From the National Association of Postmasters of the US (NAPUS):
In yesterday’s monthly meeting with Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, NAPUS President Bob Rapoza discussed Voluntary Early Retirements (VERs), Incentives and adding years of service as possibilities to help ease the financial burdens of the USPS. While many options are being considered as the Postal Service attempts to reduce the number of on roll employees, President Rapoza suggested that VERs, Incentives and adding years of service should be strongly considered as part of the process.
Postmaster General Donahoe is scheduled to address nearly 1,200 attendees at the NAPUS National Convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico next week. Attendees are hopeful that the PMG may provide a preview of a “major announcement” that is scheduled to be released on September 15.
In a story published in the Washington Post, the White House plans to present a USPS financial rescue plan in coming weeks. The proposed plan would be included in the Obama administrations deficit reduction package. The White House is requesting that Congress provide the USPS with a 90-day extension to pay mandatory annual retirement payments of more than $5 billion.
In a related story, the PMG told Senators that the Postal Service could lose up to $10 billion by the end of the fiscal year.
Charlie Moser
September 7, 2011
Question is – I want to retire NOW! How long should I wait for some
incentive to come around?
ADD 5 YR TO ALL CSRS AND NO PENALTY AND SEE PEOPLE LEAVED
Napus says they talked about ver and such. What did the pmg say?
Union can’t afford to loose members, so I don’t believe they try all that hard.
USPS really does not want to be short of PM’s or they would of offered something earlier.
31 years too young to retire. Working tour 3 in an office on the study list 5 days(or actually evenings) and 2 days in my own office(level 18) absolutely no extra pay?
what good is Napus?
KEEP IT REAL The P.O. has over 150,000 employees eligible for retirement , half of them don’t have anything to do…. The other half don’t meet the age requirement. In order to save the P.O. offer these employees an incentive. MY plan ( 25-25-OUT) OPM make an offer of $25,000 and/or 25 years of service regardless of age with no penalty OUT THE DOOR !!!!
My Dad retired in the mid 80’s . He was a city carrier, and was offered 5 and 5 and 25. meaning 5 years of age, 5 years of service and $25,000. He took it and there were skid marks where his feet used to be.
INCENTIVES IS THE WAY TO GO. ADD 5 YEARS AND $15,000. THAT’S THE MAX ALLOWED BY LAW NOW. HOW THEN POSTMASTER RYUNON GOT AWAY WITH THAT AMOUNT WAS PROBABLY CRIMINAL AT THE TIME AND HOW HE DIDN’ GO TO JAIL IS A MYSTERY. THE $25,000 I’M TALKING ABOUT. THE EMPLOYEES WOULD LEAVE IN DROVES, PROBABLY TOO MANY FOR OUR OWN GOOD. JUST REPLACE THE EARLY OUTERS WITH SUBS WHO START AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAY SCALE. THIS ALONE WOULD SAVE UNTOLD MONIES. AND FORGET ABOUT PAYING THE $5,000,000,000. IT’S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE PAID AT ALL. AND OPM OWES US 70 BILLION. WHERE IS THIS MONET. NO-2. FORGET ABOUT GIVING ANY AND ALL BONUSES TO ANYBODY. IF THE SYSTEM IS FAILING THAT MEANS MGMT. HAS FAILED. WHO EVER HEARD OF GIVING OUT BONUSES TO FAILURES. THIS IS CRAZY AND PROBABLY CRIMINAL ALSO. NO TICKY NO BONUSES. NO FIXY YOU GET A NEW POSTMASTER GENERAL. THIS IS COMMON SENSE. NOT POSTAL MGMT. SENSE!!!
I think they should penalize the csrs for staying past retirement. They make 3x as much in retirement. yes they paid in, but fers employees had to pay into non solvent social security. Fers are the one’s that should get the incentives, Oh yeah that’s the overpayment because they know fers will be non solvent also just as soon as the new employees only have 401k. Big ponzi scheme!
Just because the contract against postal workers was ratified does not mean everyone voted for it. Please no referees.
Please get your facts !,before you write anything!Remember you clerks ratified your own contract!Maybe 50,000 is big money down south!.not in the northeast.IT IS POVERTY LEVEL!Blame yourself!
Get a person with a thinking brain like Rapoza to negotiate a decent early out offer for postal employees. Can’t rely on Don’t-no-hoe to give you anything fair. He came from the same line of stupid-visors and lack a thinking brain.
APWU scam president Guffey is burning through your dues money to support the demon-crats and that very incompetent affirmative action president. Incompetent O-Bummer is bad for your pocket books, and he will make things worse before he leaves office. The guy never stopped campaigning, and nothing he says have substance. He can’t talk without his ear piece feeding him info, or that teleprompter in front of him with a pre-written fake speech. His staff is full of crap, and is as incompetent as he is.
