A press release put out Sunday by the United States Postal Service is full of spin and distortions aimed at influencing public opinion. The National Association of Letter Carriers wants its members to know that we are responding to press inquiries regarding the USPS release as follows:

The release, which addresses the status of negotiations with two unions, contains significant misinformation in a variety of areas. We recognize that the USPS faces major challenges that need to be addressed to secure its future, but this cannot be done responsibly if one party engages in blatant and self-serving attempts to mislead people.

While we have no involvement in these particular negotiations, on a broader level misinformation about important issues must be addressed, lest people accept it as valid. Here are a few examples of the misleading statements.

In what is presented as an objective depiction of the negotiating process with the American Postal Workers Union and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, the Postal Service writes that in the event of an impasse, "An arbitrator determines the final outcome and is not legally required to consider the Postal Services financial obligations when rendering a decision."

This is nonsense, because arbitrators are required to consider all evidence presented by the parties. Since the USPS always presents information on its financial situation, its finances always are considered. The press release phrasing is a thinly disguised attempt to prompt congressional meddling in the traditional labor-management process by legislation that would insert one-sided language favoring the Postal Services positions a terrible precedent. We don’t think it’s the role of Congress to get involved on behalf of either side, including ours.

The Postal Services spins the issue of eliminating Saturday delivery by claiming that the public favors 5-day delivery over using taxpayer funds and other alternatives. In fact, as the USPS well knows, the Postal Service has not used a dime of taxpayer money for 25 years, and no one is proposing that it do so now.

What is being proposed, both by us and by the Postal Service, is an internal transfer of surplus pension funds to cover the $5.5 billion in annual pre-funding of future retiree health benefits, resulting from a 2006 congressional mandate. No other institution in America, public or private, is obligated to pre-fund future benefits at all, let alone at the aggressive schedule imposed on the USPS by Congress. Nonetheless, if Congress allows the Postal Service to make this transfer of its own money realized from the sale of products and services the financial status of the USPS would improve markedly. How much? Instead of losing money, the Postal Service would have realized a net profit of $700 million the past four years, even with the worst recession in 80 years.

How would the public respond if the question was whether people would rather lose a day of mail service and see 80,000 people thrown into unemployment, to realize a relatively meager savings of at most $3.1 billion annually — or instead see the Postal Service simply transfer money from one account to another, thereby coming up with $5.5 billion at no cost to taxpayers, and not slashing services or engaging in mass layoffs?

The release says, "The drop in the economy coupled with the shift to digital communications has created the greatest loss in mail volume since the Great Depression. Mail volume peaked at 213 billion pieces in 2006 and plummeted to 170.6 billion in the fiscal year (FY) ending Sept. 30."

Inexplicably left out is the fact that the Postal Service itself projects that mail volume will begin to increase again next year. Just 10 days ago, the USPS stated that it projects mail volume to rise next year, by 1.1 percent, for the first time in four years. Neglecting to include this in the press release is explicable only if the aim is to spin the truth in an effort to achieve other aims.

The Postal Service release also says, "To remain strong into the future, the Postal Service needs to control costs through a flexible workforce to adapt to the nations changing mailing trends."

We all know what this means – a decrease in quality through transforming the workforce into a collection of temporary employees, rather than maintaining the current high standards of a workforce the very same press release says has led the public to regard the Postal Service as the most trusted government agency six consecutive years.

Our craft alone, the letter carriers, not only delivers mail in an efficient and professional manner, we look after the elderly on a daily basis, save the lives of customers in medical difficulty, rescue people from fires or automobile accidents, stop crimes and conduct the largest annual food drive in the country. Reducing the quality of the federal governments most trusted workforce, coupled with slashing mail delivery, would be huge mistakes that would damage the USPS.

