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

A message supposedly sent by League of Postmasters President Charley Mapa claims that postal executives have “given up” their annual pay raises, and that the USPS is seeking to re-open talks with the management associations with the aim of eliminating increases for Postmasters and EAS employees as well. According to the message, the management associations balked, and are considering legal action should the USPS pursue a pay freeze. The message is undated, but the “President’s message” it refers to was posted on the League web site on October 16:

Bill,

We have a commitment to some sort of confidentiality on this, therefore, I haven’t sent anything official out on it. If you had read my President’s message on the website, you would have seen that I talked about the rumors going around and pointed out that most of the time rumors are based on some sliver of fact.

Two weeks ago, the Assn Prezs met with Doug Tulino at HQ. He told us that the PCES emps had given up their Gen pay increases because of the horrible financial status of the Postal Service. He wanted to open pay talks again to discuss our giving up our increase. Following that meeting, I asked Naps and Napus to meet to decide our reactions. We met, predicated much of what we would do based on whether or not HQ could reopen pay talks. Naps’ attorney advised us that HQ could not; we each sent a letter to HQ telling them that they couldn’t open pay talks, however, we were as committed to help the Postal Service as anyone and we would at least listen to what they had to say. We met the following week. Most of the conversation centered around our letter. Tulino said that he didn’t agree with the letter and that he would get a response from Postal attorneys and that we might end up in court. We said “So be it”. We planned to meet the next week after talking to our boards. I had a telecon with our board that evening. To a person, they rejected giving up our general raises; Postmasters had worked too hard with the promise of that raise to ask them to give it up now. I met with Naps and Napus the next morning (last Friday) told them our board’s decision and that could feel free to share our decision with their boards. Naps met Sunday and rejected giving up the increase; Napus meets tonight (telecon) and I expect them to follow suit.

We meet again at HQ tomorrow. I expect HQ to have some sort of letter that disputes our letter and we will talk about going to court.

So, you’ve got a brief synopsis of what’s gone on. Please feel free to share as much of this as you like. Once Naps met on Sunday, pretty much the word was out and we heard from district personnel even weeks before, so someone in the Postal Service has not kept our secret. I will likely issue some sort of official statement tomorrow afternoon.

One thing that should be important to PMs and supervisors is that we are absolutely united in our efforts on this.

Thanks for your great leadership, Bill,

Charley Mapa
President

From NAPS:

Postmaster General, Jack Potter met today with the leadership of the three management associations and craft unions representing all craft employees and EAS employees of the Postal Service.

The meeting was scheduled to brief the leadership of the employee organizations on the current situation in the Postal Service and to request the cooperation from all of the representative organizations in working together to get through this difficult period.

While the members of all our organizations are well aware of the lack of mail in the system, we were briefed on the dynamics of the revenue losses and the impact that it is having on our ability to operate. PMG Potter advised the association and union leadership that the financial condition of the Postal Service was poor with revenue falling considerably short of our objectives due to the overall poor U.S. economy.

Potter added that the Postal Service would need the help of the unions and associations in working with the Congress as the Postal Service attempts to develop solutions to our problems that will involve discussions and Congressional approval. Specific plans were not discussed at the meeting.

Potter advised that there are meetings this week with the Board of Governors of the USPS followed by a meeting with the Postal Service Area Vice Presidents. Potter added that it was his intention to increase the frequency of meetings with the association and union leadership to keep everyone informed of future plans.

NAPS will keep our members updated on information that is received from the Postal Service.

NAPS Headquarters

A posting on the NAPS member forum by NAPS Secretary Treasurer Jay Killackey verifies what most readers probably assumed from yesterday’s NAPUS hotline article. The article said that NAPUS President Dale Goff would be meeting with PMG Jack Potter tomorrow. The NAPS posting confirms that the PMG will be meeting with the heads of all of the postal unions and management associations.

