Year: 2007

Mail handlers in the US ratify five-year contract

Posted by | Jan 30, 2007 | |

The National Postal Mail Handlers Union has voted to ratify a new five-year contract with the U.S. Postal Service.
The contract provides a 1.2 percent retroactive increase effective Nov. 25, 2006, and another 1.2 percent increase effective Nov. 24, 2007. Handlers will receive a 0.6 percent increase on Feb. 16, 2008, followed by 1.2 percent increases each November from 2008 to 2010.
The agreement continues cost-of-living adjustments at current levels but cuts the Postal Service’s health insurance contribution by 1 percentage point per year. It also adds a new step at the top of the pay schedule, effective Nov. 25, 2006, and a new entry step to the beginning of the schedule, effective Feb. 3.
The contract, which follows a tentative Dec. 13 agreement between the union and USPS, runs through Nov. 20, 2011. It covers about 55,000 postal employees who transfer, load and unload mail.

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Deputy PM hails China's postal reform success

Posted by | Jan 30, 2007 | |

Chinese Vice-Premier Huang Ju has urged the country’s postal sector to deepen reforms and adopt an enterprising approach to better serve the public and the country’s economic and social development.

The establishment of the CPG and SPMB marked the separation of the regulatory functions of the former State Post Bureau (SPB) from its business activities.

Liu Andong, former director of SPB, has been appointed general manager of CPG, and Ma Junsheng, former deputy director of SPB, has been named to head the SPMB.

The separation of the SPB’s regulatory functions from its business activities has been carried out in accordance with the postal system reform scheme issued by the State Council in August 2005.

The SPMB will mainly perform government functions and supervise the postal sector in accordance with state laws. The CPG, a state-solely-owned firm with a registered capital of 80bn yuan (about 10bn US dollars), will reform postal and postal savings services.

Traditionally both a supervisor and a player in the market, SPB was placed in a difficult position when more and more companies, including overseas delivery firms, began to compete in the country’s lucrative postal market.

Experts said that China had taken a key step forward in the reform of its postal system, but still needs to reform provincial-level postal bureaus, separate basic postal services from competitive businesses, and define the operations of subsidiaries.

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Wincor Nixdorf reports Deutsche Post deal

Posted by | Jan 30, 2007 | |

Wincor Nixdorf will act as general contractor in equipping up to 20,000 counter positions at the branches of Deutsche Post and Postbank with new IT systems.

The solution package also includes a five-year maintenance agreement. The first branches will be equipped in the third quarter of 2007 and the overall project will be completed by 2008.

As part of the project, at least 125 front-end systems a day will be replaced and loaded before installation with Deutsche Post’s branch software. This is a demanding task: Deutsche Post is the postal services provider with the largest sales revenue in Europe, and its services are delivered to two to three million customers a day in Germany. Ongoing operations thus should be disrupted as little as possible by this refreshment of the IT landscape.

The all-around package of integrated individual components that Wincor Nixdorf offered played a crucial role in Deutsche Post’s decision. One particular factor was the total cost of ownership, i.e. the costs over the entire product lifecycle. Fujitsu Siemens Computers is the partner for supplying the personal computers and the configuration is rounded out by peripherals such as printers, monitors, scanners, etc.

As a result of this framework agreement, Wincor Nixdorf is taking on the general contractorship for a Deutsche Post project for the first time.

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German ministers want to extend Deutsche Post's mail delivery monopoly

Posted by | Jan 30, 2007 | |

Germany’s social welfare minister Franz Muentefering and finance minister Peer Steinbrueck want to extend Deutsche Post AG’s mail delivery monopoly beyond the current Dec 31 2007 deadline, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported, citing unnamed sources.

In a pre-release of an article to appear in tomorrow’s edition, the newspaper wrote that Muentefering is concerned about Deutsche Post’s ability to compete against low-cost competitors that also pay lower wages to their staff.

A spokesman for the minister neither confirmed nor denied the report when contacted by the newspaper.

Sources within the Finance Ministry told the newspaper that Steinbrueck is concerned about Deutsche Post losing its monopoly while rivals in countries such as France and Italy are able to retain theirs.

