NALC responds to the Senate postal proposal,
21st Century Postal Service Act; supports comprehensive reform but opposes the end of Saturday mail delivery and the phase-out of door delivery
Statement by Fredric V. Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, on the proposed 21st Century Postal Service Act:
Although the National Association of Letter Carriers acknowledges a number of positive provisions in the bipartisan postal reform bill unveiled today by Senators Lieberman, Collins, Carper and Brown, we are very disappointed with the overall thrust of the legislation. It seems to embrace the view that we must drastically downsize the Postal Service in order to save it.
While NALC fully supports comprehensive postal reform and is working on practical alternatives, the Senate bill could end Saturday delivery in two years and would phase out most door-to-door delivery by 2015. This would negatively affect tens of millions of Americans – particularly senior citizens, rural residents and small-business owners – who depend on the Postal Service’s commitment to high-quality service.
We acknowledge the need to reinvent the U.S. Postal Service for the 21st century, but we urge postal management and our country’s leaders to do it in a way that preserves jobs and encourages growth at a time when the economy is struggling. Saturday delivery is essential to the Postal Service’s ability to profit from the rising number of deliveries of items ordered online by consumers.
Slashing service and inconveniencing customers will only drive more business away and will do serious damage to the $1.3 trillion mailing industry and its 7.5 million private-sector workers.
union workers if you want your job in the future DO NOT SUPPORT 6 DAY DELIVERY, it is not needed, has never been needed WEEKENDS SHOULD BE SPENT WITH FAMILY
A PS Form 1188 must be filled out to quit – you can obtain a copy from your supervisor. Then, strictly follow the instructions in ELM 312, (Employee Labor Relations manual) Chapter 9, and send copy three of the PS 1188 to NALC headquarters not more than 20 and no less than 10 days before your anniversery date of joining the union (you can get that date from you personnel office or supervisor). The original and copy 2 go to your personnel office. Again, see ELM Chapter 9 for complete, detailed instructions on how to regain your freedom. Ironically, you can view or download the ELM from the NALC Website (www.nalc.org).
They make it almost impossible for you to leave, so here is how. Let’s see them dish out hundreds of thousands of dollars for a couple bands at their next convention now. Not with my money. Start concentrating on better wages and safer lifestyles for your members like unions should and I might come back. As it is you openly seek out to cripple our employer, push it to make us do more for less and leave it in a condition where it cannot even fathom increasing our wages. Goodbye NALC
I am quiting this stupid union. How dare they openly seek out to sabotage what is in their members best interest in order to keep their own lifestyles paid by our dues. I am openly opposed to the NALC now and ask others to demonstrate to these selfish union heads what you think by quiting as well. If you want my dues every pay period you will have to do what is on my not your best interest and that is to support a bill that ends 9 billion dollars of ignorant waste by ending Saturday and non curb side deliveries.
YOUR TEST CAME BACK POSITIVE, WE NEED TO TALK.
Everyone that supports ending Saturday delivery or curb side deliveries please ask your office to give you an opt out of the NALC form, so that they start getting the point by the shear number of request that will be received.
You sure can tell the people on here that want to push their the sky is falling the sky is falling BS.
Reality
USPS would not be missed if it ceased to exist tomorrow. The only benefit of maintaining the USPS is that it employs people and benefits the economy in employees buying goods and services. Otherwise it could disappear as the paper delivery boy and it would not be missed. Politicans use it as a coy to gain attention.
Reality is that at one time it was an intergal cog in individual and business communication but due to advanced communication technology advancement electronic mail is the means of 21st century communication. INTERNET E MAIL IS THE CONNECTOR THE USPS USEFULNESS IS COMPARABLE TO A WAGON BEING PULLED BY OXEN ON A BUSY INTERSTATE; in essence USPS is history with no future to create revenue.
The service and quality in american is like absolute anymore. The more you guys keep cutting this an that the closer your getting to be absolute.
Im starting to wonder if this is all what you guy are all about?
The Number one priority of the Postal sevice is to provide a service to all of America, just like them fast food, gas stations whatever are doing 24/7, Please drop the union crap and pick up on the service part of our job.This is why the PMG and others need to go, Issa boy Ross all of the HQ people…gone.
