NDC Impact Update

February 27, 2015
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As previously reported, the Union at the Regional and Local levels was notified on February 20th of an excessing event affecting mail handlers within the NDC. The Impact statement of 122 pages included various documents outlining some hours and staffing analysis with identified impacts by work area. 22 pages of the 122 page document can be linked HERE The remaining 100 pages include a current listing of all bid positions in the facility (29 pages), a seniority roster (13 pages), unrelated maintenance information (53 pages), and a number of the employer’s “weekly flash reports” (5 pages). Once we verify that the flash reports are not restricted they will also be posted. According to the statement, the impact is related to a “BPI and Staffing review”. Plant Manager Morrow indicates in his 11/20/14 request to the Eastern Area Vice President that the impact is “Due to Compliment [sic] no longer matches workload…” It is indicated in Mr. Morrow’s request that the event would be implemented by 4/18/15. It is the position of the Union that the April date would now violate Article 12 of the Agreement and we expect a revision of that date for any impact that might occur.

Legislative Hope

As the 114th Congress begins to take aim on the issues that plague the United States Postal Service, incredibly bi-partisan signs of reason seem to be trickling out of Washington DC. While comprehensive reform addressing many of the issues that confront us like the $5 Billion prefunding requirement seem to be too much to hope for, small steps toward protecting the Service and therefore obviously our jobs are emerging from Capitol Hill. It begins with our Independent friend, Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders, who recently proposed legislation that would impose a two year moratorium on plans to close as many as eighty-two mail processing facilities nationwide in the coming months including our own Scranton facility, cutting thousands of decent paying jobs in its wake. Senator Sanders blamed the current financial woes on the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act passed by former President Bush and a lame duck Republican congress “This onerous and unprecedented burden that costs $5.5 billion a year is responsible for all of the financial losses posted by the Postal Service since October 2012,” Sanders said. The Senator added “At a time when Postal Service revenue is increasing, it makes no sense to eliminate thousands of jobs and slow down the mail service that millions of Americans rely on,” adding “We should be working to strengthen the Postal Service, not send it into a death spiral.” Read More

January 2015 President's Report

President Obama's budget is...Not Good for USPS

House Moves to Restore Service Standards

Senator Sanders Proposes Moratorium on Closings

NDC Excessing Plan Submitted

During an informational briefing today with Philadelphia District management, the Mail Handlers Union pressed management on the recurring rumors regarding the possibility of the excessing of employees from the NDC. District Manager Chu Falling-Star informed us that an excessing proposal has been submitted by Plant Manager Morrow to management’s Eastern Area Headquarters. At the time of the discussion Mr. Morrow had not yet arrived to the briefing, but did turn up later and was then questioned directly on the matter and confirmed that a plan has been submitted, adding that our Regional office would be notified by next week. Local 308 has reached out to our Regional Office and have been informed that, thus far, nothing has been received and no additional information is available. Although questioned on the potential impact, management refused to discuss the matter further until the regional notice is provided which aligns with the contractual mechanism. Obviously this official announcement by management today has immense ramifications and as soon as additional information is received we will pass it along. In the interim if you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact this office.

USPS Annual Report to Congress

The opening paragraph from Postmaster General Donahoe and USPS Board of Governors Chairman, Mickey Barnett’s letter to Congress reads
“The theme of this year’s annual report -- Delivering a New Day — reflects a renewed commitment on the part of the United States Postal Service (USPS) to view every day as a new opportunity to deliver great service to our customers. This is fitting, because throughout 2014, we delivered more than 155 billion packages and pieces of mail to almost 154 million delivery points and did so reliably and affordably. In doing so, we earned the trust of the American public by maintaining the privacy and security of the items we delivered.”

