Tester Demands Accountability After New Reports of Intentional Mail Delays
9/19/2017 (U.S. Senate)-Following reports that 2 billion pieces of mail were delayed in delivery, U.S. Senator Jon Tester has tough words for the U.S. Postal Service.
Postal employees have reported that supervisors have been intentionally delaying mail in order to meet arbitrary quotas and goals. Tester called that unacceptable and demanded the Postal Service immediately fix the problem to ensure that families and small businesses receive timely mail service.
“Any employee who deliberately delayed mail delivery or who knowingly misreported mail delivery should be terminated for violating the trust of America’s hardworking taxpayers and postal ratepayers,” Tester wrote to the Postmaster General. “Inaccurate reporting of delayed mail has cost the Postal Service severely at a time when its reputation and earnings are in dire need of rehabilitation.”
According to a recent report by an independent, non-partisan Inspector General, a lack of management and training has caused a delay in mail delivery. The report also notes that the delays are going unrecorded, causing daily mail condition reports to be extremely inaccurate.
Tester, a longtime advocate for rural mail delivery, sits on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which oversees the Postal Service.
[gview file=”http://www.postal-reporter.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2017-09-18-Letter-to-PMG-Brennan.pdf” save=”0″]
OIG Report finds USPS not accurately reporting delayed mail
In my post office , managers, supervisors instructed employees to change the late mail dates, to remove the old tags and replace it with a new tags with a current date on it. Zero accountability at post office. I reported to upper management but manager and supervisor lied about it.
How about not allowing usps to deliver for the chinese for less than it charges Americans? Never heard of epacket? Then look it up and STOP THAT DISCRIMINATION AGAINST AMERICAN SHIPPERS.
St. Petersburg P& DC…. trashiest supervisors on the planet. They make me nauseous just to look at them. I have zero respect for these idiots.
The PM has a history of closing and consolidations of plants. Closing these plants made it impossible for these facilities to keep the next day delivery standards. The only way to keep the mail timely processed was to relax the delivery standards. The new method was to allow an additional day from the mailed to its delivery.
Somehow, that gave all of these managers and supervisors the idea that they all had an extra day. One extra day at this plant followed by another extra day at the next plant and you have extremely delayed mail. Now you have delayed mail.
Trashy as in dressing provocatively?
Tester needs to know and understand the old Italian saying as it applies to the Postal Circus, “the fish rots from the head down”!
Postal Circus at the top needs real managers with real Graduate MBA Degrees from the top 10 business schools……Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, Wharton etc…..and not some 2 day seminar certificate that these tools like Muffin Meghan hang on the wall. Postal Circus mid-level managers need real MBA’s business degrees from top 500 University’s and the low level supervisors need a 4 year degree in a real subject…..basket weaving or African studies do not count. with the salaries they now get you would be able to fire or RIF them all and hire off of the colleges campus as their first job….thats what UPS, FDX, & AMZN do why should this dump be different. garbage in = garbage out-that is what we no have with low IQ, no college, friends, family, and affirmative action postal mismanagers. if you think that is not the core problem….then you are one of the problem hires.
But if they terminate all of the faulty stupidvisors, there won’t be any left.
Most managers are scumbags .I known from my many years in the system.The worst was at Noryh Metro here in Duluth Ga.i had some of the worst supervisors and managers,Like I said before they are Scumbags!
The toolbags that mismanage the PO are a reflection of
Muffin Meghen who ruins the show. These immoral, incompetent,
evil, morons couldn’t manage their way out of a paper bag
with openings at both ends. Priority-stick it to the public. Mail sits
for days waiting to be rewrapped. Mail sits in spill areas for days.
Color codes disappear. Unethical toolbags are ruining the service.
How are those new delivery standards working Meghen?
That’s dirt bags, you’re insulting my tool bag.
Senator Tester is correct that delayed mail reporting must be accurate. But his identification of the source of the problem is incorrect. Suggest he look at the PMG and COO. Signals coming from L’Enfant Plaza are two: officially, you must report delayed mail correctly, and; unofficially we all look bad for having delayed mail, so don’t report delayed mail unless you want to be labeled a bad manager and still given no support. To prove this just look at how many field managers have been disciplined for incorrectly reporting delayed mail. You will find very few, unless the push is coming from Congress or the IG. I believe the term is “plausible deniability” for the PMG, COO and AVP’s.
Deceive, deny, deflect. The postal mgmt. mantra.
I’ve been severely harassed for 5 years and no one seems to give a damn…… management is a joke and so is the union…..no one is protecting me!!!