I fill you and others come up short on this issue and wonder why you and others have this job in the 1st place, your not about serving it up for America.
I will give you the curb side delivery, i started as a carrier and stepping on many peoples cat tripping over anything and everything trying to go as fast as i could to the next delivery.
I remember this one Saturday i came up on this one house, the garage door open and out comes running this little dog barking his fool head off on my leg.
I didnt even flinch i just stood there thumbing the mail for my next delivery when the owner comes out of the garage telling me how i did the right thing by standing still cause the last carrier would run and the dog would run after them.
I smiled handed him his mail and off i went to step on another persons cat.
You guys (HQ, PMG, Issa/Ross.ect) remind me of that little dog barking.
Cut this cut that, downsize this downsize that. Thank the BIG DOG in the sky there are still people out there that can stop and think instead of running and jumping off a cliff.
In this case that would be Republican Captain Mogan Susan Collins of Maine, the committee’s top Republican. WHERE IS THE (D) TAX UNION DUES?
You guys are management? Work in Issa/Ross office? spill it? your losing the battle for all the cuts you want so its bark, bark, bark up Americas leg.
Oh BTW it was my day off, tax all you MOFOs
@Murray youve got it down. I have already written to all my local politicians with stamped postage right down to my alderman. Please keep spreading the word on ending these fiscally ignorant and unnecessary deliveries. We must avoid a tax payer bail out or customers will really seek other shipping companies. End Saturday and non- curve side delivery! someone make a shirt and I will buy a dozen and hand them out to my local reps.
@Murray, finally someone else that makes sense and sees what NALC is all about. By the way, it is CURB side deliveries, not curve. NALC will fight to the bitter end, not for your job, but for the DUES income. $5.2 million tax free dues every 2 weeks is just not enough for them to buy a photo op with everyone in Washington and plaster it all over the propaganda they mail to our house. It is so easy to get into the union, but try to find the form for getting out. You can join ANYTIME, right now, tomorrow, Saturday etc. But only a very small window must be met to get out. It is all tied to your anniversary date of joining the union, not your service anniversary date. Try to ask for the form to withdraw, like asking for a bonus. Ask anyway, fill it out and have it ready. We don’t have to fix what is broken in the PO and do things that will make the service more profitable. We can keep doing stupid things, like Saturday delivery, mandated O/T, handling same pieces of mail over and over and over and act like it is not costing us anything. Handle it once and we get .44 cents, handle it twice and we get .22 cents, 4 times and it is down to .11 cents. Naw, we don’t have to fix what is wrong and we can keep pretending that the only thing that is wrong is we overpaid some prepaid and can’t get it back. Naw, we can just sit back and relax and complain and let the public keep condemning us as a typical government run losing proposition or we can just wait until SOMEONE makes the changes for us. Then like a brick up side the head, we will act shocked and say we thought NALC was looking out for us. The only job NALC is concerned about is theirs and anyone with a ‘D’ after their name.
@Tissue Guy,
What is your point? One thing that just about all those 24 hour places you mentioned have in common is THEY ARE NON UNION. But, since you brought it up, you could also go online at 2am and mail a package, buy stamps, track a piece of mail, put your mail on hold, submit a change of address, file a complaint etc.
DO any of those places you mentioned DELIVER?
You only receive mail once a day, why would you be there at 2am, unless you are in processing. I believe most processing plants are down to 1 or 2 shifts now.
If you were to buy a big TV or some furniture at Wal-Mart at 2 am, would they deliver it at 2 am or at all? Just wondering.