These various spins, half-truths or outright distortions are no way to inform the public and to have a rational discussion about the best way to secure the future of a great national institution on which 150 million households and businesses rely for mail delivery six days a week. We stand ready to engage in a serious discussion that considers the best interests of the American people.

via Latest News | The NALC responds to a USPS press release regarding its contract negotiations with two unions.

From the NALC:

An NALC member was featured on the November 19th episode of National Public Radio’s “This American Life” in a segment entitled “Neighborhood watch.”

The episode highlights the interactions of people in various neighborhoods across the county and how these interactions among members of a particular neighborhood, or lack thereof, make them unique.

The efforts of Fort Lauderdale letter carrier Paul Gereffi, the 2008 NALC Eastern Region Hero of the Year, demonstrate the important role letter carriers have in neighborhoods across the country. Letter carriers continue to be the eyes and ears for communities throughout America; they keep their fingers on the pulse of America, six days a week.

As show host Ira Glass notes, “It’s so common for carriers to stumble onto something during their route – to perform a good deed – that these incidents are a regular feature of the letter carrier association’s monthly magazine.”

Letter carriers do not stand idle but step in and offer their assistance – often risking their own lives – for the good of their communities.

Click the link to hear some of Paul’s story as portrayed on “This American Life.”

Overview

• The Postal Reorganization Act authorizes collective bargaining on wages and working conditions, generally under laws applying to private industry. As the Postal Service is an essential service to the nation’s economy, Congress mandated that employees represented by unions cannot strike. Impasses in collective bargaining negotiations may ultimately be resolved through arbitration.

Current Operating Environment

• Mail volume peaked at 213 billion in 2006. Since 2007 mail volume plummeted 35 billion pieces — 20 percent. By 2020, mail volume is expected to decline to 150 billion.
• Many mail processing plants previously operated three, eight hour shifts, seven-days-a-week. Today, many facilities have reduced operations to two eight-hour shifts operating five- or six-days a week.
• Seventy-eight percent of Postal Service costs are linked to wages and benefits.
• To remain relevant while meeting today’s changing mailing trends, the Postal Service must manage its labor costs by matching workforce to workload.
• The Postal Service’s goal is to negotiate a contract that’s fair to its customers and its employees while meeting its financial and operational needs.

Negotiations Process

The collective bargaining process for the Postal Service may entail a three-step process: negotiation, mediation and interest arbitration. The parties may negotiate a contract at any of the three steps in the process.

Step 1: The negotiations period begins approximately 90-days prior to the expiration of the contract. During this time, the parties try to reach agreement themselves. If they reach a tentative agreement, it must then be ratified by a vote of the union membership.

Step 2: If they cannot reach agreement, a federal mediator is appointed by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), unless both parties waive mediation. If no agreement is reached with the mediator, or if the parties waive mediation, the contract goes to impasse.

Step 3: The impasse proceeds to final and binding interest arbitration. In interest arbitration the dispute goes before a three-member panel. The panel consists of a neutral arbitrator serving as chairperson and two arbitrators representing each party. The neutral arbitrator may be selected by agreement of the parties, or from a list provided by the FMCS.

A BALANCED APPROACH

U.S. Postal Service
Labor Negotiations Fact Sheet

Employee Unions

Most hourly employees are represented by four unions. The American Postal Workers Union AFL-CIO (APWU) represents employees who work as clerks, mechanics, vehicle drivers, custodians and some administrative positions. Employees represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO (NALC) deliver in metropolitan areas; National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association (NRLCA) employees deliver primarily in rural and suburban areas; and, employees represented by the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, AFL-CIO (NPMHU) work in mail processing plants and Post Offices.

In addition to the four major unions, five other bargaining units collectively cover more than 1,100 employees representing nurses, police officers, Information Technology and accounting services, headquarters maintenance employees and machinists.

Contract negotiations for the NRLCA begin Sept. 13, 2010. The NALC and NPMHU begin negotiations next year approximately 90-days prior to the contract expiration date.

