A Palm Springs postal worker has been placed on leave without pay and may be prosecuted on allegations he was stealing mail from his customers.

An investigation into letter carrier Jesus Torres was confirmed Monday by the U.S. Postal Service Office of the Inspector General.

More: Palm Springs postal worker suspected of mail theft | The Desert Sun | MyDesert.com.

June 6, 2011 – 17:30

Urban Postal Unit Negotiations (2011) / Bulletin

Negotiations Bulletin no. 58

Steps Backwards

Today, after reviewing our June 3rd proposals for three days, CPC totally rejected our offer. They made virtually no effort to bring the parties closer together, and in fact, reneged on several of their previous proposals with respect to staffing.

Pensions

CPC rejected our proposal for 50-50 current service pension contributions. They say they believe it is not possible due to the law. However, they did not say if they were prepared to jointly approach the government to change the legislation, should the parties reach agreement on the issue.

Staffing

CPC has withdrawn their offers to create full-time positions when a part-time employee works 900 hours during a 30-week period, and to create a part-time regular position when a temporary employee works 1,000 hours during twelve months.

Short-Term Disability Plan

The employer finally provided language on their proposal for compulsory arbitration concerning the Short-Term Disability Plan. Their proposed contract language, confirms that the plan is not designed to protect employees from insufficient sick leave credits, but instead is designed to “reduce the rate of casual and certified sick leave and special leave.”

The language also ensures that the government-appointed arbitrator would have little choice but to impose their program.

Steps Forward

The employer did make a few positive moves in their recent offer, as follows:

Householder Mail

When collation of admail is performed by another employee or a machine, the time values for the preparation of that volume of admail, will be limited to the time required to prepare the collated bundles for delivery, provided the non-collated admail amounts to more than three sets a week. When the outside impact of admail exceeds 16 minutes, the exceeding time will be added to the calculation of the evaluated time of the walk.

Financial Services Study

CPC provided language on the Financial Services study to be conducted jointly by the parties under Appendix T.

The Union will examine CPC’s proposals and develop its response.

In solidarity,

Denis Lemelin

National President and Chief Negotiator

via CUPW – 2011-06-06 – CPC Takes Several Steps Backwards and Two Steps Forward.

OTTAWA – Postal workers in Victoria, B.C. and in Moncton, N.B. will be the next ones to walk out following Montreal.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has called for a rotating strike for midnight, local time in the respective cities, lasting for 24 hours. About one thousand postal workers will be out on strike in various locations.

“In Victoria and Moncton, the public has suffered deterioration in postal service due to Canada Post’s changes to the way mail gets processed and delivered. We have been saying all along that these changes don’t make sense,” said John Bail, National Director of the Pacific region for CUPW, referring to the consolidation of postal plants and the convoluted processes that have been created for the shipment and sortation of the mail.

“In Moncton, we have not only seen the restructuring of postal plants, but also job cuts that hurt our local communities,” added Jeff Callaghan, CUPW National Director of the Atlantic region.

Canada Post continues to refuse to address the union’s outstanding issues, including health and safety as well as demands for innovation and service expansion to keep the Crown corporation profitable.

From the American Postal Workers Union:

Recent headlines that predict the Postal Service will collapse within one year demonstrate the importance of APWU members getting involved in legislative affairs, President Cliff Guffey said.

“To ensure the survival of the Postal Service — and our jobs — I urge each and every member to make a commitment to legislative action,” he said.

“The USPS is under attack by anti-labor politicians and some sectors of the business community,” Guffey continued. “It is crucial that APWU members get involved.

“When your local calls on you to visit your Congressional representatives, you must act as if your job depends on it, because it does,” he said.

Recent news stories suggest that the Postal Service’s financial problems will lead to the downfall of the USPS. Bloomberg Businessweek published an article on May 27 titled “The U.S. Postal Service Nears Collapse,” which blamed the Postal Service’s financial crisis on labor costs. “The Postal Service’s business model [is] so badly broken that collapse [is] imminent,” the article concluded.

