- PMG to Congress: Out of the way, I’m ending Saturday delivery
- NALC to PMG: Not without a fight!
NALC President Rolando responds to Donahoe
Feb. 7, 2013 — Postmaster General Pat Donahoe’s unilateral and brazen plan to end Saturday mail delivery in August led many reporters at a press conference yesterday to question its legality, given Congress’ 30-year legislated policy to mandate six-day delivery. Donahoe was vague and evasive in responding. The PMG also made a number of claims about employee support for his plan. National Association of Letter Carriers President Fredric Rolando issued the following statement in response:
The PMG didn’t equivocate when he talked to me before unleashing a sneak attack on the nation’s postal customers, letter carriers and mailers who rely on Saturday delivery. He told me he plans to go ahead with his service- and job-killing plan, even if Congress extends next month the continuing resolution that mandates Saturday delivery. He’s essentially telling Congress to “Drop dead!” He is presuming the right to override the will of America’s elected representatives.
Congress cannot let him get away with this arrogant power grab—not only because it will drive more business away and do irreparable harm to the Postal Service, but also because it will set the stage for a move to four-day and three-day delivery in the years ahead.
Donahoe told reporters that he talked to me before yesterday’s announcement and suggested that letter carriers and other postal employees are “fully supportive” of his plan. This is completely false. Let me respond to both points.
He did talk to me 18 hours before going public, but I made it absolutely clear that letter carriers totally oppose this destructive plan. I told him directly that we consider this an attack on letter carriers, the Postal Service’s customers and the American public, not to mention an affront to Congress. I informed him that I would direct our lawyers to take the most aggressive action possible to thwart his reckless plan.
Donahoe’s claim that postal employees support his self-destructive downsizing plan is plainly untrue—every union has announced its opposition. If he is truly willing to be guided by the views of the nation’s letter carriers, NALC would gladly agree to jointly commission a carrier poll on this matter, so long as the PMG is willing to be bound by the results. Otherwise, he should not arrogantly presume to speak for America’s letter carriers.
More than 90 percent of letter carriers voluntarily belong to the NALC; we are confident that they know what’s best for the Postal Service and its customers. They know what Donahoe seems not to understand: Slowing mail service and slashing service is not a winning business strategy.
Letter carriers, the core workforce of the United States Postal Service, have lost confidence in Postmaster General Donahoe. It is time for him to go.
You do realize that the post office will be expecting you to do 6 days work in 5 days. That’s a 17% pay cut. And that the heaviest delivery day is Monday right now (40% of the total). What will it be like if there is a 3 or 4 day weekend? And did you know the subs that would have worked your day off will be losing their jobs(70,000 nationally). Where are you going to find someone to fill in just for your vacation and sick days. My wife is a sub and she won’t be waiting around for the phone to ring.
The problem with Jen shilling Aveeno (and I love Jen) is that no one is buying in a million years that she uses Aveeno. I could see Reese Witherspoon or Jennifer Lawrence using Aveeno…but everyone kinda knows that Jen is body/product obsessed. She’s using some La Mer thousand dollar cream. This would be like J Lo or Mariah Carey telling us they use Aveeno. Please. I can’t suspend disbelief. And that “the beautiful Jennifer Aniston” part was cringeworthy.Report this comment as spam or abuse
the saturday parcel service will be a paid service like we offer now..not all parcels
truth is right on…we have to go to 5 days and no more walking routes..we have to do what is needed to keep this business going..if the airports dont have planes coming in on saturday they surely would close…we cant get paid when there is no work and getting paid for delivering bulk on saturday isnt good for anyone
Unions don’t have any answers other than to point fingers and talk bad about anyone that has plans that they don’t like which will affect their bottom line. What about those hush hush retirement plans that ONLY the union officers get? Not much discussion on that is there?