Sam Pulcrano MTAC Presentation on Five-Day Delivery Transition Management Status

Five Easy Ways to Go Green, Save Green

WASHINGTON, Nov. 22, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Postal Service is the top choice for customers who want to go green and save green this holiday season.

“We want customers to know they can trust their holiday cards and packages to USPS. We’re one of the greenest mailing and shipping companies in the world,” said Sam Pulcrano, vice president, Sustainability. “With more than a half billion eco-friendly shipping supplies, free package pickup and holiday cards printed on recycled paper available in 1,600 Post Offices, the Postal Service is setting a green example.”

USPS offers customers options to help reduce their carbon footprints, just as it consistently seeks ways to reduce its own environmental impact.

“We have a fleet of feet delivering mail the greenest way possible, by walking,” Pulcrano added. “More than 9,000 of our carriers will be delivering holiday mail on foot this season. And we also have 80,000 ‘park and loop’ routes, where carriers will drive vehicles from the post office to neighborhoods and then deliver those holiday packages and cards by walking.”

Green Packaging

USPS is the only mailing and shipping company in the world to have earned Cradle to Cradle Certification(CM) for the environmentally friendly design of both its Priority Mail and Express Mail supplies, and a majority of ReadyPost boxes, envelopes and labels. Priority Mail and Express Mail supplies are free to customers and can be delivered at no charge by ordering from the Post Office that’s always open 24 hours a day at usps.com/green/eco-packaging

Green Postage

All 27 billion postage products, including stamps, personalized envelopes and stamped postal cards, are now Cradle to Cradle Certified(CM) — designed to be safe and environmentally responsible. Festive holiday stamps add just the right touch to seasonal greeting cards. Find a large assortment of holiday stamps and customized holiday cards, visit the Postal Store at usps.com/green_postalstore_holiday stamps and the card store at usps.com/createmail/cardstore

Green Shipping

usps.com/green_free shipping supplies can help customers save fuel this Yule by going online to order free shipping supplies, print shipping labels and pay for postage, all from the comfort of home or office. The Postal Service will pick up packages free the next business day and send them on their merry way to cheer loved ones wherever they are. Skip the trip and save time, money and fuel this holiday season.

Green Delivery

The Postal Service will deliver 15.8 billion cards, letters and packages between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve using the largest civilian fleet in the world — 216,000 vehicles. Among them are a range of alternative fuel-capable vehicles, including three-wheeled electric vehicles with zero gas emissions that operate at a cost of only 2 cents a mile, as well as vehicles that can operate on compressed natural gas, propane, ethanol, and fuel cell. We’ll also have 30 large all-electric trucks delivering holiday mail in Manhattan.

Recycling

The Postal Service has made recycling a priority. Secure recycle bins in more than 10,000 Post Office lobbies make it easy for customers to read, respond and recycle their PO Box mail during the holidays, and helped customers divert 56,000 tons of paper from landfills last year. The Postal Service recycled 225,000 tons of paper, plastics and other waste in 2009, which avoided more than 700,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Customers can go to usps.com/green to find one of 100,000 recycling centers around the country.

The Postal Service has won more than 75 environmental awards, including 40 White House Closing the Circle, 10 Environmental Protection Agency WasteWise Partner of the Year, Climate Action Champion, Direct Marketing Association Green Echo, and the Postal Technology International Environmental Achievement of the Year.

According to sources present at last week’s Postal Service’s Innovation Symposium, there was apparent dissatisfaction with the postal service’s overall customer service and the inability of middle management to make needed decisions within the organization, which may result in new ways of thinking, especially with the announcement of USPS Postmaster General John Potter’s retirement.

Joy Gendusa, Founder and CEO of PostcardMania, one of the largest direct mailers in the country, was at the symposium and observed many businesses and vendors who expressed their frustrations with the postal service’s operation procedures throughout its 37,000 retail locations.