Congress is full of old farts that sleep in chambers, so don’t wait for them to come up with grand plans for your retirement incentives. Just keep voting in those same old farts, and things will never change.
That crap stuff about ‘hope & change’, became hopeless and changed for the worse.
Just the facts– the 1991 incentive was $ 17,000 no x-tra years. Mgmt. was trying
to shrink the Mgmt’s. number, but more craft people took the offer than expected. It took a while to get the work done properly at the P.O. for 2 reasons. 1) most of the folks that left knew their jobs and did them efficiently. and (2) most of those guys and girls were from a different generation, which is to say they had a superior work ethic. Now remember boys and girls they had to pay taxes on the $ 17,000.
I personally would like to see them add years of service onto my total of 32 years. I am only 52 years old and still have 3 years to go. If they offered me only 3 years believe me I would take it in a heartbeat and the ink wouldn’t be dry on my retirement papers and I would leave now!
I’m right behind you mailhandler!! stop jerkin our chain and just do it!!!!!
Why doesn’t the Post Office offer to pay those employees who are eligible to retire (i.e., already have the time put in and don’t have to use years given to them for early retirement), the sick leave hours they have so earnestly saved in their years of hard work at the post office? I would be willing to bet that if you would pay them their sick leave, they would go now! The Post Office doesn’t want employees taking all their time off, but when it comes time to retire, if you work until you are eligible to retire, they don’t want to pay you for your sick leave. Yet if you take early retirement, you can use those sick leave hours toward calculating retirement years – something here just stinks!
With Guffey in charge I guess the retirement package will only be for the carriers and mailhandlers.WHY NOT HE NEGOTIATED AWAY THE 968.00 COLA.
If they were smark they would offer 5 years service to everyone so they could meet payroll. This would pay for itself with the cut in wages every two weeks
Go for it and offer 5 years service to them with 20,000 bonus
SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!! $25,000.00 NOW! SHOW ME YEARS OF SERVICE ADDED ON!!!!! 5 YEARS. NOW SHOW ME WHERE TO SIGN!!!!!!!I’LL BE OUTTA HERE BEFORE LUNCH TIME!!!!!!!!!!
Everyone needs to stop arguing about what can be done or was done,everything will come down to what the final bill sent to Congress says and is approved and then OPM would have to act on it, period.If they direct OPM to give a one time package to the USPS due to extraordinary circumstances then OPM has to do it.I am not saying it will be done but I am saying that it can be done.Just like anything else that involves any Govt dept if Congress authorizes by enacting a bill,such as a military draft or extending unemployment then it is law.Now the problem would be getting that option of adding time considered,written as part of a bill and approved.Everyone has an idea that something needs to be done and done sooner rather then later,the direct mailing association is a powerful lobby and they are making their voices heard,read the web sites they have.Last night Obama mentioned one thing about collective bargaining agreements that were voted on agreed upon by both parties not being changed by politicians ,I beleive that was in direct reference to Donoghue and his white paper,so that sent the message that the contract is not going to be renegotiated by Congress because the President will instruct Democrats to vote any bill down that contains that provision.It really comes down to what to give up to gain in return.Like having to giving up a toe with gangrene to save your foot,it is not an easy thing to do but the longer you wait the more you lose,foot,calf,leg,your life till eventually you cannot even save that.That will not happen! The USPS means more to the country,it’s buisiness and many people then many realize and with this economy would be a terrible loss that could not be replaced.
5 years added was not part of the early ’90’s offer. Stop your bullshitting. Congress would have to change the law for all federal employees and it has never happened yet.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. True the p.o. has never added years of service to retirees early out, but this time they need to sweeten the deal to entice us civil service peeps to leave. I’m sitting at age 58 with 36 years of service. An xtra 25K and 5 years would certainly usher me out the door.Also the p.o. does not have time on their side. In about 14 months Nov 2012 about 250,000 apwu members will get a 1% raise. With an average of $500 per member that equates to $125,000,000 added to their budget. Pay us now or pay us later. Make me an offer that I can’t refuse and I’ll c u later.
Mr. John V Burke:
The Postal Service HAS NEVER ADDED TIME TO SERVICE RENDERED in
ANY EARLY OUT.
You are mistaken.
As a Union Adviser to my fellow clerks during that time, I advised many employees
who were opting for EARLY RETIREMENT.
At that time, every one of the people that chose to leave in fact WERE CSRS.
I had one employee who only had SEVEN YEARS POSTAL SERVICE TIME which was combined with his MILITARY TIME OF NINE YEARS….
