NAPUS President says “NO” to pay freeze for Postmasters
More on a possible salary freeze for postal supervisors and postmasters. This is a message supposed to have been sent by NAPUS President Dale Goff:
Now the meeting:
We were not given a letter contradicting our letter that pay talks could not be open. Mr. Tulino’s statement was that we are going to need to go to Congress next year and ask for changes to the new law and we don’t need to be at “loggerheads” with the management associations when we do this and during these “unusual economic times”. We don’t need to be in court was his words.
He then asked us to consider instead of a total elimination of NPA and general increases if we would accept a “deferred period” on the NPA and general increases. That is: after five or six months the NPA and general increases would be effective. That is after a case is presented to Congress to change some of the law to help the Postal Service.
He went to each of us then and asked what we thought. Charley Mapa of the League said he would have to consult his board and would not be able to commit. Ted Keating of NAPS responded that at his board meeting this morning when this was discussed they said to keep talking but did not endorse this idea one way or the other. I at this point had a chance to bring up the responses from our meeting last night. I too said it would not be the best to respond right then but if I did, the answer would be a definite NO.
Now my thoughts on this and in no way do I want to influence your thoughts: What comes to mind is Jack Potter telling us that when it came to 5 day delivery he couldn’t make that decision and that he would not break the law. If that is the case on that issue then why does the USPS want to break the law (Title 39) on this issue of reopening pay talks. While, I know we all are tried and blue USPS how much more can we be asked to sacrifice and give back. If anything I feel if we agree to this proposal then we circumvent the law and have set a precedent to ignore it. I have heard recently we need to “get ahead of the law” from Headquarters. I disagree and why would we give away our protection. There is principle involved here and we are not sure what the unions are doing. I can tell you they will never give up any pay. They may change some work rules but not pay. We should not give up pay because we all worked this year to earn this. Just as Ralph said last night that Postmasters will give their all over and over again but once their pay is effected what’s the point.
With that said I would like for each of you to respond with a YES or NO if we should agree to a deferral versus a total elimination. Yes I would welcome you comments. If you have any input on this I need a response by next Wednesday. You can share the attached with whomever. However to address rumors on any of this the answer should be “There is a Potential for Reality”.
We will meet together (NAPS, League and NAPUS) next Thursday morning to discuss any issue on this. We still want to be united. We will then attend a Noon meeting with Mr. Tulino on the same day.
Attached for your information is the letter we received about opening pay talks and our response to Mr. Tulino which I have already sent you.
O Dale Goff, Jr.
National President
National Association of Postmasters of the United States
8 Herbert St.
Alexandria, Va. 22305
October 25th, 2008 21:47
Potter should give back the 39% raise that he and his boys got this year.
October 26th, 2008 01:14
Not unless Potter gives back the 39% he got.
October 26th, 2008 10:25
NO, not while Mr. Potter contuinues to create VP’s at HQ. At the district office POOMS have been approved assistant managers level 18’s and the craft just received in excess of $9,000,000,00 in COLA’s. Any PM that gives up their paltry well earned pay before all esle is abolished and returned should have his or her head examined. i would rather go out of business then to be a part of the only group who sacrificed and we still ceased to exist!!!
October 26th, 2008 12:24
As Postmasters we already work gratuitously on our day off, and some of us work 10 -11 hr days because of the hiring freeze. Now they want us to give up any pay increase. We also do not receive COLA’s. If we are indeed in such dire straits, why hire new VP’s? This whole scenario reminds me of what is going on, on wall st. They lose money and then give themselves bonuses. I have dedicated my last 28 yrs to the Postal Service in various capacities and the only employees in management that I can see that have benefited in the last few years are: Upper management and those Postmasters that are Yes people, working 24-7 to help their POOM’s. Consolidations and five day work week would be less of a detriment to the current staffing. Lets look at alternatives. We can not be against everything – so I think pay concessions should be the last alternative.
October 26th, 2008 12:49
Remember 1996 when we went a whole year without a pay raise because we didn’t want to accept the PM’s offer which included taking away our cost-of-living allowance. Then they jammed the new pay system down our throats and we lost the cost-of-living forever. And now the craft is receiving a 7.5% pay raise when you combine their general raise and their cost-of-living. Tell the PMG absolutely NO!
