Postal Service won't add more private mail carriers
by Alliston SteeleFriday July 13, 2007, 1:11 PM
The U.S. Postal service has agreed not to hand over any of the country's new
urban mail routes to private companies, at least for the next six months.
All plans to contract out new mail deliveries, including a proposal for
building in Perth Amboy, have been withdrawn.
The agreement is a victory for members of the national letter carriers'
union, who have been concerned with the postal service's increased use of
part-time, non-union employees to deliver mail. Now, according to a contract
tentatively agreed on last night, a committee will be formed to look at the
issue of privatization.
In New Jersey, the postal service has also reversed its recent decision to
privatize routes in Little Falls, West Paterson and West Orange. And in
Perth Amboy, the building that the postal service had planned to assign to a
private contractor is now part of a city carrier's route.
"I was very pleased to hear that," Perth Amboy Mayor Joe Vas said. "I think
it's the right decision."
See the entire article here
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Postal Service has a moratorium on assigning routes to private contractors
Saturday, July 14, 2007
City carriers reach a tentative agreement
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 12, 2007
CONTACT: Drew Von Bergen
(202) 662-2489
vonbergen@nalc.org
Tentative Agreement Reached
On City Letter Carriers Contract
WASHINGTON – The National Association of Letter Carriers reached tentative agreement today with the U.S. Postal Service on a new five-year National Agreement for all 222,000 city delivery letter carriers throughout the nation. The pact, which includes new limits on contracting out of city letter carrier work along with provisions covering wages, benefits, and working conditions, will be submitted to the NALC membership for rank-and-file ratification.
The agreement, retroactive to November 21, 2006, provides general wage increases of 8.85 percent over five years along with regular cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) and a single lump-sum COLA payment of $686 for the period between July 2006 and May 2007.
The proposed contract includes new limits on contracting out of city letter carrier work in more than 3,000 city delivery installations and establishes a six-month moratorium on contracting out city carrier delivery services elsewhere across the country. During the moratorium, a union-management task force will seek to develop an “evolutionary approach to the issue of subcontracting, taking into account the legitimate interests of the parties and relevant public policy considerations.”
The tentative 2006-2011 National Agreement also abolishes the use of low-wage temporary employees known as “casuals” and replaces them with bargaining unit “transitional employees” under terms and conditions established by the contract. It also includes negotiated resolutions to several long-standing issues involving automated sorting of large flat mail, adjustment of carrier routes and other operational matters.
Consistent with trends in the private sector, the proposed accord also provides the Postal Service relief on health care costs by increasing the share of health care premiums paid by city letter carriers by five percentage points over the five-year duration of the contract.
NALC President William H. Young said the tentative agreement is a ‘win-win’ contract for both unionized letter carriers and the Postal Service, and especially the American public that still relies on universal mail delivery for much of its critical personal and business communication.
“This agreement is fair to hard-working letter carriers by taking necessary steps toward protecting their jobs now and well into the future, along with financial compensation that takes into account increases in the cost of living and the difficult task carriers often face in delivering mail to our nation’s growing population,” Young said. “At the same time, it helps the U.S. Postal Service to build on its record as the most efficient and affordable postal service in the world.”
The agreement provides a 1.4 percent wage increase retroactive to November 25, 2006; and wage increases of 1.8 percent on November 24, 2007; 1.9 percent on November 22, 2008; 1.9 percent on November 21, 2009; and 1.85 percent on November 20, 2010.
The proposed agreement, which would expire on November 20, 2011, was approved unanimously today by the NALC Executive Council following negotiations over the past several days by bargaining teams led by Young and Postmaster General John E. Potter.
The NALC represents all city delivery letter carriers employed by the U.S. Postal Service in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam.
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________________________________________________________
Ronnie Stutts
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Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Alarming News
Policy Leaders Call for Lifting the
U.S. Postal Service's Mailbox Monopoly
For Immediate Release - July 2, 2007
Arlington, VA - In a public filing today with the Federal Trade Commission,
6 prominent policy leaders called for lifting the U.S. Postal Service's
monopoly on the use of mailboxes.
