Stetement by National Association of Postal Supervisors President Louios Atkins:

June 30, 2011- The sweeping legislation proposed by Congressman Darrell Issa (H.R. 2019) to overhaul the United States Postal Service is dangerously misguided. It is an attack upon the management authority of the Postal Service and its dedicated workforce. The legislation should be firmly rejected by the Congress.

The legislation is misguided because it fails to address the immediate cause of the Postal Service’s financial problems – far too aggressive retiree health prefunding payments and pension overpayments. Congress largely created these perverse problems; Congress should first fix them.

Mr. Issa’s legislation, by failing to deal constructively with the prefunding and pension overpayment issues, would only worsen the Postal Service’s deteriorating financial condition. The creation of new government entities under the bill, like the Commission for Postal Reorganization and the Postal Service Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Authority, will result in more government and more costs, not less. Mr. Issa’s legislation also falls short in failing to authorize new avenues of commerce for the Postal Service as part of a broader, realistic business model for the 21st century.

We continue to support proposals that will authorize the Postal Service to use billions of dollars in pension overpayments – as conclusively determined by the Postal Regulatory Commission and the Inspector General of the Postal Service – to help prepay its retiree health care costs. We urge the Congress to adopt the common-sense measures proposed by Rep. Stephen Lynch and Senator Tom Carper and Senator Susan Collins that would address the overpayments issue and help restore the Postal Service’s financial health.

From the Toronto Star:

OTTAWA—Backroom negotiations aimed at getting Canada Post workers back on the job produced at least two separate deals that came close to ending the political filibuster on Parliament Hill and the labour stoppage, the Star has learned.

But the deals fell through — including an apparent agreement between Canada Post and its workers — and insiders are pointing the finger at the Prime Minister’s Office as the reason.

New Democrats have accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper of taking a hard line in the Canada Post dispute to send a signal to other public sector unions as he girds for federal belt-tightening.

“Obviously the (Prime Minister’s Office) got involved in there. I believe that Stephen Harper wanted to send a message across the country,” said New Democrat MP Yvon Godin.

Full story: Backroom talks came close to ending postal standoff – thestar.com.

Letters and bills may be returning to your mailbox, but the union representing Canada’s postal workers says this fight is far from over.

The 15-member national executive board of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers has decided to take the federal government to court over last week’s back-to-work legislation.

Kevin Banks, a Law professor at Queen’s University, said, "this is a new area of the law and it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out."

He said the claim will likely be based on a 2007 Supreme Court decision about "B.C. Health Services."

Full story: Montreal Gazette: Union claim could chart ‘new territory’ in Canadian Labour Law: Expert.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., June 28 — The U.S. Department of Justice’s U.S. Attorney’s office for Northern District of Alabama issued the following press release:

A federal grand jury today indicted a U.S. Postal employee for mail violations, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and Christopher Nugent, assistant special agent in charge, U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General.

The indictment filed in U.S. District Court charges JERRY WAYNE DILLIARD, 62, of Fayette, with delay and destruction of U.S. mail and theft of mail by a Postal employee, from December 2009 to October 2010. At that time, Dilliard was working as a letter carrier at the Tuscaloosa Post Office.

"The United States mail is one of this country’s most respected institutions. Individuals and businesses trust and rely on the efficient operation of the mail system," Vance said. "Anyone who abuses this system does the country a great disservice and should expect to be prosecuted," she said.

Theft of mail matter by a postal employee and delay and destruction of mail are both punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Congressman Dennis Ross last night tweeted that he’d found a “great article” that explains why all the money the USPS has overpaid into retirement funds over the years really isn’t an “overpayment”. And who wrote this piece of expert analysis? An economist? An actuary?

No, a TV critic. None other than the Miami Herald’s Glenn Garvin.

We’ve already mentioned Garvin’s article, which has received nationwide distribution in McClatchy newspapers. The column doesn’t actually “explain” anything. Garvin cites OPM’s dismissal of the $75 billion overpayment as if the agency were an impartial observer. He doesn’t mention that every dollar USPS overpays is a dollar OPM doesn’t have to ask Congress for. Garvin totally ignores the $6.9 billion FERS overpayment, probably because OPM admits that it exists. He also fails to acknowledge that all of the losses and debts the USPS incurred from 2007 -2010 were caused directly by the arbitrary trust fund payments. All of them.

