US Postal Service volunteers are set to become part of anti-terrorism plans in five American cities, delivering medication in the event of an attack using biological agents like antrax.
Read MoreLetter carriers in the United States collected 70.2m pounds of food during last month’s nationwide one-day campaign to “stamp out hunger”. The National Association of Letter Carriers revealed yesterday that the...
Read MoreA bill has been passed that will temporarily ease prefunding requirements on the USPS for future retiree health benefits.
Read MoreOver 8,800 letter carriers are planning to convene in Boston July 21-25 as delegates to the 66th Biennial National Convention of the National Association of Letter Carriers — the largest convention among AFL-CIO unions.
The week-long event at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC) will bring together carriers from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam. The 303,000-member union, founded in 1889, represents active and retired city letter carriers employed by the U.S. Postal Service.
During the convention, delegates will discuss issues critical to the future of the Postal Service including efforts to stop contracting out of letter carrier positions by the Postal Service, the work of special task force to evaluate postal delivery routes, and resolutions and constitutional amendments submitted by delegates.
In addition to Senator Clinton, speakers scheduled to address the convention include: Boston Mayor Thomas Menino; Reps. John Tierney and Michael Capuano, both (D-MA), and John McHugh (R-NY); American Postal Workers Union President William Burrus; Alan Kessler, Chairman, USPS Board of Governors; Michael Critelli, executive chairman of the board, Pitney Bowes Inc.; Bill Disbrow, president and CEO, Valpak; Philip Bowyer, deputy general secretary, Union Network International; Stephen Fitzpatrick, general secretary, Communications Workers Union, Ireland; and Dean Baker, co-director, Center for Economic and Policy Research.
The NALC, founded in 1889, represents all 230,000 city delivery letter carriers employed by the U.S. Postal Service throughout the 50 states and U.S. jurisdictions.
Read MoreThe U.S. Postal Service starts 2008 with ambitious goals for cost-cutting and modernization.
The agency last month unveiled a series of changes to its “road map,” the plan aimed at boosting its revenues over the next few years. The changes are driven, in part, by the 2006 Postal Accountability Enhancement Act, the first postal reform law in 36 years.
The plan sets an annual goal of USD 1 billion in cost reductions that the agency plans to achieve primarily by increasing automation. The cost reductions are necessary, said postal executive Linda Kingsley, even though the new law gives the Postal Service the flexibility to raise revenue by developing new products and raising prices for competitive services, such as package delivery.
“The competitive products are 10 percent of our revenue pie. Even if we double that, it still won’t do it,” said Kingsley, senior vice president for strategy and transformation. “And the likelihood of doubling our market share is pretty thin.”
The law also limits the Postal Service’s profits in market areas it dominates, such as first-class mail. The law caps postal rate increases for those products by tying them to the Consumer Price Index. The change is a benefit to consumers, particularly large mailers, but a challenge for USPS.
So the Postal Service hopes to lower costs by using automation to work smarter.
It has aggressively pursued a high-tech system called Intelligent Mail for tracking all classes of mail and identifying bad addresses. The program is in limited use by large mailers, and the Postal Service hopes it will be widespread by January 2009.
It also hopes to unveil the Flats Sequencing System in 2008. The equipment will sequence “flat mail” — magazines and large envelopes — much like letters, which are already automatically sequenced. That means mail carriers won’t have to spend time manually sequencing those items. Kingsley called it “the biggest thing we’re investing in” for the near future.
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