From NAPUS:
5/4/16 Over the past 18 months, NAPUS has raised concerns about the lack of data to indicate the amount of money the U.S. Postal Service saved as a result of reduced post office hours and post office re-classifications. In fact, one year ago, President Tony Leonardi testified before a Senate forum on rural mail issues at which he called for a moratorium on further post office hour reductions and re-classifications, particularly with regard to current Level-18 post offices. In part, NAPUS declared at the forum that the lack of accurate data, no assessment of rural impact, and the absence of information relating to revenue losses justified a pause in post office hour reductions and re-classifications. Shortly thereafter, Senators Heidi Heitkamp and Tom Carper introduced S. 1754 and S. 2051, bills that include NAPUS-supported provisions to implement the post office moratorium.
This past Friday, April 29, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) added its expert voice to the legislative discussion. At the request of House Oversight and Government Reform Chair Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and House Government Operations Subcommittee Chair Mark Meadows (R-NC), the GAO conducted a performance audit of POStPlan. In sum, the GAO concluded that the Postal Service’s “estimates of expected POStPlan cost savings have limitations that affect their reliability.” (Highlights of GAO-16-385, April 2016) The GAO went on to point out that these limitations include “imprecise and incomplete labor costs, including errors in underlying data; lack of sensitivity review; and the exclusion of other factors that affect net cost savings, particularly the potential impact of reduced retail hours on revenue.” (Highlights of GAO-16-385, April 2016) And, the GAO report concluded: “Although POStPlan was an initiative that affected about 66 percent of US post offices and Postmasters, USPS did not produce cost-savings estimates with the level of rigor that an initiative with such a large footprint may have warranted.” (GAO-16-385, April 2016, p. 31)
NAPUS believes that the GAO report reinforces its call for a post office hour reduction and reclassification moratorium.
You may view the GAO Report in its entirety here.
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As we have seen in the past, the Postal Service is doing every thing they can to anger everyone. employees, the mailing public, and congress. I can understand management treating it’s employees like dirt, but why treat the customers like they are unwanted burden? If management drives the mailing public away, then what? Who then will pay out the bonuses?
So postmasters at lower levels are at least trying to tell somebody, anybody who will listen that the ridiculous and moronic measures by Headquarters are business killers and show a complete disdain or interest in the customers, even those who rely on the USPS for medications, CPAP and diabetic supplies and other critical items.
I understand that NAPUS has no real teeth beyond being a sounding board, and postmasters who are actually concerned for their customers and try to be good Joes for their craft in their offices have to remain anonymous or be shown the door for not being a good ol’ boy or girl. Customers complain – craft complains, media covers the problems of reduced hours and standards, yet it continually falls on deaf ears at higher levels.
If I were a high level union person, instead of allowing the USPS to run rampant over my membership and destroy what’s left of customer service, I would be all over this issue and a million others, including abuse of employees, safety problems that have killed employees and the lying and malfeasance that identifies the USPS upper level management today. The APWU is the maverick union now, with a gutsy national president who isn’t afraid to mix it up and call it as he sees it. Mark Dimondstein is indeed a fighter.
My union is the NALC, and not just myself, who was an officer for nearly two decades trying my best to make my office a good place to work, and it is, but a lot of members view the union as weak, ineffective, and fear the contract talks. The CCA program is an unmitigated disaster for all concerned and no matter at this point who let it become a reality, whether it was over the NALC’s protestations or if they went along with it, it has got to end and the PTF program restored if we ever hope to restore decent service to the customer and reduce the unacceptable stress of those poor CCA’s who are run ragged, not trained in the areas of safety, mark up or forwarding mail, and encouraged to skip breaks and lunches, knowing they could be canned at the end of each cycle with no real way to fight it.
In the mid 80’s there was a combination mass exodus of carriers and hiring binge. I came on in October 1984, and because I was a young buck at 23, at the beginning of next year I can retire with 32+ years, and I am getting the hell out. So are thousands of others, which will leave a huge gap in the staffing of city letter carriers.
As it stands now, our office for example will be replaced by five or more CCA’s in the next year. Management isn’t doing any counts and inspections because they are waiting for us older worn out carriers to leave so they can bring in more runners. The CCA’s who have converted to regular in my office with one exception still behave like CCA’s – casing two routes, running a swing and getting off early, on a nearly daily basis. Their performance as far as accuracy and forwarding is abysmal. They simply do not care, hang out at the supervisor pit and will not listen to us older carriers.
We veteran carriers know where this is going. Thousands of routes will be made into monster routes, with possible deliveries in some areas well over 1000 stops. Others will be abolished to create the behemoth routes, and we’ll lose an incredible amount of regular positions, meaning CCA’s will have to wait even longer to be converted and then still run like chickens with their heads cut off, not considering for a moment they are impeding the conversion of other CCA’s under them.
CCA’s, the ball is in your court. We understand the pressure while you’re CCA’s, but when you go regular, you need to abandon the running and treat your route like it’s yours, learn who your customers are the best you can, keep up with COA’s, vacation holds and other normal maintenance management doesn’t tell you about and doesn’t want you “wasting your time” with. All you’ll get for killing yourself is a lot more work. Trust me. When you experience your first count and inspection, you are in for a very rude awakening from your buddies in management.