Rural Letter Carriers Complain About Dramatically Reduced Pay

Steve HutkinsNews

David Dayen, The American Prospect: A new payment system that is estimated to reduce base pay for most rural letter carriers, for some by thousands of dollars, has led to widespread threats of quitting and concern about whether the mail will get delivered in rural America. The U.S. Postal Service intended to begin implementing the new system, known as the … Read More

The bank crisis is the latest argument to expand Postal Service banking

Steve HutkinsBlog, News

APWU President Mark Dimondstein: The recent bank crisis set off by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank has exposed a reality about how U.S. banking really works. The system’s very existence — for example, insuring deposits, loan guarantees and setting interest rates — depends entirely on the federal government. Since the government is already in the business of supporting the … Read More

PRC Initiates Public Inquiry Proceeding to Gather Information on Changes to the Postal Network

Steve HutkinsBlog, Featured

PRC Press Release:  The Postal Regulatory Commission today established Public Inquiry Docket No. PI2023-4 (PI2023-4) to provide a forum to gather information, provide transparency, and learn more about the Postal Service’s Delivering for America strategic initiatives that may have a significant impact on the postal community. In the PI2023-4 docket, the Commission will issue information requests to the Postal Service regarding … Read More

GAO says Action Needed to Improve Credibility of USPS Cost Assumptions for Next Generation Delivery Vehicles

Steve HutkinsBlog, News

GAO: The United States Postal Service’s (USPS) cost estimate for acquiring the next generation delivery vehicle followed most leading practices for a comprehensive, well documented, and accurate estimate. However, USPS did not fully use practices related to credibility from GAO’s Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide, such as including a sensitivity analysis of how different assumptions affected the underlying cost estimate. … Read More

APWU to hold Post Office rally on May 1 in Spokane WA

Steve HutkinsBlog, News

Save Our Postal Workers is holding a rally at the Riverside Station Post Office, 904 W Riverside Ave., Spokane, WA 99204 May 01, 2023 • 11:30am If you or anyone you know has had a delay in mail services, come rally and tell de joy what you think!! Join the American Postal Workers Union and speak up!!

U.S. Postal Service squeezes the free press

Steve HutkinsBlog, News

Seattle Times: The U.S. Postal Service is increasing rates again, and it’s targeting newspapers and other periodicals for extra-high rates. It’s outrageous that the Postal Service, which was created in part to support the free press, is helping kill it. The Postal Service has proposed increasing rates across the board, pending rubber-stamp approval. Newspapers delivered by mail will take one of … Read More

PRC report on the feasibility of restoring service standards of 2012 and 2021

Steve HutkinsBlog, Featured, News

As part of the 2022 Appropriations Act, Congress directed the Postal Regulatory Commission “to analyze the feasibility of restoring service standards for market-dominant products that were in effect on July 1, 2012, including an examination of the resources and structural and operational changes needed, and the impacts on market growth and revenue.” Congress also directed the Commission to “conduct a … Read More

Don’t Expect to Charge Your Electric Vehicle at the Stations USPS Plans to Build

Steve HutkinsNews

Government Executive: There are too many hurdles to allow the public to use the U.S. Postal Service’s forthcoming charging stations to juice up their own electric vehicles, according to the agency and a federal watchdog, even as the agency plans to add the capacity to tens of thousands of its facilities. USPS should, however, create plans to allow its own … Read More

Rural Carriers to Protest Against Unfair Pay Cuts

Steve HutkinsNews

Thousands of United States Postal Service Rural Letter Carriers nationwide are facing huge pay cuts under a new pay evaluation system, the Rural Route Evaluated Compensation System (RRECS), set to go into effect later this month. Rural Carriers will be protesting these proposed pay cuts and their implementation without the promised transparency and access to the data by the workers … Read More

GAO: Electric Vehicle Infrastructure: USPS Should Plan for Potential Workplace Charging

Steve HutkinsBlog, News

GAO: The United States Postal Service’s (USPS) facilities, such as post offices, could potentially provide the public and postal employees with electric vehicle chargers. For example, publicly-accessible chargers could serve community members without a charger at their home. Additionally, five of the 13 stakeholders GAO interviewed said employees would most benefit from chargers at USPS facilities, given the time available … Read More

How a Texas judge banned the abortion pill by invoking the Comstock Act prohibiting mailing obscene material

Steve HutkinsNews

How an old law found new life in lawsuit seeking to revoke approval of abortion pill Anti-abortion advocates are trying to revive the long-dormant 1873 Comstock Act, which banned mailing of anything related to abortion or contraception, in a lawsuit about mifepristone, an abortion-inducing drug. In an Amarillo courthouse last week, lawyers seeking to move abortion medication off the market … Read More

CPWU Spring 2023 newsletter

Steve HutkinsNews

The Spring 2023 newsletter from Community and Postal Workers United (CPWU) has articles about protests in Portland, OR, and Minneapolis, MN, about staff shortages, overwork, and mail delays; reports of residents not receiving their mail in mountain communities in Colorado; and Safe Passage routes for Illinois postal carriers who they say have been victims of violent crime. Read the newsletter … Read More

Beacon Post Office Clerks Given Notice To Find New Locations

Steve HutkinsNews

Little Beacon Blog: According to a clerk who works at the Beacon Post Office, the clerks (who work behind the front desk at the post office) were given notice about one week ago that they needed to find new jobs within 100 miles. The clerk said that if they did not want to leave Beacon, they could be “pulled” and … Read More

The Mission to Save Hudson Valley Post Offices

Steve HutkinsNews

WRRV: Last month, 15 Hudson Valley post offices, including the beloved and historic location in Beacon, NY, were included in a plan that would move mail sorting to a central “Sorting and Delivery Center” (S&DC) in Newburgh, NY. The decision, meant to begin in September 2023, would send all affected mail carriers to pick up their daily route in Newburgh, NY before … Read More