Other news sources blamed e-mail for the Postal Service’s decline. A report on National Public Radio (NPR) said, “The U.S. Postal Service can’t shrink fast enough. Its revenues are falling and its losses are rising as mail migrates to the Internet.”

“The true cause of the Postal Service’s financial woes is the congressionally-imposed mandate that requires the USPS to pre-fund future retiree health benefits,” Guffey said, “but you wouldn’t know it from reading many of the recent articles about the USPS.

“Absent this pre-funding burden, the Postal Service would have experienced a cumulative surplus, despite falling mail volume and the worst recession in recent history,” he added.

“We must support measures that will enable the USPS to remain viable in the future, such as H.R. 1351,” Guffey said. The bill, introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), would correct postal pre-funding inequities.

We also support some provisions of S. 1010, introduced by Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE). The “POST Act” would address the pre-funding requirement by allowing the USPS to use overpayments to its pension accounts to meet the pre-funding obligations. It also would give the Postal Service authority to close post offices solely for financial reasons, and would require arbitrators to consider the financial health of the USPS when contract negotiations end in arbitration. APWU supports the overpayment provisions, but does not support the bill entirely, as written. We will continue to work with Senators and staff to address the issues of concern to our members.

The union president urged members to get involved. “It is imperative that we contact our legislators to win support for bills that will provide immediate relief to the USPS,” he said. “It is essential to our future.”

From the National League of Postmasters – Latest News Briefs page:

June 6, 2011

Last week PMRs in level 15 and 16 Post Offices across the country received letters from Human Resources notifying them of an opportunity to apply for Postal Support Employee (PSE) positions since their current position will not exceed August 23, 2011. Below are portions of this letter.

Subject: Special Notice of Opportunity to Apply for Postal Support Employee Vacancies

This special notice of opportunity is provided since your current appointment as a Casual, Transitional or Postmaster Relief/Leave Replacement will not exceed August 23, 2011 in accordance with the new labor contract agreement with the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), AFL-CIO, which went into effect May 23, 2011.

PSEs are a new category of non-career employee established to provide the USPS with flexibility. PSEs will be appointed for a term not to exceed 360 calendar days. If there is still an operational need, a PSE may be reappointed for another not to exceed 360 day term after a five-day break in service. PSE employees will enjoy benefits including raises, health benefits and leave. Announcements for these new positions will be posted to all interested persons on usps.com/employment – continue to visit eCareer!

To apply for PSE vacancies announced on usps.com/employment, you must:

1. Create a new external email address (e.g., yahoo, gmail, etc.). You will need it for the Registration process where you create a unique Login ID and Password. (You cannot use your previously-issued applicant User ID(s), if any, because the ID is deactivated when the user is hired.) Be sure to make note of your new User ID and Password as they will be needed for future access to your new eCareer Candidate Profile.

2. Add the following email domains to the safe sender list on your new email address to ensure that communications related to your application are not filtered: @usps.gov; @panpowered.com; @geninfo.com.

3. Create a new external Candidate Profile using your new email address and unique User ID and password.

4. Search for jobs on usps.com/employment and use your new Candidate Profile to apply for PSE vacancies by the closing date. Submit a separate application for each PSE position for which you wish to apply.

5. Follow all instructions carefully and watch daily for further messages from eCareer and our vendors concerning actions required in connection with your application.

Based on the pay chart given to us PSEs in level 15/16 offices will be level 4 and start at $12.38 an hour. Casual replacements in higher level offices will be Level 6 and earn $14.60 per hour. There are leave benefits and health benefits for PSE positions after a year of service that PMRs do not have.

This APWU contract change from PMRs to PSEs does not apply to Level 13 and below offices.

The LEAGUE, as well as the other management organizations, has been asking for clarification of a number of issues with regard to the APWU contract and its impact on Postmasters, our customers and service. On Tuesday June 7th we will be briefed on specific questions we have submitted regarding the contract and we will clarify a lot of questions regarding the PMR positions. It is our intent to leave that meeting with a better understanding of the hiring process and what we can do to assist our dedicated employees who have stuck by Postmasters all these years. We will have more information on what PMRs and Postmasters need to do to make sure your PMR gets the opportunity to be hired. We hope to provide information and assistance to Postmasters to make sure they do everything they can to follow the correct process so that they can get replacements hired timely.