Lol at taco analogies. Plead take a basic business course at your local community college. We can no longer afford to have non curve side or Saturday deliveries. Let me promise you this. If we don’t drastically cut back now, within two years the NALC as i am positive it has already planned out will be playing a game of smoke and mirrors and scare games just like red foxx yelling “this is the big one” we are going to have to give 20-30% of our salaries up or were getting shut down. The local head of the NALC came into our station a couple of weeks ago and I take this individual to be in the know of what NALC headquarters is up too and preached as to the condition of the USPS and how we all have to get ready to make sacrifices in order to save jobs. Gtfo. The guy thought the notion of ending Saturday delivery was an idea that derived from the great booga boogaloo itself. He absolutely refused to even discuss such a notion. We have a chance to avoid the ignorant sing and dance routine they have already scheduled for us. We have a chance to put some financial muscle back into the post office. People who refer to these cutting measures as cutting service are just ignorant and take their fellow Americans to be just the like. I would love to see Saturday delivery at the ballot box next year and predict a 80-90% approval of eliminating it by voters. I am a dues paying member of the NALC as I fully support all unions as what they represent a check and balance in the relationship between management and labor, but these bozos are literally selling out their membership. They want all carriers and it’s employer to pay a very, very high price so that they may save the dues that keep their kids in the best schools and neighborhoods. What about your children postal brethren, what about your mortgages, how many of you with less than twenty years seniority actually envisioned yourselves dedicating a few decades of your life to the postal service and then retiring the way all of these officers will be retiring. They are actively sabotaging your families income the income that is provided by your struggling employer. They shamelessly associate a cutting back of a few services with the end of the postal world as we know it which is childish, ignorant, unrealistic and irresponsible. We must stay viable, not by sacrificing the Needs of the many for the needs of the few. Please e-mail your local politicians and break it down to them, let them know the truth of what is happening on the ground not the ghost stories these ex carriers tell them. Show them how pointless saturday deliveries are. Let them know the high cost of non curve side deliveries and what management does to you if you fall victim to the conditions these types of deliveries cause. To all non postal workers share this insight with your politicians. The point of the 1% rallies happening across the country right now are to protests against special interest with deep pockets that influence the decisions of your politician. You can contribute by helping carriers inform congress of how the NALC is aggressively using our own dues to damn us and tip the end decision of the postal committee in their favor. Help save the post office end Saturday and non curve side deliveries and the membership will help with all the other smaller budget holes in the upcoming years grateful of a massive financial weight having been taken off our shoulders.
HEY HELLO! i ordered 4 tacos a coke and a medium fry…
got home and no frys in the bag….yes ketchup please.
Damm they get me everytime i dont check my order.
Deal with reality and face the fact?.
OK ladys lets do that, i can go to Del Taco right now, its about 2am and order a taco. I can do this 24 hours seven days a week.
If i wish to go work out i can go to 24 hour fitness and work out right now.
I can go fill up my car with gas if i so wish 24 hours seven days a week.
I can go shopping at walmart 24 hours seven days a week.
Shopping malls movie shows, bars, sports ect, go on seven days a week
P&DC and P&DF run around the clock 24/7. The list goes on.
The world does not stop after 9 to 5 Mon-Fri.
Stop crying about the unions or management or whatevers bringing you to tears?
Its a service to America we provide, bottom line and until that changes dry your eyes an forget about it.
Natural reaction that could affect decrease in union dues. No concern for the USPS as a whole but rather their own selfish group whose interest is less efficiency and increasing cost REGARDLESS OF THE OUTCOME. Sat. street mail delivery is a wasted cost as receiving advertising sales material is not revealant to any communication process in the day of electronic mail with instant deliver. Deal with reality and face the facts.
USPS should focus on delivering advertising bulk business mail and parcels. That is the extent of their means to create revenue. Delivering these products 6 days a week is an expensive lfinancial loss. Delivering the products used by the American public must be cost effective and not a built in loosing propposition as delivering on Sat. would add to the USPS inancial disaster. Why would usps contribute to USPS demise due to poor financial planning to meet customer demand such as Sat. deliver fiasco.
Saturday delivery and door to door should go. Door to door is a major hazard for carriers. Having boxes at the street only adds a few steps for customers to receive their mail and makes delivery a lot safer for me ( ankle injuries, fighting off dogs, falls, crazy homeowners…). Saturday delivery is also a waste. It does nothing but create a scheduling nightmare and make my weekends as a carrier suck. Especially because the PO can’t seem to keep reliable subs. If a customer has to have something on a Saturday let them pay a premium for it. Most people don’t care if they get mail on Saturday, I’ve asked plenty.