October 26th, 2008 17:58
Many Postmasters are “donating” things at work that were once part of our expense budget such as halloween candy for trick or treaters, cookies for customer appreciation days, special treats, cards for employee recognition. This has become our personal expense because it has become difficult if not impossible to provide those things at postal expense….OK, I can handle that because I care about my employees and customers. I have always worked thru my lunch….OK I can handle that because I love my work. I say “NO!” to delaying or short changing Postmaster pay in any way. OK I can handle that because I love my family and my pay takes care of them.
October 26th, 2008 18:29
Why should we take PAY FREEZE OR A CUT, the postal service has gotten so one way that if you voice your opion in our open society you are then not a team player. Poom’s has asst, and other PM’s doing their jobs. So much is filtered down to us in our offices on the computers, who needs a poom? Many postmasters earned their NPA this year and now the front office wants to stick it to the people and postmasters that did the best to help the service. NO FRECKING WAY TO A PAY FREEZE/CUT.
October 26th, 2008 20:02
There is no way we should give up what we have been working so hard for. Passing all the work to us by requiring that we spend X amount of hours on a computer to do someone’s job that we were not trained for. I have put in 27 years of hard work giving 110% each day. I too work through my lunch and go in on my days off to help my PMR that is not as experienced as I, not will she ever be by working the little bit that she does. Every year they take more and more away. Now we measure our mail with a ruler in inches!!! This report, that report, just to see it on paper, when that is only a fraction of what goes on under our roof on a daily basis. What happened to the customer orientation? Do they count anymore? Some days I cannot even make it to my office to do all this admin. work because I am busy on the work room floor all day. They seem to expect us to sit in front of a computer all day and bow to their needs in order to make them look good. It is not fair for them to get pay raises and not us. We fight now for what we get! Please say no to the NPA freeze or delay!!!
October 26th, 2008 21:26
From a business perspective, at the Postmaster level it makes more long term sense to reduce to a 5 day delivery week monetarily than it does for a short term pay cut. The cost savings from the reduction of career carriers and benefits alone should be easy to figure (1 T-6 for every 5 routes eliminated) and the gas and wear and tear for 1 day of delivery every week for every route city and rural route not to mention distribution to the Post Offices in the highly gas efficient semi’s/2-ton trucks. This should be our next large cost reduction target. Our competitors who must make a profit or cease to exist don’t deliver on Saturday because their is no profit in it unless extra fees are paid. Does upper management think they are so much better at processing and delivering that we can take on the extra costs of the 6th day and still turn a profit????
Short Answer: No – do not freeze or postpone pay. It is not the answer.
October 27th, 2008 06:14
postal management has a system like fannie mae amd freddid mac………………lose billions and then get a bonus for ”trying ”to be a manager or postmaster. as a letter carrier who has busted tail for 23 years,all i can say to all postal management is……………………….YOUR FIRED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
October 27th, 2008 07:41
ENOUGH ALREADY……………..take away the penalty for retirement and almost all civil service employees will retire. You would think that this is rocket science. Board of Governors……………sack up and make some decisions.
October 27th, 2008 07:56
There are so many other ways to save money and cut cost in our business, example 5 day delivery, flex schedules, abolish POOM positions just to name a few, why would you want to suspend or take away money that is due to the people that work the hardest and make deadlines and meet requirements that are thrown at us each and everyday. WIth this ever changing society, maybe we need to look at “customer service” versus always looking at numbers! The public just wants there mail at the same time everyday, evaluated routes would definately increase our delivery back by 5 demand and cut down OT drastically. I fail to realize why this business and the unions continue to drive our business to the brink of destruction. Our PM can get 39% and suspend our NPA??? I don’t think so…..if you want to trim some fat…..start at the top! NO TO PAY FREEZE/CUT!
October 27th, 2008 10:47
NO to the PAY FREEZE for Postmasters
Absolutely NO Deferral
I have dedicated thirty years to the USPS. My self and other
Postmasters have strived fervently to achieve the delivery
goals, reducing the use of sick leave, working non-scheduled
days, at times unrealistic scanning times for delivery to P.O.
box sections. The check list, we scan – pull reports – verify
the scan, and we appear to run in circles: check,check,
double-check, and check again. If there is a problem within
the system, isolate it, deal with the problem. I feel we’re
punished and retailitate against for any and all problems
which arise within some offices which need the correction.
Now, they want to change the terms of vera- the big rippoff.
Let’s keep the negotiations CLEAN AND SIMPLE, changes can
be applied for another year, if you chose to play that game.
