole, then every worker needs to take a cut. $25+ an hour and great benefits are no longer acceptable in this economy when the outfit is failing. If USPS were profitable, then fine. But the people should not have to bail out companies so they can continue to pay over inflated salaries and benefits.
Sorry, but we all know its true.
Tom and O bam are both idiots.
Tom must be a 204b TE who has not carried mail or did a honest days work.Where else can you come from off the steet an become a manager?
If they want to bring us in line with the rest of the federal government employees as far as health benefits go, how about an area wage increase like the rest of the federal government employees get?
YO, JERKOFF TOM, WE ALL WILL BE PRACTICING THOSE KEY PHRASES. IF YOU HAVN’T NOTICED, THERE ARE VERY FEW DECENT PAYING JOBS AVAILABLE AT ALL. MINIMUM WAGE ARE EVEN HARD TO COME BY. SO DON’T MOCK OTHERS TOO MUCH. WE ARE ALL IN THE SAME POSTAL SHITHOLE.
i bees tell yo-
express mail 7 day
box mail 6 day
window (staff by Walmart) 5 1/4 days
business delivery 5 day
residential delivery 3 day
not til yo idjits vote fo me agin, den kiss yo asses goodbye
boo hoo; cry cry cry; don’t like your job go (nobody holding you) It might be with your job skills you may go from $26 to $9….:)
You just got lucky to land a good job that pays well. If you could do better you would leave so stop crying…Again, nobody forces you to stay.
PS it looks like your gravy train may crash so you better start practicing these key phrases: Would you like that biggie sized, Welcome to Wal-Mart, Welcome to McDonalds, Unleaded or preimum, Would you like me to get your windows too, paper or plastic? etc..
do what we tell you, you lazy carriers. Dois says pivot, you pivot, and say thank you, sir. I may only be a 204b, but, I will move up quick, cause I have the stones to get in your face.
Too many piggy managers. They work for 2 hours, then goof off the rest of the day; the skeevy bums
PMG Potter: Read our lips: Slash management NOW!!!
Suggestion: Try the 5-day delievery service for a 1 year period, and see if it works.
Propose this to congress; it the public dosen’t cry bloody murder, and it works for the Postal Service; lets do it.
I personally doubt it will work. Some places are stretched so thin with limited labor, reducing the labor force only makes this completely impossible to improve costomer service.
Personally, I have 4 kids and would love to be home with them on weekends, but I am considering the long term survivablility of the service.
I feel we pay the big shots way too much money to be making poor decisions, and destroying the Postal Service ill advised so called money saving tactics.
it’s a joke. We got more managers in the office than people working on the floor. 3 people with clipboards watching 1 person work.Holy sheet.Last people to go will be the Diversity specialist,Safety Specialist(don’t wake him up),attendance control supervisor (who’d she blow?)vehicle training(8 frigging people?)Maintenace Supervisors(23 last count)so like let’s get rid of workers so these leeches can keep getting a paycheck?
WHEN are they going to cut management? The post office is way too top heavy. Plus, I work the window and we don’t have any Priority Flat Rate boxes. The advertising on TV is saturated now and we have no boxes! What is wrong with this picture? DOWNSIZE MANAGEMENT!!!!!
Hand it to the PMG. They will still sort and deliver box section mail. As soon as this happens, the PO will advertise “If you want mail delivery on saturday, rent a PO Box”. Our box section is currently less than half full. Smart man, he should give himself another incentive pay check.
If you’ve noticed, management has been flooding their ranks with TE’s acting as 204B’s. Why? So when they are forced to downsize management, all the good ole boys are safe. TE’s take the pipe again.
La TE
I’m not gonna give a damn till I see downsizing in managment, then I’ll be glad to help out. Otherwise, up yours management
customer connect is a loser. they dont want us to pick up the mass mailings because it will take Overtime. so our bosses tell them were all on the street or all gone home for the day.when the people are told to bring it in they see the carriers coming and going.what ever happened to service?
Do a comparison with Postal Pay Schedule (any crat) versus General Pay Schedule for other government employees. The postal pay schedule is roughtly 20% more for similar positions.
