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USPS Responds to GAO Report on Realigning
Mail Processing Network -USPS
has submitted a report of the actions it plans to take in response to the recommendations
contained in the April 2005
GAO Report:
"To ensure that the Postal Service continues to deliver on the universal
service commitment the American public has come to expect, our processing network
has to be efficient, affordable, and flexible. The initiatives announced in the
2002 Transformation Plan have yielded tremendous results. Thus far, costs have been
reduced by over $4 billion, the career workforce has been trimmed by over 80,000
and customer satisfaction and on-time delivery performance across all product offerings
are at all the highs. " |
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PMG Touts Direct Mail Strength and what they can expect from USPS in future
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House
to Consider Postal Overhaul Bill Next Week
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Postal Reform Vote on Tuesday - Oppose OWCP Amendment
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eNAPUS Newsletter : H.R. 22 Slated for Tuesday Vote
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NAPS: White House Seeking Additional Reforms to Postal
Bill
-
Letter: NALC, NRLCA Presidents Urge Support of Postal Reform Bill (pdf)
-
Return to Sender
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USPS P & DC in Philadelphia
to Serve as National Model for Future Facilities-
. The project's mission is to streamline and consolidate postal services for the
city. In the process, it will become the first urban processing center built to
use computer-aided distribution networks.|
•
USPS
Giant Facilities Service Offices (FSOs) meets challenges head-on
Can you imagine being one of 760 professionals
responsible for over 35,000 facilities across the United States
(that's about 46 facilities per person if your calculator isn’t
handy)? How about working for an organization that has at least
one building in every U.S. community? These intimidating figures
are merely common practice for the United States Postal Service’s
(USPS’s) facilities department. The sheer size of this government
giant is a trait that sets it apart from any other organization:
“We’re a unique animal,” says Rudy Umscheid, vice president
of facilities, Arlington, VA |
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APWU, USPS Announce Tentative Agreement
On Contract Extension
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Burrus: Tentative
Contract Extension Is Part of Long-Term Effort
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APWU Wins Landmark FMLA Ruling
-A federal appeals court has ruled that
the Postal Service’s return-to-work requirements for absences of more than 21 days
are in conflict with the Family and Medical Leave Act.
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Seventh Circuit Court decision:
Harrell vs USPS (pdf)
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Management Overzealous
in Efforts to Promote APCs
--"Financial
data notwithstanding, the USPS is deploying this equipment for one specific
purpose: To reduce labor costs. The APCs are just another form of
automation, and the thinking behind automation and mechanization has been
the same for 40 years: The purpose of APCs is to replace retail
professionals.
Income
Data For APCs |
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USPS Respond to Privacy Concerns
Regarding Liteblue Website (pdf)
-"In
response to the APWU’s correspondence on privacy concerns regarding the
LiteBlue website, the Postal Service has
stated that all personal employee data is fully secure and protected and LiteBlue
is subject to Privacy Act provisions found in the AS-353."
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Gilroy Postal Carrier Situation Smells
Fishy-"News
that mail carrier Patricia Finley might be fired raises lots of red flags. Finley
was featured in a recent Dispatch story about problems caused by a do-not-dismount
order issued by Gilroy Postmaster Penny Yates. ..
it sounds like Yates might not be following standard postal service termination
procedures in this case.
For Finley's sake and for the sake of postal customers who pay for litigation against
the postal service with increased postage rates, we hope that Yates and the postal
service are following every regulation to the "T" in this case."
|
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Don’t blame
the messenger; postmaster needs more training
-
No discipline
for local postal worker |
Caught in a ‘mailstrom’
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Postal Employee's Idea Not Returned
to Sender
Arbitrator
Rules Postal Employee Entitled to $10,000 Cash Award Under USPS Ideas Program
-
On May
2, 1998, the postal employee submitted a suggestion to improve the processing of
"Return to Sender" mail. She submitted the suggestion under guidelines of the USPS
Ideas Program
. The Manager of Operations Programs for the Connecticut District forwarded the
suggestion to postal headquarters . In 2002, Postal management announced the implementation
of a new process for "Return to Sender' mail that seemed to be the Grievant’s1998
suggestion. The employee filed a grievance protesting the "unilateral" implementation
of her suggestion without compensation. The arbitrator ruled that employee is entitled
to a $10,000 cash award for the idea. |
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Marchers Protest Linden Post Office
Mural-Twenty-five
protesters steadily marched the sidewalks of the Post Office for several hours Saturday
in an effort to inspire officials to take action on a controversial mural. The art
titled "Cotton Pickers"
was painted directly on the Linden, Texas post office wall by Victor Arnautoff in
1939, according to Cesta Ayers, who attended the event and served as a spokesman
for the U.S. Postal Service." |
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USPS public
relations don't feel the mural is offensive
-
Art curator inspires Linden activists to keep mural
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Ohio Postal Worker Pulls 3 Teens
From Burning Car-Police say postal worker Derrick Walker risked his
own safety to pull three teenagers from a crushed and burning car. Walker says he
was driving behind the teens’ 1999 Ford Taurus on Friday when it suddenly swerved
into a curb. The car went airborne before slamming into a bridge and landing upside
down with the engine in flames. | |
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Retired postal clerk who gave away thousands dies-Thomas Cannon
who gained international attention for giving away more than $150,000 on his postal
worker's salary has died.
