From PostalReporter Reader:
My name is Fredric ****. I was a data collection technician in Houston, Texas. I took the early out and retired on July 31, 2009. We were sent a memo(which I still possess) that the post office would not be offering early outs in the near future. The memo stated that they would lengthen the time needed to June 30st to be eligible to take the July 31st offer. Postmaster Potter also indicated before a congressional hearing that there wouldn’t be any incentives offered. Three weeks after retiring I find out that the memo and statement from the postmaster were all lies. I took them at their word and retired at the age of 49 with 26 years of service. I had to incur a 12% penalty (2%for every year under 55). I feel totally used and would like to know if I and the other recent retirees can dispute what is now happening. Thank you
I retired on the VER that was last day on duty of December 31,2008. I had no choice in the matter because I had a choice between family and job, and family won. Before I signed my papers President Burrus was saying in 2008 in all of the union literature and the APWU website (Don’t Go) this was in 2008. The money offered $10,000 in November of 2009 and the $5,000 in November 2010 was not due to bargaining by the APWU. The big clue that the money was not due to union negotiation is: An arbitrator would laugh the APWU out of arbitration if the attempted to get compensation of a maximum of a years pay and the $15,000. I believe employees will bet paid on the VER Arbitration, but a lawsuit in federal court-someone has lost it. Look at some of the cases where the U.S.P.S. is sued and you will see United States Assistant Attorneys involved and be wondering why the U.S. Attorneys Office is involved? Also I looked at a case in federal court and there were 1700 documents, seventeen hundred! Guess why there are so many documents? The reason there are 1700 plus documents is so the plaintiffs attorney has to read every document, while the U.S. Attorneys Office will get paid to do nothing or the read every document. I can understand why some people are bitter, because the post office did not have to have the horrible work atmosphere. The post office should be one of the best places to work, but I am glad I am gone.
Friend retired in nov 09 with 15 k incentive. Says he still has not received a check (Aug 10. WTF over? Seems that he should have received his retirement by now… Anyone else waiting thislong for money????
How do we know if we are included in the class action suit? Will we be notified? Is there a website we can check to keep updated on this?
What about the grievence that was filed. How can we find out about it?
Message to Recent Retirees
(11/30/09)
The union has also filed a grievance seeking severance pay for workers who opted for voluntary early retirement. The grievance could result in an extra week of pay for each year up to 10 years and two weeks of pay for each year over 10 years up to a total of 52 weeks.
http://www.apwu.org/dept/retiree/ret-letter_nov2009.htm
Any progress on the class action or is it dead in the water?
The big thing is that the same buyout and retirement incentives were offered earlier too by the Ford Motor Co. which expired in june this year. This shows the fairness and equallity for all its employees.
Wonder if the CEO of FORD MOTOR COMPANY in the past few months blatantly stated “there was NO MONEY for incentives” and then just NOW suddenly pulled some from HIS magic hat like POTTER did?? You know….the classic bait and switch. Sit back and watch thousands of eligible employees retire and keep playing the same song and dance “NO MONEY AVAILABLE”. What goes around comes around, and someday POTTER will get his just rewards!!! Trust me!
Ford Motor Co. has offered byout or retirement incentive package to all of its 41,000 U.S. hourly workers as it tries to further reduce its factory work force.The offer is a year of service include $50,000 cash and the choice of a $25,000 voucher to by a vehicle or $20,000 more in cash.The retirement package includes $40,000 for skilled trade workers and $20,000 for non- skilled employees. The deal also includes basic health care coverage for six months. For further information go to Yahoo.com on 12/21/09.
Sorry, that’s STRESS-free, not stree-free. What the hell is that? I’m so relaxed that I forgot how to spell.