While we’re at it, why can’t the PO have one standardized bar-code for all packages and services. What a waste of time trying to determine what should be scanned and what shouldn’t. Customer info isn’t even tied to our current bar-codes. How dumb is that!
One bar-code (not an express bar code, a certified bar-code, an international bar-code, a registered bar-code, a bar-code on a sticker with no information, a package with four bar-codes none of which are labeled as to what they are for, bar-codes on three sides of a box …)
ONE BAR-CODE that says “USPS BAR-CODE” with check boxes for, or printed with what services have been purchased and customer info tied to the bar-code would solve many problems.
Right now if a package is missing or wasn’t scanned as delivered, arrived at unit, etc., if all you have is the report with the bar-code number you can’t even tell who its for or what their address is. That is totally worthless! All that is accomplished is allowing management to harass the carrier about where this package is without having any idea of where it should have been delivered or being able to notify the customer that their package is missing, delayed, or whatever the case may be.
On a side note, get the mail trucks to the PO on Time!! I can’t tell you how many times customers are pissed at me for late delivery that is due to mail trucks showing up late. Today ours didn’t arrive until after 10:00am. Closing plants to save on cost where the volume doesn’t support it is fine, but you better have a better plan than the current one for making sure you can get the mail out of that one facility doing the job of three on time.
Also, Bulk rate should cost a heck of a lot more to mail. I’m sure if someone ran the numbers on it you could get a better price point vs volume ratio than what it is now. and those loose advoes should have to be in an envelope. Having all that loose paper in peoples boxes really ticks them off so they just want to throw it away, and it makes it a real pain to deliver. I don’t care what kind of sweet deal the PO is getting for letting them mail something packaged like that (or should I say unpackaged) but it ain’t worth it.
That’s my 2 cents, or maybe 3!
Peon, you have a lot to learn. Take your blinders off and look around. The union never got anyone a raise that the Post office was not willing to give. There is a big wide world out there outside of the PO. My job and my salary is just one small part of my life and what is important to me, my family and friends. I look around at all the problems going on in this big wide world and I am not conceited that the most important of thos problems is only about what I get paid. Safety and security of my neighborhood and my country is more important than any job or salary. I am satisfied with what I get paid and what I do. I would like to keep it, but too many knuckleheads like you and the NALC cannot see the future without each other. It is all about dues and power and associations and photo ops with the big wigs. I have had union jobs and non union jobs. I have gotten good pay and benefits from both. Supply and demand dictates salary and benefits more than you are willing to believe. Why do you stay at the Post Office. Why do people that flip burgers at In-n-out burgers stay for 1.2 of what we get paid, no union, good work and great benefits, no overbearing supervisors. Why do plumbers, welders, construction people get paid 3-4 times what we get paid. Supply and demand, skills required etc. Nothing to do with a union. If I don’t agree with you or others, does not make one a scab, it makes me capable of thinking with my brain and not through the umbilical cord attached from the Union Thugs that want to dictate uncommon sense in all that we do. I bet you go in every morning in a super great mood and within 30 minutes, your attitude is one of disgust and anger. I bet you get mandated often. I bet you probably deliver mail in the dark. I bet you have a confrontation with management on a regular basis about O/T needed or mail volume. I bet you have to suck up the down time while waiting for mail. I bet you are told over and over that mail volume has dropped considerably. I bet it takes a lot longer to work that low volume of mail and get it to you. I bet your PM office time is cut from 15 minutes down to 5 minutes and you bring back more mail than you ever did with DPS vs 2 pass mail. I bet you that when DPS is really heavy, you are told DPS does not matter and when DPS is really low, you are told you it does matter, and you have undertime. I bet it takes more time to organize the ADVO’s now that they are addressed, than it did before when you cased the little cards. I bet you kill a lot of good forwardable mail, because you did not know the customer put in a good forward, because of the new CFS system, you don’t know sometimes for a month or more. I bet you get a lot af mail back that you put into IA tray or NSN tray or ANK or whatever that has a yellow label from CFS that says no order on file. Either that or it has ANK on one side and IA or NSN on the other side of the same mailpiece. I bet you get a lot of mail back that should be RTS, because the return address is on the backside of the mailpiece and no one cares how many times we handle the same piece. I bet you still get magazine subscriptions for people with good COA’s all the way up until after the order has expired and beyond. It used to be about 2-3 months and CFS had it fixed. Now there is no fix. There is no wonder we are going under, with all the duplication in handling the same mailpiece over and over and over. Nobody listens and nobody cares, especially YOUR NALC. We that lack of caring or involvement will eventually cost you and me a job. People are fed up with the whining from the USPS and they think we are incapable of making changes or improvements for the better. I agree with those people, our hands are tied because of DUES Hungry NALC, APWU and Bonus oriented Management.