Speculation on possible outcomes from the meeting center on a restructuring of the organization, and other cost cutting initiatives. The USPS Board of Governors is scheduled to hold its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday and Thursday.

National Association of Postal Supervisors
Legislative and Regulatory Update – September 18, 2008

In this Issue:

* NAPS Celebrates Its Centennial at Successful Convention in Louisville
* PMG Potter Warns of “Perfect Economic Storm”; USPS May Lose $3 Billion by Year’s End
* GAO Says Pay for Performance Should Emphasize Delivery Indicators

NAPS Celebrates Its Centennial at Successful Convention in Louisville

The National Association of Postal Supervisors held a successful national convention in Louisville, Kentucky last week, attended by nearly 1,500 NAPS members, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the association and addressing a variety of business issues.

Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY), whose Congressional district includes the Louisville area, congratulated NAPS convention delegates at the NAPS 100th anniversary banquet and inserted his congratulatory remarks in the Congressional Record.

With the excitement of the 2008 Congressional elections building, NAPS delegates contributed nearly $56,000 to the Supervisors’ Political Action Committee, one of the highest totals ever achieved at a NAPS convention. So far this year, NAPS has contributed over $100,000 to 90 House and Senate candidates who support NAPS and a strong postal system. A big THANK YOU to all who contributed to SPAC.

Results of NAPS elections for national, regional and area officers are here. Other daily convention bulletins and other convention information are here.

PMG Potter Warns of “Perfect Economic Storm”; USPS May Lose $3 Billion by Year’s End

Postmaster General Jack Potter, in his address at the NAPS convention last week, reported that the Postal Service will lose more than $2 billion by the approaching end of the USPS fiscal year. “We are struggling,” Potter said, pointing to declining mail volume and a weakening economy. “We’re in a dynamic situation, with greater losses in volume than we’d expected.”

Potter’s remarks to NAPS were similar to those he delivered in a Public Customer Council broadcast yesterday, warning of a “perfect economic storm” that threatens to deteriorate mail volume further. Citing fluctuating oil prices, inflation in paper prices and strife in financial markets, Potter described the impact of economic conditions upon USPS as the most difficult since the 1960s, along with the impact of email and questions about mail’s environmental impact that have led to a volume decline of 9 billion pieces this year.

“But the economy will bounce back,” Potter predicted optimistically, “and we have to be ready to adapt,” Potter added.

The Postal Service reported a net loss of approximately $960 million in August, according to recent reports filed with the Postal Regulatory commission. While year-to-date revenue is slightly above the same period last year, revenue for August was about ten percent below August 2007 in spite of a 2.9% increase implemented in May.

Pointing to a “vigorous debate” going on right now at USPS headquarters on 2009 mail volume projections, Potter said that those numbers will influence craft staffing levels, and in turn supervisory staffing. He noted the possibility of movement to 4-day/ten-hour shifts, but continued to insist that USPS will not offer financial incentives coupled with VERAs. “We have to be prudent. In 1992, we paid 46,000 employees a half-year’s salary to go, then ended up rehiring 70,000,” Potter maintained.

More details on the Postal Service’s financial situation and possible reorganization will likely be released during next week’s meeting of the USPS Board of Governors.

GAO Says USPS Pay For Performance Should Emphasize Delivery Indicators

In a report last week to Congress, the Government Accountability Office recommended that the Postal Service incorporate delivery performance indicators in its pay for performance system.

Pay for performance determines the annual salary increase for approximately 72,000 EAS and PCES managers and supervisors, who do not receive the cost of living and “step” increases added to bargaining unit employee salaries.

GAO recommended that USPS add new delivery performance indicators to PFP, since existing delivery indicators, like EXFC, apply to less than one-fifth of mail volume.

