APWU of Wisconsin Delegation Meets with Senator Tammy Baldwin

A Wisconsin APWU delegation met today with Senator Tammy Baldwin in her office in Washington D.C. to discuss the future of the Postal Service.

(L-R) APWU of WI President, Steve Lord; Wausau Area Local President, Tom Tomczyk; Milwaukee Area Local President, Paul McKenna; Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin; Madison Area Local President, Bret Wersland; and Milwaukee Area Local Rep., Chris Czubakowski.

New Postal Amendment to Pipeline Bill

Whether or not to approve construction of the Keystone tar sands pipeline is one of the first pieces of legislation that the Senate has taken up since the 114th Congress came into session this month.  For this bill, newly minted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised an open-amendment process.  Said McConnell, “nobody is blocking any amendments,” and Senate Democrats are taking him up on his offer. A wide range of amendments on a variety of topics have been offered, including amendments to subsidize heating bills for low-income families and require companies using the pipeline to pay into an oil spill cleanup fund.  This week, the Senate voted 98-1 in favor of an amendment to affirm that climate change is indeed real and "not a hoax."

Senate postal champion Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is now leading a new charge to undo the Postmaster General’s disastrous decision to slow down the mail and close 82 mail processing facilities.  Sanders introduced an amendment to the Keystone bill that would restore service standards to July 2012 levels and would block the closure of any processing facilities for two years.  The amendment already has secured the support of a dozen co-sponsors: Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT), Edward Markey (D-MA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Al Franken (D-MN), Tom Udall (D-NM), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chris Murphy (D-CT.), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

While APWU opposes passage of the underlying bill, and President Obama has vowed to veto the bill, we are calling upon APWU activists to reach out to their senators and ask them to support this important amendment.  This bill’s open-amendment process could be a unique opportunity to force senators to say where they stand on the future of America’s public postal service.

Please call your senators and ask them to support the Sanders postal amendment.  To find the phone numbers for your two senators’ DC offices, please click here.

USPS default on Aug. 1 appears likely

The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service is within weeks of defaulting on a legally required $5.5 billion payment into a heath benefits fund for future retirees.

So far, it appears House leaders have no intention of preventing that from happening — they have postponed any action on relief measures until at least fall.

(FULL STORY)    Source: Federal Times

Romney Working To Eliminate The US Postal Service

Mitt Romney and his economic advisors like Kevin Hassett have a clear message in how a Romney administration would address the US Postal Service. It’s fairly simple they would eliminate it.

See Full Story  (New Hampshire Labor News)

BREAKING NEWS! Senate Vote on Postal Bill

(Note: Received in a recent e-mail.)

The United States Senate has Passed the United States Postal Service Bill "21st Century Postal Service Act of 2012" (S1789) by a vote of 62-37.

The Amendment voting results (as I have it) are recorded as either withdrawn, passed, or failed, are posted below.

(R) McCain #2001 Management substitute amendment WITHDRAWN

(D) Tester #2056 Amendment to modify the process of closing or consolidating Post Offices and Postal Facilities. PASSED

**(R) Coburn #2060 Amendment to provide transparency, accountability, and limitations of government sponsored conferences. (not germane to bill) PASSED

(R) McCain #2033 Amendment to establish the Commission on Postal Reorganization (in HR 2309) FAILED

**(D) Wyden-(D) Feinstein #2020 Amendment to require the Postal Service to consider the effect of closing or consolidating a postal facility on the ability of the affected community to vote by mail and to provide Post Offices and Postal Facilities to protect the ability to vote by mail. PASSED

**(R) Coburn #2058 Amendment to alternatives to Post Offices. PASSED

(R) MaCaskill-(D) Merkley #2031 Amendment to prohibit the closing of a rural Post Office unless certain conditions are met and to establish a 2 year moratorium on the closing of rural Post Offices. PASSED

(R) Coburn #2061 Amendment to require retirement eligible employees of the Postal Service to retire. FAILED

(R) Snowe #2080 Amendment to improve, sustain, and transform the United States Postal Service (closures) PASSED

(D) Udall #2043 Amendment to strike the limitations on changes to mail delivery schedule, with an offset. FAILED

**(D) Durbin #2082 Amendment to improve, sustain, and transform the United States Postal Service (closures) PASSED

(D) Akaka #2034 Amendment to replace provisions that would be financially devastating to thousands of Postal workers and Federal employees who were injured on the job and who receive compensation from the OWCP. FAILED

**(D) Bennet-(R) Blunt #2047 Amendment to establish citizen's service protection advocates in each state with respect to facility closures. PASSED

(R) Corker #2083 Amendment negatively impacts six day delivery and Collective Bargaining FAILED

**(D) Mikulski #2003 Amendment to prohibit the USPS from closing any postal facility without certification from the Governor of the state in which the Postal facility is located. WITHDRAWN

(D) Akaka #2049 Amendment to clarify consultative rights of Postmasters and Supervisors FAILED

(R) Paul #2025 Amendment to end the mailbox use monopoly FAILED

(D) Manchin #2079 Amendment to improve, sustain, and transform the USPS (closures) FAILED

**(R) Paul #2026 Amendment to provide merit pay for the PMG and limit the authority of the USPS to award bonuses WITHDRAWN

**(D) Bingamin #2076 Amendment to require that state liaisons for states without a district office are located within their respective states. PASSED

(R) Paul #2027 Amendment to close Post Offices in the Capitol complex PASSED

**(D) Cardin #2040 Amendment to prohibit the closing of a Postal Processing Plant if the nearest Postal facility is more than 50 miles away. WITHDRAWN