“The bottom line is direct mail is a huge help to businesses across the country to bring in more leads,” says Gendusa. “We depend on the Post Office everyday, so it’s vitally important to us who is in charge and where the organization is heading.”

Gendusa says the mailing industry wants to see their ideas and suggestions considered by the USPS, something they didn’t see under the previous regime.

“I understand it’s an extremely difficult position they’re in,” she says. “They get no tax dollars, yet they are treated like a regular business and can’t make changes to their retail locations, add products or change delivery days without first seeking approval from Congress. It’s not ideal, but they can take the first step to improving customer service across all their locations and go from there.”

Regarding Potter’s replacement, she adds, “I genuinely believe that this is a good sign of hope for USPS innovation. I’m hopeful that Patrick Donahue will make it all happen.”

LOS GATOS, Calif., Nov. 22, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — With its members now watching more content streamed over the Internet than on discs delivered by mail, Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) today introduced a $7.99 streaming-only subscription plan in the United States, the first time it is promoting a 100 percent streaming option in the U.S. The plan, which allows members to instantly watch unlimited movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix to TVs and computers, is available now to both new and existing members.

“We are now primarily a streaming video company delivering a wide selection of TV shows and films over the Internet,” said Reed Hastings, Netflix co-founder and CEO. “Today’s action reflects the tremendous customer value we’ve injected into streaming from Netflix, our initial success with a pure streaming service in Canada for $7.99 a month and what our U.S. members tell us they want.”

The company also announced that the price of its popular subscription combining unlimited movies and TV shows streamed instantly over the Internet and unlimited DVDs delivered quickly by mail, with one DVD out at a time, will increase by a dollar a month to $9.99. Prices of subscription plans allowing for more DVDs out at a time will also increase and are detailed at http://blog.netflix.com. Price changes take effect now for new sign-ups and in January for existing members.

Instantly watching movies and TV shows streamed over the Internet has become the preferred way members enjoy the Netflix service. The company recently announced that in the current quarter, which ends December 31, its members will watch more content streamed over the Internet than on DVDs and that in the same period Netflix will invest more money to license streaming content than to acquire DVDs.

Netflix members in the U.S. now have access to an ever expanding library of movies and TV episodes that can be watched instantly, and there are more than 200 consumer electronics devices – including the three major game consoles and scores of Blu-ray disc players, Internet-connected TVs and digital video players – capable of streaming from Netflix right to members’ TVs.

Over time, Netflix has added significantly to the streaming content available to its members. This year alone, licensing deals with NBC Universal, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, EPIX™, Relativity Media and Nu Image/Millennium Films have added a wealth of first-run theatrical films, hit TV series and movie classics to the Netflix streaming offering and have helped make streaming the most popular way to enjoy a Netflix membership.

In late September, the company introduced its service in Canada, the first availability of Netflix outside the U.S. Canadian members can instantly watch unlimited movies and TV shows streamed from Netflix for C$7.99 a month. The company recently said its Canadian service has surpassed initial expectations and encouraged it to accelerate plans for further international expansion in 2011.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced today that a Grand Jury in Scranton has indicted Denise Miller, age 49, Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, on two counts of intentionally obstructing and delaying mail coming into her possession as a postal employee in May 2010.

According to United States Attorney Peter J. Smith, the charges provide for a maximum sentence of five and a half years and up to $250,000 in fines. Miller, a mail carrier at the Clarks Summit Post Office, was suspended from her duties pending the investigation which was conducted by the U.S. Postal Service, Office of the Inspector General.

Prosecution of the case is assigned to Assistant United States Attorney Michelle Olshefski.

USPS Press release:

WASHINGTON — Contract negotiations with the American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO (APWU) and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association (NRLCA) expired at midnight Sat., Nov. 20. While negotiations with the NRLCA resulted in an impasse, the Postal Service and the APWU agreed to extend the negotiation deadline until Tue., Nov. 23 at noon ET.

