November 23, 2013
Special National Update for New England Area Branches
The following information is being provided to support the New England Area branches from your NAPS national offices.
Postal Legislation:
S. 1486 has now been scheduled for mark-up (discussion on the bill before the language becomes final) for the past 5 weeks and each time the mark-up has been cancelled. The reason for these continued cancellations include:

Postal Service working with Senators Carper and Coburn (the sponsors) to adopt language that would install a new health care proposal to eliminate the pre-funding of retiree health benefits.

Push-back from interests groups (postal unions and management associations) who are attempting to maintain six-day delivery and avoid plant closures.

Push-back from mailers and postal unions and associations on eliminating overnight local First
Class Mail delivery.
There is universal dislike from the postal unions and associations about many of the current elements of the bill and if the amendments that the parties are trying to get entered don’t materialize, there will not be enough support in the Senate to pass the bill if and when it comes out of the mark-up for a vote.
The actual failure of Carper and Coburn to get their bill marked up has been the efforts of the postal unions and associations to get the provisions of the bill that would implement five day delivery, plant closures and elimination of local overnight delivery struck from the bill.
Many of the Senators who have objections to the current legislation from Carper and Coburn are friends of NAPS and the postal unions. So, as the delay is problematic, it also shows that our efforts to get rid of some of the most onerous parts of the bill are in fact working.
Plant Closures:
The Postal Service is still moving forward with their plans to close plants in early 2014 should be a lack of clear direction from the Congress. NAPS is lobbying feverishly to keep this from happening.
The Plant closure plan was the reason that the USPS pulled eCareer postings for jobs in Plants that still may be on the chopping block. This was most likely directed by the Board of Governors.
Sunday Delivery Pilot:
The Postal Service has still not been forthcoming on how they are going to staff and manage the delivery of Amazon parcels on Sunday. NAPS is concerned that the resources to staff and manage Sunday delivery will simply be moved from the regular delivery workforce. A supervisor is needed to manage this Sunday operation and this may result in supervisors having Sunday as a regular workday with an additional N/S day off during the week. Also, shifting craft resources to Sunday will have a negative impact on delivery services for the remainder of the week.

2014 LTS:
Registration forms for the 2014 LTS will be published in the December issue of our magazine. Due to the efforts of Jay Killackey who recommended that some of NAPS investment accounts be restructured to capture stock market gains, resulting in amassing profits of nearly $2 million dollars, the executive board approved a motion by Jay to subsidize registrations for the LTS program and the new registration rate has been set at $125 for 2014.
2014 National Convention:
Also, due to the restructuring of the NAPS investment portfolio – the registration fee for the 2014 national convention also has been reduced to a fee of $130. Between the 2014 LTS and national convention programs, more than $200,000 is expected to be saved by local branches who send delegates to these events.
Sign Up a Non-Member:
Through December 31, 2013, any member who signs up a non-ember gets a $25 gift card from NAPS. In addition, the new member also gets a $25 gift card too.
4 Day Workweek:
NAPS is working to develop the criteria to support the piloting of a 4 day workweek with 10 hour workdays. NAPS will be setting up meetings with postal headquarters to discuss how TACS can be modified in order to allow for proper clocking practices and how leave and holiday pay are accrued and paid. More information will be disseminated when progress is made in these discussions.
NAPS Scanning Workgroup:
NAPS has established a scanning working group consisting of NAPS board members and members from the field (including from Florida) to communicate issues with scanning to Postal headquarters. The interaction between the NAPS workgroup and headquarters is ongoing, addressing some of the major problems our members are having in the field in their attempts to increase scanning performance. (the notes were sent in separate messages).
New York Meeting/USPS & NAPS Briefing:
A large contingent of postal executives and NAPS leaders will be meeting in New York City for a briefing on the USPS new health plan proposal and to receive a legislative briefing from NAPS headquarters on
December 4, 2013 at the James A. Farley Post office in Manhattan.
Tommy Roma was able to secure the fact that all NAPS attendees will be on the clock during their attendance at this important event that is limited to branch presidents and state legislative chairs from
NAPS.
NAPS is looking closely at this new health care proposal which, if adopted into law, would greatly eliminate the current prefunding requirement for future retirees health care. USPS Vice President, Doug
Tulino, from Labor Relations will be doing a presentation and taking questions from NAPS attendees.