Cannon the self-described
poor man's philanthropist, lived in virtual poverty for years so he could give away
money, mostly in thousand-dollar checks to people he read about in the local newspaper
who showed kindness, bravery, or were going through tough times |
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Florida Man Can't Sue Postal Service Over Lost Package
"Justice must be served,
Ed Silverberg thought. The post office owed him. A $2,670 white gold and diamond
bracelet that his company mailed - and insured - was lost en route to its new owner
overseas. But the post office rejected his insurance claim. Silverberg stood in
line for about an hour waiting for a court clerk to accept his lawsuit paperwork.
When he reached the counter, the case was closed. "'Sovereign immunity,' the clerk
told me. I can't sue the post office because they have sovereign immunity," Silverberg
said. Under federal law, federal entities are protected from lawsuits unless sovereign
immunity is waived." |
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USPS Settles Discrimination Suit with Former Postal Worker
A former postal worker last week settled her discrimination lawsuit against USPS
for an undisclosed amount. Linda L. Randall filed the lawsuit nearly two years ago.
Randall claimed that while she worked at the Eastern Maine P & DC in Hampden, male
co-workers sexually harassed her. In her complaint, filed on Aug. 14, 2003, Randall
alleged that because her supervisors failed to take action, she became ill, lost
work time and, eventually, had to quit her job due to the harassment. |
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NALC, USPS Sign Memo to Continue Route
Evaluation Process Criteria-NALC
News Bulletin -On June 30, President Young signed an interim agreement with USPS
which continues an effort to minimize grievance activity in the field with regard
to multiple days of inspection during six-day route counts and inspections. The
MOU comes as a dispute is discussed at the national level regarding multiple days
of inspection of less than six days during a six-day route count and inspection
pursuant to Chapter 2 Handbook M-39. | |
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Editorial: Reforms Are Too Modest
Free-market competitors
such as FedEx and UPS have taken lots of business away from the post office, On
top of that, the Postal Service has met resistance from its unionized workforce
every time it tried to increase efficiency with new technology. the House just approved
a bill intended to save the Postal Service from what has been described as a “death
spiral. But it doesn’t appear the reforms go far enough. Under the House bill, rate
increases for products in which the post office dominates the market. "In other
words, First Class mail could end up subsidizing those other services, even junk
mail."
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Editorial: Reforms Are Too Modest
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NPMHU: White House Demands
Would Bankrupt USPS, Harm Employees
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APWU: White House Demands Major Changes to Postal Bill
-
Bush
Administration threatens veto any bill that does not satisfy demands
-
GAO
Report:
Improving Ratemaking Data Quality
Through Postal Service Actions and Postal Reform Legislation
- Postal Groups React:
NAPS |
Rural Letter Carriers |
NALC
-
NAPUS |
League of Postmasters
| Pitney
Bowes | RR Donnelley
|
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Mailing Industry
CEO Council |
House Overwhelmingly
Passes Postal Reform Bill
-
House Passes Postal Reform Bill
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Postcom: H.R. 22 Passes
House
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White House Floating Compromise On Postal Overhaul Bill
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Burrus: USPS will not agree to
upgrade window clerks
A number of members have asked why Retail Sales Associate
positions — and others — were not upgraded in the proposed contract extension. The
premise of the question seems to be that APWU could upgrade the positions if we
wanted to.
The APWU is convinced that the skill, knowledge, and
work content of these positions justify the upgrade to a higher level. The problem
is that postal management does not agree.
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Congressional Budget Office Releases
Cost Estimate of Postal Reform Bill S. 662 (pdf)
-
CBO
estimates that enacting this legislation (Postal Enhancement and Accountability
Act S. 662) would result in on-budget savings of $37.7 billion and off-budget costs
of $41.6 billion over the 2006-2015 period. (The net expenditures of the USPS are
classified as “off-budget.”) Thus, CBO estimates the net cost to the unified budget
would be $3.9 billion over the 2006-2015 period. |
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USPS Publicity Campaign To Spotlight Retail Clerks
The next phase of a year-old Postal Service publicity
campaign will feature Retail Sales Associates.
