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50-mile radius rule

 

The Postal Service has hundreds of job openings in Beaumont
The Postal Encoding Center in Beaumont is now taking applications for 300 to 400 jobs.
Those hired will help process mail for Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and the East Coast. To apply you can call 1-866-999-8777. You'll have to enter exam announcement number 145347. You can also log onto the agency's web site at www.usps.com/employment  (1/09/06)

Beaumont's postal center to fill up to 400 jobs

Examination: 710 Clerical Abilities
City, State: BEAUMONT, TX

APWU: REC Site Dispute Resolved - USPS Agrees to Pay Up to $500,000 - A long-standing dispute between the Postal Service and the APWU regarding the use of Transitional Employees to the detriment of career part-time flexible employees at Remote Encoding Centers (REC) was resolved late last year. The settlement , dated Dec. 21, 2005, requires that the USPS “cease and desist” from the practice, and awarded payment to affected PTFs not to exceed a total of $500,000. (1/05/06)

 

San Bernardino (Calif.) Remote Encoding Center to Close
Automation prompts mail-sorting closure- A Postal Service mail-sorting center in San Bernardino will close as technology to sort mail automatically reduces the need for a human set of eyes, the postal service announced Thursday. The San Bernardino Remote Encoding Center will be phased out between now and February. About 257 part-time employees will be laid off, and 43 career employees will be transferred to other jobs in the postal service, postal spokesman Mike Cannone said. The part-time employees will receive outplacement counseling. The center opened in 1995 and reached a peak of 675 employees in 1997. Mail that had been looked at in San Bernardino will now be sorted in Topeka, Kan., and Salt Lake City. (5/21/05)

USPS to Expand Salt Lake City (Utah) Remote Encoding Center

 Employment at the U.S. Postal Service's remote encoding center in Salt Lake City is expected to grow from 710 workers to about 1,300 by year's end. The Postal Service center is moving in September to a new 74,000-square-foot facility at 1275 S. 4800 West. It now operates from a 28,000-square-foot facility at 254 N. 2200 West. Employees at the center handle mail from Utah and other Western states that cannot be processed by optical machinery. Job candidates are required to pass a written exam and a keyboard test. (5/19/05)

Akron, Peoria Remote Encoding Centers to Close in 2006

Employees leave the U.S. Postal Service Remote Encoding Center on Exeter Road on Thursday. After weeks of rumors, workers were told yesterday the facility will be closed by Feb. 3. Machines are reducing the need for the centers, where workers decipher writing on some mail.Nearly 700 To Lose Jobs-More than 400 workers at an Akron, Ohio Remote Encoding Center were told that they will be out of the job by February 2006. Also approximately 250 postal workers at the Peoria, Ill. REC are slated to lose their jobs next year. Postal officials said the Remote Encoding Centers at one point in 1997 numbered 55--Now there are 17.. Princeton, NJ and Duluth, MN REC sites also are slated to close (5/6/05)

- Akron REC to Close | Outmoded postal center in Akron to close in '06

- Peoria REC To Shut Down | Duluth REC to Close

- Congressman (R-Peoria) : 'It was handled very rudely'
 (pictured ) Employees leave the USPS Remote Encoding Center on  Thursday in Ohio. After weeks of rumors, workers were told yesterday the facility will be closed by Feb. 3, 2006. Machines are reducing the need for the centers, where workers decipher writing on some mail.

 Illinois U.S. Reps. Senators Request Answers from USPS Regarding Peoria REC Closure-Peoria's remote encoding center was consistently one of the most productive in the country, Bob Gunter, Local APWU president said Tuesday. Gunter, said productivity was the chief criteria USPS said it would use when deciding which remote encoding centers to keep open. The productivity factor is one of the  reasons why U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Peoria, and U.S. Sens. Barack Obama and Dick Durbin, both Illinois Democrats, are demanding answers from the Postal Service as to why the Peoria center is being closed. (5/11/05)

Encoding Center faces long-term prospect of closure -The United States Postal Service is continuing with a consolidation of Remote Encoding Centers (REC) across the country, which could possibly close the Selma (Calif) center in the coming years. The Selma Remote Encoding Center, located in McCall Village, employees about 500 people according to David Buckley, a supervisor for the center. (5/10/05)

 TWO RECs TO BE PHASED OUT.  Advances in automated mail-processing technology — making it possible for today’s sorting equipment to “read” 92% of addresses — are reducing the workload, and the need, for two USPS Remote Encoding Centers (RECs). As a result, operations in Akron, OH, and Peoria, IL, will be phased out by February 2006. The workload at the two centers will be absorbed through the gradual transfer of operations to other RECs so that local postal operations will not be affected. From USPS Newslink (5/6/05)

Princeton NJ REC to Close July 8th-According to a APWU Steward at the Princeton, NJ Remote Encoding Center, " We also are slated to close on July 8th, with most of our careers moving out as early as March 5, 2005. There are 77 careers, myself included, who will be losing their jobs in this "postal downsizing" not to mention the TE's who will be also jobless. Good luck to all those in Duluth (MN) & the other REC sites who may be announced to close in July. "

    Postal Service to close Duluth (Minnesota)  REC  July 8, 2005

      Tampa Remote Encoding Center Transitional Data Conversion Operators (DCOs) Wanted

       Test is open from March 25, 2005 to June 10, 2005. Please reference exam announcement number 121996.

