This Time It’s Me
It appears that the Postal Service is determined to continue with plans to consolidate over 200 mail processing facilities and to comply with consultation requirements of the contract they have met with the union. This is bad news as over 35,000 jobs will be eliminated and employees will be required to either relocate or drive many miles to their place of employment every day. The politicians achieved the six month moratorium but time has passed and what seemed like a victory six months ago is of little help today. It is assumed that there will be disagreements over the ban on excessing beyond 50 miles, but a close inspection of the actual language reveals that the alleged ban was more propaganda than an actual agreement. The actual language says “that if in unusual situations there are insufficient vacancies available for placement within fifty (50) miles, “the parties will determine what steps may be taken.”
If disputes do arise they will center on whether to “be reassigned” under Consolidations qualifies as “excessing.” Article 12.5.C.2 Consolidations does not use the term “excess” or “excessing” in the reassignment of employees.
I doubt that this can be manipulated to apply only to employees hired after November, 21, 2010. The huge reduction in pay and eligibility to be involuntarily assigned to NFTY work schedules was OK because they didn’t apply to the union members who voted, but there is no line between new and old employees in consolidations.
Everyone who wants to limit relocation due to consolidations to newly hired employees only, please raise your hand!
Bill Burrus
Burrus Journal
the jobs they are getting rid of via plant consolidation are all on paper reductions. layoffs dont exist. and they dont know how many will take a buy out. they claim to have gotten rid of thousands of jobs over the past 5 years but that just refers to bids that have been abolished. as for EAS, it is massively bloated and out of control.
How can so many people be so naive???? If a plant closes and they are moving 150 craft employees, they are moving management also. The only difference is that managers have no contract to protect them. Yes, the senior managers with somewhat of a seniority level (same as the most senior clerks) would get the gravy but the others…….no promises.
how many will retire for the 20/25 thousand that is the limit for buyouts. after taxes, that isnt very much. and the economy is still shaky with a real possibility of another nosedive. just wait till Israel nukes Iran and oil/gas prices explode. and major inflation sets in. a very dangerous time for middle/working class people to retire
there has been some talk of mandatory retirement but how do you do that without including the entire federal civil service for FERS and CSRS. It would seem UN likely that you can just single out USPS employees. the real problem is that the only way to modernize the postal service is to privatize it and bring in real UPS and fed Ex type management. Postal mis management has made the whole situation much worse than necessary
APWU had no business letting the fox into the hen house by agreeing to the concept of 30 hour Nifty jobs. we are now well on the way to an all part time work force. and APWU has undermined NALC and Mailhandlers in arbitration. The arbitrator will want to know why they wont accept non traditional 30 hour jobs when APWU did. APWU panicked. or was gullible. or stupid. or naive. incompetent. maybe all of the above. and management can still excess and beyond 50 miles.
NAPS: USPS Decision on Guidelines For Proposed Early Retirement Incentives has been Completed
February 23, 2012 by postal
Filed under: NAPS, postal, postal news
From the National Association of Postal Supervisors:
NAPS Members,
The Postal Service held informational sessions on Wednesday, February 22, 2012 in advance of the release of the listing of Plant closures and consolidations that has been released today. NAPS was provided a copy of the list this morning and has provided this list to you along with this message.
There will be many incentives that will accompany the closures and consolidations, we have been advised that there will be a cash incentive option but that the final decision on the exact parameters of the proposed incentives have not been completed. As soon as any incentive plan is announced, NAPS headquarters will disseminate the information to the field.
The resident officers are attending a briefing with the Postmaster General, Patrick Donahoe, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Should any new information be shared at the briefing that is not included in this message we will send it to you upon our return to our headquarters offices. Also reinforce the need to be in contact with your United States Senators that we are supporting for S 1789.
Let me be clear: there is clear decision on incentives at this
point in time, and there will be further details on what the incentive
offers will entail for the crafts affected.
