NALC launches "5-Day is the Wrong Way" website to keep public informed

The national president of the 295,000-member National Association of Letter Carriers union (NALC) today criticized the U.S. Postal Service for arrogantly lobbying the general public with a misleading Internet web site to win approval of elimination of Saturday mail delivery despite the fact that Congress has shown little interest in such a move. NALC President Fredric V. Rolando said the recently announced postal web site offers misleading information and planning guides for businesses and households regarding its plan to cut Saturday collection and mail delivery services.

"Postmaster General John Potter leads a cry for retrenchment"

From Washington Post, May 10, 2010: "The way Postmaster General John E. Potter sees it, he has less than six months to convince Congress and the nation of the urgent need to retool the U.S. Postal Service for the 21st century... He wants Congress to roll back a law requiring the Postal Service to prepay retiree health benefits. But he also wants the flexibility to change the business model -- by dropping Saturday deliveries, replacing post offices with outposts in suburban supermarkets and cutting hundreds of thousands of jobs through attrition... If things go his way, Saturday deliveries would end next spring, he told customers in Nashville. 'The value of going to four days -- removing a second day -- is even greater,' he said. Although no such plans exist, Potter said that Tuesdays are the second-slowest day of the week."

Two key lawmakers overseeing the U.S. Postal Service said they do not support the plan to cut Saturday mail deliveries

End To Saturday Mail Faces Resistance article at the CongressDaily website.

Obama budget backs six-day delivery

President Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget proposal requires the continuation of six-day delivery by the Postal Service. The administration also promises to work with postal unions and other stakeholders to keep the Postal Service strong for years to come.

In setting the amount for “revenue forgone” to cover the costs of free and reduced rate mail, the spending plan says payments will be made “provided that 6-day delivery and rural delivery of mail shall continue at not less than the 1983 level....”

Postal privatization a “bad idea,” Obama says

In a citizen question-and-answer interview, President Obama said privatization of government services is “a bad idea most of the time”—and definitely a bad idea when it comes to the U.S. Postal Service.

FERS sick leave credit approved

The Senate approved legislation October 22 that gives federal and postal workers under the Federal Employees Retirement System credit toward their retirement benefits for unused sick leave. The provision, a legislative priority for the NALC, was included in a compromise version of the 2010 Defense Authorization bill. The House approved the bill October 7 and it was sent to President Obama for his signature. Under the new law, FERS employees get half credit for unused sick leave through 2013; full credit takes effect in 2014. The bill also includes a provision to gradually move federal employees who live and work outside the continental United States away from territorial COLAs based on price differences and into a locality pay system based on wage differences.

Pay Raise Schedule

* Value of COLAs depends on changes in the level of the Consumer Price Index. The basic salary shall be increased 1 cent per hour for each full 0.4 of a point increase in the applicable Index above the Base Index. In no event will a decline in the Index below the Base Index result in a decrease in the pay scales.

Flats Sequencing System

Click here to watch a video of the Flats Sequencing System machine in action on YouTube, or here for a more detailed look.

Click here to see some FFS photos.

Latter Carrier Roberta Clemmer worked with the FSS at the Carmel, Indiana Post Office and wrote of her experience with the system. Read her report, DPS Flats, A Look At Our Future (© 2007, The Summit City Mailbag, Fort Wayne, IN, Branch No. 116).

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