WASHINGTON, May 31, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Baseball fans can celebrate their favorite All-Stars as a group or individually. Responding to overwhelming demand following the recent announcement to honor Joe DiMaggio, Larry Doby, Willie Stargell and Ted Williams collectively on a single sheet of 20 Forever stamps, the Postal Service today announced that it will issue sheets of 20 stamps honoring each player individually. Events will take place in Cooperstown and the cities where each one played. Read the rest of this entry »

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Mail carriers contend with many obstacles in the course of a day. And every day, no matter what time of the year, these obstacles can push carriers to their physical and mental limits.Few people understand this better than Jeromy Shafer, a Charleston mail carrier who has one of the toughest routes in town.Shafer, a 39-year-old Army veteran from Elkview, has walked about seven miles per day, or 35 miles per week, through Charleston’s West Side since he took on the route in 2008.

via A day on the city’s toughest postal route  – News – Charleston Daily Mail – West Virginia News and Sports -.

From the Jefferson County, AL Sheriff’s Department:

Teens robbed by two men posing as postal workers.

Birmingham, AL 05/30/2012 – Just after 2:00pm yesterday afternoon deputies were called to the 6500 block of Telia Drive in unincorporated northeast Jefferson County to investigate a robbery. The victims were 18, 17, and 16 and had been at home while their mother went to get them something to eat. A black male suspect came to the door and knocked. The 17 year old opened the door. The suspect was dressed in a Postal uniform shirt and gray pants. He told the victim that he had a package to deliver and motioned for a second black male suspect to come from the van. When the second suspect got to the door he produced a handgun and the two forced their way into the home. Once inside, the other suspect retrieved a knife from the kitchen and ordered all three victims to lie on the floor. The suspects went through the house and stole cash and electronics. As they were leaving, they forced the victims to give them their cell phones. The suspects fled in a white minivan driven by a black female. The suspects were described as black males twenty to twenty-five years old. No one was injured. Anyone with information on this crime is asked to contact the Sheriffs Office at 325-1450 or Crimestoppers at 254-7777

WASHINGTON, May 30, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — In response to customer requests, the U.S. Postal Service is announcing the launch of the Picture Permit Imprint Indicia program for commercial mailers. The Picture Permit Imprint Indicia program provides new advertising opportunities for commercial mail customers by allowing them to use corporate logos, product visuals or other brand images in the permit indicia space on their mail.

“Dozens of our largest customers looking to increase brand awareness and increase the effectiveness of their mail have asked us to allow more creativity in the design of their permit indicia,” said Gary Reblin, vice president, Domestic Products. “Permit indicia enhanced with logos, photos or other brand images increase the visual impact of the mailpiece as well as its open rate and value.”

The Picture Permit Imprint Indicia program is open to commercial mailers of presorted First-Class Mail letters and cards or Standard Mail letters. The premium for First-Class Mail letters and cards will be 1 cent per piece, and for Standard Mail letters, 2 cents per piece.

For an overview of the Picture Permit Imprint Indicia offering — including program requirements, FAQs, and an application form — visit the new website: usps.com/picturepermit. “The application is a simple four-step process,” said Reblin.

The Picture Permit Imprint Indicia program launches officially June 24. According to Reblin, however, “Due to the expected popularity of the program, we are launching the website now and encouraging customers to get started. We want them to be ready to take advantage of this great marketing opportunity as soon as possible.”

APWU Web News Article 65-2012, May 29, 2012

APWU members should get ready for a busy summer, union President Cliff Guffey said as the unofficial start of the season got underway. “We must continue to take our message to members of Congress and the American people,” he said.

Although the Senate passed a postal reform bill on April 25, the House of Representatives doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to address the Postal Service’s underlying problems, and management is about to embark on its plan to close and consolidate mail processing facilities.

“We have asked our members to reach out to their U.S. representatives and to explain the urgency of the situation,” Guffey said. “If the USPS degrades service standards and dismantles its mail processing network, it will cause irreparable harm to the nation’s mail system. Read the rest of this entry »

Greg Bell
Executive Vice President, APWU

(This article by first appeared in the May/June 2012 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)

The Postal Service’s top management, including Postmaster General Donahoe, has been drawing fire from all sides in recent months, after a series of disturbing and embarrassing revelations. Read the rest of this entry »

By Chuck Zlatkin

You can’t blame the average citizen if they believe that the Postal Service is on its last legs. It is not just Fox News that is spreading the hysteria. In the May 18, 2012 edition of the New York Times, Ron Dixon wrote a column on the Postal Service’s desire to close 48 mail-processing centers beginning in July, but neglected to mention that the Postal Service’s problems were directly related to Congressional mandates that had turned the Postal Service into a cash cow. Dixon didn’t mention the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which required the Postal Service to fully prefund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years, and to do it within a 10-year window. This meant that the Postal Service was required to write a check to the U.S. Treasury in the amount of $5.5 billion every September 30 before they sold one stamp or money order. No other government agency, corporation or organization is required to do so. Because of this legislation, the agency was required to fully prefund the retirement health benefits of people who hadn’t even been born yet, let alone worked for the Postal Service. Read the rest of this entry »

By David Morris

As every 6 year old learns, there is real and there is make believe. The massive Post Office deficit that is driving its management to commit institutional suicide by ending 6-day mail delivery, closing half of the nations’ 30,000 or so post offices and half it’s 500 mail processing centers, and laying off over 200,000 workers, is make believe. Read the rest of this entry »

From USPS News Link:

USPS is providing Postmasters additional time to take advantage of their Special Incentive Offer. Postmasters who meet the criteria now have until July 2, 2012 to take advantage of the offer.

The new timetable gives Postmasters the opportunity to apply for one or more of the approximately 1,600 vacant Postmaster positions posted today on the eCareer website. Postmasters should visit eCareer — located on LiteBlue — to review the posted vacancies and to apply online.

Frequently Asked Questions on the Postmaster incentive offer — including information on how incentive date changes may affect Postmasters who opted in after the May 9 original announcement — are available at the Workforce Connection website on LiteBlue. Postmasters can expect to receive formal communications outlining these changes by mail within the next week.

Postmasters with questions not covered at the Workforce Connection website can call the Human Resources Shared Service Center (877-477-3273).

(5/25/2012) The APWU and the USPS reached a settlement on May 25 that prohibits the Postal Service from deducting square footage of floor space, including under mail processing equipment, in developing a Building Inventory. The agreement resolves Case #Q06T-4Q-C 10269698, which was scheduled for arbitration next week.

The settlement is significant because management began deducting the square footage as a ploy to reduce staffing.

The agreement requires the Postal Service to inform USPS representatives and to have restored the  deducted square feet of floor space within 30 days. The settlement does not permit “new” staffing packages to be created.

Local management needs policing by local unions to ensure that the only adjustments made are in fact restoration of the square feet of deducted space, said Maintenance Craft Director Steve Raymer. The agreement stipulates that all other entries on the inventory and the frequencies of work remain the same.

Duty Assignments
The settlement also provides that local postal management take immediate action to restore any duty assignments established by the return of the deducted floor space. Such duty assignments must be posted and filled within 60 days of the settlement, which is in accordance with Article 38.4.A of the 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The initial vacancies and all following vacancies are to be filled with career employees. The Postal Service may fill any of these vacancies with PSEs.

All other issues and remedies regarding, for example, posting and filling of other duty assignments; other reasons for challenging the current staffing package; or anything outside of the returning of the deducted floor space; which may be in grievance cases that were held pending the outcome of this case, will be sent back to the field for resolution or arbitration.