We want to get rid of people like you, so expect some more harrasment from management.
puppet master Portland Oregon
I’m here in San Diego.
Well that will only leave about 10 managers for the entire postal service!!
Don’t you worry, we’re going to promote some more.
how much A/L do Post Masters get?
Ours in on vaca going on ten weeks now.
What is the deal with that.
I get texts to scan fifteen pieces of mail from a
PSE clerk?
Can I grieve that. Woman has been at the Post Office
for 6 months and she’s telling my to scan fifteen pieces of mail
while I walk 11 miles a day.
WTF?
don’t use your phone for postal business.
How long does it take to scan 15 pieces of mail ?!?
Delayed local 1st class every night here. Can’t meet the timeline, just ripped up the color tag for the 3rd class.
It happens everywhere, deal with it.
Mail is rerun because it takes several runs to sort and make it walk sequence. Just like management, some workers have no idea why they do what they do. Almost all management came from craft so once again, insulting yourself and your piers. Part of the postal problem is all the infighting in an culture that gets worst on both sides. Don’t worry, the pain is almost over and some employees who hate it so much but won’t quit will be seeking employment elswhere.
With the volume of mail, no need for running the mail anyway. But as long as bonuses are handed out for cooked up numbers, it’ll continue as mgmt. has no accountability for anything.
As a Citygate employee I have been told on numerous accasions that management will purposely rerun the mail and route the mail so mail counted more than once thus inflating their numbers. Totally flawed system of accountability at one our nations supposedly most respected organization…. US POST OFFICE. Its is discusting to say least but I don’t believe writing to Postmaster General is the answer….she is part of the problem and frankly believe she is incompetent at head of organization that is too ‘Top Heavy’ and way grossly overcompensated! I think the system should be investigated by congress and would love to see a 60 minutes segment on this…. I sure that will get people attention. Again….Postmaster General is part of the problem and not the solution.
We need the numbers to justify our existence.
Tip of the iceberg. If the public knew of the corruption, sleaze, unethical behavior, and incompetence that infests postal mgmt. ranks……
That’s why we have no public comments.
I have more time in than you do and the next manager I meet that is worth a damn, will be the first.
32 years in the USPS 20 years as a Postmaster, Management needs to be able to hire a workforce that can deliver the volume. The unreachable goals that are set and the micro managing of the units do not allow the managers to do their job and allow for a workplace that is harmonious. We fight the unions and can not remove employees that do not really want to “work”. Our hands were tied to hold a few employees accountable. We were not able to reward the employees that work hard for a living. 97 percent of my employees love working for the USPS, The 3 percent need to be gone.
ET AL I concur! ! You are definitely on point!
ET who? I fired him for not having PPE within arm reach.
Here’s a concept for the PO,how about holding incompetent and problem managers accountable and fire them rather than promoting them?
It’s the other way around. 3% of work force is working, 97% is either dead weight or never moved a piece of mail.
Those who can’t do become supervisors. Those who can’t supervise become managers. Those who can’t manage go to Washington. In the private sector, those who can’t do get fired.
I fired people, no one touches me.
Management does need an overhaul. It is not an assertive group of managers, it is an abusive group of dysfunctional individuals that couldn’t be employed elsewhere. If you complain with a grievance trying to right a wrong, you are tagged, then you are harassed. As in my plant, the local union colludes with management and needs an overhaul themselves, severe violation of trust and obligation while cashing in your dues as a paycheck for themselves. While I believe the actions of the national union is fighting hard and long for efficient service, very few even trust our locals to help correct the issues. If anyone questions management they are tagged and harassed. Craft employees know their jobs, they constantly look for better ways of doing things, are kept out of the loop, discouraged from becoming involved ( unless your an a** kissing favorite or willing to do unethical special favors ) management is NOT a morale booster, complete opposite. They drag the employee down with their jaded character, show contempt for any enthusiasm, and attempt to humiliate those they dont like. ( smart employees will keep their distance ) Great working conditions hm ? They are known to join the ranks of supervision due to the fact they dont want to work craft jobs which are physically demanding. But are paid a higher rate of pay to sit or walk the floors, seemingly observing ( as if years in the service one cant perform their own job ) and occasionally report to district via tele communications. Oh yes, they make out the daily schedule which is computer generated anyways. They receive large bonuses based on the work of the craft. I know factually craft can do their job, and can meet the deadlines. If I have any questions I always ask another craft employee. Always. Our supervisor upon begin of tour only tells us, ” the trucks are all in, the mail is here (or not ) get to work. ” Any expeditor can inform us of that over the intercom. ?? Then thats the last we see of him other than pacing the floor like he drank several red bulls.