NO to the freeze, and NO again to the Deferring npa.
The temp of the USPS, give and give more and then the
October 27th, 2008 11:11
Every saturday afternoon Postmaster’s in my area are forced to bring in an employee even though their is no work and the office is closed. For some it means paying a PTF 2 hours to sit and create work. We do this not because we ever had a problem with the dispatch, but that the clerk can send an email from the office saying the mail has been dispatched. This just part of the waste that happens all in the name of EXFC. If they need to save money, their would be a great place to start and not pick on low level management.
October 27th, 2008 11:35
NO! NO! NO! Fat Jack gets himsef and his top brass 39% raises this year then wants to freeze our NPA?!?! I haven’t heard any talk of any of them giving their raises back to save the PO!!
Yea give us our COLAs back, including the 6% COLA the crafts took this year, and maybe we’ll talk about ending NPA… NEXT YEAR!!!
What the hell you think we come here for everyday ? The fun people we get to work with? The pleasant public encounters? The nice easy to interpret work rules and policies? Or just the prestege?? HELL NO – IT’S THE MONEY STUPID!!!!
October 27th, 2008 12:09
Not even a chance…..unless headquarters personnel rescind their bonus……….and a freeze is in order to all employees.
Again, for years headquarters has been going in the wrong direction and they continue to avoid the difficult questions. Trim the fat in headquarters and other levels of management and give the front line supervisors/postmaster the reason to come to work and make decisions.
postmaster retired
October 27th, 2008 12:12
I too believe it would be foolish of Postmasters to give up their hard-earned NPA that we have worked for during the last year. Just because the national NPA is poor and the execs won’t be getting big payouts this year, doesn’t mean that no one else has earned and deserves them. NO to the deferred NPA, it simply gives the USPS time to get it thrown out by congress altogether. When we get our COLA, when the crafts give theirs back, and Potter gives his back, we can all sacrifice for the company!
October 27th, 2008 12:44
Absolutley NO!!!!!!! I don’t get paid enough as it is now for what is being required of me and all the threats that we endure daily.
October 27th, 2008 13:53
Tell them to give us a COLA like the rest of the postal service and get rid of NPA… I don’t see the union asking the carriers or clerks to give up their COLAs for the next few years. Why? Because they would never agree to it.. they don’t want us to get a our menial percent of a raise, yet the crafts got the largest COLA in history? Please……
October 27th, 2008 14:50
I’d be happy to have cost of living back and get rid of NPA – it is imbalanced and flawed.
No to pay freezes.
Thank you
October 27th, 2008 15:08
Not unless Mr Potter gives back his payraise he gave himself and his fellow workers. 75 000 $ for himself and every one of his coworkers, forget it.
October 27th, 2008 16:17
No Way! We continue to let the rich get richer (DC people) while the bottom line people are ask to sacrifice. Our small NPA is only a drop compared to the high percentage that they get. No Way! Postmaster are working long hours with more stress than ever.
October 27th, 2008 16:20
PMG and top Brass got 39% and it was retroactive for the entire year before!! This was after saying there was no money left for EAS during those pay consultations. Remember, HQ took away EAS COLA as a “Bargaining Chip” to use during “Craft” negotiations? Then turned around and gave “Craft” the largest COLA to date-until now. They get three raises a year-to our one-if we make our NPA goals.
We are given TOE that doesn’t even cover salary in our units, not enough workhours and they make budget unattainable. We are also given ridiculous goals for revenue. IF – on the off chance some deserving Postmaster makes it and gets an NPA-they want to take it away!!
USPS Brass indeed-BRASS BALLS to expect something like that to fly. I’ve heard bosses say for us to make conditions so bad that people will want to leave. What Service?
I want my COLA back Mr. Potter-with all due respect.
October 27th, 2008 16:21
No! I have been striving to keep a positive attitude as the District Office has piled more work on postmasters much of it being checks upon checks upon verifications to justify their positions. Postmasters (including myself) have been consistently working more than 40 hours a week for years to compensate for not being allowed to fill their earned complement and continually having additional duties assigned to them. I have always been willing to work more, pay for employee/customer items out of my own pocket and use my vehicle to deliver Express Mail, missent mail and deliver rural routes; I am NOT willing to give up my raise that I have earned for FY 2008. For FY 2009 I would say yes to a pay freeze if, and only if, EVERY postal employee has a pay freeze. Where is the trust?