As we pointed out when the story was originally published, the funniest thing about Garvin’s “analysis” is that he blames the USPS’s problems on a “dying ink-on-paper technology in an electronic world”. This from a man who makes his living writing for a newspaper. A newspaper that makes most of its money from the sale of those annoying ads that fill its “ink on paper” pages. A newspaper that competes for advertising dollars with direct mailers (many of them the kind of small businessmen Darrell Issa claims to be fighting for) who rely on the US Postal Service.

Twitter / @RepDennisRoss: A great article on the “po ….

Congressman Dennis Ross, chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees the US Postal Service, is a big Facebook and Twitter user. Unfortunately, he seems to be using the social networks to spread misinformation.

Last night, in a discussion on the need for pre-funding of USPS future retiree health benefits, Ross had this to say:

And before anyone says USPS doesnt take taxpayer dollars, USPS retirement HC and pensions, and USPS Health Insurance is a guaranteed federal benefit, so in the end, taxpayers are on the hook for payment.

While USPS retirement pensions are guaranteed by the US Government, the relevance of that assertion is questionable, since there is evidence that the USPS has been overpaying its share of CSRS pensions for years, and even OPM admits that its FERS account has a surplus of almost $7 billion. What would happen if the USPS stopped paying its share of CSRS or FERS contributions? OPM would stop crediting service time to USPS employees for purposes of annuity calculation. (OPM has already made that veiled threat in its response to the USPS’s demand that its existing overfunding of FERS be exhausted before it gives the fund any more money). And in its report on the USPS financial relief proposals, OPM made it quite clear that the health benefits of USPS retirees are not guaranteed by anyone but the USPS. The agency went so far as to suggest that it would “disenroll” USPS retirees from FEHB if the USPS stopped making its contributions. Doesn’t sound like much of a guarantee.

And over the weekend, in response to a question about where Congressman Ross’s political contributions come from, he had this to say:

Kevin, go to fec.gov and click the map for 2010. You can see everyone who gave me money. I would suggest you look at my Democrat opponent and see how much of your union dues went to her.

Congressman Ross knows (or certainly should know) that no union dues went to his opponent- the PACS sponsored by labor unions rely on voluntary contributions from their members, not union dues. And it might be pointed out that Lori Edwards, Ross’s 2010 opponent received a paltry $10,000 from the APWU PAC. Ross’s boss on the oversight committee, Darrell Issa, on the other hand received over four times that amount from postal labor union PACs, as we reported on Sunday.

Update: Congressman Ross has responded via twitter:

The Congressman is absolutely right. Federal pensions (as opposed to USPS retiree health benefits) are an obligation of the US Government. I’m not sure why he thinks that’s an issue, though, since I stated that myself in the original post. My point was that if the USPS were to unilaterally stop making employer contributions to the FERS and CSRS retirement fund, OPM has implied that it would stop crediting USPS employees with service time towards their annuity calculation. That would relieve OPM of any further additional liability for the retiree’s annuity, which would presumably be calculated as if the employee had stopped working when the USPS contributions stopped. There would be no impact on current retirees, since the USPS stopped making contributions when those people retired. If OPM’s position is correct, the Federal Government is only guaranteeing pensions that are already paid for in full by USPS.

RepDennisRossDennis Ross

@postalnews “If USPS stopped making pmts 2 the CSRD fund, the Fund (ie UST) is legally obligated to make the pension pmts to retirees.” OPM

Jun 28FavoriteRetweetReply

postalnewspostalnews

@RepDennisRoss Doesn’t contradict what I said- OPM says it can stop crediting time, avoiding additional liability http://t.co/bt5meGY

Jun 28FavoriteRetweetReply

RepDennisRossDennis Ross

@postalnews USPS has said “the Postal Service will face annual losses as great as $33 billion by 2020″ #headinthesand

Jun 28FavoriteRetweetReply

in reply to @RepDennisRoss↑

@postalnews
postalnews @RepDennisRoss right- if nothing changes. And if USPS doesn’t do the things its already doing to cut costs #headinanequallydarkplace
Jun 28 via webFavoriteRetweetReply

Hmmm… guess Dennis didn’t have an answer, so he decided to change the subject?

