Lest anyone forget, today’s the last day on the job for some U.S. Postal Service administrative employees who agreed to leave or retire early in return for a $20,000 buyout. It’s part of an organizational “redesign” aimed at cutting some 3,000 administrative positions, or almost 21 percent of the total. But that overall number masks some pretty big differences in how the reductions are being apportioned among different USPS organizations. At Federal Times’ request, the Postal Service provided a breakout of the impact on area offices, district offices and headquarters and HQ-related field units, such as the USPS accounting service…
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Yep, dogs do occasionally bite, and there are plenty of mail carriers who can attest to it, according to new U.S. Postal Service rankings that put Houston at the head of the pack (lame wordplay totally intended). For at least the fourth straight year, the Texas city led the country in hostile dog-carrier encounters with 62 in 2010. Runners-up were San Diego and Columbus, Ohio, with 45 each, followed by Los Angeles with 44 and Louisville, Ky., with 40. In all, 5,669 postal workers were attacked last year, and the medical expenses cost the Postal Service almost $1.2 million. If you’re looking…
Members of the American Postal Workers Union will get about a month to decide the fate of a new contract, with the union dangling prizes to encourage locals to get out the vote, according to a news release. Ballots will be mailed out starting April 8 and are due back by May 10, with the actual count taking place the following day, May 11, the union release says. Depending on size and turnout, individual locals will be eligible for up to $4,000 in prizes to be used on members’ behalf. The union has also scheduled nine briefings around the country.…
The current leadership of the American Postal Workers Union is rushing to crank up support for a tentative contract announced last week with the U.S. Postal Service. But one member of the nation’s largest postal union has already made up his mind. “I have been honored to have the opportunity to devote over 50 years of my professional life to improving conditions for postal employees and as a full dues-paying member and on behalf of future employees I would vote no,” former APWU President William Burrus wrote in an open letter posted on the web site, postalnewsblog.com Burrus’ opposition centers around…
The cost of mailing packages, postcards and other items will rise this April, the U.S. Postal Service announced today. The price of a postcard stamp, for example, will rise by a penny to 29 cents. Although the base price for sending a first-class letter will remain at 44 cents, the charge for additional ounces will increase from 17 to 20 cents, USPS spokesman Greg Frey said. The rate hikes would be the first of any kind since May 2009, Frey said, and are set to take effect April 17. Other products and services affected by the planned increase include parcels,…
The U.S. Postal Service today will release stamps honoring the Negro Leagues, and to mark the occasion, Ed O’Keefe at the Washington Post takes a look at the agency’s only remaining employee who played for the all-black baseball teams. Cleophus Brown, 76, was a southpaw pitcher with a 100 mile-per-hour fastball for the Birmingham Black Barons and Louisville Clippers. Today, he drives a mail truck for the Postal Service in Birmingham and told O’Keefe he has no plans to retire. Brown said he usually doesn’t collect stamps, but he plans to get copies of the two stamps being released today.…
U.S. Postal Service carriers in the Washington region were out in full force today, trying to deliver the mail after a trying few days. The major snowstorm that delivered near-record-breaking snow to the Washington region Friday and Saturday forced the Postal Service to suspend deliveries Saturday. Carriers didn’t fare much better yesterday, finding it difficult if not impossible to deliver the mail in many neighborhoods that snow plows hadn’t yet reached. The post office in Mechanicsville, Md., was closed Monday after heavy snow damaged the building’s roof. Repairs were made overnight, and the building was back in service this morning,…
Here’s an update on Monday’s story on U.S. Postal Service executive Robert Bernstock and the three sole-source contracts he awarded to people he worked with in the private sector: Agency spokesman Gerry McKiernan said yesterday that the Postal Service’s general counsel, Mary Anne Gibbons has finished reviewing the contracts and “determined that the procurement process was followed in securing these contracts.” Gibbons began reviewing the contracts last week in response to Federal Times inquiries.
Last time we updated you on the list of possible post office closures, in November, the Postal Service had whittled it down to 241, from an original list of roughly 3,300. The Postal Service announced earlier this week that the list shrank again — to fewer than 170 post offices. The updated list is here (pdf). USPS officials tell me the list could still change again before it’s finalized; they’re hoping to begin closing post offices early next year, though that date is flexible.
The U.S. Postal Service issued another updated list of possible post office closures (pdf) on Friday, and just 241 facilities remain, down from more than 3,300 when the review process started this summer. Most of the proposed closures are still concentrated in a few states. Florida has the most, with 40; mail volume has fallen faster than the national average in Florida, largely due to the collapse in the housing sector. California and Ohio both have 26 possible closures; Georgia has 17; and Tennessee has 16. The list still isn’t final. Postmaster General John Potter said last month that he…