October 27th, 2008 17:53
I wonder how many millions upon millions of dollars could have been saved over the last few years if the postal service had actually kept all the post masters in their own offices, doing what they were hired to do, instead of allowing thousands of them to go out on “detail”, basically jiggling door handles at other post offices and looking for sleepers. Oh yea, and don’t forget the USPS had to pay a PMR to do the postmaster job while they were out on these boondoggles. I know several postmasters that absolutely milked these detail jobs for every cent they could get in mileage and salary, for as long as they could. Their reasoning, to “get out of the office”. You guys cry poor mouth now, when you’re as guilty as upper management of milking the system for all it’s worth. I personnely hope they terminate every one of you so that the ones that actually get the mail to the customer can do so with out you people getting in our way and nitpicking every thing we do.
October 27th, 2008 21:49
Absolutely not….NO to deferral, NO to freeze. When the craft gives back their big COLA, then maybe we will talk. After 22 years of going “above and beyond” I am so tired of the crap that is being dished our way. NAPUS needs to stand strong on this one.
October 28th, 2008 06:00
We have all endured some very long days, much verbal abuse, threatened throughout the year, some taken out of their jobs and put on ‘details’ to try and bully management into making unattainable budgets, while maintaining productivities. To say the least the past year has been exasperating, and I for one do not want to lose my small pay increase. We were all let down when it was agreed to take a 2.25% increase. I can assure you union employees have received more than that in their COLA which they still receive!
October 28th, 2008 07:52
How about eliminating some layers of management – those who don’t contribute to revenue?
October 28th, 2008 08:07
NALC pay increases, APWU pay increases, Potter and VP increases, and we become the sacrificial lambs for the Postal Service, I think not!!!!! As soon as the pay increases from craft and brass go back towards the postal service we’ll talk. Which will never happen! And as far as BAKE’s comment is concerned, give back your COLA and your Lump Sump’s and what the heck is a bonus? Management fails to get a Cola, I will happily take a 6% COLA! Bring on the 5 day work week and we will be able to make up for our deficit.
October 28th, 2008 08:18
The USPS is getting way out of control with their bullying and unrealistic goals, you have to work here to understand. It’s only a matter of time before Congress steps in and does a full investigation of this situation. It’s a thankless job. It’s also comical in many ways, I’ve seen District Managers that wouldn’t even be considered as a custodian in a private firm. If you’re in the “buddy club”………….no experience necessary. Is anybody listening!!! HELP US!
October 28th, 2008 08:20
Why even be in management at this point? We are treated like ugly sisters. Aren’t we at least entitled to stay slightly ahead of craft employees. I already have to put in 60 hours to get paid for a 40 hour week. I get no COLA and no overtime. Now this joker wants me to get no raise. If there’s no money then make some cuts…. start with all the redundant Mgrs in every district….. start with the overbloated Areas that exist. The other day I had to go to the Area and I opened a door and 3 level 24’s fell out. If I’m not entitled to COLA and not entitled to my little pittance of a 3 – 4% raise, how is it Potter and his cronies rate 39%? Keep messing with your people’s pay and trust me, you will get nothing in return. In fact, as of now, I am working a 40 hour week from now on. No more late nights or free weekend days just to catch up…..
October 28th, 2008 08:53
Absolutely NO! I have made sacrifices all year…working over 20 Saturdays this year because of lack of supervisors. I’m sure there are many Postmasters and Managers who can say the same. We have given much in the past (including COLA, which was sizeable to the unions this year)
October 28th, 2008 09:30
Absolutely not! PMG Potter will only create a new VP position. How many has he created now? Why does this company need so many VP’S? Maybe the postal service wouldn’t be in such bad shape if we didn’t have so many vice presidents sitting in Washington doing what?
October 28th, 2008 10:52
I’m lucky enough to have a great boss who doesn’t make threats and actually listens to my problems. It makes working 50 to 60 hour weeks just a little less painful. However, each year’s NPA makes all the hours I’m not home a little less painful for my family.
I agree – look at all the other options before taking our NPA.