(the hell with this 6 day delivery bullshit)?????????
Put it on the ballot for us Americans to vote on, hey! it was set up for us, let us deside. How say you?
You can even state, (weekend s should be made for michelob.)
Who is that? that wants to ensure that eliminating Saturday delivery “is the last resort, not the first option,” Tax Union Dues? Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the committee’s top Republican.
Shes a captain morgan kinda of girl.
tax union dues weekend s should be made for michelob the hell with this 6 day delivery bullshit
The NALC has been and always will be one of the greediest unions you will find. All of the national officers live in 2 story houses worth each over a million dollars. They don’t care about nobody but themselves. Eventually they will kill the golden goose.
taxes union dues you are 100% right our buisness must change they got to stop 5 day delivery 30 billion over 10 years these prick union leaders are a f-ing joke stuff there pockets with union dues, fed ex and ups dont work saturdays, its all about losing 50000 carrier jobs, its either save 3 billion a year or have 50000 less carriers
I see a lot of comments from scabs who have no problem with the money the earn or the raises the Union got them.
gotta love all the freeloading, anti-union morons on here. only free countries allow unions. you people all side with authoritarian regimes like USSR, China, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, ect….
tax union dues? lets not stop there sweetness lets rake over the Churches also
One, two, three, four…
Hrmm!
One, two, (one, two, three, four!)
Let me tell you how it will be;
There’s one for you, nineteen for me.
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
Should five per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don’t take it all.
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
(if you drive a car, car;) – I’ll tax the street;
(if you try to sit, sit;) – I’ll tax your seat;
(if you get too cold, cold;) – I’ll tax the heat;
(if you take a walk, walk;) – I’ll tax your feet.
Taxman!
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
Don’t ask me what I want it for, (ah-ah, mister Wilson)
If you don’t want to pay some more. (ah-ah, mister heath)
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
Now my advice for those who die, (taxman)
Declare the pennies on your eyes. (taxman)
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
And you’re working for no one but me.
Taxman!
“Lawmakers want to ensure that eliminating Saturday delivery “is the last resort, not the first option,” said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the committee’s top Republican.
But the Postal Service, which says it is at risk of running out of cash by next summer, wants to take that step immediately.”
Sounds like Postal management? ready to step in the dodo, sounds like some of you posters agree?…..DODO! Fight!
The NALC is more interested in protecting DUES INCOME and anyone with a (D) after their name, than trying to work with the USPS to save the service for the majority. Keep listening to NALC and soon your check will be delivered by a big brown truck that is one (S) short of being USPS.
As long as my newpaper boy has the paper in my driveway saturday and sunday morning im cool.
Sure hope he dont start thinking? hey am i the only one left that delivers on weekends?
But im sure thats next.
Senior citizens that require door delivery will still get it if they have a note from their doctor. The NALC needs to stop these broad scare tactic statements!
You want Saturday delivery and up to the door delivery, then here is the price for that. Now do you want both? Do you want us to carry the mail inside the house and place it on the table for ya? Do you want us to open it up and read it to ya? Do you want us to wait while you write a check to pay that bill and address and stamp an envelope? Here is the price for all of that. Would you rather just walk a few feet to a central delivery box? WE CAN DELIVER ON SUNDAY TOO< FOR A PRICE. We can also pick up breakfast and wash your car too, for a price. Hell, I pump my own gas, bag my own groceries, pay for air in my tires, have to print out my bank and 401K statements on my computer and my printer ink and my paper. I have not seen the milk delivery man in years. WHY IS THE USPS so far behind the times and going bankrupt? Trying to save a few dollars in DUES, that is why. They woul;d not want to let the demorats down. Wise up, shape up, move up or go under.