Should APWU negotiations fail as they have with the NRLCA, a process begins which could result in a third party determining contract terms and work rules for more than 324,000 employees whose wages and benefits exceeded $20 billion last year.

Unlike the private sector, when negotiations come to an impasse, Postal employees are not permitted to strike. That’s because Congress designated the Postal Service as an essential service to the nation. An arbitrator determines the final outcome and is not legally required to consider the Postal Service’s financial obligations when rendering a decision.

The drop in the economy coupled with the shift to digital communications has created the greatest loss in mail volume since the Great Depression. Mail volume peaked at 213 billion pieces in 2006 and plummeted to 170.6 billion in the fiscal year (FY) ending Sept. 30. Revenues shrank from $72.6 billion in 2006 to $67.1 billion. The 2010 FY net loss was $8.5 billion. By 2020, mail volume is projected to drop to 150 billion pieces.

To remain strong into the future, the Postal Service needs to control costs through a flexible workforce to adapt to the nation’s changing mailing trends.

The Postal Service operates solely from the sale of stamps and related services without taxpayer subsidy. As a quasi government agency, it deals with the challenges of the private sector while continuing to operate under federal regulations and Congressional oversight.

Reasonable wages and benefits are just one element needed to help the Postal Service fully meet its financial obligations and remain strong in the future.

APWU President Cliff Guffey announced that the union and Postal Service have extended their Collective Bargaining Agreement through Tuesday, Nov. 23, at noon. The contract was scheduled to expire Nov. 20.

APWU President Cliff Guffey announced the contract will be extended through Tuesday, Nov. 23, at noon.

“We do not have a new contract,” Guffey said, “but we believe there is still potential to negotiate an agreement. The union and management will continue to discuss the topics that remain in dispute.”

“Throughout the collective bargaining process, the APWU has sought to protect our members’ jobs,” the union president said. “Restoring work that has been outsourced or assigned to managerial personnel will bring stability to APWU members who have suffered extensive excessing and reassignments,” he said.

“Every proposal we have made to preserve jobs for our members will also benefit the Postal Service, because APWU members can perform the work more efficiently and less expensively than subcontractors,” he said.

“Our proposals are good for the Postal Service and for the American people.”

The terms of the 2006-2010 Collective Bargaining Agreement remain in full force and effect until a new agreement is reached, either through negotiation or binding arbitration.

Under the terms of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, if the union and management fail to reach agreement on a successor contract and do not agree on an alternate procedure, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) appoints a mediator. If agreement is not reached within 60 days of the expiration of the contract, both parties submit all outstanding issues to binding arbitration.

Guffey said the negotiating team is hopeful about the possibility of reaching an agreement.

If arbitration becomes necessary, the APWU will appoint an arbitrator, as will the USPS. The two party-appointed arbitrators will work with a neutral arbitrator to ensure that each side’s interests are clearly understood.

Members of the Rank and File Bargaining Committee, who arrived in Washington, DC, Nov. 14 to be on hand for any late-breaking developments at the bargaining table, will return home, but they will be summoned back to Washington in the event a tentative agreement is reached between the union and the Postal Service.

“The committee serves as an important link between union negotiators and members,” Guffey said. Although the national negotiating team has full authority to negotiate an agreement, the Rank and File Bargaining Committee has the power to veto any tentative agreement between the parties.

If the Rank and File Committee approves a tentative agreement, every APWU member will be given the opportunity to vote to ratify or reject it.

“Important issues are at stake that will affect the more than 220,000 postal employees the APWU represents,” Guffey said. “The negotiating team is committed to achieving a beneficial contract, and asks for the continued support of union members.”

The APWU will continue to provide frequent updates regarding negotiations. For the latest developments at the bargaining table, please visit www.apwu.org. Members are also encouraged to follow the union on Twitter and Facebook to receive up-to-the-minute alerts by e-mail or text message

via 2010 APWU Negotiations: Contract Extended to Nov. 23; Union, USPS to Continue Talks.