October 28th, 2008 13:02
We finished our NPA consultations after the FPR came out and yet the end of last week the FPR was changed and an additional $40K was taken out “to level the field”. When are we going to get a budget that is set and not have it changed after the fact just to make sure we do not get NPA anyway. What we have at the end of the FY should be what we have 2 weeks after the end of the FY. Then have Finance come back and drop our PLAN by an additional -21% after the plan comes out? There may be a valid reason but the only one I can think of is to make sure we never have to pay an NPA again. ABSOLUTELY NOT TO GIVING BACK ANYTHING. They are taking enough on their on without us giving a rubber stamp of approval. Give a rope and they think they are cowboys.
October 28th, 2008 15:29
NO WAY. We already work far more than most and get far less comensation for our efforts. I have craft employees who make as much as I do with OT, now how does that work ?? I say we should get a 5% raise on TOP of our NPA. My unit has a 10+ NPA this year, but because the service scores for our group is real low I will only get about a 5, now how fair is that.
October 28th, 2008 21:09
NO Absolutely NOT.
Does Potter think that the prices of everything we have to buy hasn’t gone up ? Has he been to the grocery store lately and tried to purchase food ? Every single thing in our lives have gone UP this year, food, electric, gas, oil, clothing and on and on. We cannot go without a pay raise.
He has a hell of a nerve to even ask after he has appointed so many VP’s this past year. He can get rid of them. Send them back where they came from.
I put in 50 to 60 hrs a week, carry routes, sort mail scrub floors. I refuse to allow Potter and his HQ croonies take away my pay. A good idea would be for him and all of his VP’s to surrender their pay for 6 months. You cannot keep taking from the same people.
October 28th, 2008 23:45
Its bad enough that we have to wait 3 months to get what we earned the previous year. Give us back what the craft unions get. NPA is tough enough when the targets and budgets change throughout the year. I would be delighted with an annual COLA increase with the standard 3%.
Upper Mgt sets the goals to begin with, then your MPOO is told what scores they can give out. Once the budgets and goals are set THEY should be frozen.
Anyone who agrees to this should be booted!
October 29th, 2008 03:40
Is this title for real: USPS freezes PCES pay and seeks to do the same for Postmasters and EAS. Go ahead and freeze my pay, defer it for six months. Heck defer it for 5yrs just as long as you give us a 39% increase.
October 29th, 2008 04:45
This is such a shame as we (Postmasters) worry all year about our PFP and then to have it threatened while craft employees got one of the biggest raises ever. I work in a Level 11 office with no delivery, only post office boxes. I believe that any office with no delivery should be closed on Saturday. There is no reason they should be open. The revenue generated doesn’t even cover the cost of paying the PMR. There should be a floating PMR that is shared among offices so that they can get their hours. Also the USPS should stop sending weekly credit card solicitations out to employees. This would have to save money. Obviously there should be massive cuts starting at the top management all the way down to district. They should be careful about cutting workers that actually move the mail!!!
October 29th, 2008 08:29
You are kidding, right?
My replacement makes more a hour than I do now!
The answer is NO Mr. PMG.
October 29th, 2008 09:35
NO! Delayed or not. I have over 25 years of PO service. I have given, given and given. Gave up overtime and Cola. I didn’t see the craft give up nothing. Let it be their turn since some of them make more money than their supervisors and PM’s. And don’t tell me I don’t know what it is to clerk and carry. I do it all as a level 18 office – rural delivery, city delivery and everything a clerk does in between. I even have to do the maintenance on the building, including the lift. My health has suffered from the giving, especially since I am getting older. The stress is overwhelming. The work hours and daily demands from ignorant MPOO’s and District clowns is overwhelming. Attitude? You bet. A human being can only take so much. The pennies that the USPS would save is nothing compared to the overall picture. Cut Saturday delivery. Now is the time. An opportunity such as we have to cut Sat delivery may never come again. Cut my NPA or pay and you will see attitude.
October 29th, 2008 09:44
CUT DISTRICTS! I’ll offer the Cincinnati District immediately! These dufuses continue to waste air. Send these people out in the field to fill vacant PTF positions. Maybe then they would earn their wage.
October 29th, 2008 10:05
Plain and simple no. They cut our work force and now that want to take away my compensation. NO NO NO. Oh did I say NO
October 29th, 2008 13:55
No, No, tell them to give back their raises
October 29th, 2008 13:57
no we all worked to hard this year. We all all working longer hours and more days as it is for the same pay. Give us back are COLA and do away with NPA
October 29th, 2008 14:02
NO! NO! Why don’t the big bosses give back 39% for two years back pay plus they don’ do any more work. As PM’s we have no help and we now we have do District Work too. Plus now they want to sign papers saying we are going to do 20%cut in hours across the broad. Supervisor were taken out of the offices and now we do their work too. We have more bosses wanting us to have their work done asp. We also work 6 days a week + over 10 hours a day. When the plants missend the mail we as PM’s have to run it all over the state!!!What else do you need. There is plently more. How may PM’s take breaks or lunches. I beg I could count it on one hand.