Mark Strong

National League of Postmasters

via National League of Postmasters – Latest News Briefs.

The following information was released by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District Of Missouri:

The United States Attorney’s Office announced that Teresa Tremusini, Festus Postmaster, was convicted of two felony counts of Receipt of Illegal Gratuities. The owner of SG Print and Mail and two Postal employees previously entered guilty pleas in the $3.8 million scheme.

According to court documents and testimony presented at trial, Robert Scott Gray defrauded the U.S. Postal Service by falsely claiming stamps were used on bulk mailings and by concealing documentation of mailings from the Postal Service to avoid payment.

Teresa Tremusini became Postmaster of the Festus, Missouri, Post Office in December 2005. Robert Scott Gray was President and Owner of SG Print and Mail, Inc. Michael A. Jones was an employee of the U.S. Postal Service. Donna Beckman was an employee of SG Print and Mail from January 2005 to September 2007. Her duties included the preparation of the U.S. Postal Service paperwork that accompanied bulk mailings by SG Print and Mail.

SG Print and Mail provided direct mail services to clients. A client would contract with SG Print and Mail to perform a direct mailing, for example, 30,000 mail pieces. Typically, SG Print and Mail contracted with a printer to print the mail pieces. SG Print and Mail would then prepare the direct mailing by placing addresses on each mail piece and sorting the mail pieces by address/zip code for bulk mailing.

Between January 2005 and December 2006, Robert Scott Gray directed Donna Beckman to lie about the number of pre-canceled stamps that they used and to falsify the Postal forms describing how many they had used. Additionally, Gray paid Teresa Tremusini $20,000, payable in two cashier’s checks in August 2006, and in January 2007, and paid Michael Jones $10,000 cash. These payments were in return for the approval of bulk mail postal forms.

The loss to the U.S. Postal Service for these schemes total of approximately $3.8 million.

TERESA TREMUSINI, St. Louis, Missouri, was convicted on Friday, June 3, 2011, on two felony counts of receipt of illegal gratuities and is scheduled for sentencing August 26, 2011.

Robert Scott Gray, Fenton, Missouri, pled guilty in April to five felony counts of mail fraud, four felony counts of making false statements and three felony counts of giving an illegal gratuity. He is scheduled for sentencing July 13, 2011.

Michael A. Jones, Pacific, Missouri, pled guilty in March to one felony count of receipt of illegal gratuity, and will be sentenced on June 16, 2011. Donna Beckman pled guilty earlier this year to two felony counts of mail fraud and awaits sentencing on June 23, 2011.

Each count of mail fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and/or fines up to $250,000. Each count of making false statements carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and/or fines up to $250,000. Each count of bribery carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and/or fines up to $250,000. In determining the actual sentences, a Judge is required to consider the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide recommended sentencing ranges.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the United States Postal Service-Office of Inspector General. Assistant United States Attorney Carrie Costantin is handling the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

June 4 — In another successful nationwide food drive, the National Association of Letter Carriers collected 70.2 million pounds of food on May 14, at a time when hunger is a growing problem.

The NALC’s annual one-day drive, largest in the nation, is held on the second Saturday in May in 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam. This was the 19th annual NALC Food Drive to stamp out hunger.

“Six days a week, letter carriers see first-hand the needs in the communities they work in, and we’re privileged to be able to help the needy and to lead an effort that brings out the best in so many Americans,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said. Non-perishable donations residents left near their mail boxes were collected by the nation’s 230,000 letter carriers as they delivered mail.

This was the eighth consecutive drive surpassing 70 million pounds. Last year’s record collection of 77.1 million pounds pushed the total past the one-billion-pound mark, and the total since the drive began in 1993 now stands at 1,130,000,000 pounds. The slight downturn this year is related to the tough economy – which makes the drive all the more important.

About 50 million Americans – including 17 million children – now live in families that lack sufficient food. With most school lunch programs suspended during summer months, millions of children must find alternate sources of nutrition.