The incentive program is approved and will be offered, details will be posted
on the new HR Web page, Workforce Connection.
You can find it on the LiteBlue website, at “www-dot-liteblue-dot-gov.”
(www.LiteBlue.gov).
The APWU and NALC have also been briefed on the above Early Retirement Incentives, which will begin with FERS Employees , and that announcement is forthcoming.
Corrected copy
USPS Notifies Employees of Consolidations
APWU Continues to Oppose Plan
To Slash Service, Jobs, Network
APWU Web News Article 012-2012, Feb. 22, 2012
At the national level, the union has been working to win support for amendments to the 21 st Century Postal Service Act (S. 1789), which is expected to come up for a vote in the Senate soon.
Twenty-seven senators signed a letter to the authors of S. 1789 on Feb. 14, asking them to pass S.1789 which the APWU supports — to maintain current service standards, protect rural post offices, maintain six-day delivery, and establish a blue-ribbon panel to examine how the Postal Service can earn additional revenue by offering new services.
“As the USPS prepares to announce which facilities it will close, it is critical that APWU members reach out to their senators and ask them to support the S. 1789,” Guffey said. (Click here to find out how).
S. 1789 is acceptable in its current form because it adequately addresses the cause of the Postal Service’s financial difficulties — a Congressionally-manufactured crisis resulting from mandates in the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA), the union says.
“As currently written, S. 1789 would leave the Postal Service flush with cash, and lead to Early Retirement Incentives for APWU Craft membership.
They’re Not Waiting, We Can’t Wait
“If the Postal Service degrades service standards before postal reform is enacted, stopping massive consolidations will be that much more difficult,” Guffey said. “Congress must take action!”, and Pass S.1789 !
Congress is in recess this week, but the union president is urging members to contact their senators immediately to urge them to support the amendments endorsed by the APWU.
Call Your Senators
202-224-3121
(Capitol Switchboard)
[Click here for direct #s]
Tell them you Support
S. 1789 as it is currently written
First Cav you are an ignorant scum sucking racist piece of crap who makes me want to puke. No wonder the PO is in such an awful shape. Ignorant dumb A holes like you who vote republican will be the death of us. It will have nothing to do with the actions of the Union.
Does anyone really believe that if the contract had been rejected and we had gone to arbitration that the PO would have decided not to close plants. In truth, I think we should feel lucky that our contract was settled before the #@%& hit the fan. If you don’t believe me, just wait and see what the others get.
1st cav rereretard neads to get off the fake news!
God, do we ever still need you expertise and wisdom now Mr. Burrus! The ship is sinking and sinking fast! We have tried to hold on to hope and the good Lord, but management doesn’t know anything about fair treatment among their loyal workers! Congress doesn’t care anything about the Postal Service mail delivery or their many dedicated workers! We will not give up the the fight, yet! If you sir can help our union in anyway, please do so!
amazing that this clown never has a bad word to say about postal mismanagement or the fact that “NO” po mismanagement position has been reduced. Neville Chamberlin looks like a pit bull compared to burrass.
American Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection in November, took them 2 months (not 4 years like po) to announce their plan in January to layoff 15,000 workers. now in Dallas, Texas 24 hours later there was another announcement that 1,500 AA managers would be let go….10% of workers. Union responded by saying they would fight ALL worker cuts.
this burrass/goofy con job has not said one word about any po mismanagement reduction. big house, jaguar cars, 2 hour lunches on K & L Streets, limo’s, trips to Vegas, crummy 1% raises……this is all we ever got from these a**holes. give to COPA, 8 dollar payroll surcharge, anthrax victim fund all went into general fund for more trips to Vegas and expense accounts. this clown burrass was hot to trot to get barry the magic negro into the white house…..who has done zilch for postal workers.
how come this bozo does not just go away……alt least Moe Biller rode off into the sunset with his million bucks never to be heard from again until the obit came out.