Out of an approximately 70 – 75 billion dollar budget, the reduction of 52 delivery days a year will save at the most 3.5 billion dollars, and as little as 1.5 billion dollars. This is NOT growing the business! These miniscule savings are not worth the loss of service we are providing. If PMG Potter continues to try to implement this most radical service reduction he will go down in history as the worst PMG in history.
Before you even think about reducing delivery days, the postal service must seriously considering reducing the number of postmasters – changing assignments to include up to 5 associate offices each will save billions, and will not affect service.
clerk in Missouri, I don’t think I have ever heard the words carrier and run in the same sentence before
THE MAILHANDLERS SHOULD BE THE FIRST TO GO..SINCE THERE IS NO MAIL
What a bunch of negative, unworthy crybabies some of you people are. I want more cookies, Johnny has more! I don’t want to do this he don’t have to. If he don’t do this then I will not do that. Crybabies!!
The PMG says to inform customers of the Benefits Of Priority Mail Flat Rate Boxes! What a Joke!
The benefits of the Flat Rate Boxes SUCKS! They are so small. The largest being just 13 inches!
Anything larger goes by the Diminsional Weight classification which is a ripoff!
Example: I had a box that weighed less than 5 Pounds. Under regular weight pricing the cost was a little of over $10 dollars for shipment by Priority Mail.
BUT NOOOOOO! Since it was a larger than 13 inches (22 X 15 X 8 inches) the cost was $26.45 based on Dimensional Weight Guidelines.
$26.45 to mail a box under 5 Pounds to Florida from Pennsylvania.
WHAT A SCAM! Since the creation of the Postal Service all pricing was based on weight UNTIL NOW!
Hey Cheeky,
Go work for a diff federal agency then. We’re lucky to get the holidays off that we do! Now I get too much time off with the clerk hours cut. Try to be a little more grateful for the job and healtcare.
City and rural carriers will get Saturdays and Sundays off EVERY week? That will make those jobs look very attractive.
Didnt see anything that says he will cut higher management positions. Guess they are too valuable in the processing/delivery of mail.
This paragraph in the article ticks me off:
Employees need to know that the Postal Service has already taken steps to bring our Health Benefits in line with the rest of the federal government by the agreements that were reached with the unions and management association in the last round of pay agreements by increasing the employee contribution by 1% each year.
If their going to bring us in line with the rest of the Federal agencies then we better start getting ALL the days off they get off.
This is BS!!! We’re QUASI Federal…and we get crap compared to the other Federal agencies.
fire everyone but the mailhandlers!
go slow for more dough.
Employees will tell everyone? then they WILL be written up for talking to customers too long and time wasting practices, just as it has happened with customer connect. Until Management’s attitude changes there will be no progress. they tell the customers something and right after the craft employee suffer. They want to save money but thte contract violations and the illegal firing of employees continues. The Unions are winning most of the contractual grievances costing the USPS millions of dollars. the a;so are winning most of the discipline cases and when that happens then USPS has to pay for lost wages and benefits, to include overtime missed. People agre being fired for minor vehicle accidents, discipline for being stung by bees, bitten by dogs, etcetera, Everytime the USPS faces some kind of finacial dificulty they get petty in hte discipline. they want to readjust the route, but they base the adjustments on bogus data created by management to meet their goals. this result on routes overburdened and much overtime as well as discipline for unauthorized overtime which can lead to removals and grievances filed; the union’s are very succesful on these types of grievanes and again hte USPS pays millions for lost wages and benefits.
Nobody every looks at saving on utilities! Why do they only look at cutting jobs, or hours? That’s not the only places you could save money. In the long run, I think it will cost more money with the carriers running into overtime on Mondays.
I keep bringing up the fact the Post Office could save a ton of money in utilities if they would shut the heat off or move down to 50 degrees in the mail processing plants from Fall through out the winter months. The machines produce enough heat to keep it comfortable. I know where I work we run fans and wear shorts because it’s so hot, and that’s even during January!
Broaden your thinking!