NALC respectfully recognizes the dedication and professionalism displayed by our sister union, the APWU, and the Postal Service in negotiating a tentative agreement to replace their contract, which expired Nov. 20, 2010. We understand that a ratification vote will be held shortly.
The tentative agreement appears to address the unique challenges confronted by the APWU in this round of collective bargaining, as the crafts it represents have suffered major job losses due to the ongoing transformation of the Postal Service.
NALC and APWU have bargained separately with USPS since 1994. The NALC contract expires on Nov. 20, 2011. We look forward to the start of collective-bargaining negotiations in August 2011, or earlier, when we will focus on the unique contributions of letter carriers as well as the unique
circumstances and challenges facing the 203,000 City Letter Carriers who perform the core delivery function of the Postal Service.
The Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation (IRET) has released a report on the USPS OIG’s contention that the Postal Service has been overcharged up to $75 billion by the Office of Personnel Management for Civil Service Retirement costs since 1971. While IRET is a well known right wing “think tank” financed by, among others, the Scaife and Koch family foundations, it’s difficult to argue with one crucial point raised by the report: even if one accepts the proposition that the USPS overpaid the Treasury by $75 billion since 1971, it isn’t owed any money.
That conclusion stems from the simple fact of the USPS rate setting process- because the USPS was required to break even over time, its rates took into consideration all of its expenses- including the alleged $75 billion overcharge. Had the USPS been charged $75 billion less, its rates would have been proportionately lower, leaving its cumulative net income unchanged.
The report goes on to point out that it would be impossible to reimburse the people who actually paid for the overcharges- postal customers:
… it is not possible to send refunds to those who ultimately paid the bills. As was noted, rate regulation allowed the Postal Service to pass on to mail users its higher costs due to the CSRS allocation methodology. If the methodology is retroactively reversed, it is those customers who should receive refund checks; the Service should not obtain the money because it was already compensated through the postal rates it charged. Unfortunately, it is impossible now to identify those past mail users and determine how much each is owed. One might rationalize that the Postal Service would probably pass along some of the refund to future mailers in the form of lower rates, but future mailers will often be different from past mailers, especially with the shift over time from first-class mail to standard (advertising) mail.
The report is careful to distinguish between the alleged CSRS overpayment and the future retiree health benefits trust fund, pointing out that “The Postal Service’s current financial troubles are due… to the triple whammy of the severe recession, accelerated electronic diversion since the recession’s start, and an ambitious and inflexible schedule for funding the retiree health benefits promised to postal employees.”
Here is the USPS press release on today’s announcement of a contract agreement between the Postal Service and the APWU:
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service and the American Postal Workers Union AFL-CIO (APWU), reached a tentative four-and-a-half-year contract today. Upon ratification by union membership, which is expected to take place within two months, the agreement will run through May 20, 2015, and affect approximately 205,000 employees.
“This is a responsible agreement that is in the best interest of our employees, our customers and the future of the Postal Service,†said Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe. “The contract will help lay a foundation that is fair to our employees and stakeholders.â€
Terms of the new APWU contract set the stage for a more flexible and cost-effective workforce to accommodate America’s changing mailing trends. While requiring union ratification, key components include:
Economic provisions that address critical Postal Service needs to control labor costs; and,
Enhanced workforce flexibility to match workforce with workload.
Reasonable wages and benefits are critical to helping the Postal Service fully meet its financial obligations and remain strong in the future.
The drop in the economy, coupled with the shift to digital communications, has dramatically reduced mail volume. Mail volume peaked at 213 billion pieces in 2006 and plummeted to 170.6 billion in the fiscal year (FY) ended Sept. 30, 2010. Revenues shrank from $72.6 billion in FY2006 to $67.1 billion. The FY2010 net loss was $8.5 billion.
The Postal Service deals with the challenges of competing with the private sector while continuing to operate under federal regulations and congressional oversight.
Other issues challenge the Postal Service’s future:
Created in 2006 under stronger economic conditions, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act requires the Postal Service, unlike the private or public sector, to prefund retiree health benefits. This equates to an average of $5.5 billion in cash flow every year through 2016, in addition to the $2 billion it annually pays for current retirees. The Postal Service has asked Congress to restructure retiree health benefits payments to “pay-as-you-go,†comparable to what is used by the rest of the federal government and the majority of the private sector.
According to audits conducted by the Postal Service Office of Inspector General, the Postal Service has been overcharged to its Civil Service Retirement System and Federal Employees Retirement Benefit pension funds by $75 billion and $6.9 billion, respectively.
Negotiations with the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association (NRLCA) came to an impasse upon the contract’s Nov. 20, 2010, expiration. Absent a negotiated resolution, the parties will continue to follow the current agreement until a third-party determines the outcome of a new contract. Unlike in the private sector, when negotiations come to an impasse, federal employees are not permitted to strike. An arbitrator determines the final outcome and is not legally required to consider the Postal Service’s financial obligations when rendering a decision.