I saw all this coming down the rode from these losers……15 years ago I used OT money to buy 100 shares of UPS & FDX each year as a hedge against the PO….now with 1600 shares each burrass can kiss my a**!
oh yeah billy boy….hear that Moochelle Obama lost her law license to practice in Ilinois in 1993….will not hear that in lame stream media….go ahead and goggle “why did mechelle obamma loose her law license”!
They are cutting our PD&C down to 40 clerks from 270 but guess what no Supervisors or Upper Management were hurt ( cut ) in this travesty! You would think a cut of 80% staffing would mean a like reduction in Mangament. NEVER HAPPENS!
SCREW you here or 50 miles plus away from home what difference does it make. VOTE Republican to stop abortion and taxes again just like the last 5 elections, Or maybe they’ll just be able to KILL the middle classthe rest of way this time. Don’t vote your wallet or family.
The chart from the USPS 5 year plan shows that in 2011, there were 557,000 career employees and 93,000 non-career. In 2016, the career employees would be reduced to 402,000 — a reduction of 155,000 — while the non-career workforce would actually increase from 93,000 to 101,000. That means basically that all of the positions that will be cut are full-time career jobs. The non-career positions would increase, from 14% to 20% of the total workforce. WTF!
Hi Bill, miss u as pres. , anyone that took the time to read that joke of a contract knows that the 50 mile excess rule would end up as a “guideline”. Truth is you will be sent as far as the union agrees to (translation: the closest place there is full time work, you live on the east coast? TS you end up in Iowa, move or you lose your job! Think it can’t happen?, wait ’till all these plants are closed! If you they offer a buyout/incentive, run don’t walk, to grab it if you can possibly swing it! Because when the dust settles all of us that couldn’t leave are in for some tough times. Union Solidarity BUT use your brain and stop being a media ZOMBIE!!!!
the failure to address cutting the bloated EAS ranks nationwide is a scandal and beyond belief
What’s not mentioned in all of the closings and the elimination of 155,000 craft employee jobs are the supervisors. Oh they had there R.I.F. not to long ago remember, where the Postmaster assigned people in Washington working with him, “dual assignments” and there was the EAS offer of $20,000 paid over two years to retire. Supervisors at that time who lost their jobs were able to bid those jobs that were available through that offer. So there was no reduction in supervisors. Now with this plan to eliminate 155K employee’s why aren’t supervisors being discussed in this equation? Imagine you have two supervisors for about every 15 employee’s now imagine how many you will have after this reduction.
To joewatusi, who has posted information regarding an incentive plan in the works.
How do you have this information when no one else seems to be ‘reporting’ on it? What is the time frame for this supposed incentive plan? I sure bet those who are considering retiring would love to have the specifics.
I knew a mailhandler once who transfered from New York. The only full-time position available was in Miami, Florida. But he lived in West Palm Beach, 75 miles away… (1-1/2hr. drive).
So he used the tri-rail system and took the train round trip, 5 days a week. Got a monthly pass and saved money too. He finally got a transfer to West Palm Beach, three years later….
We’ll see what the current postal employees will do?
They already excessed 79 carriers in San Diego more than 300 miles away.
Mandatory Stand-Up Talk
Feb. 22-23, 2012
Area Mail Processing and facility consolidation studies
completed
As we heard from the PMG in his video, whenthe Postal Service reduces
the size of its network, it also will have to reduce the size of the
workforce. In that regard, the Postal Service is continuing to work
with the unions and management associations about inevitable
incentives very soon.
Let me be clear: there is clear decision on incentives at this
point in time, and there will be further details on what the incentive
offers will entail for the craft affected.
The incentive program is approved and will be offered, details will be posted
on the new HR Web page, Workforce Connection.
You can find it on the LiteBlue website, at “www-dot-liteblue-dot-gov.”
(www.LiteBlue.gov). You can log on from any computer and all you
need is your Employee ID and PIN numbers.
Workforce Connection.