GAO said, “As USPS implements requirements of the postal reform law for measuring delivery performance, it will have opportunities to incorporate new indicators into its PFP program, notably for timely delivery of Standard Mail (49 percent of mail volume in fiscal year 2007) and bulk First-Class Mail (25 percent of volume). Once new delivery performance measurement systems are fully implemented and mailers’ participation is sufficient to generate representative data, USPS will be able to incorporate new delivery performance indicators into its PFP program.” To read the report, click here.

Bruce Moyer
Legislative Counsel to NAPS

The following was posted in a NAPS discussion group by a member (not by the official NAPSHQ account), so it may or may not be accurate:

From: napshq
Sent: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:14 am
Subject: Responses from USPS HQ

Executive Board Members:

On Wednesday, August 20, 2008, the following questions (shown in bold) were sent to USPS Headquarters relative to the freeze that has been placed on EAS positions. This morning (August 21st) we received the following responses (shown in italics):

Questions:

Does the current freeze include positions that have already been posted, closed and/or interviews have been conducted and/or selections have already been made or positions have been awarded but not yet filled?

Response: The immediate freeze that was placed on all field non-bargaining unit positions should not affect positions that are currently in the pipeline.

What circumstances would have to occur that would cause the Postal Area Vice President to authorize a position to be filled?

Response: There may be situations that the position need is critical and the decision to fill a position will be made at the Area level.

What is the status of filling positions at Postal Headquarters and headquarters related functions?

Response: There has been a freeze on Headquarters hiring since the beginning of the calendar year with exceptions that have been made on a case-by-case basis.

What impact will this freeze have on ASP classes that are currently in training?

Response: There should be no impact to any ASSP classes that are now underway. Graduates of ASP classes will be placed in operational assignement as they normally have been.

What impact will this freeze have on ASP classes that are scheduled to start in the next 90 days?

Response: The decision on future ASP classes is under the jurisdiction of the USPS Area Vice President

NAPS is highly recommending that all national officers communicate with all RIF impacted members to advise them to contact their District Manager of Human Resources to discuss their inclusion in the RIF avoidance process and to make sure that opportunities for positions are still made available to RIF impacted members.

As other information becomes available, you will be advised.

NAPS Headquarters

National Association of Postal Supervisors Legislative and Regulatory Update – August 7, 2008

In this Issue:

* NAPS Challenges USPS Network Plan, Questions USPS Outsourcing
* Preserve Universal Service and the Mailbox Monopoly, NAPS Tells the PRC
* USPS Announces Greater Quarterly Loss Than Expected Read the rest of this entry »

National Association of Postal Supervisors Legislative and Regulatory Update – July 31, 2008

House Approves FERS Sick Leave and Thrift Savings Reforms

The House of Representatives has approved legislation that would give employees covered under the Federal Employees Retirement System largely the same retirement credit for unused sick leave as already applies to workers covered under the older Civil Service Retirement System. Also included in the House-passed measure are improvements to the Thrift Savings Plan. The conferral of FERS sick leave credit has been a legislative goal of the National Association of Postal Supervisors.

The FERS sick leave approach approved by the House last night is more generous than that originally proposed in FERS sick leave legislation introduced earlier this year by Rep. James Moran (D-VA). Under the measure approved by the House, FERS employees who retire within three years of the bill’s enactment would receive service credit, in the computation of their pension, for 75 percent of their accrued sick leave at the time of retirement. Those who retire three years after enactment would receive 100% credit for all of their unused sick leave. Moran’s original proposal would have provided a cash payout to FERS employees of up to $10,000 for unused sick leave.

Delighted with the more generous approach approved by the House, Congressman Moran in a statement said, “Our current use-it or lose-it sick leave system for FERS employees hurts productivity and increases training costs.” “We need to be incentivizing the accrual of sick leave, not encouraging people to call in sick in the weeks leading up to retirement. With today’s passage, we’re putting FERS employees on par with their CSRS colleagues, replacing a flawed approach to sick leave with one proven to work in everybody’s favor.”