I am utterly stoned by the stupidity of 5 day delivery ELIMINATING JOBS. Its pure BS. It’s SIMPLE math for a two year old. You cannot cram a six day workweek into a 5 day work week. That increases the daily delivery of an adjusted 8 hour route to 9.5. You then have to increase the cases+cell sizes and it CREATES ROUTES. Do you all get the simple math that is required to do a 5 day delivery?? As for delivering parcels on Saturday that is insane. You cannot deliver all parcels on Sat. Ninety percent of those parcels will be delivered the following week. Take into consideration all the house to house and bulk mailings and you have volumes hitting the street Mon thru Fri that will turn all Vol’s into non-vols!! You will never hurry up a Union letter carrier. 25% of mail volume has dropped in ten years…it won’t drop anymore. EXPLAIN to me how this eliminates jobs and I will tell you that you DO NOT know what you are talking about. I am a letter carrier. The only thing this serves to save money is taking all our vehicles off the street for one day which will save millions per week. This is the only cost saving to be achieved here and the rest is more BS from Postal Officials that liken the lies of Banking Execs that have ruined the planet and do not get prosecuted.
I ask all of you again!! How do you take a six day route evaluated at 48 hour delivery per week to a five day delivery at 40 hours per week without creating more routes, harder delivery days and leaving the office later? I HATE DELIVERING WHEN IT’S DARK by the way!!!!
I support the PMG. Rolando, it’s your greedy motives that make me think about getting out of the union.
It’s about time the Postal Service gets with the 21st century. Many carriers I know applaud the 5 day work week. It’s about time. If UPS can do it so can USPS. I am a union guy but the union is getting to greedy. It’s all about union dues. Nothing else.
Finally a PMG who will man up and take some action to cut costs. Everybody wants 5-day delivery, and it should be one of the first logical cost-cutting efforts. Think of all the gas that will be saved. CBU’s should be next.
There shouldn’t be any job losses – regulars will now just have every Saturday off – which they have wanted forever. Poster above is correct – carriers wants Saturday off – only NALC doesn’t.
He is telling congress to “drop dead”? Oh I see just like Obama does!
The majority of letter carrier do want 5 day deliver, it’s the NALC at the top level who doesn’t. They continue to shove their agenda down their memberships throat. Carriers are afraid to being chastised by the few NALC representatives who blindly follow their National Officers to speak openly. Carriers would love to work a typical work week and enjoy their weekends with the family and friends. Heck they could even enjoy 3 day holiday weekends. The NALC National officers are hiding behind the truth; they are concerned only with loosing union dues from 1/5 of their current membership. Less money to throw at their lobbyist and lawyers.
Don’t know of to many carriers that would not welcome doing away with Saturday delivery. Only the ones that think the postal service owes them an extra 25 or 30 grand a year in overtime are pouting about it. Been a member of the NALC for 30 years and if you didn’t see this coming Mr. Rolando you have tb be a complete idiot. Poll the carriers across the country and you will find how off base you are. Negotiate an early out incentive, which is your job I might add and get rid of the older carriers and make room for the new ones so they won’t be making fifteen bucks an hour for very long. You and the democrat senators can spread all the lies you want but this would not hurt a damn thing and you know it. I will retire this year with or without an incentive, could care less. Every craft and postmasters have had an incentive to retire except letter carriers, so step up to the plate do your job and negotiate. Also quit making foolish statements to national press, most people have no sympathy towards us and it makes us all look dumb.
I respect your efforts, President Rolando, but I must reiterate that I NEVER trusted any PMG, ever. I NEVER had faith in management at any level to do the right thing, behave professionally or competently. Yes, there are good people in that mess called postal management, but they are hogtied, forbidden to speak out lest they be removed, and are probably the most stressed people in the entire Service, because the Area and District leadership is supremely arrogant, afraid for their own jobs should a management restructure program be implemented. The rats are lining up on the plank waiting for it to lower.
I don’t envy your position, either. I have no doubt you’ve done all you are legally able to do, but there will be the number of scabs and some NALC members who will blame you directly for the failure to save six day delivery, such as the post above. I read his post, and if conditions are as poor as he indicates, it sounds like a local union leadership problem.
I think the five day plan will stand, Congress being too uninterested in dealing with it, just like their reluctance to address meaningful reform. However, if we can stop that prefunding requirement, and get out the vote against Republican vultures like Darryl Issa, we can survive. I would work with my own Congressman but he is a terrible GOP clone, in the same league with Tom Coburn, Issa and other terrible lawmakers.