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Legionella Update: No New Cases
at Norfolk P&DC, Monitoring continues-The
Virginia Department of Public Health has not identified any new cases of Legionnaires’
disease beyond the first two. The Department is continuing to monitor the health
of facility employees. The confirmed test results of the post-sanitization sample
taken from room 222 (a women’s restroom used by the Inspection Service) and the
second week’s testing of the facility’s domestic water system (38 samples) indicate
no detection of Legionella-like organisms. |
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Union, Workers File
Suit Against DHL Subsidiary
-"The
APWU and five employees of ABX Air filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in
Cincinnati June 30, alleging the company has engaged in intimidation, coercion,
and discrimination against workers who are attempting to unionize the ABX plant
in Wilmington, OH. |
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•
Detroit Postal Carrier Assaulted;
Mail Bag Stolen -Police
said she was in front of a home when a woman approached her, struck her in the head
twice and stole her mail bag. |
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Holding
a Supreme Sprint? (PDF)-E-NAPUS
Legislative Newsletter -"Last Friday, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
notified President Bush that she intends to retire upon the confirmation of her
replacement. Moreover, there is considerable speculation that Chief Justice Rehnquist
will also announce his retirement shortly. In anticipation of two court vacancies,
the Senate is primed to battle over potential successors. This presents postal reform
advocates with a daunting challenge - getting S. 662 to the Senate floor before
the summer recess." |
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 Post
Office "tie guy" ordered to follow dress code
KENAI, Alaska — Postal worker not happy about ban on nifty neckware -A window clerk
at the Soldotna Post Office has been ordered to replace the funky ties he's worn
for nearly a decade with a standard blue model, and many residents, including the
town's mayor, aren't pleased. Customers have written letters of protest to Soldotna
Mayor Dave Carey after postal clerk Steve Adams was banned from sporting his colorful,
sometimes clashing, ties at work
(.jpg) because they didn't conform
with dress code regulations. "There's a huge uproar in Soldotna," Adams said. "This
is much more than a tie. It's community flavor. What's the big deal?"
However, Adams said he suspects
his new order is the result of the Mystery Shopper program.
•
Postal clerk's drab ties are bumming out town
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Former
Virginia Postmaster Faces Theft Charges-A
federal grand jury indicted Paul F. Kersey on Tuesday on charges of stealing at
least $28,562 from the U.S. Postal Service over nearly three years while he was
postmaster of Hanover County. The indictment in U.S. District Court in Richmond
alleges that Kersey stole items including bulk-mail payments, payments from customers
-- including the county government -- and reported less than he received, changed
the purchases recorded in a computerized cash register and pocketed the difference.
Kersey was transferred to another assignment March 18. The alleged thefts were discovered
after he left. |
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Man
Shot Mail Carrier in Bid to Go to Prison-The
explanation makes no sense to the Earl and Colleen Lazenby. Lazenby, a 28-year
mail carrier, went home from the hospital Wednesday, and he is not sure how long
his recovery will take. The thing that attracted him to the postal job was “not
being cooped up in the office,” but for now doctors say he cannot return to his
route. “They’re not sure if that’ll ever happen,” he said. “It’s still gonna be
a long, long road from here.” | |
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•
USPS
IG Audit: Response to Incidents Involving Suspicious Mail and Unknown Powders and
Substances-The objective
of this review was to determine whether policies, procedures, and guidance regarding
suspicious mail were communicated to and understood by Postal Service employees
and management. For example, management at one plant said the Postal Inspection
Service advised that it would be appropriate for an employee to handle and bag a
suspicious mailpiece involving suspected or alleged biohazard substances. |
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•
Georgia Postman Recalls Shooting
-"Woody"
determined to return to his postal route |
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USPS
Awards $ 60.5m Contract for Motor Vehicles
USPS has awarded a contract to DaimlerChrysler
Motors Company LLC of Auburn Hill, MI, in the amount of $60,501,660 for the production
of carrier route vehicles. DaimlerChrysler Motors Company LLC will supply
the Postal Service with 3,100 left-hand drive minivans and 10 clean diesel vehicles
by November 30, 2005.|
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USPS Awards $184 million
Contract for Purchase of Electricity
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Postal Reform
Proceeding Under A Yellow Flag
(E-NAPUS Legislative
Newsletter) As Congress departed on its annual July 4th Recess, H.R. 22 and S. 662,
postal enhancement legislation, is moving forward under the yellow caution flag.
