Put your stamp of disapproval on section 403 of the Postal Reform Act – YouTube.

Criminal charges were filed against three employees of the U.S. Postal Service for their alleged actions in unrelated cases, said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

A criminal information was filed against Lynda Mackey, age 24, of Fremont, Ohio. The charge relates to embezzlement of postal funds by a postal employee between on or about November, 2010 and April, 2011.

Eric R. Ramsey, age 27, of Toledo, Ohio was charged with theft of mail by a postal employee on or about January 18, 2011.

Marsha Ann Deitemyer, age 54, of Elmore, Ohio, was charged with obstruction of U.S. mail between on or about August 31, 2010 and April 29, 2011.

If convicted, defendants’ sentences will be determined by the Court after review of factors unique to each case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation. In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

The investigating agency in these cases is the Office of Inspector General, United States Postal Service. The cases are being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Thomas O. Secor.

An information is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. The burden of proof is always on the government to prove a defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

See also the Toledo Blade

A bill that would destroy the Postal Service as we know it passed a House subcommittee on Sept. 21 by a vote of seven to four, along party lines. Republicans voted in favor of the bill; Democrats voted against it. The bill, H.R. 2309, was co-sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL), chairman of the postal subcommittee.

Prior to the vote, Rep. Issa amended the bill, which he first introduced on June 23, to include numerous provisions that are even more controversial than those contained in the original version:

The amended version includes a provision to grant authority to a newly-established control board to carry out layoffs, in spite of any provisions in collective bargaining agreements that might limit them. In addition, it says that employees who are eligible for retirement must be laid off before employees who are ineligible, and dictates that retirement-eligible employees with the longest service must be separated first. The new language also forbids the payment of severance pay to retirement-eligible employees.

The new version of the bill continues provisions from the original that would empower a newly-created “solvency authority” to unilaterally cut wages and abolish benefits.

The amendment doubles – from $1 billion to $2 billion – the value of mail processing facility closures mandated by the bill, and it continues the provision found in the original version which requires $1 billion worth of post office closures. The new version also includes many changes to mail delivery, such as a requirement to reduce “door delivery” by 75 percent within two years.

In addition, the amendment includes several changes that would negatively affect workers who are injured on duty, including one that would cut the monthly compensation of totally disabled employees from 66.66 percent to 50 percent, once they meet the age and service requirements for retirement.

Democrats on the subcommittee argued strenuously against the bill and offered several amendments of their own; all of them were defeated by the Republican majority.

APWU President Cliff Guffey denounced the bill. “This is a brazen attempt to dismantle the United States Postal Service and render it ripe for privatization,” he said. “It is a blatant attack on unionized workers.

“The bill does not address the cause of the Postal Service’s financial crisis. It does nothing to correct the requirement to pre-fund the healthcare benefits of future retirees, which forces the USPS to fund a 75-year liability in a period of just 10 years,” Guffey said. No other government agency or private company is required to make such payments, which cost the USPS approximately $5.5 billion annually. “The bill also fails to address billions of dollars in USPS overpayments to federal pension accounts,” he noted.

“The Postal Service is a critical part of our economy. It is the center of a $1.2 trillion industry that employs 8 million people, including printers, mailers, and other businesses that rely on the Postal Service,” Guffey said.

“The post office is where the flag flies across America, and it is an integral part of our national life. Yet the bill would destroy this great institution – shutting thousands of offices, slashing service, and punishing workers.”

Guffey called on all union members to participate in rallies set for Tuesday, Sept. 27, to Save America’s Postal Service. Events are planned in every congressional district across the country, as part of a campaign by the four postal unions to win support for legislation to avert a collapse of the nation’s mail system.

The APWU is working with the National Association of Letter Carriers, the National Postal Mail Handlers Union and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association to organize the activities. (Please send high-resolution photos of your event to sdavidow@apwu.org.) To find the location of the rally nearest you, visit www.SaveAmericasPostal Service.org.

The unions are urging support for H.R. 1351, which was introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA). The Lynch bill would prevent the financial collapse of the USPS – without closing thousands of post offices, eliminating hundreds of mail processing facilities, delaying mail delivery, laying off 120,000 workers, cutting postal workers’ pay, or ending collective bargaining rights.

H.R. 1351 would allow the Postal Service to apply billions of dollars in pension overpayments to the congressional mandate that requires the USPS to pre-fund the healthcare benefits of future retirees.

“We are fighting for our lives,” Guffey said. “I urge every APWU member to attend a rally, and to ask his or her member of Congress to support H.R. 1351.”

via Issa’s ‘Postal Destruction’ Bill.

Darrell Issa, the self-appointed “watchdog” of the US Postal Service, today introduces new provisions in his so-called “reform” act that would reverse existing RIF rules, forcing the most senior postal workers to be laid off first. Issa’s bill had already included provisions throwing out collective bargaining rights, saddling the USPS with up to $10 billion in additional debt, and creating two new federal bureaucracies to “oversee” the USPS.

The new provision requires the USPS to RIF all retirement eligible employees prior to laying off any workers not yet eligible for a pension, and to RIF the most senior of them first:

(ii) GENERAL RULE.—A reduction in force under this subsection shall not result in the separation of any non-retirement-eligible employee before a retirement-eligible employee.