 

Totals

860 Transitional Employees will lose jobs

244 Career Employees will be reassigned

21 EAS  will be reassigned


Remote encoding centers
Three more will close by Spring 2004

USPS today announced the closing of three more remote encoding centers (RECs): Bowling Green, KY, Fishkill, NY, and Albany, NY. All three facilities will end image processing operations and shut down in March 2004.

Work at the Bowling Green facility, where 77 career craft, 240 transitional and six EAS employees work, will gradually begin to be transferred to other RECs beginning in November 2003.

Workload at the Fishkill center will be gradually transferred to other centers, beginning in November 2003. There are currently 92 career craft, 141 transitional, and seven EAS employees at the Fishkill facility.

Workload at the Albany center will be gradually transferred to other centers, starting in October 2003. There are currently 75 career craft, 479 transitional, and eight EAS employees at the Albany facility.

Career postal employees at these RECs will be reassigned to other postal positions in accord with national collective bargaining agreements. Transitional employees will receive outplacement counseling to help them find new employment.

When the RECs were opened, it was explained that the data conversion operator positions were temporary and would be phased out as enhancements were made to the Postal Service’s automation technology, enabling more mail to be processed electronically.

Today, nearly 89% of all letter mail and 90% of all flat mail is read by automation equipment. Additionally, funding was recently approved to further upgrade the automation equipment to increase overall system read rates to 93% for letters and 95% for flats over the next three years.

As new technology emerges, the Postal Service will continue to look for opportunities to reduce operating costs and it’s likely additional REC consolidations will occur.

source: USPS

Remote Coding Centers were never meant to be permanent June 1999 NAPFE
 Closing of postal facility will leave hundreds out of work

Rec Career/ Transitional Employee Work Hour Ratio FY 2003 and FY 2004

Reassignment Memos from National APWU

Reassignment Memoranda of Understanding

The Clerk Division entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) [pdf] with the USPS on April 2, 2001, regarding the deployment of the following automated equipment:

Automated Flat Sorter (AFSM 100)

Time and Attendance Collection System (TACS)

Flat Sorter Machine 1000 (FSM 1000)

On April 18, 2001, the APWU and the USPS entered into three separate agreements regarding implementation of the MOU:

A series of Questions & Answers [pdf], negotiated by the union and management, to ensure the proper application of the original Reassignment MOU;

An agreement [pdf] that clarified the saved grade provisions in Section A.3 of the Reassignment MOU when clerks are moved to lower-level positions; (This agreement applied those provisions on a one-time basis to all clerks on the rolls at that time in a saved grade status, regardless of the reason.)

An agreement [pdf] that granted saved-grade provisions prospectively to certain other clerks.

On May 5, 2001, the APWU provided an explanation [pdf] to help clerks understand their obligation to bid in order retain saved grade.

On May 31, 2001, the APWU and the USPS entered into a Memorandum of Understanding [pdf] that amended Section C of the original Reassignment MOU to include all unencumbered and full-time flexible clerks, regardless of how they became unencumbered.

On Aug. 15, 2001, the APWU entered into a Memorandum of Understanding [pdf] to apply the provisions of the April 2, 2001, Reassignment MOU to the Standard Accounting for Retail (SAFR) program.

Sections A and B of the original Reassignment MOU were linked to specific events which have occurred and are now moot except for the saved-grade provisions. Section A of the MOU dealt with reassignment within an installation of clerks who are excess to the needs of a section.

Section B. dealt with excessing outside of the installation.

Section C. addresses the ongoing assignment of unencumbered employees and is still relevant.

REMOTE ENCODING CENTERS
When all electronic means of resolving address information have been exhausted, the mailpiece image is sent to a remote encoding center (REC) where operators use video display terminals and keyboards to process the address information.

Providing partial RCR results with the image often allows the operator to process the address with minimal keystrokes. The RBCS sends barcodes electronically to a barcode sorter, where the barcode is applied to the mailpiece, keeping it in the automated mail stream.

In 2002, we closed an additional five of the original 55 stand-alone RECs due to continued improvements in our automation read rates. This brings the number of stand-alone RECs to 20. We continue to look into other consolidation options that could result in the closure of additional RECs in the future. At the same time, we began the process of moving flat mail keying from the plants to the RECs and are planning to key parcel images generated by the Automated Package Processing System (APPS) program at the RECs. source: usps.com
 

mou