The White House and the Congressional Republican Leadership appear to be waving
the flag. In a large part, the delay is the result of the alleged impact that the
legislation would have on the federal budget. |
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•
A Breaking Point?
Service Gets Lost In the Technology of a Self-Serve American world-Perhaps
most remarkable, the U.S. Postal Service last year started putting self-service
machines in its facilities, allowing customers to weigh envelopes or parcels, select
the service they want, pay for it and print out their own postage labels. "I think
the post office is the acid test," said Alex Halavais, a communications professor
at the University at Buffalo. "Now that that's making the move to self-serve, I
think we've really reached the last bastion." |
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USPS
Update: Hurricane Dennis Affects Some Postal Operations
-North,
South Florida District - Hurricane Dennis is expected to reach landfall in the
Pensacola area Sunday afternoon. Any transportation from the Jacksonville Bulk Mail
Center scheduled to arrive in Pensacola after 8 p.m. will be canceled. The Pensacola
P & DC will operate until 8 p.m. and then operations will be suspended until Monday
at 7 a.m. Alabama District: The Mobile P & DC is operating without power.
Mississippi District - Gulfport area is under voluntary evacuation orders
with a 5 p.m. curfew. The Gulfport P & DC is operational. Employees with postal
identification are being permitted to travel to and from work after curfew.
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Postal services are scheduled
to resume Monday
-
USPS Tractor-Trailer blown on its side in Florida
-
Dennis shuts down St. Marks (Fla.) post office
-
Postal services are scheduled to resume Monday
-
USPS Tractor-Trailer blown on its side in Florida
|
 Mail
Carrier Wants More Protections for Dogs ??-
On her postal routes along the streets of Greeley, CO Laurie Watts has seen what
few notice, and it has bothered her for years. What few have noticed, but Watts
has seen, are dogs chained in the same spot for days, weeks and months. Finally,
Watts said she'd had enough. She and Roger Messick have asked the Greeley City Council
to make tougher ordinances concerning animal ownership.|
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| •
Warrant Issued for
Postal Employee Charged with Theft of APWU Funds
-A Superior Court judge issued a
bench warrant Monday for a Bullhead City postal employee charged with six counts
of felony theft. April Leanne Henderson, also know as April Dunn, is charged in
the first count with stealing more than $3,000 from the Bullhead City's chapter
of the American Postal Worker's Union between February 2003 and January of this
year. | |
|
 Companies
Give New Meaning to Personal Mail - A new online
start-up will allow people to dress up their Old Mail with postage stamp images
of Goofy, Eeyore -- or even Uncle Bob. Beginning today, stamps can be customized
with digital artwork. Selling designer postage stamps will give Zazzle.com
another dimension. (Another company,
www.photostamps.com,
allows people to use their own photo images to create postage stamps. One reason
USPS bought into the idea was, in fact, to create some business for itself. Customized
stamps could lead people to begin writing (paper) letters again -- at least
on special occasions.|
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Zazzle lets you put your stamp on mail
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Postal
worker cited for anti-terror service promoted to Manager - Seabron Bowler
Jr. of the U.S. Postal Service, Detroit Bulk Mail Center in Allen Park, has been
promoted to manager of emergency preparedness in Portland, Maine. |
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Carriers Boost Revenue by Promoting
USPS Products (pdf)
-"Branch
356 member Joseph Muscat struck gold by gaining $714,000 in new business from a
jewelry manufacturer on his route. When a UPS snafu irritated More Skin, a spa treatment
company, letter carrier Minh Le smoothly talked up USPS—and picked up a Customer
Connect deal worth more than $1 million.
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NALC: Update on Global Postal Revolution (pdf)
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Ohio Letter Carrier Robbed of Hat,
Shirt, Bag and ID
-I'm
sorry to have to do this," the robber told the postal worker, according to U.S.
Postal Inspector Greg Ball. Ball, based in Cincinnati, said he had never head of
such a robbery, and speculated the robber planned to use the gear in another robbery.
After he handed over his shirt, the carrier realized his photo ID, with the U.S.
Postal Service logo, was in the shirt pocket, Ball said. As the robber fled down
an alley, he tossed from the emptied bag a postal service cell phone.
