| NEXT MEMBERSHIP MEETING . . . 7:00PM, Tuesday, February 23, 2010 - Boston Teachers Union Hall (Carson Place) |
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Postal Customers Tweet About Post Office Lines
Customers standing in lines at post offices are using Twitter to comment (tweet) about their waits.
Click here for Realtime "Tweets" results for post office lines.
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Obama Budget Promises Strong Support for USPS
APWU Web News Article 010-2010, Feb. 5, 2010
The Obama administration’s 2011 budget calls for a continuation of six-day mail delivery and says the White House “will work with the Postal Service, its employee unions, the Congress, and other stakeholders to make sure the Postal Service has the tools and authorities it needs to remain viable as a pillar of the American economy and a vital public resource through the current crisis and over the long haul.” [Read more]
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Station & Branch Closures
USPS Trims List to 162
APWU Web News Article 008-2010, Jan. 29, 2010
The USPS announced Jan. 29 that the list of stations and branches being considered for closure has been reduced to 162, six less than the last update on Dec. 15. The Postal Service cautioned again that the list does not represent a final decision on which locations would be closed. [Read more]
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The League Takes Postmasters Working Condition Issues to Congress
"...These are the same issues over which the National league of Postmasters has been unsuccessfully attempting to positively engage the Postal Service for the last 3 X years. You know the issues; they include Postmasters putting in horribly long work weeks due to the Postal Service's failure to properly staff supervisors, clerks and carriers and to properly budget work hours, the caustic workplace environment in many districts, a failed pay for performance system..." [Read more]
NAPS Alerts Congress to Possible Pay Abuse by USPS
"...While all postal managers and supervisors are deeply concerned about the Postal Service's financial condition, the same concerns did not dissuade the Postal Service from awarding significant salary increases -- in the tens of thousands of dollars -- to many of its executive-level employees during the past year, Keating added..." [Read more]
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A Stunning Announcement:
OIG Says USPS Overpaid
Federal Government $75 Billion
Burrus Update 03-2010, Jan. 20, 2010
The newest overfunding debacle, if corrected, would more than offset the Postal Service’s deficit from Fiscal Year 2009 and the expected shortfalls in FY 2010 and 2011. The doomsday predictors of the imminent demise of the Postal Service must now find a new rationale for their efforts to dismantle postal services. [Read more]
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If There Is No Work For Postal Clerks, Why Are Supervisors, Carriers Doing It?
By Stephen Lysaght, President, APWU East Bay Area Local - Grievances concerning supervisors performing bargaining unit work and Carriers assigned Clerk craft duties have increased dramatically. Perhaps it has to do with the current financial plight of the Postal Service. Because mail volume and revenue have decreased, Clerks are not replaced when they retire or separate for other reasons. [Read more]
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What’s wrong with Post Office
by James Bertolone, President APWU Rochester, NY - When you hear labor costs are 80 percent of the postal dollar, remember close to 25 percent of the postal dollar goes to those who do not transport, sort or deliver the mail, and do not serve at public windows or maintain the buildings and equipment. We should require Congress to perform its oversight function, starting with demanding the resignations of Potter and Bush-appointed members of the Postal Board of Governors before they destroy the greatest postal service with the lowest rates in the western world. [Read more]
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An Interesting Exchange with a Letter Carrier
Can Parcels Save the Postal Service?
Burrus Update 01-2010, Jan. 13, 2010
"...My Letter Carrier friend has been an active participant in the Customer Connect program, which encourages carriers to submit potential business leads they discover on their routes to USPS marketing departments. He was severely disappointed by what he believes is management’s abandonment of the program, which is aimed primarily at small businesses, in favor of focusing exclusively on big customers.