ALL OF THOSE WHO LEFT EARLY HAD TO PAY THE “PENALTY” for every year
they were SHORT.
I do not know WHERE YOU GOT THIS INFORMATION FROM, but it is WRONG.
“Maximus”…your brain must not function properly….”Puerto Rican” people
ARE NOT ILLEGALS, THEY ARE CITIZENS…too much Rush Limbaugh pal.
“Postalholic”….Congress is the ONLY RING YOU NEED TO KISS to get the
law changed….and Issa/Ross will NEVER LET A LAW LIKE THAT EVEN HIT
THE FLOOR OF THE HOUSE….much less get passed to the Senate….but
keep voting in the TEAPUBLICANS and you won’t have to even worry about
having a job at USPS…
maybe they went to puerto rico to get illegals to take our jobs. or….. went to a 2nd world country to feel at home. God knows our P.O. is running like a third world country. the chinese are even saying at the nike sweatshops they would even work for us………………………….
Thank you, John Burke. It is no big deal to add years, but some folks act like you have to kiss Obama’s ring to achieve this. The final plan has already been agreed to before the first press leak. All we are witnessing now are formalities. Obama may even mention it tonight in his campaign speech.
Seems likely to me that at some point, regardless of any current assurances otherwise, a retroactive pension and/or benefit cut will be imposed. This would be most drastic based on your retirement age. IE 65 years of age being the baseline. This is what happened to quite a few airline employees around 2003. Some people’s pensions were cut by 40% because they retired around age 55.
“Wage Slave” look, back in 1990 the USPS offered five years and $25K as incentives to make employees leave. The five years could be used any way you needed or wanted to use it. If you were short two years on age, you could add two years on age and apply the other three to your time in service. Or you could use the entire five years on either age or service. The USPS did it then, why can’t they do it now? If you want to get rid of Civil Service (90K employees currently) then offer them five years and 25K to leave, to be used any way they want it. Just offering five years would probably do the trick and you could fund it through the overpayment into the CSRF (72B). I mean, how simple can it get. Congress needs to try working with these employees and realize we have a recession going on here and no chance of getting re-employeed at our age. Everyone thinks being a postal employee has been so great, well I can tell you it has never been a bed of roses, and if I had it to do over again, I would have stayed where I was before I came to the USPS.
Convention time was taken from Postmastersa couple years ago everyone pays their own expenses and uses annual leave to go. An incentive would go along ways if the clerks got it why not PM’s? Looks like our PMG wants to give the PM jobs to clerks anyway
I have to laugh at the “ever present WISH” of YEARS OF SERVICE ADDED that
arises every once and a while…but this time, COMING FROM THE NAPUS
PRESIDENT?
Wow.
This, as I have stated too many times to posters on line and MEMBERS OF MY
OWN APWU LOCAL, the Civil Service Law and OPM Rules and Regulations
would have to BE CHANGED.
THIS will NEVER happen in today’s politically charged climate of BUDGET CUTS
and Legislation ALREADY PASSED BY THE REPUBLICAN HOUSE.
If this contract doesn’t have an early out on it, this employee votes no. Period
Adding years of service may be up to Congress but it’s a proposal that may make sense given the current circumstances. It’s unlikely that the CSRS over-funding would be returned to the Postal Service because of budget scoring considerations. However in the current situation the Postal Service is cash poor which precludes offering cash incentives. Offering years on the other hand doesn’t cost the Postal Service a dime, the charges are incurred against it’s CSRS funding.
If the CSRS and FERS overcharges were applied to the retiree health benefits fund and if the balance was used to offset the costs of an incentive based on adding years, the changes could be scored as inter-fund transfers and would have less impact on the budget.
Based on some of the testimony at the Senate Hearing the other day one might conclude that this is at least being discussed.
Donahue must request from the OPM if he wants years of service added. OPM decides if years of service will be added.
Doesn’t Rapoza know he is talking to the wrong person? Adding years of service is up to Congress NOT Donahoe!!!
Ahhhh…sunny, beautiful San Juan Puerto Rico…and all paid for with dues money! Seems like associations, unions or what have you are doing fine…yes sir, real fine. Where’s the next convention at? Or, will there ever be another?
Well lets hope that he is talking on behalf of all employees as a way for the USPS to get itself back on sound footing.Incentives and years is what you hear from most employees as a way to get them to leave,it would require approval from OPM as directed by Congress as a one time deal due to extraordinary circumstance so it does not set a precedent.I am not sure but believe the term carries legal weight.If anyone withlegal knowledge knows if that is true I would love to hear back as that phrase “extraordinary circumstance” has been used by the PMG in his white pages.