The FERS sick leave provisions were included in a larger measure approved by the House that would grant the Food and Drug Administration authority over tobacco products. The bill, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (H.R. 1110), was approved by a 326-102 vote. It would require the FDA to regulate the labeling and advertising of tobacco products and ban flavored cigarettes excluding menthol.

The tobacco measure also includes provisions that would improve the Thrift Savings Plan, including the automatic enrollment into the TSP of of newly-hired eligible federal and postal employees and members of the military. It also would authorize the Federal Thrift Retirement Investment Board to establish a Roth contribution plan and self-directed investment options within the TSP. It is the addition of the Roth contribution plan option that, under Congressional budget scoring rules, would provide additional federal revenue, making possible the more generous, CSRS-like FERS sick leave formula. The Roth revenue also offsets the loss of federal tobacco taxes from an anticipated decline in smoking.

The tobacco bill, including the FERS and TSP provisions, now moves to the Senate, where its prospects are uncertain. The bill enjoyed wide bipartisan support in the House, but few days remain in the legislative calendar, and Republican leaders and the Bush administration are opposed to the tobacco provisions. The White House has threatened to veto the bill, arguing that it would disproportionately tax low-income Americans, through user fees assessed against tobacco companies to raise funds to underwrite FDA’s regulatory efforts. The Postal Supervisors and other postal and federal employee groups will continue to push for enactment.

Bruce Moyer
Legislative Counsel, National Association of Postal Supervisors

National Association of Postal Supervisors
Legislative and Regulatory Update – July 22, 2008

In This Issue:

* USPS Announces Early Out Details for Some Supervisor Positions
* House Hearing Will Examine USPS Network Realignment Plans
* PRC Universal Service Study Could Moot Congressional Inquiry on 5-Day Delivery
Read the rest of this entry »

National Association of Postal Supervisors
Legislative and Regulatory Update — July 7, 2008

In this Issue:

* Postal Service Seeks Early Out Authority as Restructuring Plans Emerge
* Congress Pursues Pared-Down Agenda
* House Panel Approves Five-Day Delivery Study
* NAPS to Urge Preservation of Universal Service

Postal Service Seeks Early Out Authority as Restructuring Plans Emerge

The Postal Service reportedly has requested Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA) — more commonly known as “early out authority” — from the Office of Personnel Management, to seek permission to temporarily lower the age and service requirements to increase the number of USPS employees eligible for retirement.

Details on the VERA request are sketchy, but the pursuit of VERA is not surprising, given the need for the Postal Service to pursue significant cost-cutting moves to offset falling First-Class mail volume and rising costs, especially as soaring gas prices flatten USPS profits.

VERA theoretically encourages more voluntary attrition in order to permit an agency to pursue downsizing and restructuring with minimal workforce disruption. Acceptance rates by Postal employees to early-out offers in past restructuring efforts has been mixed at best.

According to unconfirmed reports, the Postal Service will target the next round of early-out offers to specific areas, but without the aid of buyouts or additional financial incentives to sweeten their appeal.

The Postal Service also recently announced plans to continue efforts to reorganize its processing and transportation networks, potentially leading to the elimination of significant numbers of jobs, starting at airport mail centers (AMCs), and continuing to mail processing plants and bulk mail centers. In a “network rationalization report” released to Congress on June 20, the Postal Service revealed few details on which facilities would be identified for further consolidation, indicating it planned to continue to asses the feasibility of of further restructuring through the use of “recently enhanced” AMP guidelines.

The USPS also announced in the report that it would continue to explore the potential of outsourcing the processing and transportation of mail in the Bulk Mail Center network through its Time-Definite Surface Network program. As Federal Times recently reported, the Postal Service also may outsource some BMC sorting functions to private companies, reportedly to free up space to install Flats Sequence System equipment.

The Postal Service indicated it could take up to two years to further solicit expert and public opinion to decide which plants and BMCs to realign. Read the rest of this entry »