After reading that I could barely get through the rest of it. The hypocrisy of these two obviously has no bounds, it is as infinite as their destructive vision for the United States Postal Service. Defining the theme for the annual report as a “A new opportunity to deliver great service to our customers” while in just a few short days we will degrade service to those “valued” customers and continue on a path to consolidate more than 80 facilities across the country slowing the mail even further seems to run counter to providing "great service". Without batting an eye they continue their spew by claiming that they are “maintaining the privacy and security” of the mail while at the same time outsourcing collection to places like Staples with employees who do not undergo the same pre-hiring scrutiny or screening as Postal employees. This report even has a section entitled “Putting Customers First”, I wish I was kidding. Notwithstanding the fact that what they say obviously has no relationship with what they do, there is a vague description of their intention under the heading What’s Needed. Here they go,
  
Require within the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program a set of specific health care plans that would fully integrate with Medicare and virtually eliminate the retiree health benefits unfunded liability.

Adjust the FERS payment amount using Postal Service-specific demographic and salary growth assumptions and refund any existing surplus.

Adjust delivery frequency (six-day packages/five day mail).

Streamline governance model and eliminate duplicative oversight.

Provide authority to expand products and services.

Require defined contribution retirement system for future Postal Service employees.

Require arbitrators to consider the financial condition of the Postal Service.

Reform Workers’ Compensation.

Allow the Postal Service the right to appeal EEOC class action decisions to Federal Court.
Click to read the full report to Congress.

Scranton Consolidation Update

The Union is now in receipt of the Postal Service’s proposed post-consolidation staffing profile for the Scranton facility. As we previously reported, on October 7, 2014 management informed us of its intent to change its staffing model from 17 Mail Handlers remaining after the consolidation to 6 PTR mail handlers remaining post consolidation. As you know it is a violation of the Contract to staff an entire facility with PTRs and we made this point clear on October 7th. During our meeting of October 23rd the employer agreed that staffing would consist of full-time regular mail handlers but could not provide actual numbers. Management has now reported that it intends to staff the facility with five full-time regular mail handlers with varying schedules involving Sunday and one other day off. (See proposed schedule). This is not the last of it as far as we are concerned as both Brother Glycenfer and Brother Butsko continue to construct counter arguments and proposals. As we have previously discussed, this is once again a case of the theoretical versus the practical. We do not believe this is a realistic staffing model for the work that will exist following consolidation and we aim to convince management or an arbitrator if necessary. It is our intention to schedule additional meetings with a management early in the new year in an effort to minimize the impact to the mail handlers in Scranton. As always, if you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact Scranton Branch President Bob Glycenfer or Local Headquarters directly.

Union Recognition

For those of you who have been paying attention, you know the assault on Mail Handlers, on all Postal employees for that matter, never takes a break. As those tasked with preserving the more than two-hundred year institution that is the United States Postal Service continue to degrade and destabilize the movement of the mail and therefore our very livelihoods, the attack persists at every level of the organization from the PMG all the way down to your garden variety 204b supervisor. So how do we push back against this onslaught? How do we push back against this management disrespect for those who actually move the Nation’s mail? Read More

They Walk Among Us!

In this calendar year alone career Mail Handlers at the top step have enjoyed more than $2,100 in contractual increases. In an economy where the income for most working Americans is stagnant at best and actually shrinking in many instances, there are still those among us who do not see the value in belonging to this Union. It is incomprehensible to most of us that with the job security and wage gains we have negotiated through COLLECTIVE BARGAINING, there are still those who are not willing to fight to keep what we have earned. There are those among us who are not willing to pay their fair share of the cost of maintaining the wages, securities, and work rules that benefit and protect all mail handlers. They walk among us Brothers and Sisters and I urge you to encourage the misguided to JOIN THE UNION & JOIN THE FIGHT!

