OTTAWA, May 30, 2011 /CNW/ – The union is prepared to shut down Canada’s postal system even though the company has proposed a deal that gives employees better pay and benefits than they currently enjoy. The latest counter offer from the union does nothing to address the significant challenges facing the company.

Canada Post’s offer provides:

* Annual wage increases leading to a top rate of $26 per hour for both new and existing employees;

* A defined benefit pension plan for both new and existing employees despite a $3.2-billion solvency deficit;

* Up to seven weeks vacation;

* Job security for both new and existing employees.

With in excess of 17% Lettermail volume decline since 2006, Canada Post’s challenges are well understood.

To address these challenges we have proposed a competitive and comprehensive pay and benefits package for employees hired in the future. The offer put forward for new employees will still make Canada Post an attractive place to work.

If there is a work disruption mail and parcels will not be delivered. However, contingency plans are in place to ensure the safety of any items that remain in the mail stream during a work disruption. There are also plans to ensure Canada Post returns to normal operations as quickly as possible following any work disruption.

Customers of Canada Post can find updated information about the company’s labour situation online at www.infopost.ca/customer. The French version of the website can be found at www.infoposte.ca/client.

Today CUPW submitted a final offer to reach an agreement without a strike or lockout. There were several important amendments and clarifications to our positions. The entire offer can be viewed online at www.cupw.ca and has been distributed to CUPW locals. CPC management has not yet replied to the union although they issued a press release indicating that they are rejecting the union’s proposals.In order to focus the efforts of the Employer towards reaching a negotiated settlement, the union provided our 72-our strike notice as required by the Canada Labour Code. Under the law the union can exercise our the right to strike as of 11:59 PM EDT Thursday June 2, 2011.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – Today, JAMES E. DRAHEIM, 63, from Elgin, Oklahoma, was sentenced by United States District Judge Timothy D. DeGiusti to serve 37 months in federal prison for theft of public funds from the United States Postal Service and for filing a false tax return, announced Sanford C. Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma. In addition, Judge DeGiusti ordered Draheim to serve two years of supervised release following his prison term and pay restitution of $643,604.49 the Postal Service and $129,061.66 to the IRS.

Draheim was employed as the Postmaster in Elgin, Oklahoma, and from October 2005 through September 2009 used his position of trust to embezzle from the United States Postal Service. Specifically, Draheim took money paid by postal customers for bulk mailings, failed to credit the customer’s account for the full amount of the check, and then embezzled the difference by purchasing money orders in his own name which he then used for his own personal benefit. Draheim pled guilty on September 28, 2010, to theft of public funds and filing a false tax return for the 2008 tax year.

via USDOJ: US Attorney’s Office – Western District of Oklahoma.

Here’s a strange one- the “Consumers Postal Council”, which is actually a front for the radical libertarian Lexington Institute, has something nice to say about the US Postal Service! Normally Lexington’s “reports” just keep repeating the mantra that the private sector could deliver the mail faster and cheaper. The fact that privatized posts tend to have higher costs and poorer service than the USPS doesn’t shake the faith of these true believers.

So it was startling to see an item on the “Postal Consumers Council” web site demonstrating that the USPS has by far the most productive work force in the world! There’s no indication why the group suddenly changed its attitude toward the USPS. Maybe the Chief Ideologue left early for the holiday weekend, or perhaps last week’s Rapture had something to do with it?

The productivity of national posts, as expressed by the number of business and personal letters per postal worker, varies widely, while the U.S. Postal Service averages more than twice the letter productivity of number two Korea Post.

The United States leads the category by a wide margin, with nearly 250,000 letters per postal worker in 2008, among the countries in the Consumer Postal Council’s Index of Postal Freedom. That’s nearly 140,000 letters per worker (full-time and part-time) more than the next country, South Korea.

via Market Comparisons > Market Comparison #2.

From the Canadian Union of Postal Workers:

Today it was confirmed that none of the CPC negotiators are prepared to explain how they determined that our demands would result in the creation of 3,000 jobs and cost $1.4 Billion. It has been confirmed however that CPC’s figures were based on many false assumptions.

via CUPW – May 27, 2011 – Negotiations Alert: National Negotiating Committee and National Executive Board to Meet Over the Weekend.

A month after a strike vote put Canada’s postal service on notice, management and postal workers went public with the state of their negotiations.

In a word, they’re not good but they are still talking.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers voted in favour of striking if a collective agreement with Canada Post was not reached by May 24. Their previous contract expired on Jan. 31.

The two sides remained at the table yesterday but the union rattled a few sabres to sharpen its edge in talks.

If a strike is called, the union must give 72 hours notice.

More: Canada Post, union still talking but rhetoric heats up – Winnipeg Free Press.

CHICAGO, IL – May 26, 2011 – The month of May starts the busiest time of the year for changing residences. As people look to the Internet to update their street addresses, rather than visit a local post office, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) warns consumers of an online scam involving websites claiming to change your address and charging a hefty fee to do so.

The scam begins with a consumer searching the internet for a change of address form and being directed to websites, such as www.change-address-online.com. This website is in no way affiliated with the US Postal Service, and should be avoided, according to the BBB. The website asks consumers to fill in the requested addresses, and then credit card information. After providing the credit card information, consumers find their address has not been updated, yet they are charged between 20 and 40 dollars. Read the rest of this entry »

Starting June 6 the US Postal Service will offer a service providing commercial and online mailers the option of requiring a verified adult signature from a recipient:

SUMMARY: The Postal Service is revising the Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM(R)) 503.8, to add a new extra service called Adult Signature. This new service has two available options: Adult Signature Required and Adult Signature Restricted Delivery.

Read the rest of this entry »

Businessweek has a lengthy cover story about what it says is the imminent collapse of the US Postal Service. It’s a bit odd- here’s how it starts:

Phillip Herr looks like many of the men who toil deep within the federal government. He wears blue suits. He keeps his graying hair and mustache neatly trimmed. He has an inoffensively earnest manner. He also has heavy bags under his eyes, which testify to the long hours he spends scrutinizing federal spending for the U.S. Government Accountability Office

The GAO’s Phillip Herr is presented as a kind of bureaucratic Indiana Jones, even sending agents across the Atlantic to get to the bottom of the deep mystery of what ails the USPS. (It’s good to know that he keeps his moustache trimmed. We are not told if he wears a fedora.)

The writer brushes quickly past the elephant in the room, the $5.5 billion annual trust fund pre-payment. It’s mentioned as an item the USPS expects to default on, and as something the PMG would like to get rid of, but there’s no explanation of how it came about, and no mention of the fact that the USPS wouldn’t be in debt at all without it!

The simple fact is that the US Postal Service faces an extremely difficult future. But it is only facing financial collapse in 2012 because of the misguided and self-serving actions of politicians. The one thing the writer does get right is the fact that the political stalemate in Congress makes it difficult to see any chance of positive legislative change before it’s too late.

The U.S. Postal Service Nears Collapse – BusinessWeek.

In advance of the mailing tomorrow of Specific Reduction in Force notices tomorrow, the US Postal Service has updated its Organizational Redesign FAQs with additional information on those notices. The following items were added today. Needless to say, this information may change, so if you are the recipient of a Specific RIF Notice, be sure to visit the official USPS page. Read the rest of this entry »