Northeast Area VP Tim Haney will serve as Acting VP for the NY Metro Area starting Monday, with the goal of completing the consolidation of the two areas by the beginning of the new fiscal year on October 1, when he will return to Windsor as AVP of the combined area.

In the interim, Linda Kingsley, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Transition,will serve as acting VP for the Northeast.

The announcement also states that “With responsibilities for a significantly increased geographic area, the Northeast Area office will maintain a presence both in Connecticut and New York.”

(Source: On Rolls and Paid Employee report filed by USPS with the PRC. All numbers reflect actual on rolls complement, not authorized staffing.)

The loss comes despite unprecedented reductions in employee workhours. City carriers’ hours were down 10% from May 2008, while hours for “inside” staff at post offices and processing centers were down 16%.

It should be noted that the postal service is required by Congress to set aside $5.4 billion this fiscal year to “pre-fund” future retiree health benefits. No other business or agency is required to do this. That $5.4 billion is included in the expected $6 billion deficit. All of which means that despite the sharp decline in mail volume, the USPS would otherwise be seeing only a modest net loss this year, or even a profit if it weren’t for the “pre-funding” requirement. We’ve covered this congressional shell game in the past, and the Inspector General’s office has found that even if the pre-funding requirement is considered legitimate, the USPS is being overcharged by $3.3 billion a year- read their report here.

Read the full financial summary here.

I commend the hundreds of letter carriers, state presidents and congressional district liaisons (CDLs) who worked tirelessly, both here in Washington and back at home, to bring us the 337 co-sponsors of this bill. No other pending legislation in Congress has as many cosponsors and such bipartisan support.

For purely technical reasons, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) “scored” the bill, which means they gave it a projected cost of about $12 billion, even though the bill does not require any taxpayer funds. Nonetheless, this was a threat to passage on the floor due to the “pay-go” rules currently enforced in the House.

With major input from the NALC and with the leadership of Committee Chairman Stephen Lynch (D-MA) and Full Committee Chairman Ed Towns (D-NY), an amended version of the bill was crafted, which shortens the relief from eight years to three years in order to reduce the score and improve the chances of House passage. Full Committee Ranking Member Darrel Issa (R-CA) and Subcommittee Ranking Member Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) were also instrumental in the passage of the amended bill.

We worked hand-in-hand with the bill’s original authors, Rep. John McHugh (R-NY) and Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL), both longtime friends and advocates for letter carriers. Although the bill falls short of what was originally intended, we stand firm in our support for H.R. 22 as amended and will continue to work diligently to pass this bill in full committee and to send it to the full House of Representatives for a vote.

When there is an opportunity in the future through other legislative vehicles to strengthen the Postal Service, we will pursue them. However, at this time, I want to thank the above-mentioned committee leadership as well as the other members of the subcommittee who took the first step in advancing this very important bill. I will keep you posted on the progress of this legislation. I ask that you continue to thank all the original co-sponsors of the bill and impress upon them the importance of sticking with us as we approach floor action in the House of Representatives.

My sincere thanks again to all of those who worked with us to help protect the future of all letter carriers and the United States Postal Service.

In Solidarity,

William H. Young, President

Acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence G. Brown announced today that DAVID ALLEN GIBSON, 42, of Sacramento, was sentenced this morning by United States District Judge John A. Mendez to 21 months in prison to be followed by a three-year term of supervised release for possessing items stolen from the U.S. Mail and for possession of a loaded firearm. He was also ordered to pay restitution.

This case was the product of extensive investigation by the U. S. Postal Inspection Service.

According to Assistant United States Attorney Michelle Rodriguez, who prosecuted the case, on September 26, 2008 a registered mail bag was stolen from a locked U.S. Postal Service truck in Sacramento County. The bag contained cash from the daily receipts of the Carmichael Post Office, a $400 money order, basketball cards, cremated human remains, and eight unique gold coins valued at $1, 393.

On October 31, 2008, GIBSON pawned two coins: a 1373-75 Iran Azadi gold coin, and a 1926 Netherlands 10 gulden gold coin. Then on November 8, 2009, he sold an 1876 German 20 mark gold coin to a coin shop. Both times he used his own driver’s license for identification.