In that regard, I wholeheartedly agree: I believe the USPS should market its parcel services to small businesses much more aggressively; but letter mail is the key to our survival..." [Read more]
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Cutting Management at UPS
"...Effective in April, UPS will reduce its U.S. Regions from five to three and its U.S. Districts from 46 to 20. As part of the realignment, UPS will expand its outreach to customers by strengthening local sales and marketing efforts. The restructuring will eliminate approximately 1,800 management and administrative positions across the country..." [Read more]
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A Pathetic Way to Treat a Public Service
"...As postal management contracts out more and more of our work — whether indirectly through rate discounts or directly through outsourcing of transportation or the establishment of CPUs, a greater and greater portion of the rates go to profits for private companies rather than into service for the American public..." [Read more]
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A Clear Picture
Burrus Update #23-2009, Dec. 21, 2009
What the analysis neglects to mention, however, is the wide disparity between USPS processing costs and the discounts the Postal Service grants major mailers for “worksharing.” [Read more]
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The Challenge: Postal Wages and Discounts
Burrus Update 17-2009, Oct. 30, 2009
In a continuing effort to influence our contract negotiations, the postmaster general and spokesmen for major mailers have repeatedly suggested that postal employees’ wages and benefits are excessive. [Read more]
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Closing Post Offices ...
The United States Postal Service has announced that the list of post offices being closed is down to 168. The process of whittling the number of possible closures from 3,600 to 168 raise real questions about what the Postal Service was doing when it made the original announcement of closures. [Read more]
Local Post Office Stories on The PUBLIC EYE page
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Boston City Council
Notice of Public Hearing
The Boston City Council's Committee on City and Neighborhood Services hearing to discuss proposed closures of Boston Post Office Branches in the City was held on Monday, December 14, 2009 at 1:00PM in the Christopher Iannella Chamber , fifth floor, Boston City Hall. [Read more]
Watch the City Council Video from their Library
*******No Christmas Miracle at the Post OfficeDozens of Post Office Locations May See Their Last Holiday as Postal Service Struggles to Get Back in the Black. [Read more]
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Cutting Hours or Cutting Post Offices
Those communities that found their Post Office on the original list but are no longer under consideration for closing are likely relieved that their Post Office will remain open. These communities will be less pleased when the hours that the Post Office is open shrink ...
[Read more]
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Those Who Tell Workers to Sacrifice
Fail to Understand Postal Realities Burrus Update #19-2009, Nov. 17, 2009
As the Postal Service struggles with severe financial losses, postal commentators pontificate on the steps that must be taken to ensure its return to solvency. The standard line espoused by spokesmen for the major mailers is that the postal workers must lower their expectations for wages, benefits and working conditions. [Read more]
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PRC Goldway Wary of Service Cuts
Goldway testified on Nov. 5 that the Postal Service’s cost-cutting efforts could reduce its viability in the future. “Service cuts made to address near-term financial difficulties may have harmful long-term consequences for universal service,” she said. [Read more]
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Caught Like a Burglar With the Goods in HandBurrus Update #18-2009, Nov. 4, 2009
For more than 200 years, the mission of the United States Postal Service has been to provide universal service at uniform rates. Beginning in 1976, however, postal management made exceptions to the uniform-rate requirement through the establishment of work share discounts; but this exception does not modify the legal requirement for uniform rates. [Read more]*******National League of Postmasters, League President: some USPS districts are run like "Banana Republics" & boycotting V.O.E. surveys
Postmasters are not whiners; they suck it up, they suck it up some more and they continue to suck it up, day after long day, month after long month, year after year. They are Postmasters absolutely dedicated to serving the people of America and doing the best they can for the Postal Service, but the Postal Service has turned its back on them. Workhours continue to be shifted from clerks, carriers and supervisors to the backs of Postmasters. [Read more]
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All-Craft Conference:
Burrus Charts Ambitious Course for Future
APWU Embraces Change, Union President Declares & Burrus to Retire at End of Term
APWU Web News Article #120-09, Sept. 30, 2009
Calling the union’s current circumstances “the best of times, and the worst of times,” APWU President William Burrus outlined an ambitious agenda for the union’s future in a speech to the All-Craft Conference in Las Vegas on Sept. 30. [Read more]
************************** Boston Metro Area Local to Host Ceremony
Arlington Cemetery Service Will Honor APWU Vets
APWU Web News Article #106-09, Sept. 10, 2009
The Saturday morning ceremony, which will honor all APWU veterans, living and dead, will be at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. [Read more]
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Ways to save money — Boston Metro Interactive Savings Guide
Click here for savings
Union Members, Retirees, and their Families Enjoy Everyday Savings with Union Plus Benefits.