I was in a mailhandler meeting with the Indian (dot not feather) when he said “we were lucky to have a job” I said back to him he was lucky to be in the country and screwing white males without connections with liberal scum affirmative action/reverse discrimination……he did not say a word and walked out of the room. Mid-Island 117/119 looks like a slum you would see in Calcutta…..and the same delivery standard. 6 months to go……….the post office is sinking with Donehoe’s wench at the helm. I hope it implodes…….corruption, nepotism, affirmative, has destroyed the place,
Why don’t you just quit. I would give you a dollar.
Current management at Mid-Island P&DC in Melville, NY has crippled our operation with poor decisions, poor staffing and by destroying morale. The Plant Manager (an immigrant) went so far as to call us “overpaid factory workers” and told the local union President he was NOT going to abide by the contract. This kind of egregious behavior can only have a negative impact on production. Check our scores – we’re among the worst in the nation.
He has a point.
Most stupidvisors now come in the door (cca) and 5 mins later bam, they are telling you how to do the job you’ve been doing for years. Less mangament and more working employees (carrier/clerks/mailhandlers) will get the job done. And most Postmasters only care about their Bounus, oops incentives! Screw ups who need to get rid of, get push up the line and out of the line of fire, so the next time you think that they are promoted because they were so good at their job, think again!!!
I’m Capt Vibbert , Senior PM at MLS.
its a numbers game buddy and u lose!
I got your numbers.
The overall problem in the USPS, is that those that supervise or manage are often those that didn’t work as regular employees. Only a few go into management because they feel they can do better than those they see in charge. They run into employees that can’t be fired and supervision that is afraid to say anything. Supervision can be fired.
Street supervision is a thing of the past. Now they sit at the desk and hope the mail is being delivered.
New employee turn over is at 50% because many cannot make the standard. It is not easy. Older employees met those standards, but many of them had good work ethics.
The union runs the workroom, often filing grievances instead of working to help solve issues.
Give the USPS the ability to fire anyone for cause and it will improve performance.
I was a Supervisor that had a great rapport with the Union. We had few grievances, a happy workforce and great performance. I loved my letter carriers, they were the best.
Maybe you did get along well with your workers. I won’t dispute that. I’m retired now too as a 32+ year letter carrier, and I still have friends who have to put up with the insanity so I still care about what’s going on. But I must take a bit of an issue with your statements. First, new employee turnover is all because of the CCA program as far as city carriers are concerned. They are expected to work horrible hours for a lot less comparative pay, and soon find out that there are other places with similar pay that don’t abuse them like the USPS management does. While there is a one time conversion to career employee status because of the new NALC contract, the NALC still fucked up by not demanding a full return to the PTF program. We warned management what would happen with half price fast food style carriers, and we were right. No, it’s not standards – those change all the time and very unfairly with computer programs that are filled with glaring omissions of volume, parcels, full coverage credit, and weather. It’s treated like gold by supervisors who are ordered to demand the impossible from those who are the easiest to fire. Older employees have lay off protection, and set their own “standards”, and you are not admitting this. Not to mention the NALC does not recognize “standards” and management can’t use it solely as a tool for discipline.
Unions can abuse the grievance process, I grant you that. But what is “working” to solve issues? Do everything your way whether you are violating the JCAM or not? Or do you meet half way like decent supervisors and union officials should? I’ve seen it both ways.
And the USPS has just cause language already in Art. 16 of the JCAM. The problem is that in so many countless cases, in what may have been an open and shut case was defeated because the procedures were violated. You advocate indiscriminate use of firing people without benefit of union representation, I can see that. To do it the way management wants it, would take the abolishment of unions, and that ain’t gonna happen. Plus, it would open the door to unjust firing based on personalities, increase favoritism, and result in even more turnover. There are too many supervisors and managers out there who are already abusive as hell. They certainly don’t need any more legal encouragement. Unions can be corrupted too, and I know of some very sorry people who have no business “representing” anybody. I experienced a very ugly situation in my office at the hands of the NALC higher ups once, and I know some of the union officers are capable of doing really rotten dishonest shit, too. I served as a president/steward for 17 years and did my best to be totally fair at all times. I was vocal, and expected help from higher levels when I needed it. So my carriers were never sabotaged, lied too, or treated differently.
So both sides need to clean up their acts. Be glad for the good eggs on both sides, and beware of the bad ones.
Gey rid of all management and floor supervisors….pay the carriers 50 dollars an hour and we will make this problem go away!😀😀
This is always been managements fault!
