Union criticizes US Postal Service's outsourcing plans

UNI’s US Affiliate the NPMHU National President John Hegarty appeared before the US Congress Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, to provide the views of the NPMHU on the recently-issued USPS Network Realignment Plan. He told the committee that the union believed that the USPS recently made an ill-advised foray into subcontracting, which involves proposals to outsource work from the Bulk Mail Centers.

He said that for many years, the Mail Handlers Union has tried to work with the Postal Service towards a better, more efficient and more economical operation. However, we have problems with this latest proposal which want to give away mail volume to the private sector, when the nearby postal plants, as is well documented, are suffering from a major loss of mail volume themselves. John Hegarty also commented on the plan by the USPS to offer voluntary retirement to a number of permanent employees, he said, “NPHMU do not believe it makes business sense to ask employees to retire voluntarily while also proposing to outsource postal work to private contractors.”

UNI’s US Affiliate the NPMHU National President John Hegarty appeared before the US Congress Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, to provide the views of the NPMHU on the recently-issued USPS Network Realignment Plan. He told the committee that the union believed that the USPS recently made an ill-advised foray into subcontracting, which involves proposals to outsource work from the Bulk Mail Centers.

He said that for many years, the Mail Handlers Union has tried to work with the Postal Service towards a better, more efficient and more economical operation. However, we have problems with this latest proposal which want to give away mail volume to the private sector, when the nearby postal plants, as is well documented, are suffering from a major loss of mail volume themselves. John Hegarty also commented on the plan by the USPS to offer voluntary retirement to a number of permanent employees, he said, “NPHMU do not believe it makes business sense to ask employees to retire voluntarily while also proposing to outsource postal work to private contractors.”