The APWU represents 205,000 employees who work as clerks, mechanics, vehicle drivers, custodians and in some administrative positions. Employees represented by the NRLCA deliver mail in primarily rural and suburban areas. The NRLCA represents 67,000 career employees and 48,000 non-career employees who substitute for career employees on their days off. Employees represented by both unions received more than $20 billion in wages and benefits last year.
Two other unions represent most other postal employees. More than 203,000 employees represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO (NALC) deliver mail in metropolitan areas and 48,000 employees represented by the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, AFL-CIO (NPMHU) work in mail processing plants and Post Offices.
The NALC and NPMHU begin negotiations next year approximately 90 days prior to the midnight Nov. 20, 2011 contract expiration date. For additional background information on labor negotiations and the Postal Service’s workforce, please click on these links: Labor Negotiations and Workforce.
Here is the USPS press release on today’s announcement of a contract agreement between the Postal Service and the APWU:
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service and the American Postal Workers Union AFL-CIO (APWU), reached a tentative four-and-a-half-year contract today. Upon ratification by union membership, which is expected to take place within two months, the agreement will run through May 20, 2015, and affect approximately 205,000 employees.
“This is a responsible agreement that is in the best interest of our employees, our customers and the future of the Postal Service,†said Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe. “The contract will help lay a foundation that is fair to our employees and stakeholders.â€
Terms of the new APWU contract set the stage for a more flexible and cost-effective workforce to accommodate America’s changing mailing trends. While requiring union ratification, key components include:
Economic provisions that address critical Postal Service needs to control labor costs; and,
Enhanced workforce flexibility to match workforce with workload.
Reasonable wages and benefits are critical to helping the Postal Service fully meet its financial obligations and remain strong in the future.
The drop in the economy, coupled with the shift to digital communications, has dramatically reduced mail volume. Mail volume peaked at 213 billion pieces in 2006 and plummeted to 170.6 billion in the fiscal year (FY) ended Sept. 30, 2010. Revenues shrank from $72.6 billion in FY2006 to $67.1 billion. The FY2010 net loss was $8.5 billion.
The Postal Service deals with the challenges of competing with the private sector while continuing to operate under federal regulations and congressional oversight.
Other issues challenge the Postal Service’s future:
Created in 2006 under stronger economic conditions, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act requires the Postal Service, unlike the private or public sector, to prefund retiree health benefits. This equates to an average of $5.5 billion in cash flow every year through 2016, in addition to the $2 billion it annually pays for current retirees. The Postal Service has asked Congress to restructure retiree health benefits payments to “pay-as-you-go,†comparable to what is used by the rest of the federal government and the majority of the private sector.
According to audits conducted by the Postal Service Office of Inspector General, the Postal Service has been overcharged to its Civil Service Retirement System and Federal Employees Retirement Benefit pension funds by $75 billion and $6.9 billion, respectively.
Negotiations with the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association (NRLCA) came to an impasse upon the contract’s Nov. 20, 2010, expiration. Absent a negotiated resolution, the parties will continue to follow the current agreement until a third-party determines the outcome of a new contract. Unlike in the private sector, when negotiations come to an impasse, federal employees are not permitted to strike. An arbitrator determines the final outcome and is not legally required to consider the Postal Service’s financial obligations when rendering a decision.
The APWU represents 205,000 employees who work as clerks, mechanics, vehicle drivers, custodians and in some administrative positions. Employees represented by the NRLCA deliver mail in primarily rural and suburban areas. The NRLCA represents 67,000 career employees and 48,000 non-career employees who substitute for career employees on their days off. Employees represented by both unions received more than $20 billion in wages and benefits last year.
Two other unions represent most other postal employees. More than 203,000 employees represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO (NALC) deliver mail in metropolitan areas and 48,000 employees represented by the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, AFL-CIO (NPMHU) work in mail processing plants and Post Offices.
The NALC and NPMHU begin negotiations next year approximately 90 days prior to the midnight Nov. 20, 2011 contract expiration date. For additional background information on labor negotiations and the Postal Service’s workforce, please click on these links: Labor Negotiations and Workforce.
In a report on federal agencies’ compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the US Postal Service was singled out for “egregious” failure to comply with the Obama administration’s instructions to take concrete steps towards improving openness. To test the government’s performance, the National Security Archive at George Washington University filed FOIA requests with 90 federal agencies, asking them to provide copies of all documents related to steps they had taken in response to the administration’s orders. The USPS claimed it had never received any such instructions.
In one egregious case, the U.S. Postal Service stated it had “no responsive records.†It said it had never received the Emanuel-Bauer memo asking for progress to be shown in response to President Obama’s first-day call for openness.
“Perhaps the Postal Service lost that memo in the mail,†commented Nate Jones, the Archive’s FOIA coordinator who managed the Knight Survey requests.
Despite claiming not to have received the memos, the USPS claimed in it’s response that it had taken “steps” to address the very issues that the memo identified. Â
But the report notes that “our methodology identified the USPS as responding with ‘no records.’ In the US federal bureaucracy, if there is no paper trail, it is likely that nothing substantial happened. ”