On November 18, 2008, federal agents executed a search warrant on GIBSON’s residence where they found the basketball trading cards and the remaining five gold coins: a 1979 South Africa gold coin, a 1923 Turkey gold coin, an 1875 Belgium 20 francs gold coin, a 1348 Iran 1/2 pahalavi gold coin, and an 1882 R Italy 20 lira gold coin. GIBSON, a previously convicted felon, was in possession of a loaded 380 caliber semi-automatic pistol.

After his arrest, the cremated human remains anonymously were returned via deposit in a Sacramento blue mail box. The theft from the U.S. Postal Service Truck is unsolved and anyone having information concerning the crime are encouraged to contact the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. GIBSON pleaded guilty on March 3, 2009.For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar,Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com

1. Strategic Issues.
2. Financial Matters.
3. Pricing.
4. Personnel Matters and Compensation Issues.
5. Governors’ Executive Session–discussion of prior agenda items and Board Governance.

Mail volume was down across all classes, with first class down over a billion pieces from 2008, a drop of 12.3%. Advertising volumes were down by almost a billion and a half pieces, or 17.8%. Similar declines were seen in package shipping services. Periodical volumes were off by 6.8% from the prior year. The drop in total mail volume was 14.8%, which resulted in a revenue decline of 11.9% for the month.

The postal service reduced non-personnel expenses by 11.3% from April a year ago, but salaries and benefits, which account for the bulk of the agency’s costs, were down by just 4.3%. For the fiscal year to date, total expenses are down by just 3% from 2008, while total operating revenue is down 8.8%.

MICHAEL COLEMAN, age 35, a resident of Marrero, Louisiana, pled guilty today in front of United States District Judge Martin L.C. Feldman to a one count bill of information for theft of government funds, announced U. S. Attorney Jim Letten.

According to court documents, in May, 2008, MICHAEL COLEMAN, who was previously employed as a letter carrier at the Main Post Office in Gretna, Louisiana, admitted that he found and stole six blank postal money orders at the post office. According to court documents, these postal money orders were “bait” money orders, meaning they were money orders that could be tracked upon their usage by the United States Postal Service. After stealing the six postal money orders, COLEMAN deposited one of them in his personal bank account, gave some of them to his family members, and sold the rest. In all, the bait postal money orders were worth $1,215. Sentencing has been scheduled for August 20, 2009.

The single count carries a maximum penalty of ten years imprisonment, three years supervised release, a $250,000 fine, and a $100 special assessment.

The case was investigated by agents from the United States Postal Service, Office of Inspector General. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U. S. Attorney Matt Chester.

In addition, the company points out that Netflix mailers are routinely processed manually:

GameFly is not the only mailer to experience significant DVD breakage rates on automated mail processing equipment. In response to this phenomenon, the Postal Service has adopted a practice of manually culling out the DVD mailers of two high-volume shippers of DVDs, Netflix and Blockbuster, for special processing.

A report by the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General in November 2007 found that 70 percent of the two-way DVD mailers from one unnamed DVD rental company received manual processing for this reason. USPS Office of Inspector General, Audit Report No. MS-AR-08-001, Review of Postal Service First-Class Permit Reply Mail (November 8, 2007).

The Postal Service’s practice of giving manual processing to DVDs from certain large mailers has continued since the OIG report. On routine visits to multiple Postal Service facilities, GameFly’s employees have observed that a large percentage of mail pieces from Netflix and Blockbuster are culled from the automated letter processing stream.

GameFly has asked the Postal Service to give GameFly’s DVD mailers processing on terms and conditions comparable to the terms and conditions offered to two larger DVD mailers, Blockbuster and Netflix. The Postal Service has not done so.

The issue has taken on additional urgency for GameFly because of Blockbuster’s entry into the game rental market:

Until recently, none of the larger-volume DVD rental companies offered video games. On February 11, 2009, however, Blockbuster, which hitherto had offered only movie DVDs (which GameFly does not offer), announced that Blockbuster was expanding its DVD rental service to include video games in the second quarter of 2009.

As a result of this initiative, GameFly now faces direct competition from a rival that is larger and longer established—and which, because of the preferential treatment given by the Postal Service, enjoys a substantial cost advantage in the distribution of its DVDs to consumers.

The company says it has attempted to work out an agreement with the Postal Service, but that the USPS has ignored its requests to discuss the issue.