(iii) LENGTH OF SERVICE.—In determining the order for the separation of competing retirement-eligible employees, individuals shall be separated in descending order based on length of service.

The law would also prohibit severance payments for such employees, who would also be forbidden from being reemployed by the USPS as long as a non-retirement eligible person was available. The revised RIF pecking order would apply only to bargaining unit employees.

Issa will introduce his amended bill at a meeting of his oversight committee this afternoon. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 1:30 EDT, and will be streamed live.

9-21-2011 “Subcommittee on Federal Workforce & U.S. Postal Service Business Meeting”.

Issa Amended Bill

In an article that’s typical of the misinformation flooding the news mdia and the web lately, DC Velocity helps spread the lie that the USPS can’t afford to pay its retirees:

According to published reports, the venerable agency that touches almost every American every day (except Sunday, of course) is so cash poor that it’s on the brink of defaulting on a pending $5 billion-plus pension payment to its retirees.

The blog doesn’t cite a source for its assertion, because there isn’t one- it’s not true. As most readers know, the USPS has no problem whatsoever in paying its retirees, and doesn’t expect to in the near future. The “$5 billion-plus” payment the author refers to is for the Congressionally mandated prefunding of potential future retirees health benefits over the next 75 years. Let’s make that clear- the payment is for the retirement benefits of people who may not even have been born yet! And the USPS has already socked away $42 billion for that purpose! (Which just so happens to be exactly $42 billion more than Congress has set aside for all other federal employees).

The author is correct in pointing out that the USPS faces massive challenges adjusting to the decline in mail volume. But he ignores the plain and simple fact that without the 2006 PAEA law, the USPS would be facing those challenges with zero debt and billions in cash on hand.

via Can the USPS survive? – DC Velocity.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Tomorrow, Ranking Member Elijah E. Cummings and Congressman Stephen Lynch, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and Labor Policy, will hold a press conference to announce comprehensive legislation to fundamentally change the Postal Service’s business model to cut costs and increase revenue.

Their bill, the Innovate to Deliver Act of 2011 (I2D Act), meets the Postal Service’s financial challenges by implementing reforms in three core areas: profitability, personnel, and performance. The bill includes provisions to allow the Postal Service to function more like a business and reduce the restrictions that have hindered its ability to respond effectively to a changing market.

The Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and Labor Policy Business will also hold a business meeting tomorrow to markup postal legislation.

WHAT: Press Conference with Representatives Elijah E. Cummings and Stephen F. Lynch to Discuss the Innovate to Deliver Act of 2011 (I2D Act)

WHEN: Wednesday, September 21 from 12:00 – 12:30 p.m.

WHERE: 441 Cannon House Office Building

DIAL- IN: Phone Number: (712) 775-7400 Passcode: 698340#

via Ranking Members Cummings and Lynch to Announce Innovative Legislation to Return Postal Service to Profitability.

NALC Report on Obama plan for USPS

Vowing to continue to do “everything in our power to prevent the destruction of the Postal Service,” the APWU National Executive Board has approved a special dues assessment on Sept. 20 that will begin in Pay Period 21-2011 and continue through Pay Period 18-2012. Career APWU members will be assessed $1 per pay period; Postal Support Employees will be assessed 50 cents per pay period.

The purpose of the special assessment is to support the union’s ongoing legislative and media campaign to protect APWU-represented workers and defend postal service to the American people.

“These efforts are costly, but they are absolutely necessary,” APWU President Cliff Guffey said. “The debate in Washington over the solution to the USPS financial crisis will have a profound effect on our members. We must do everything we can to ensure that the Postal Service survives, along with our jobs. We cannot allow misguided legislators – or USPS management – to dismantle the Postal Service.”

Locals that wish to assume pay the assessment for their members must notify the APWU Secretary-Treasurer in writing. The assessment expires at the 2012 National Convention, which could vote to extend it.

via Executive Board Approves Dues Assessment.

Monday, Sept. 19 — President Obama sent a deficit-reduction package Sept. 19 to the special joint committee of Congress established by the debt limit law to find ways to reduce the federal budget deficit. The package included a number of reforms to address the financial crisis at USPS.

We are both encouraged and disappointed.

We are encouraged that President Obama is attempting to creatively address the USPS cash crisis through the deficit reduction process and welcome his proposal to return the $6.9 billion postal pension surplus in FERS to the Postal Service as proposed in Rep. Stephen Lynch’s H.R. 1351.

But we are very disappointed that the administration opted for a deferral of the next two pre-funding payments ($5.5 billion each) instead of embracing a permanent reform based on the Lynch bill’s recovery of the even larger CSRS surplus. And we deeply regret that the administration has given in to pressure from the postmaster general and has proposed to eliminate Saturday mail delivery.

The NALC is carefully examining the various elements of the White House plan. It is important to remember that these are just proposals; they cannot become law unless Congress adopts them. We want to assure our members and all those who are interested in preserving the U.S. Postal Service that we will work with everyone involved, including members of the joint congressional committee, to build a strong Postal Service that will continue to provide exceptional service to the public six days a week.

A full report on President Obama’s proposals as they relate to federal and postal employees will be posted on Tuesday.

via Latest News | Return of FERS surplus, other short-term relief a good start in Obama plan, but not enough.

eNAPUS 9-19-2011