From a Pacific Area Newsbreak posted on 21cpw.com:

In a move to further right-size complement levels to better match workload, the Pacific Area is offering a voluntary early retirement (VER) to carriers and clerks working at select impacted sites and at non-impacted offices within a 50-mile radius of the impacted sites.

VER offer sites and timelines will be announced when the information becomes available.

These changes are part of the Pacific Area efforts to streamline operations, increase efficiencies and reduce costs in support of the Postal Service’s action plan to ensure a strong, viable organization now and in the future.

For more information, contact your district Human Resources office.

Pacific Area VER Offer

Legislating postal workers back to work is not ideal but is necessary to protect Canada’s economic recovery, the government argued Tuesday as debate on its controversial bill got underway.

Parliament began dealing with the bill to put locked-out Canada Post employees back to work by debating a motion to speed up its passage and the Conservatives were on the defensive in question period over their proposed legislation.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended the government’s action and the bill’s measures which include wage increases that are lower than the ones offered to the union by Canada Post.

Full story: Postal back-to-work battle begins in Commons – Canada – CBC News.

In a post on his Courier Express and Postal Observer blog today, Alan Robinson asks whether Business Week’s decision to shift some of its subscriptions to private delivery could signal the beginning of a “service driven” death spiral for the US Postal Service. As the USPS tries to cut costs by relaxing service standards, will it lose customers, making its financial problems worse?

Robinson makes some good points, especially about the need to charge higher prices for higher service levels (e.g. day certain standard mail). But it’s difficult to see a loss of periodicals revenue as a crisis for the USPS. Periodicals accounted for just 3.2% of postal revenue in the last quarter- and as more and more Americans get their reading matter delivered electronically, periodical volumes are steadily dropping. That decline is likely to accelerate regardless of USPS pricing and service decisions.

More importantly, though, periodicals aren’t exactly a money maker for the USPS. The average revenue from periodicals is 25 cents per piece- and yet publishers often expect next day, or even same day delivery for those pieces! So it’s not surprising that the USPS says it loses money on periodicals as a class.

Those losses aren’t insignificant- for the five year period from 2005 to 2009, the USPS says it lost $2.2 billion on periodicals. It would seem that keeping the periodical business might be more conducive to a death spiral than losing it.

Courier, Express, and Postal Observer: The Death Spiral: Could it Be Driven By Service Quality as well as Costs?.

OTTAWA, June 20, 2011 /CNW/ – The federal government’s back-to-work bill penalizes postal workers and rewards Canada Post for locking out employees and stopping mail delivery nationwide.

The bill legislates wage increases that fall significantly below Canada Post’s last offer. Canada Post’s last offer was 1.9% in 2011, 2012 and 2013, and 2.0 % in 2014, well below the 3.3% rate of inflation. The Tories’ bill would lower that even further with 1.75 % in 2011, 1.5% in 2012, 2% in 2013 and 2% in 2014.

"Imposing wage increases that are lower than Canada Post’s last offer punishes postal workers for a disruption that was caused by the corporation’s national lockout," said CUPW National President Denis Lemelin.

"The bill would take $875.50 out of the pockets of an average full-time postal worker during the four years of the agreement. All told, it represents a theft of $35 million from postal workers and their families."

Lemelin said the government’s heavy-handed interventions will damage labour relations for years to come. The last time the federal government imposed back to work legislation in 1997, it included a provision that ensured the mediator arbitrator considered the importance of good labour-management relations. The current legislation contains no such provision.

"The arbitrator who is assigned to do the final offer selection will not have to live with the results," said Lemelin. "An imposed settlement will not help the post office in the long term."

Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli announced the arrest of THOMAS A. PEARN, 38 Ilford Avenue, North Arlington, New Jersey, date of birth 06/02/1953, on charges of Endangering the Welfare of a Minor, specifically by Distributing Child Pornography, and Endangering the Welfare of a Minor, specifically Possession of Child Pornography. Pearn was arrested on Monday, June 20, 2011.

The arrest came about as a result of an investigation conducted by members of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Computer Crimes Task Force, under the direction of Chief Steven Cucciniello.

The arrest stemmed from an Internet investigation in which Thomas Pearn was using the Internet to acquire and/or distribute child pornography. In this case, the child pornography contained images and/or videos of pre-pubescent children engaged in sexual acts. Pearn was arrested without incident at his place of business in Kearny, New Jersey.

Prosecutor Molinelli states that the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Prosecutor Molinelli would like to thank the North Arlington Police Department and the United States Postal Police for their assistance with the arrest. Additionally Prosecutor Molinelli would like to thank the following Police Departments who provided additional support in the form of Computer Crimes Task Force personnel:

Bergen County Police Department
Lyndhurst Police Department
Hillsdale Police Department
Bogota Police Department