"We believe that the mailbox monopoly should be revoked, allowing greater,
and fairer, access for the benefit of individual consumers," they said.
The current monopoly bars private citizens and businesses from placing
letters or other items in mailboxes without paying Postal Service delivery
fees. The prohibition "injects unnecessary nuisance, cost and inefficiency
into simple acts of community communication," continued the statement.
The letter was signed by heads of leading organizations representing
taxpayers and consumers who rely on First Class letter mail and postal
services, as well as two prominent postal policy experts: Don Soifer,
Consumer Postal Council; Dr. John E. Berthoud, National Taxpayers Union;
Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform; James L. Martin, 60 Plus; Dr.
Charles Guy, Former Director, Office of Economics, Strategic Planning, U.S.
Postal Service, and Dr. Rick Geddes, Cornell University.
"Universal postal service was established to meet the needs of American
consumers and businesses," said the Consumer Postal Council Executive
Director Don Soifer. "The Postal Service continues to enforce a monopoly
from which it enjoys many benefits, but which often works against the best
interests of American consumers."
The letter was circulated by the Consumer Postal Council. The council
(www.postalconsumers.org), founded in 2003, is dedicated to supporting the
interests of consumers who rely on First Class letter mail.
For more information, please contact Don Soifer at 703-312-4563.
June 29, 2007
The Honorable Deborah Platt Majoras
Chairman
Federal Trade Commission
Room 135-H (Annex F)
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20580
Dear Chairman Majoras:
We, the undersigned, wish to respond to the Federal Trade Commission's
request for comment regarding the U.S. Postal Service Study, Project No.
PO71200, as listed in the Federal Register on May 1, 2007. Specifically,
we'd like to address Question #2, relating to the U.S. Postal Service's
legal mailbox monopoly.
According to 18 U.S.C. § 1725:
Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits any mailable matter such as
statements of accounts, circulars, sale bills, and other like matter, on
which no postage has been paid, in any letter box established, approved, or
accepted by the Postal Service for the receipt or delivery of mail matter on
any mail route with intent to avoid payment or lawful postage thereon, shall
for each offense be fined under this title.
The prohibition of private citizens and businesses from using mailboxes
injects unnecessary nuisance, cost and inefficiency into simple acts of
community communication. Invitations to children's birthday parties, notices
about important neighborhood events, and circular coupons from local
businesses must all incur the cost, delay, and risk of misdelivery
associated with reliance on the U.S. Postal Service.
In addition, as consumer reliance on online commerce continues to increase,
barring individuals from receiving mailbox delivery of payments, documents
or other items through private delivery services creates a growing
inconvenience. For consumers who live in neighborhoods where they must rely
on locked mailboxes, the current monopoly effectively restricts their
delivery choices to U.S.P.S. offerings when they are unable to be home to
sign for delivery.
Because consumers generally purchase their mailboxes at their own expense,
it logically follows that they ought to have the right to dictate the terms
under which that property is utilized.
The President's Commission on the U.S. Postal Service, in its 2003 report,
recommended lifting the monopoly on mailboxes:
The Postal Regulatory Board should be authorized to permit mailbox access to
private carriers in future regulations, so long as it does not impair the
universal service or open homeowners' mailboxes against their will.
We believe that the mailbox monopoly should be revoked, allowing greater -
and fairer - access for the benefit of individual consumers.
Sincerely,
Don Soifer
Executive Director
Consumer Postal Council
Dr. John E. Berthoud
President
National Taxpayers Union
Grover Norquist
President
Americans for Tax Reform
James L. Martin
President
60 Plus
Dr. Charles Guy
Former Director, Office of Economics, Strategic Planning, U.S. Postal
Service
Dr. Rick Geddes
Professor
Cornell University
The Consumer Postal Council is affiliated
with the Free and Fair Post Initiative