October 29th, 2008 15:12
No to deferring, no to freezing, -
Unless and until the PMG, all levels of VP’s, area and district do the same.
And while we’re talking options on the table -NO MORE NPA. They tried it – it failed. The criteria they use to calculate the pay increases is too easily manipulated. (first it was TWH then TOE and then they set the bar for anticipated revenue generation beyond any reachable limit.) Then they end up adjusting budgeted hours mid-year on us anyway.
39% of a six figure salary and the addition of 4 National level Vice Presidents positions is criminal in today’s economy. District level’s answer to the crunch is to require us to do more documentation and keep printing reports for posting in the office, “just in case we have an audit”. Multiplied thousands of reams of paper for no reason – they can bring up the reports online any time they want to look at them.
Tell them to stop trying to cut the lines for the workers that bring in revenue and produce the customer service and look for middle – to – upper management areas to cut.
Stop giving us more work and then writing a plan for our pay talks that gives us less hours and less people to do it in!
I love my job, I love my people, I enjoy promoting the goods and services we offer in Business Connect – it helps the little guy compete in the market and I’m proud of that. We do good. Stop sabotaging us with this garbage.
Go Back to having a COLA.
October 29th, 2008 15:17
OH YEAH! and PAY OUR PMR’s more than $9.00 per hour SO IT’s WORTH IT FOR THEM TO WORK FOR US!
October 29th, 2008 16:21
The Unions, that’s where the money is. Concentrate on busting them up.
October 29th, 2008 16:27
You have got to be kidding me. Ok…I would way yes to an ACROSS THE BOARD hiring freeze…from Mr. Potter all the way down to the lower levels. But, in my opinion, the obvious is glaring at us, and everyone is too chicken to fight for the 5 day delivery. We need drastic change in the organization and we need it NOW. We have been told in our offices to “suck it up” and put up with the micro-management, no complement and etc in order for us to stay afloat. I say to Mr. Potter and all his VP’s…it’s time for YOU ALL to suck it up. If my spouse ran his business like the USPS, we’d have lost everything long ago.
October 29th, 2008 20:07
Why am I not surprised. Why don’t we just have ritual sacrifices and the last man/woman standing gets the gold.
We already get no cost of living and work long hours without overtime compensation and dare I say it “graditude”. I guess the postal employees can manage themselves, because there is little or no incentive to become a supervisor or manager now. What do you think no pay raises will do. The boat is already sinking folks and you are suggesting that we either jump ship or bail water with our hands until it goes under. Please go back on the medication, because you are seriously losing it. I vote “NO!!!!!”
October 29th, 2008 20:40
NO!NO!NO! I have carried for 15 years, Supervised for 4 and now have been a Postmaster for 6 months. I have always given my all to the Postal Service. I have always worked over 50 hours a week, as a supervisor I did this with no compensation with the knowledge that my extra effort would be rewarded when it was time for my PFP evaluation. Supervising in a 21 office I had to clerk and carry mail regularly because of being short staffed. Now as an 18 Postmaster I again usually work 6 days a week, 5 of those 10 hours a day, clerk, carry, building maintenance, etc. I am very proud of the fact that I came into this office, shot the moral way up, saved well over 350 hours in just 6 months amounting to well over 10k in salaries and now they want me to not be compensated at all or delay my compensation for my accomplishments. Again I say NO! NO! NO!
October 30th, 2008 04:50
No! No! No! These are pay increases we have already earned.Postmasters are asked to do more and more with less. If they want to say money stop all the running around with one piece of priority mail, just to improve the scores. Fix the problem to begin with and stop foolish spending, not at the Postmaster’s expense.
October 30th, 2008 07:37
No, is there any reason we should agree?
