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 One Beltway Center |
President's MessageJanuary 22, 2010 Dear Leaguers, Weather We’ve had an eventful last few weeks; nationally, internationally and in the Postal Service. As President Obama was just returning from the conference on global warming in Copenhagen Denmark, many areas of North America and Europe were hit with record breaking snowstorms and very cold temperatures. I heard some muttering, “I’m freezing to death in this global warming!” Some other famous climate personality made a remark about global warming causing all of the cold weather. There was also a lot of controversy over the appearance that some powerful climate scientists were manipulating data and interpretations of the data to bolster their assertions of global warming. Whether or not our global warming, or lack thereof, is caused by mankind, the fact is, we had some pretty big snows! Often, when ‘disaster’ strikes, the Postal Service responds heroically to get the mail delivered, and all of us postal employees take great pride in the efforts made by our fellows. I still picture city carriers walking through thigh deep rain to deliver to homes on their routes during hurricane Katrina. In this last round of bad weather, we saw the heroic efforts, but, unfortunately, we saw some knuckleheaded decisions being made, all to chase the Almighty Numbers. In some parts of our country snows piled higher than it had for many years. Main roads were difficult to keep clear, and many side roads were impassable. At least one district told its Postmasters to go back out in the storm to reattempt the deliveries that the rural carriers, the dedicated, professional rural carriers, were unable to make. Postal regulations require that patrons keep the area around their mailboxes cleared and accessible to the rural carrier. That didn’t matter in this case; Postmasters were still sent out. Our regulations are in place to protect the safety of our employees to include even Postmasters. Sending Postmasters out in dangerous weather condition to chase EXFC numbers is a foolish practice, but the type of practice that seems to be more prevalent in today’s Postal Service. NPA Recent events in the NPA/PFP arena have cast further doubt upon the effectiveness of that program. In late 2008, as Retail Revenue goals were being established for Postmasters all over the country, the Postal Service realized that, if the economic trends continued, it would show double digit losses to retail revenue. Even with this knowledge, it went out and established revenue goals for Postmasters at 3-5% above the same period last year. They broke one of the cardinal rules of the program. If goals are to be effective motivators, they have to be attainable. The Postal Service knew that huge numbers of Postmasters would fail to make this goal. At the close of the fiscal year, the League and NAPUS under now retired president, Dale Goff, sent a formal request to Postal Headquarters asking for a National Mitigation for this portion of the NPA/PFP to move the retail goal down to what would have been a reasonable goal under the horrible economic climate. We weren’t asking for gifts. We were asking for reasonable consideration for the thousands of Postmaster who did so much to cut expenses (good news, the Postal Service did save 100 million workhours, thanks in a large part to the efforts of these Postmasters) over the previous fiscal year. This is not a bonus program; it is the only way Postmasters get any kind of raise. If adjusting the goal to something more reasonable gave a Postmaster enough points for a raise, great, if not, so be it. With the economy down as much as it is, few expected much in the way of a bonus, but Postmasters did have a right to expect a chance at a the same sorts of reasonable raises that practically everyone else in the Postal Service would receive. Our request was denied. Recently, the Postal Service did a complete reversal. Postmasters, as the evaluators for their supervisors, saw that someone was going in to change the scores that they had given their supervisors. Almost all of these changes trended downward. Even after we had argued that goals for Postmaster for retail revenue had been set too high, and were therefore unattainable, the Postal Service, through its district leaders (district managers and MPOOs) was going in, in a wholesale manner, to reduce the scores of supervisors because they (the Postal Service) claimed the goals were too low even after several reviews verified them throughout the year. This move further dilutes the already very low effectiveness of the process. If the important numbers on the scorecard can be so carelessly manipulated by the Postal Service, then trust in the program plummets to a new low. The LEAGUE, NAPS and NAPUS have labored hard over the last years to try to make the process the motivator that it should be. Occasionally, the Postal Service would grant a concession on points that we might make, but in the end, if the process does not motivate by rewarding Postmasters and supervisors for their efforts, it is a dismal failure. Late last year, President Obama signed a bill ending the Pay for Performance process that was in place for Department of Defense employees. Perhaps it is time for our process to follow that fate to be replaced by something less complicated and more reasonable. OIG Report With the trillions of dollars flowing from the coffers and charge accounts of our National Government like they are, and the promise of the flow of trillions more, a billion, or even 75 billion dollars, doesn’t seem like much, but that is how much Inspector General David Williams’ office has said the Postal Service has overpaid into the Civil Service System. Wow, while $75 billion doesn’t sound like much in today’s dollars, that is huge to the Postal Service! According to the OIG report, if the overcharge was used to take care of the Postal Service’s obligation to pay into a fund for future retiree health benefits, it would take away the annual need to pay over $5 billion into the fund. If we found a way to apply it into the annual payment of about $ 2 ½ billion, the Postal Service would come very close to balancing its budget. Postmaster General, Jack Potter has had a pretty much unattainable goal to balance the budget. If the Postal Service can get this money returned (and it looks like the right thing to do is to return it, provided that the data used to determine the overpayment are correct), almost all of that financial pressure will be off the backs of the Postal Service. I say off the backs of the Postal Service, because all employees feel the burden; perhaps few more than Postmasters being forced to take up the slack of deep shortages in supervisor, clerk and carrier complement. Maybe this will allow us to hire the supervisors, clerks and carriers we need to get the job done. This is a story worth paying attention to, and something that the League will take to Congress during our Legislative Forum next week. Haiti All of our problems, challenges and discontent pale in comparison to the misery that the people, those human beings, are going through in Haiti as a result of the massive earthquake that shook that small island nation recently. Haiti, one of the very poorest nations in the western hemisphere, is absolutely not equipped to deal with this disaster. President Obama’s swift moves to involve the resources of the United States to this country and our country’s willingness to take the lead in going to the aid of our island neighbors have made me proud. If you want to do something to help, you can send money donations to the Red Cross and Catholic Relief Services and others who are deeply involved in this huge relief effort. As you can see, tremendous changes are happening right now. We can’t avoid them, but we can make some difference in the direction they take. Get involved. There is still time to join us at our Legislative Forum next week. Charley Mapa President National League of Postmasters 703-329-4550 |
League EventsJuly 18 - July 22, 2010 National League of Postmasters Convention Town and Country |
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