“This drive allows letter carriers to help revitalize food banks during difficult summer months when children have no school breakfast or lunch programs to count on," NALC’s Community Service Coordinator Linda Giordano said.

The top five local NALC branch collections: Branch 1477 West Coast Florida Merged (1,770,814 pounds), Branch 599 Tampa, FL. (1,729,382), Branch 458 Oklahoma City, OK (1,485,118), Branch 3 Buffalo, NY (1,383,220), Branch 1100 Garden Grove, CA (1,112,083).

Carriers around the country brought the food from their routes on Saturday May 14 to local food banks, pantries or shelters, including many affiliated with Feeding America, a national partner in the drive. Assisting 1,400 local NALC branches were rural letter carriers and other postal employees, plus members of other unions and civic volunteers.

Other national partners were Campbell Soup Co., the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, Valpak, the U.S. Postal Service, United Way Worldwide, the AFL-CIO and Uncle Bob’s Self Storage.

via NALC ‘Stamp Out Hunger’ National Food Drive.

OTTAWA – The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is moving its rotating strike to Montreal following the 48-hour strike for Hamilton postal workers.

Postal workers in Montreal will hit the picket lines tonight at 11:30 p.m. EDT for a period of 24 hours.

‘Montreal is another place where Canada Post has already begun its $2 billion postal transformation,’ said Denis Lemelin, National President and Chief Negotiator. ‘As we saw in Winnipeg, Montreal postal workers are being forced to work with new machines and methods without proper safety studies beforehand.’

Talks are continuing at the bargaining table and a response is expected from Canada Post today to the union’s latest proposals.

‘Postal workers are staying out on strike to keep the pressure on negotiations,’ repeated Lemelin. ‘We will not accept the rollbacks that a profitable company is trying to force us to swallow.’

David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that MANUEL QUILES, 41, of Wayland Street, Hartford, pleaded guilty yesterday, June 1, before United States Magistrate Judge Holly B. Fitzsimmons in Bridgeport to one count of embezzlement of mail by an employee of the United States Postal Service.

According to court documents and statements made in court, beginning in January 2010, QUILES, a letter carrier with the U.S. Postal Service, participated in a scheme to steal tax refund checks issued by the United States Treasury. As part of the scheme, QUILES provided other scheme participants with a list of addresses located on his mail carrier route in Hartford. The scheme participants then fraudulently caused the U.S. Treasury to issue and mail tax refund checks to the addresses identified by QUILES. Instead of delivering the tax refund checks to the addresses that he had previously identified, QUILES took possession of the checks and delivered them to other scheme participants. QUILES was paid $300 for each check he took and provided to others.

On March 7, 2011, QUILES possessed 11 envelopes containing federal tax refund checks that he stole from the U.S. mail. As part of his plea agreement, QUILES has acknowledged that the U.S. Treasury has suffered losses of between $70,000 and $120,000 as a result of his involvement in the scheme.

QUILES is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge Janet C. Hall on August 13, 2011, at which time QUILES faces a maximum term of imprisonment of five years and a fine of up to $250,000.

This matter stems from a coordinated effort among various United States Attorney’s Offices and the Tax Division of the Department of Justice to combat a scheme to use stolen Puerto Rican identities to file fraudulent federal tax refund claims. These offices included the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Middle District of Pennsylvania, Southern District of New York, District of Connecticut, and the District of Massachusetts, and investigative agencies working with each office. In Connecticut, the investigation is being conducted by the United States Postal Service, Office of the Inspector General; the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Christopher M. Mattei.

A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging Joni R. Smith, age 35, of Mogadore, Ohio, with theft of mail by a postal employee and unauthorized opening of mail by a postal employee, said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

The indictment alleges that on February 23, 2011, Joni R. Smith, a Rural Carrier Associate assigned to the Rootstown Post Office, Rootstown, Ohio, opened and stole 63 first-class letters and their contents which had come into her possession to be conveyed by mail.

The indictment was presented to the grand jury by Assistant United States Attorney Gregory C. Sassé after investigation by the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General.

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court after a review of factors unique to the case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violation. In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.