MINNEAPOLIS, July 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The National Association of Letter Carriers is holding its 68th biennial convention all week in Minneapolis, with a major goal of the 9,100 delegates being to help forge a path to financial success for the United States Postal Service.

The NALC’s convention is the largest of any union in the AFL-CIO, and delegates will hear from several national political leaders. Read the rest of this entry »

In April the manager of the postal service’s Oakland Vehicle Maintenance Facitlity pleaded guilty to defrauding the USPS of over $4 million. In 2011, five postal employees at the Detroit VMF accepted bribes to steer $13 million worth of work to one contractor.

Husch-Blackwell partner David P. Hendel suggests in an article on The Contractor’s Perspective blog that there may be more such cases, and that some of the fault lies with the USPS itself:

Such fraudulent conduct was inadvertently facilitated by the Postal Service’s revocation of its purchasing regulations in 2006 and replacement with guidelines said to be non-binding. At the same time, the Postal Service proclaimed that contractors had no right to challenge its procurement actions based on violations of its purchasing policies. By deflating its purchasing rules from legally-binding regulations to non-binding policy guidance, and weakening the bid protest process, the Postal Service has made it easier for procurement errors and outright misconduct to develop, and harder to detect.

via Another Postal Service manager pleads guilty to contract fraud : The Contractor’s Perspective.

The newly updated Joint Contract Interpretation Manual (JCIM) is now available, Industrial Relations Director Mike Morris has announced. The APWU and USPS finalized the 2012 JCIM on July 13.

The JCIM is intended to be a resource for the local administration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. It provides mutually-agreed to explanations of how to apply the contract to the issues addressed.

When disputes arise, the local parties should first go to the JCIM to determine whether the dispute is addressed and, if it is, the parties are required to resolve the dispute in accordance with this manual, Morris said.

“There is a lot of new material this year,” Morris noted, “because of the numerous changes we made to the National Agreement during negotiations in 2010 and 2011.”

Click here for a copy of the 2012 JCIM [PDF].

‘Next day’ journey of Gold Medal stamps revealed for London 2012

Senator Tom Carper was on CNBC this morning, repeating (and repeating) his plea for the House to do something abut postal reform:

If i can make three points, the House needs to pass the bill so we can go to conference, that would be the first one. The second point was the House needs to pass a bill so we can go to conference and work out a compromise, and the third point the House needs to pass the bill so we can go to conference and work out a compromise. That would be it.