The newspaper also said debate on the matter within the German government is expected to intensify within the coming weeks.

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Postal reform begins

Posted by | Jan 30, 2007 | |

Long-awaited reform of China’s postal system has begun with the establishment of the new State Postal Bureau and China Post Group Corp yesterday.

Market-oriented policies modelled on reforms in the telecommunications sector will separate administrative functions and business practices from the original State Postal Bureau.

“China’s postal service system enters a new development stage, with the government responsible for market supervision and China Post Group independent in its management,” Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a ceremony yesterday marking the new entities.

But there is much work to do to deepen the reform in the company as well as the administrative body, Zhang said.

For the State Postal Bureau, it is important to improve regulations in the sector and build a fair and orderly market environment, said Ma Junsheng, director of the State Postal Bureau.

More internal reforms should be undertaken at China Post to make the company more efficient, Zhang said.

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Correos rewards the entrepreneurial spirit among its workers.

Posted by | Jan 30, 2007 | |

The chairman of CORREOS, José Damián Santiago, and directors of the postal service presented the “Excellent Office”, “Hermes” and “Postal Innovation” prizes in a ceremony held during the “Recognition of the Entrepreneurial Spirit in CORREOS Day”, which was took place yesterday at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.

During the same event, the network of over 2,000 post offices received the “EFQM Seal of Excellence” at “European Quality” level. CORREOS’ post office branch network is the first network belonging to a public postal operator to receive such prestigious recognition for the quality of the service it provides.

CORREOS also awards the “Hermes” prize for excellence in the management of Distribution Units (sorting offices for ordinary mail – UR, or special or urgent services – USE).

The prizes for the 1st Postal Innovation Competition, which was held in 2006, were also awarded. The aim of the competition is to promote the development of innovative initiatives by employees and to involve them in the process of modernisation and massive incorporation of the information and knowledge technologies into the services and products provided by the post office.

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Letterbox posted on TradeMe

Posted by | Jan 29, 2007 | |

A letterbox from the “mean streets of Hamilton” has been listed for sale on TradeMe following New Zealand Post suspending delivery to three Fairfield streets.

A message on the auction website from seller “Maxduck” said because NZ Post “is too scared to deliver, we no longer have a use for our letterbox”.

NZ Post announced a temporary ban on mail delivery to Tennyson Rd, Emerson Pl and Dryden Rd on Friday following gang violence.

NZ Post spokeswoman Fiona Mayo said it wouldn’t be acting as a responsible employer if it insisted on mail delivery in areas of potential violence. She said the ban would be reviewed tomorrow.

“Maxduck” said the letterbox was still in good condition, had survived a couple of tags, ash from the Ruapehu volcanic eruption and “more recently the well-publicised `gun battle’ of Hamilton”.

Ms Mayo said the seller obviously “has a good sense of humour”, adding most residents had been understanding of the ban.

By this morning there had been no bids past the letterbox’s $20 reserve. — Belinda Feek

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Belgian Post Employees Demand 5.0 Pct Pay Rise

Posted by | Jan 29, 2007 | |

The negotiations for a new collective labour agreement for the employees of Belgian postal company De Post/La Poste will begin on January 31, 2007 with the trade unions demanding at least 5.0 pct pay increase, Belgian daily De Standaard reported on January 29, 2007.
The pay talks will be central to the negotiations for the collective agreement for 2007 and 2008. The 5.0 pct pay rise was agreed by the social partners in the autumn and the trade unions are reluctant to fall below that. According to Marc De Mulder from trade union VSOA, when inflation is taken into count, the real increase will be just 1.0 pct.
The unions will further demand amendments to the company’s retirement scheme. Under the current collective labour agreement, the early retirement age was increased to 58 from 57.
In 2007, De Post/La Poste plans to close 277 postal offices and to open post counters instead, cutting 2,000 jobs.
De Post/La Poste booked a net profit of 83 mln euro (USD107.2 mln) on revenue of 1.1 bln euro (USD1.42 bln) in the first half of 2006. The company has not released full-year results yet.

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