Nalc sounds a little greedy. I believe cutting service is a bad thing but somethings gotta give. They still have to prove it would be beneficial to stop Saturday delivery in 2 years from now. Let’s cross that bridge when we get there.
We can and should do it, or someone will do it for, (TO), us
The NALC takes in approximately $5.2 million every pay period, TAX FREE DUES for the democrat party. Cutting Saturday delivery would reduce that by approx $800K. That is why they want to price you out of a job, before they will agree to any cost saving measures. Like I said, either we as a group agree to a smarter business model or we will have to go along with whatever decisions are made FOR US. It will change, that I can guarantee you. Better learn to adapt, the rest of the country is, why not the PO. There is just too much begging in the news from the PO lately. We have egg all over our face.
If the USPS and the Union and the current employees cannot come to an agreement that Saturdays are not necessary and up to the door deliveries are the most expensive type of delivery and understand that if you are not brilliant enough to see that all needs to change, THEN SOMEONE is going to come in and make those changes for YOU. The entire world operates on a 5 day business schedule. All those people that want mail on Saturday, should be willing to pay a premium for it, just like the ones that want express mail on Sunday. People needing their medicine is a farce. I get prescriptions by mail, and Saturday is never even a consideration when I order my meds. Lack of prior planning on your part should not constitute an extra expense on someone else’s part. The UNION will try to fight for exactly what they have in DUES RIGHT NOW and will never concede to any less. It is not about JOBS, it is about DUES. You better wise up and agree to operate more efficiently or it will happen and you will have little to say. You all know things cannot stay status quo. look at our competitors. The people that want Saturday delivery are off on Saturday, STRANGE, HUH. You can walk into any post office in any city and look at the carrier cases on Saturday and they are crammed full of mail that did not go out for delivery on Saturday, BECAUSE, BUSINESS CLOSED ON SATURDAY. You can also look around and see containers of medicine that does not get sorted for delivery until Monday, because it is standard class mail. You know it and I know it. They cancelled that old TV show, Get Smart, because they thought everyone got smart, but the postal unions do not want to use common sense and Get Smart in order to save the service as we know it.
True patriot you are a 100 percent correct. This union officers are only worried about getting there greasy hands on our union dues. No Saturday delivery they lose 50000 union due. True patriot u said it best. There should be no Saturday delivery they 30 percent of the american want sat delivery that leaves 70 percent not wanting. Sat delivery they 30 everyone do the math. Plus people don’t want us walking thru there yards on sat usps spend every sat with our family
Could not have said it better
This reminds me of the communists supported unions of days of old. There was always a secret interest behind every decision they made that was not in the best interest of their membership, but of their own political and monetary gains. The fact is Saturday delivery costs the post office 3 billion a year for a service most of the public and most carriers see no point in having. The non curve side delivery cost the post office a whopping 6 billion in unnecessary and completely avoidable dig bites, slips and falls, overtime to cover injured carriers, workers comp and most of all the ridiculous amount of time these non curve side deliveries take up. The NALC is only interested in saving jobs that will eventually one way or the other become unaffordable for the post office. They are only interested in the dues that these members provide. They are willing to risk the fiscal health of our bread and butter for their own gain. Fact is the PMG is talking about keeping windows open on Saturday’s to provide service of sales and parcel pick ups. All express mail would still get delivered and all medicine would go out. Carriers in exchange would get two consecutive days weekly to recover from the ails that come from physical labor reformed in heat rain sleet and snow. Carriers would also experience less excruciating pain on a daily basis that comes fromhaving to do the stairmaster for 8 hours plus while carrying mail on their backs and both arms. Carriers would also have more job security as our company will have leaned significantly more towards the black and out of the red allowing us to concentrate on innovation and adjusting to technology versus the petty bickering back and forth the NALC uses to justify it’s existence. End Saturday deliveries! End non curve side deliveries for the sake of all our jobs and to show the public that for once congress can make a decision without waiting for the highest bidder and focusing only on what is best for Americans and postal employees and their families.