NO DUES INCREASE
for Local 308 Members 

In accordance with the terms of the Constitution of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union
“Each time that Mail Handlers receive a general negotiated or arbitrated wage increase, the dues for each Local’s regular members shall be increased by one dollar ($1.00) per pay period, of which amount twenty cents ($.20) shall be deducted by the National Office as increased per capita tax.”
For the second year in a row in a letter to National Secretary-Treasurer Mark Gardner, Local 308 requested that the scheduled $1.00 increase in membership dues be waived and that request was approved. As you know this Local is committed to returning our dues structure to that of similar sized locals, which is only possible through strict fiscal oversight and without any sacrifice in our ability to represent our Members.

Stop Delaying America's Mail:
November 14th, 2014
National Day of Action

Representatives from three of the four Postal Unions including Mail Handlers, the APWU and the NALC along with our Brothers from the Laborers’ International gathered in Center City Philadelphia as well as Bellmawr, NJ, and Moosic, PA to demonstrate and inform the mailing public of the drastic and unnecessary cuts to Postal service standards. We thank all those who attended and encourage all Postal employees to contact their congressional representatives and demand that they stop management from destroying Our Service.

Scranton Consolidation Update

Earlier today (October 23, 2014) Local 308 represented by Branch President Bob Glycnefer, Representative Bob Butsko, and the undersigned, met with Central PA District representatives to continue discussions regarding the consolidation of Scranton mail processing operations into the Lehigh Valley facility. As we have previously reported, Postal management informed us on October 7th that they had modified their original staffing model from 17 Mail Handlers remaining after the consolidation to 6 PTR mail handlers remaining post consolidation. Read More.

September President's Report

As closings and consolidations of mail processing facilities continue and the threat of further staffing cuts plague the employees of the Postal Service, our efforts in the legislative arena have never been more important. The ongoing destruction of our mail processing network as an alleged cost saving measure at a time when revenue exceeds expense, exposes, in our opinion, something a lot more sinister. Shrinking the network when our share of the package market increases makes little sense, yet this is the plan of the PMG. This is not the model of a growing business, but a blueprint for disaster and the end of the United States Postal Service as we know it. Read More. 

  

Central PA Consolidation Update

Brothers and Sisters,
On October 7, 2014 the Union was provided Regional notification regarding the proposed consolidations within the Central PA District. As we have reported, the Service’s misguided efforts to “rationalize” the mail processing network within Central PA have failed miserably in the past as evidenced by the mistake in both the Reading and Williamsport consolidations. The Service has not been dismayed however and intends to go through with further consolidation. As you know, the consolidation of Lancaster into our Harrisburg facility and Scranton into our Lehigh Vallley facility has been on the table since the results of the AMP studies were issued in 2011. Read More. 

Unions Challenge Postal Injustice

Dear Mr. Colin,

The American Postal Workers Union, Philadelphia PA Area Local # 89 and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, Local 308 are jointly writing this letter with grave concerns regarding physical and verbal confrontations on the workfloor. Read More.

National AMP Consolidation Grievance Filed

USPS Financial Report - July 2014

Take the time to review the USPS' preliminary July financial report.  Without the onerous and unprecedented retiree health benefit pre-funding requirement we are actually making money. This is obviously not consistent with PMG Donahoe’s version of reality.  

National Leadership Gathers in Washington D.C.

As required by Article IX of the Constitution of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, the second Semi-Annual Meeting of the Local Unions (SAMLU) for 2014 was convened in our Nation’s Capital, August 21-23, 2014. Our National Officers met with representatives from each of the Local Unions, providing a State of the Union report, a full financial report, a report from the Contract Administration Department as well as discussed matters related to legislation, and the Committee on the Future. Other items of interest submitted by the Local Unions were also discussed. The meeting concluded with a comprehensive workshop covering Mail Handler Assistants. Read More about National & Local issues.

Office of Inspector General (OIG) Consolidation Poll

Take the OIG Poll on whether to continue the misguided and self destructive consolidation of the Postal Network. Read More

Labor Day 2014

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Labor Day Solidarity 2014

Trenton Thunder Outing

2015 Network Consolidations

Click the link under Important Updates for a schedule of consolidations.