Can I make a well meaning suggestion here? While I am certainly in agreement about the incompetence and crooked behavior of lots of managers, it is not a good idea to mention specific offices or name names. Managers read this web site too, and you just might find yourself getting harassed and bullied for posting stuff that’s too revealing. I deeply regret one time just doing some mild complaining after a long bad day several years ago on this web site, and because there was another person who read it too, even though I did not name names or the office, tattled and took it to the PM. There was no proof, and with hindsight it was very very minor, something I would have told to the affected party’s faces if I was mad enough, but I felt terrible about what I had done because in one instance I hurt a person’s feelings needlessly and wrongfully. I manned up and apologized with all my heart, and all is okay now, but there was talk at one time of the USPS hiring people to monitor web responses like these and report them to the Service, who would then know even who the supposedly anonymous authors were.
There are good people in management and craft, and those who have decent relationships with their supervisors and PM’s are lucky. My last managers I worked with were good folk who were harassed by upper levels, where the real dirty stuff goes on, and in an incredible amount of stress. In the interest of fairness, while everybody vents and complains, I am positive our office could always be much worse, and for several years it was absolute hell at the hands of some very bad management that eventually were forced to retire and relocate, such was the level of abuse and harassment, and numerous Joint Statements on Violence and Behavior in the Workplace I filed with witness statements and hard proof that would win the day with time for us craft people.
Just be careful, because when anybody is cornered, they will strike back to get out of the corner to cover their asses or seek revenge, or both.
Clark Mills NY postmaster is me an amd ornary and screw up everything
Well, then, he will get promoted after he has made a name for himself. Then you folks will get another well connected clown to rule over you.
You got idiots workin in management…don’t care about service,just about making numbers…ashame service is going down hill for many years.
Meanwhile, from the postal unions………………crickets.
To busy trying to screw us with their agreeing with the usps about increasing our health care costs I guess.
The union presidents minus Dimondstein of the APWU are bought and paid management stooges who never fight for their members best interests.
I wish they’d be terminated but instead they’ll get promoted. And a bonus.
Seriously.
The USPS management mantra is screw up to move up.
Well, at least Senator Teaster is aware of our reports of constant malfeasance and corruption in the USPS management. The trouble is his statement, while appreciated, because if nothing else it does indicate somebody hears us, current and retirees like myself alike. Why would I as a new retiree keep commenting on the USPS when it’s not really my fight any more? Because of the 32 years I put in, trying to be the best city carrier, a good union member (branch president and/or steward for 17 years), and reliable carrier I could be, because I believe in doing my best when I’m getting paid. Plus, my good friends still working still have to suffer the consequences of management crooks and idiots who are, bluntly, royally fucking up the Service.
The fault more accurately must start at POOM and District levels. While my last POOM is a very good person and my friend, many are terrible. District and Areas are where the worst of the worst happens on orders from D.C. The PMG, Megan Brennan, is the prime architect behind the horrible service. She has lied over and over to various members of Congress and the media about her “commitment” to service, when she is all about cutting efficiency to transfer into bogus “performance bonuses” that she and other high ranking officials stuff in their pockets. What is going on at the highest levels, and I hope Senator Teaster is reading this, is a skim operation, pure and simple. With the endless and confounding paperwork and creative accounting management specializes in to hide their phony data or totally misrepresent it such as not accurately recording volume to justify making routes much longer and avoiding hiring the help the USPS sorely needs, their trails are virtually impossible to trace.
To just go after postmasters is not a good thing to say, Senator and here’s why: those not in the various cliques where they’re protected by other “buddies” are the sacrificial lambs. As the last post says, attempts to do the job correctly is met with threats of discipline and/or removal. Many postmasters nationwide are as furious with the system as the craft, and suggesting they be removed if they’re not connected would be just the cover up a terrible PMG like Brennan would immediately take advantage of to cover her sorry ass. No, we must start a lot higher up on the ladder, and investigate the upper levels right now, and through careful action and long overdue indictments of embezzlement and other illegal activity, the reaction would work its way down the ladder if the agencies doing the investigating did not miss any steps and did not allow these skank to find pigeons to take the heat. There will be no change until this type of activity is stopped once and for all.
That’s what I’m talkin about…Fire the mismanagers who intentionally delay the mail in order to try to make themselves a greater bonus…
Our facility will never report mail late. Clerks and MH are told to remove tags and NOT scan trucks and APCs that are arriving or leaving late so not to show as a plan failure. Falsifying records are a way of life and if you do not obey the supervisors orders, you will be assigned to work a position akin to purgatory
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Last priority is the Customers…First Priority is Slow Death Spiral
The customers don’t control us, WE, control the Customers. So said the Post Master once.