Checkout the new and improved Union Plus Web site recently launched. [Read More]
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PMG Potter - Honor Contracts Memo (02/23/2009)
"...As we adapt to a dynamic and dramatically changing environment we will by necessity bring even more change to our business, But one thing cannot change: our adherence to the provisions of our labor agreements. They are our word.
They are our pledge of fairness to our employees,.." [Read more]
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APWU talks about "Postal Issues" on "Labor Talk" Please take the time to watch this 1/2 hour TV Show. Click here for access.
The PUBLIC EYE page has brought all the information together.
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Does Post Office Hide its Lower-Cost Services?
Liz Crenshaw reports on Partial Post
A hidden camera investigation reveals what the Post Office isn't telling you when mailing packages
in Virginia, Boston or anywhere else: [nbcwashington.com/news]
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Boston Metro T-shirts
Sizes M - XL $11
XXL - $12
XXXL - $14
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To order T-shirts either see your steward so they can make arrangements to get them or mail a check (made payable to Boston Metro) and indicate size(s) to the Union office (137 South St. 4th Flr, Boston, MA 02111) and include an extra dollar ($1) per shirt to offset the postage.
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Welcome to a workplace that’s seriously out of whack: [Watch Video]
‘Employee Free Choice’ Legislation
Introduced in Senate, House [Read more]
| Take Action: Tell Sen. Specter to do the right thing! |
Watch video and take action
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"The union movement stands for the fundamental moral values that make America strong: quality education for our children, affordable health care for every person - not just some - an end to poverty, secure pensions and wages that enable families to sustain the middle-class life that has fueled this nation's prosperity and strength. Union members and other working family activists don't just vote our moral values - we live them. We fight for them, day in, day out. Our commitment to economic and social justice propels us in everything we do."
- John Sweeney, AFL-CIO President, November 2004 Unlike Wal-Mart who has a different plan for America. Please take the nine plus minutes it takes to watch this anti-union video: Concerning Wage Slaves - Forces Employees To Use Gov't Assistance. [ click here for the video] _________________________________________________________________
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Please check out the "Scott Miller Rescuers Award" information on the Bulletin page.
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GENERAL OFFICERS
Moe Lepore, General President
Bob Dempsey, Vice President-Treasurer
Paul Kilduff, Director Industrial Relations
Scott Hoffman, Assistant Treasurer
Marie Allouise, Recording Secretary
Ray Bell, Area Vice President North
Barry Holland, Area Vice President South
Bob White, Area Vice President Central
John Uccello, Area Vice President West
John Milso, '020 Area Vice President
John Coburn, Director Human Relations
Bob Waterhouse, Dir. Organization, Legislation & Education
Bruce Pearson, Sergeant-at-arms
Clerk Craft Officers
Robert Keough, President, Clerk Craft
Matthew Dodd, Director Mechanized Distrib.
John Tobin, Trustee, Clerk Craft
Dennis Avery, Trustee, Clerk Craft
Dan Gonsalves, Trustee, Clerk Craft
John Jenkins, Trustee, Clerk Craft
Maintenance Craft Officers
Wayne Greenside, President, Maintenance Craft
Joseph Joyce, Trustee, Maintenance Craft
Motor Vehicle Craft Officers
Bill Weaver, President, M.V.S. Craft
Ned Hogan, Trustee, M.V.S. Craft
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