October 30th, 2008 08:06
Hearing this has made me so mad I could spit nails. If we make the NPA goals (THAT HQ’s SET!!), then we should get our raise, period! I don’t bust my tail every day just for the sheer thrill of it. We are already treated worse than the craft employees when it comes to raises and COLA (I have almost forgotten what that word means). If they agreed to it and we earned it, they should pay it. No freeze, no deferred period. I hate to beat the proverbial dead horse, but the HQ Big Wigs got a MASSIVE increase that was retroactive. We have more and more duties heaped upon us as they consolidate or abolish departments, yet we get nothing. We work longer hours and do more craft work because they implement a hiring freeze. They are all take and no give. I don’t mind the long hours and working short-staffed when it helps my budget, and therefore, my NPA, but to take blood from a stone and give nothing in return is just plain heartless.
October 30th, 2008 12:54
This organization has been mismanaged for way to long. Obviously my answer is NO! The USPS needs to restructure, starting with the elimination of the Areas. If they completed a time a motion study, the results at a minimum would be 40% reduction in staff positions. We also need 5 day delivery.
Why not increase merits over the last three years for CSRS employees to a maximum of 8% to 10% and let people retire. That may be one solution to by-passing OPM.
October 30th, 2008 14:23
Upper management are mandating Postmasters deliver late arriving Priority and First Class Mail which arrives after the carriers depart for their route just to chase service scores. We’re spending $20-$30 to deliver a 42 cent or $4.80 pice of mail because the mail didn’t arrive as scheduled. When upper management stops this ridiculous practice, then I’ll consider not taking a well deserved pay raise. I would also consider the return of my Cola in lieu of the current NPA system. We were told they took our Colas so they could do the same with the craft. Another lie provided courtesy of L’enfant Plaza.
October 30th, 2008 15:11
If Congress didn”t screw us on the health benefits for retirees we would have made money this year. We, Supervisors worked hard to achieve our goals and save money this year by cutting OT and pivoting. We deserve our raises and more importantly we earned them.
October 30th, 2008 15:14
Let’s be honest….there are plenty of way’s to avoid non-payment of NPA’s or massive layoffs!
Front line management is scrutinized daily and are micro-micro-micro managed. Each and everyday they try diligently to implement the program or the mandate of the hour, to acheive the results that our PMG is proud of.
For the most part, we have employees craft and managment alike who come to work everyday and take great pride in what they do. And do a heck of a job, sometimes with very little resources with which to accomplish the task at hand.
What it will take, is for all of the leaders i.e. unions, Board of Govenors, NAPS, NAPUS, The League, and HQ to come together and excercise the skills that we have been taught our whole postal careers and actually brainstorm ideas and suggestions that we can present to the President that will help us overcome our adversities and challenges. For instance:
1. We could go to five day delivery, not accept any dated mailings for Monday, manage the workload with acceptable thresholds for delayed mail Mon-Fri. The transportation networks, the clerks and the working flow of the mail can remain unchanged.
2. Collect for the millions of dollars of political franked mail.
3. Repeal the ridiculous mandate for us to overfund CSRS.
4. Realign the plants and do away with tour 2 operations where feasible.
5. Combine/Consolidate small Post Offices.
6. At the risk of being cynical, put all of the cubile czars to work out in the field verses having them sit in their cubicles generating endless reports/mandates/deadlines/mandatory talks in order to justify their existence and cover their assets. In the old days we used to eat the elephant and everyone worked. I say do away with the elephants period.
The real problem with this organization is that is has been, and always will continue to be, an autocratic bureaucracy, that manages by theats, intimidation, and fear of reprisal.
One thing that we have in common with all of America whether you are a CEO, front line manager, or craft employee is the “I” syndrome. It’s all about me. We put on a good front, but when push comes to shove personal motives and agendas always take precedence!
Let’s take a novel approach and really implement the skills we all have.
October 30th, 2008 16:52
It took me over 7 years in an EAS position to get to the level of pay I received as a carrier (with overtime). I work harder now than I ever did as a carrier. Cut back on carrier pay 20%, clerk pay 30%, and mail handler pay by 40% and make them work. Most of the carriers in offices make as much as supervisors now.
The field does infinitely more today than they ever did in the past, with all the departments going to shared services.
The USPS is trying to drive more employees into retirement.
If EAS pays go down, the craft is sure to follow…
October 30th, 2008 17:50
Plain and simple – NO to both–
October 30th, 2008 20:04
No, we need to stop wasteful practices.
November 4th, 2008 11:29
No way I worked hard for that merit.
I made all the requirements
that was needed for this raise.