From NAPUS:

June 28th, 2011

USPS Executive Vice President of Labor Relations, Anthony J. Vegliante today announced promotional salary increase limits for nonbargaining employees. Mr. Vegliante said “The fiscal health of the Postal Service continues to be at risk and, as a result, we must remain focused on opportunities to encourage fiscal restraint.”

Effective immediately, promotional increases must be limited to the following:

• Salary increase of 3 to 5 percent for promotions
• Salary increase of no more than 8 percent if an employee is promoted more than once within 52 weeks.

All promotional increases that exceed the above guidelines must be reviewed and approved by the Chief Human Resources Officer. This applies to all Headquarters and field nonbargaining promotions, except under the following conditions:

• When a higher increase is necessary to bring the salary to the minimum of the new grade.
• For promotions to designated supervisory positions covered under the supervisory differential adjustment provision, when a higher increase is necessary to bring it to the minimum salary rate.

Requests submitted for review must provide clear justification for exceeding the above stated promotional increase amounts.

The above change eliminates the former policy of salary increases from 3 to 10 percent for the promotion of a nonbargaining unit employee and a higher level of approval for increases of more than 8 percent.

June 27, 2011

An interesting tweet from Congressman Dennis Ross tonight:

Just to make it clear, the “pre-funding” Ross refers to deals with the employer contribution to potential future USPS retirees’ health insurance payments, not the pensions of actual retirees or employees.

Neither the USPS nor its employee organizations has ever asked for a taxpayer “backstop” or “bailout” for those payments, so it’s hard to say for sure what the freshman congressman from Florida is asking for.

Forget about five day delivery- how about getting your mail once or twice a year, or whenever the Google Street View car goes past your house? That might be what CNBC personality Larry Kudlow had in mind last week when he told PMG Pat Donahoe “look, why don’t you just surrender and end the monopoly, see what happens with some private players coming in? why not give Google a chance?” Whether Kudlow knows what the USPS actually does (i.e. delivering real physical objects to people who pay for the service) is far from clear. Kudlow’s suggestion came last Thursday in an interview with Postmaster General Pat Donahoe (whom Kudlow addressed as “Patrick” after mispronouncing his surname).

If Kudlow is unfamiliar with what the USPS does, the show proved that he doesn’t have a good handle on numbers, either. After Kudlow shouted about the USPS’s projected $8.5 billion loss, Donahoe responded with actual numbers, pointing out that the changes the USPS has asked for- 5 day delivery and a reduction in the “trust fund” charges, would save $8.6 billion. Kudlow’s response? “again, $8.5 billion in the hole. your numbers are nowhere near that”. Umm.., no, “Lawrence”, they’re $100 million over “that”.

But at least Kudlow admitted he was clueless, providing this bit of expert analysis: “I don’t know where those numbers come from, but whatever.”

Kudlow’s interview technique was to shout a lot, randomly use the word “bailout”, and not listen to any of Donahoe’s responses. (Kudlow seems to have a modified form of Tourette’s Syndrome, with right wing talking points instead of swear words).

Kudlow’s short (non-existent?) attention span and difficulty analyzing numbers may be the result of his well known problems with alcohol and cocaine abuse- or it may just be his “shtick”. CNBC does, after all, feature legendary screamer Jim Cramer- another “personality” whose entertainment value far outweighs his economic expertise.

You’ve been warned- here’s the clip:

Canadian homes and businesses will start receiving mail again Tuesday now that legislation forcing 48,000 locked-out postal workers back to their jobs has become law, Canada Post says.

Post offices that were closed during the labour dispute will start to reopen Tuesday as well, while mailboxes will be unsealed starting Monday, the Crown corporation said.

via Canada Post promises mail delivery Tuesday – Politics – CBC News.