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Teen arrested in postal carrier robbery
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Former Postal Worker, Gulf War POW Sent to Prison for Fraud
A
former El Paso ,TX postal worker who claimed he was a prisoner of war during the
first Gulf War was sentenced to two years in federal prison Tuesday. John Karl Lee
was convicted in April of
mail fraud and making
false statement to obtain workers' compensation. |
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•
PhotoStamps
Post Big Numbers For Stamps.com
Online postal services provider Stamps.com said its PhotoStamps offering, which
enables customers to create their own digital stamps, recorded some $1.2 million
in sales in the first six weeks of a second run of test marketing the stamps. In
a statement, the firm said: "Approximately 68 thousand sheets, or nearly 1.4 million
individual PhotoStamps, were shipped to customers." |
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•
Meet Larry, the Mobile Post Office
"Larry
is a unique vehicle being a commissioned mobile Post Office during the first
chapter of its life. He was taken to county fairs to post mark letters and sell
commemorative stamps, hung out at malls during Christmas to make it easy to send
presents to loved ones and even made the rounds to rest homes to help the elderly
do the simple pleasures of life like mail a letter. He was also used to stand
in for rural post offices as the real ones were being built or renovated.
It was manned by the same 2 female postal workers during the entire time it spent
in Denver, the story goes Larry was retired when they too retired." |
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|
 Postal Workers to Picket Contract Postal Unit
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USPS
Files First Negotiated Service Agreement Using Standard Mail
-"The
U.S. Postal Service filed a request yesterday to allow the first negotiated service
agreement for Standard mail with Bookspan, a direct marketer of general-interest
and specialty book clubs." |
-
USPS Press
Release |
NSA Request
Between USPS and Bookspan (PDF |
|
APWU Initiates Step
4 Dispute Over USPS Charging Military Leave For Non-Workdays
-A dispute has
been initiated by the APWU over the Postal Service’s practice of charging paid military
leave for non-workdays. The union’s position is that postal employees who have been
charged paid military leave for non-workdays spent while receiving military training
are entitled to compensation for all lost time and benefits. In addition, the APWU
takes the position that the Postal Service should change Section 517.41 of the ELM
to read “15 workdays” instead of “15 calendar days.|
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USPS Considering Shift of Yuba-Sutter
Area Mail Processing
-Postal
officials are considering whether to shift mail processing for the Yuba-Sutter area
to West Sacramento as a cost-cutting measure, according to Ralph Petty, spokesman
for the Postal Service's Sacramento district. Petty said USPS is looking for ways
to cut costs and increase efficiency by consolidating postal functions...... "This
looks like the direction the Board of Governors wants us to go in," Petty said.
But Rick Page, Yuba City APWU president said the proposal threatens the timeliness
of the Yuba-Sutter area's mail service. |
|
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250
Pounds of Undelivered Mail Found in Vacant Texas Apartment -About 250 pounds
of undelivered and unopened mail was found in a vacant Killeen, Texas apartment.
The Postal Service Inspection Service investigating the incident. They want
to know how did so much mail go undelivered. "Tuesday News Channel 25 spoke to the
woman who found the mail. Nancy Bray with Colonial Property Management tells us
it was during a routine inspection that she made the strange discovery." Bray says
there were five Postal bags of mail weighing about 50 pounds each and addressed
to people living on Fort Hood. "She tells us the last tenant was in the Army."
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PMG
Potter Meets with Alaska Postal Employees-The
postmaster general doesn't usually come to cut the ribbon when a new post office
opens in a place like Girdwood, pop. 1,850. Postmaster General Jack Potter went
because Stevens invited him, said his spokesman, Gerry McKiernan. "This was an opportunity
to go north to Alaska," McKiernan said. "He combined it with meetings of the employees
up there. I'm told he had customer meetings as well. And it's a good opportunity
to visit with Sen. Ted. Stevens." Potter's official duties included a ribbon-cutting
July 6 at the new post office in Girdwood, where Stevens maintains his official
Alaska residence. Stevens, McKiernan said, is a big supporter of the Postal Service.
As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and as chairman of its defense
subcommittee, Stevens has a big say in a lot of federal spending.
| |
Contract Cleaner Accused of Stealing Stamps from Post Office
"A sticky-fingered
cleaning man was arrested Thursday after he was accused of stealing nearly $11,000
in stamps from the Billerica post office. Gary Benson, a self-described homeless
addict, supported his heroin habit by selling bundles of stamps worth $740 for $250,
according to police. Postal investigators became suspicious of Benson, a 48-year-old
contract cleaner for the Pearl Street post office, after discovering stamps missing,
police said." Investigators set up a surveillance camera, which taped Benson removing
a block of stamps from a storage room cabinet and concealing them in his cargo pants
pocket. |
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