Cost of Living Adjustments set at $1,227.00.

The Cost of Living Adjustments effective September 6, 2014 (Pay Period 20-14) will add $1,227.00 annually to FTR career mail handler salaries for those hired prior to February 15, 2013.  View updated pay scales. 

NDC Restructuring Update

-By now every mail handler at the NDC whose job was either abolished or had the non-scheduled days changed, which required reposting should have received their letter notifying them of such. Mail handlers whose bids have changed the non-scheduled days requires, by contract, that the job be reposted and available for any mail handler eligible to bid. . Read More

PMG Donahoe: Postal Enemy # 1

The commitment of those in USPS Headquarters to dismantle the great American institution that is the United States Postal Service really has no limits. With the recent announcement to reinstitute the Service’s Network Rationalization Plan, which would be more aptly named the "Network Irrationalization Plan", eighty four facilities across the country, including our own Scranton and Lancaster plants, will see reductions in operations and personnel. The implementation of this absolutely toxic agenda will ultimately lead to the destruction of the mail processing network, which appears to be the plan.
Read More 

President Hegarty Addresses NALC National Convention

More than 5,000 NALC Delegates from across the country gathered in Philadelphia for their 69th biennial convention as our own National President inspired our Sisters and Brothers in the Letter Carriers with a message of Unity and Solidarity. Joining Brother Hegarty in Solidarity at the event were our National Legislative and Political Director Bob Losi and Local 308 President John Gibson. Read More. 

Meet Your 114th Congress

Delaware
New Jersey
Pennsylvania

Meetings & Events

March 2nd-3rd, 2015
Introductory Steward's Training
March 4th, 2015
 Advanced Steward's Training
March 31st, 2015
Executive Board Meeting
May 12-13th, 2015
Legislative Conference

Vallone and Union Plus Scholarship Applications now available.

Monthly Returns

DATA BREACH UPDATE 12/19/2014

Security Breach

Cyber Attack Newsbreak
Employee FAQ's
Employee Handout
USPS Lite Blue Posting Schedule

Your Local Union Headquarters

Inside Local 308

Union Plus Provides Union Scholarships

Read More

President Hegarty Addresses APWU National Convention

 President Hegarty addressed the Delegates of the APWU’s 2014 National convention sanctioning a message of solidarity between our Unions.  When commenting on the recently signed Postal Union Alliance, Hegarty said, “We are not divided on the issues — those who would do us harm cannot divide and conquer.” President Hegarty noted that the Postal Union Alliance has solidified the joint spirit of cooperation that has us working towards common goals like never before. Read More

Network "Irrationalization" Plan Resumes

The Union was notified this afternoon that the Postal Service plans to reinstitute the “Network Rationalization Plan” starting next year, in January 2015.  You will recall that many of the plant closings and consolidations were put on hold earlier this year, in February 2014, when the Postal Service announced in the Federal Register that it was suspending any further implementation of its changes to service standards.
Read More

"Saving America's Postal Service" One Blunder at a Time

Yes, it's true, we know there is no such thing as management accountability. We know that holding management responsible for their actions is nothing more than a myth. When a manager screws up, 99.99% of the time nothing happens other than maybe a promotion or reassignment to some other department or facility. If you've been around for any length of time you know this to be true. Now, when it comes to mail handlers there are plenty in management that can't wait to hold us accountable for the most insignificant of transgressions. When management decisions result in the loss of Millions of Dollars I challenge you to show me where any individual manager is held accountable. Read More

Postal Unions United in Historic Alliance

On March 10, 2014 an historic agreement was signed by the Postal Union Presidents representing the Mail Handlers, American Postal Workers, City Letter Carriers and Rural letter Carriers. The purpose of the agreement is to show our solidarity, and to protect the invaluable institution that is the United States Postal Service. We call upon our members, and the American Public to join with us in this important endeavor. Read More.