(R) Paul #2028 Amendment to establish a pilot program to test alternative methods for the delivery of Postal Services. FAILED

(D) Carper #2065 Amendment to provide for temporary authority to adjust the first class mail stamp rate. WITHDRAWN

**(R) Paul #2029 Amendment to require the USPS to take in consideration the impact of regulations when developing a profitability plan. PASSED

(D) Carper #2066 Amendment to limit the compensation of executives of the Postal Service PASSED

(R) Paul #2039 Amendment to eliminate Collective Bargaining FAILED

(D) Casey #2042 Amendment to maintain current delivery time for market dominated products for 4 years. FAILED

(R) Paul #2038 Amendment to end the Postal Service monopoly on First Class Mail and mailbox use WITHDRAWN

**(D) Landrieu #2072 Amendment to determine the impact of certain Postal Facility closures or consolidations on small businesses PASSED

(R) DeMint #2046 Amendment to cut union income FAILED

**(R) McCaskill #2030 Amendment to improve FECA PASSED

(R) Coburn #2059 Amendment to allow the USPS to close unprofitable Post Office Facilities. WITHDRAWN

**(D) Pryor #2036 Amendment to express the sense of the senate to place a moratorium on Postal Facility closures and consolidations until enactment. PASSED

**(D) Rockefeller #2073 Amendment to clarify retirees cannot be required to enroll in Medicare. PASSED

**(D) Rockefeller #2074 Amendment to ensure the Postal Service Health Benefits Program be comparable to the FEHBP PASSED

(D) Schumer #2050 Amendment to maintain door to door delivery point services PASSED

**(D) Tester #2032 Amendment to limit the pay of Postal Service Executives. PASSED

(D) Warner #2071 Amendment to require reporting regarding retirement processing and modernization. PASSED

I hope the above information has been helpful.

Sam Wood www.swfloridaapwu.org

President - Southwest Florida Area Local / APWU

PRC Denies USPS Rate Increase Request

The Postal Regulatory Commission in a unanimous decision has denied the US Postal Service the emergency rate increase it requested earlier this year.

PRC Chair Ruth Goldway said that while the USPS made its case that the recession was an “extraordinary” circumstance, she found that the rate changes requested were actually related to long term market changes.

PRC member Dan Blair concurs in the decision, but does not believe the USPS proved the recession was an exceptional circumstance.

In answer to questions asked at the news conference, Goldway said “Our decision is final.” She also said, however, that she doesn’t know if any of the parties will appeal to the courts.

Goldway also said that the USPS could implement a 1.6-2% increase under the normal price cap process.

Statement of PRC Chairman Ruth Goldway

Full text of the decision

Text of the PRC’s press release:

Washington, DC – The Postal Regulatory Commission today issued Order No. 547 in Docket R2010-4 denying a Postal Service request for an average 5.6 percent rate increase. The Commission found that the Postal Service failed to justiff rate increases in excess of its statutory CPI price cap.

“The Commission finds that the Postal Service has shown the recent recession to be an exigent circumstance but it has failed both to quantify the impact of the recession on its finances and to show how its rate request relates to the resulting loss of mail volume; therefore, we unanimously deny its exigent rate request,” said Chairman Ruth Y. Goldway.

The law requires the Postal Service to demonstrate that any exigent rate adjustments are due to the identified exceptional circumstances. This prevents a bona fide extraordinary or exceptional circumstance from being used as a general rate increase mechanism that would circumvent the price cap system.

The Postal Service’s recent volume losses and multi-billion dollar shortfalls are recognized. However, Commission analysis confirms that the Postal Service’s cash flow problem is not a result of the recession and would have occurred whether or not the recession took place. lt is the result of other, unrelated structural problems and the proposed exigent rate adjustments would neither solve nor delay those problems.

The Postal Service may be unable to continue to meet a statutory 1O-year payment schedule – averaging roughly $5.5 billion per year – to create a fund to pay future retiree health benefit premiums. lt has been unable to fund this obligation from operations, and has instead used up all of its retained earnings and drawn down from its $15 billion borrowing authority. Even with the requested increase, the Postal Service would be unable to meet this annual obligation either in 2011, or in succeeding years.

The Postal Service achieved over $6 billion in cost reductions in 2009. While volume declines outstripped cost reductions during the actual recession, Postal Service cost containment programs are producing results and work hours have declined faster than volumes in 2010.

Related Stories:

Statement of Postmaster General on PRC Ruling, Fully Paying Retiree Health Benefit Mandate

Press release

Five postal workers, three others indicted for mail theft in Alabama
postalnews blog

DMA praises PRC decision as a ‘job saving’ action
Press release

Senator Carper statement on PRC decision to deny rate increase

Senator Collins’ remarks on USPS from yesterday’s Senate session

Senator Collins’ remarks on USPS from yesterday’s Senate session
Source: postalnews blog

Fundamentally flawed

The Postal Service's proposal to drop a day of delivery is not the solution to its financial problems

The Postal Service laid out a wide-ranging—some would say radical—plan in March for coping with its current economic problems and future business challenges. It featured headline-grabbing initiatives, such as eliminating Saturday mail delivery, and more mundane, nuts-and-bolts proposals, like streamlining the regulatory process.

The NALC supports many of the plan’s recommendations and goals, especially relief from the burden of accelerated pre-funding of retiree health care and recovery of CSRS pension fund overcharges. [Full Story]