Congressman Tester,
You know darn well it’s rare that a stupidvisor or upper management get tossed out the door.. They get bounced to another facility or even another state.. And it’s extremely hard to fire a disabled veteran. ( that’s a scam in itself)… Our wonderful Senior Plant Manager ( Jeff Hotchkiss ) here at the Harrisburg, Pa P& DC was caught banging a female who works in Labor Relations.. Never lost his job ( disabled veteran while playing in the Army band ) what a joke !!!!! We lost our District Manager because he was a normal human being. They bounced him to South Jersey.. Now we got this ditzy Postmaster from Pittsburgh, Pa that kept delaying mail deliveries.. Imagine that.. They just move them around and pay all their moving expenses and car, etc
Ha, ha, ha, yeah right. The fix is in, dum-dum.
Well then there would be almost no management left
Pay for performance.
There are a lot of supervisors and managers within the Postal Service that could not work anywhere else because they would be held accountable. Until they are held accountable nothing will change. Check out Lehigh Valley P. & D.C. if you want plenty of examples.
This is not news. Supervisors and managers have been doing this on a regular basis for YEARS. You might say, “Fire them!” Well, to date, any supervisor that had been fired has lawyered up and gotten their job back with FULL PAY.
Come into a postal services after 10pm and u will see people standing waiting to run mail because they have been told due to some nationwide thing called I think RPG causing mail to be really delayed.
Those inside the Postal Service know how rarely supervisors and managers are ever fired or even disciplined.
I’ve been severely harassed for 5 years and no one seems to give a damn…… management is a joke and so is the union…..no one is protecting me!!!
We do not have the personnel to not delay the mail, at least in my facility. (Hint, serving a major metropolitan area) We have a 50% or better turnover in new hires and are going into clerk V time more often than not. Couple that with the fact that the kids that do stick around bang in at will and spend half the tour playing on the phone. The retirements are accelerating as well. You’ve got to pick your poison on a daily basis as to what gets done or not. We can take 3 days to complete a dock transfer of a district wide house to house, think anything else gets out the door in a timely fashion?
This Senator can rage all he wants, no one at l’Enfant Plaza gives a rats a$$. They’re all at the end of their careers, just like I am, only they have the bloated salaries. Fire all the bosses you want, it’d help the bottom line but it won’t change the situation with the help. And it’s not just us, everyone’s got the same problem.
That report does not surprise me. I have tried to report delayed mail to my supervisors and they don’t want to hear it
did u try going to OIG?
OIG is a branch of mgmt.
start with terminating the postmaster of exeter, r.i.!
Oh, that isn’teven the tip of the iceberg. If you only knew how our mail goes around in circles’s only so numbers could be produced & Intentionally removing knowledgeable trained career employees with transient unskilled workers who could care less about the job. No one has come to talk to the career employees or asked them what’s really happening, especially in the Melville, NY P&DC
The VA issues have cost veterans their very lives. Mail is a little bit different, it’s run of the mill government incompetence, meaning nothing will change.
Tester got his photo op and is already on to other things, like gutting our pensions.
Hear ye, Hear ye- employee’s have been screaming that for years to upper Mismanagement and nothing is going to happen. All they (upper Mismanagement) wants is to meet their performance award goals, so they can get their fat ass checks that they didn’t earn. They lie to the public and tell them that “Service is priority one”! Bull Shit, they are being micromanaged to death and that comes from the top- the American people will never know or see any of the wrong doing that happens in the Post Office. Disfunctional Mismanagement is moved around to keep from being embarrassed from all the crap that they think is just to get the job done! Again, Bullshit- people are out there everyday trying to make a difference and these clowns hide behind tele-conferences that don’t mean shit to nobody but themselves! We have to wake-up and see this- The Post office is no different then the VA but the VA got caught cooking the books with their bad numbers so they can get bonuses / Post Office is no different. That’s why the Post Office is paying millions of dollars for grievances because you got unqualified people doing work they shouldn’t be doing. The Post Office will keep on giving the empty headed fools control over operations that they don’t even understand but everyday they try to re-invent the wheel, and think they are doing a great job! Funny thing we have 8 delivery supervisors where I’m from-who want out of delivery because they are being told that they will get letters of warning from the district if corrections are done. Who wants to work in that kind of environment? NOBODY! Bring on the pull out of Amazon- and I hope the RIF’s start flying. What a joke- good-day.