We have lost faith in Mr.”blinky” Dona-foe, Mr. “Worse NALC president ever” Rolando. What would Mr. Sombrotto think of your handling this union? You do say all the right things but it seems that is all that you do is say this and say that. I am paying 600 and some odd dollars this year for union dues but thats not enough. We are asked to contribute more and more through Colpce, we are asked to do more and more of your job to protect our job and wages. Postal management is breaking the contracts day in and day out, and the answer we get is file file file. Maybe if you had a pair this would’nt be happening every single day. In my office, our supervisor carries mail daily, sorts mail daily, while we do not even have rubber bands or enough toilet paper or paper towels to last through a week. 90% of our trucks are unsafe to drive for one reason or another, but we are told to drive them and file file file. You know what one of our grievance agreements were? Our local union agreed that the supervisor would buy us a box of donuts! Obviously filing is not the answer, the answer is that when this pinhead does things like this don’t just say what your supposed to maybe try to put a CONTERACTION towards his action and see how far he gets. Call us, to not give more money to some lobbyists who could really care less about our cause, but for us to stand and do something about this tyrannical postal management.
All Te’s should of had there pay granfathered in!!!
I am a TE of 5 years for USPS!!! Been waiting 5 years for Nalc to come out with contract! All the while hoping to make regular!!! Working harder and more hours then every regular in my office!!! Only to find out that they are eliminating my title and creating the new cca title with a 6 dollar paycut!!! Thanks Nalc arbitrater!!! No one in their right mind would take a six dollar paycut!! It will take 12 years to get back to my original pay of 22.15!!! GL losing 15000 TE’s on April 10!!!
the nalc already screwed newbies starting pay by $6 hoping to save this 6day delivery. If they would bend and sacrafice a bit and concede to 5 day they could maybe have kept the new carriers pay intact. now they will start as CA’s. greedy union will be its own downfall. Get rid of 1/6 of the seniors that want out. give it to them.
Rolando had his head shoved so far up the PMG’s butt for a long time. He forced JcRAP and MIcRAP and whatever other crap down our throats selling out all of our working conditions, but NOW he wants to hold the PMG responsible. I hope you can sleep at night Mr Rolando. The keg and shoulder pain you’re responsible for hinders me from sleeping well at night
This man makes major decisions on his own. He need to be fired. I have never seen someone so arrogant in my life. The decisions he makes also make no sense. Get rid of him.
Since laws,rules,etc are not being followed and upheld; do I see a strike in the future???
Letter carriers are the core of usps. Don’t you realize that carriers help clerks sort packages we help mail handler’s move and distribute mail. We do everything but sell stamps! Actually… we do that on our routes for our customers! The other unions were weak and lazy and they don’t grieve the work we do with (for) them. Soon there will nothing but carriers doing it all. That’s the master plan. Wake up!!
don a ho has to be an egoistical yuppie to try to make the public thinks he speaks for all of the usps employees…..and carriers are not the center of the universe…
oh my what idiots…
You at least have to applaud the PMG for having the balls to challenge our worthless Congress. He is making an effort while Congress screws over all the real Americans. I said it in the 2010 election “Don’t vote for anyone.” and I will repeat it in four years….Don’t Vote For Anyone!
Mr Rolando
Wether letter carriers the core workforce of the USPS have list confidence in you. It’s time for you to go. And take O’Malley and Lucini with you!
Hey let’s close all the airports on Saturday also. The head of the air traffic controllers has just come up with a hair brain idea where he can save the government 2 billion per year. Does anybody think that congress will allow that to happen?
MR. Rolando – I know you are President of the NALC and I know it is your job to look out for the interests of carriers, but please, enough already with the constant “letter carriers are better than everyone else” platitudes. All postal employees are important to the cause, be they clerk, driver, mailhandler, carrier… For you to label letter carriers as the “core workforce” of the USPS is disingenuous and demeaning to other crafts. I know many mailhandlers, clerks and, yes, supervisors, who would bristle at your characterization of them as unnecessary.
T-1 Clerk: You make excellent points! I guess they really do want to privatize retail. It is a true shame; our country needs the blue collar hard-working, middle class…that’s us!
He should have been tossed out on his behind a long time ago. He’s done nothing but try and ruin the USPS. He has no business running the USPS, get him out NOW! You do not keep customers by reducing the service, hours of post offices. If anything adjust the hours of service at post offices, that way people can go really early BEFORE they have to be at work, and perhaps stay open later on Fridays so those needing to drop something off can get there before they close up. We are in a 24/7 world, adjust to keep customers. If we lose them, it’s all over.