With the union supposedly being involved now, things may have taken a turn for the worse. A long time ago my husband had a coworker stealing from his drawer in the safe. He set up tests to prove it and notified the supervisor, Postmaster and even the Postal Inspection Service. Our union steward diligently kept notes to back him up. As it turned out, the local union vice-president signed off on the grievance to make a trade-off deal with the Postmaster regarding conversion of PTF’s to regular status. So, he was given a “Letter of Demand” and the involuntarily repayment was initiated whereby he was forced to pay back almost $800, with the amount being deducted from his paycheck over four pay periods.
He went to an attorney and he was told that as long as his job was a union-represented job, he would have to abide by the union’s decision. The attorney could not interfere with matters between the Postal Service and the union. So, basically, he got screwed.
Regarding us, we would have probably been doing much better with Rick’s handling of our cause than the union. They will just drag things out indefinitely and since they have already proven that they don’t give a damn about us, they will probably stifle our efforts. In fact, it was the union’s misrepresentation that caused this problem so why should we believe that they are trying to correct it now?
Bless Rick for taking on our cause and I hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas and happy holiday season, finally free from the agony of December at the Postal Service. It’s my first stree-free Christmas since 1983 and I’m loving it.
And may we all get our “bailout” in the New Year:)
Merry Christmas to all of you and wish you Happy Holidays,a Happy New Year full of joys and good health. I hope we will have some good news from our attorney next year.
It is a wonderful feeling being off during Christmas. I’ve always had to miss celebrations because I had to get some sleep before I went to work on tour 1. We are blessed to be away from overloaded DPS machines, heavy parcels, irritated supervisors, and the rest of the routine. I wish Happy Holidays to all of you.
Thank you Rick! I hope that all of you have a very Merry Christmas! This is my first year in 25 years, being completely FREE from the PO during the holidays. It’s a very happy feeling!
Good Morning,
The lawsuit is still on-going, apwu grievance or not. From my understanding its a long, long, process. Stay patient as I will provide you updates as I receive it. Thanks.
The way I understand it. Everybody that took the VER including those that got the $15000 will also get the money for the VER grevience if the union wins. The people who retired before the $15000 was offered will only get the money from the grievence. We were lie to and excluded from that $15000. That is are dispute with APWU and the PO.
This VER dispute for compensation has been going on since 03/03/09. Nothing has been resolved. Perhaps the PO and APWU will settle this in a couple of years after the PO offers up some more VERS.To see the actual grievence go to the APWU web site. Under short cuts click on COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT on the page that comes up on the left side in gray click on STEP 4 ISSUES. Scroll down and look for the grevience that says DISPUTE OVER VER. It should be about 1/3 of the way down.
Janice, I also retired July 31,2009
Well, I did find the letter. It doesn’t make sense. It would have been a whole lot LESS money to tell us about the $15000.00. What they are offering is a lot more money than 15000.00 for most of us..and some would be entitled to an entire years pay? It really doesn’t make sense. Unless it’s just talk to stop all the potential lawsuits. I also noticed that everytime they talked about what good they were doing for us, they followed it up with joining the retirement union. I wonder if that’s they only people they would pay any of us, IF, they were telling the truth about the whole thing?
Carolyn, I was a window clerk in Phoenix Arizona. Retired July 31, 2009.
The “letter” is on the APWU website, click on departments & divisions, then retires &…and you will see it.( couldn’t post a link )
Message to Recent Retirees
(11/30/09)
So, far all the people that check this site regularly, where are you from and what was your job?
I was the T-7 in the St.Louis area.
Janice,
I’m not sure if Burrus wrote the letter or not but I have forwarded it to the retiree who helped locate the attorney for the class action suit. They will be looking into this.
At least between the time the first vera’s were offered and the last offer of vera’s that did not include the incentive.
APWU members who took the early retirement plus the old timers under the 2006-2010 bargaining Agreement should recieve the incentive.
Any APWU member retiring from June 24 to Aug 25 should receive incentive, old timers as well as veras as this was the negotiated offer by APWU & Potter!
Make it right Mr Burrus! Include all from this time period or the beat goes on!!!!!