National Association of Letter Carriers

Now that what will certainly prove to be a record-setting season is coming to a close, please congratulate yourselves on an amazing job well done. And on this Christmas Eve, may you and those closest to you have the happiest of holidays ...

We've made available the Department of Homeland Security's "Active Shooter - How To Respond" guidebook. In a world gone mad, being prepared for anything, anytime, anywhere is the smart play. The link to the guide can be found on the Carrier Resource page.

A letter carrier in Las Vegas was killed this past Saturday in a multi-vehicle crash. This unfortunate scenario could happen to anyone of us as we perform our daily routines. The Las Vegas Review-Journal has a short piece on the accident here. Our thoughts go out to this carrier's family and friends. As we approach the holiday season, please remember to buckle up out there. Remember safety really is job one ... please get home to your families each and every day.

The NALC National Twitter feed is now available on the right-hand site of this Website. Twitter users can conveniently log-in and interact from our homepage. Also, we've added a link to the USPS Employee Assistance Program Website. The EAP is provided for employees to help manage issues in their personal lives. Always strictly confidential ... EAP, a program you can trust.

"The USPS exists right now in never-never land. It is not fully public and it is not fully private."

Elaine Kamarck, Brookings Institution


And here's another one. Click here to read the Los Angeles Times op-ed piece on the future of the U.S.P.S. (Spoiler Alert: numbers don't tell the whole of a story as complicated as this one ...)

"While Sen. Carper's new bill contains several provisions we cannot support and raises a number of serious concerns for letter carriers and the larger federal employee community, we believe it is a good place to begin the conversation about how to preserve and strengthen the Postal Service for the American people, while protecting the legitimate interests of all the key stakeholders."

NALC President Fredric Rolando

The USPS, however, is rejecting elements of the "2015 iPost Act", saying it isn't going far enough to fix major financial concerns. The Government Executive Website has this story, while you can click here to read summary and analysis from the NALC Website

"The mail still matters to Americans, who sent or received 155 billion pieces in fiscal 2014. Checks, medicine, magazines, mail ballots, newspapers, greeting cards, court documents - they're all in the mail stream."

"Yet the USPS recently expanded a service called Metro Post to New York, despite a botched pilot in San Francisco that earned less than $1 for every $10 invested - a 90 percent financial loss."

Here are several links to include in your holiday weekend Web surfing ...

From the Washington Post: "Post Office Can't Even Meet Its Own Lower Standards As Late Mail Soars"
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer: "The U.S. Postal Service Is Failing Rural America"
"A Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service"

"This delay means that some of the most vulnerable people in the country are going without the medications they need, or they are being forced to travel long distances because they cannot rely on the timely delivery of mail."

Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is calling for a return to sanity with regards to Postal Service delivery standards. Please click here to read the Washington Post story and here to read the Senator's letter to Postmaster General Brennan.

"It's just leveraging our infrastructure. We're on people's doorstep six days a week, seven days a week in some cases. It's just a logical progression."

Postmaster General Megan Brennan


3 a.m. might be a bit early, but who can argue with the increase in business. Read the Yahoo! Finance story here.

From the NALC Legislative Update in your inbox, three stories that are good news for our cause. Could the death of the Pre-Funding Mandate be next? ...

• Senate Committee Preserves 6-Day Appropriations Language
• Federal Employee "Payfor" On Highway Trust Fund Rejected
• Rural Postal Act Introduced In Senate

"While the topic of five-day delivery was a large part of the legislative ask in the last Congress, we are currently looking to gain consensus and we have not been promoting five day as a key tenet."

Postal Service spokeswoman Sue Brennan

Here's a story that flirts with common sense: Postal Service plans to cut our core mission to provide the best delivery service in the world SIX days a week seem to have been shelved. The Federal Times story can be accessed with a simple click.

"The Postal Service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people. It shall provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to patrons in all areas and shall render postal services to all communities."   -   Title 39, U.S.C., Section 101(a)


From the Kansas City Star comes this column on postal policy and the Heartland. Click here to give it a read.

"The Postal Service should be speeding up the delivery of mail, not slowing it down. We should be working to strengthen the Postal Service, not sending it into a death spiral ..."

From PoliticusUSA we have a piece about Senator (and Presidential candidate) Bernie Sanders and his efforts on our behalf. You may check it out by clicking right here.

"We were unable to reach a negotiated settlement tonight. We were too far apart on wages and benefits. But we are going to work hard over the course of the next week to see if we can narrow the differences."

APWU President Mark Dimondstein

The USPS, APWU and NRLCA are struggling to reach new contracts as the groups battle over the pay and benefits of current and future Postal Service employees. Read the Federal Times story by clicking here.

The 2015 NALC Food Drive is upon us ... this Saturday May 9th, we will do our part to help "Stamp Our Hunger" across the United States. You can follow the Drive on social media here:

       

"Cutting down on the time it takes the Postal Service to complete a route and delivering more packages during that time could save the Postal Service a lot of time and money ..."

From the Federal Times comes this story of the Postal Service's continuing efforts to find the next generation of delivery vehicles. This is what we're up against - check out this story by clicking your mouse here.

From the Huffington Post Politics blog ... Ralph Nader has posted his take on the Postal Service's future. You can access the blog by clicking here.

From Alternet.org comes an article looking into the APWU's efforts to build a cohesive labor movement amongst the postal unions. Read the story here.

From the Federal Times, we have an article examining how e-commerce is changing how we'll conduct our business going forward. Read it here. And on a related note, here is an Auto World News story regarding the (possible) future of just how we'll get all those packages to your customers.

"In the face of aggressive attacks, a wide range of national organizations have come together to create 'A Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service'. These organizations are united in the demand that the public good must not be sacrificed for the sake of private investment and profit. A strong public Postal Service is our democratic right. The Alliance is fighting to protect and enhance vibrant public postal services now - and for many generations to come."

From Truth-Out.org comes this story of the APWU's efforts to get the truth out to the masses. Click here to read the story and here to go to the Alliance Website.

Megan J. Brennan, the nation's new Postmaster General, says the Postal Service is looking beyond its regular mail and package delivery for new sources of revenue. Read the Vancouver Sun story here.

"So I want to set the record straight: Today's Postal Service is just as capable of package delivery as FedEx and UPS."

... more than capable actually. And from Yahoo Finance comes this news item praising those capabilities. Read it here.

"It is better at what it does than most of us, operating under conditions and constraints that would have most of us, most businesses and most institutions waving a white flag."

Well ... yes. The Washington Post's take on this is here. And thanks Mr. Rosenthal ... it's nice to be appreciated.

Today we have added a "Making Healthy Choices" page to the main site. Here you can access helpful links and pdf files full of information to help you stay healthy. Please click on the link to the left to get started ...

The 2015 schedule for Customer Connect Teleconferences has arrived. It can be accessed here. This will also be posted in the "Carriers' Resources" section of the site.

Our United States Postal Service surpassed it's 2014 holiday-season goals for parcel deliveries, setting a new single-day delivery record in the bargain. The Washington Post story on this accomplishment can be accessed here. And ... great job everyone !!!