Postal Service posts operational profit of $1.2 billion in fiscal 2015

  USPS Posts $5.1 Billion Net Loss in 2015 Despite Growing Revenue

"...The U.S. Postal Service turned an operational profit of $1.2 billion in fiscal 2015, marking the third consecutive year its revenue exceeded its controllable costs..."

Reference: www.govexec.com  

Reminder: Open Season for Federal Health Benefits, Dental and Vision is Now Open

  Reminder: Open Season for Federal Health Benefits, Dental and Vision is Now Open

"...Open Season, which begins November 9 and runs through December 14, will give Federal employees and retirees the opportunity to review the 2016 rates and benefits of their current plans and those of competing plans. During the Open Season, FEHB enrollees can change their health-care coverage; employees who are not enrolled, but eligible to participate, may elect coverage.

The upcoming Open Season will be the first opportunity for enrollees to select a Self Plus One enrollment in the FEHB Program. For over 95% of enrollees, the enrollee share for Self Plus One will be lower than the enrollee share for Self and Family in their current plan. However, it is possible that some plans will have higher enrollee shares for Self Plus One enrollments than for Self and Family enrollments. Therefore, enrollees are encouraged to carefully review their choices before making a change; switching to Self Plus One is voluntary.

The upcoming Open Season will also give employees and retirees the chance to select supplemental dental and/or vision coverage. In addition, Federal employees can elect to participate in a tax-deferred Flexible Spending Account (FSA) for health care and/or dependent care.

Established in 1960, the FEHB Program..."

Reference: www.opm.gov  

Postal Workers Snub Clinton, Back Sanders

  Sanders wins backing of American Postal Workers Union, his largest labor endorsement.

Bernie Sanders wants to save the Postal Service

"...The postal workers' union said Sanders has a long history of supporting its workers and pointed to his efforts to keep open post offices and mail-sorting plants in rural communities, oppose slower delivery standards and fight attempts to privatize the mail service..."
Reference: www.usnews.com

Mail Handler 1% Pay Increase will be Effective November 14, 2015

  1% Pay Increase is Effective November 14, 2015

Effective November 14, 2015 the basic annual salary for each grade and step of Table One and Table Two shall be increased by an amount equal to 1.0% of the basic annual salary for the grade and step in effect on February 15, 2013.

Private sector jobs seem to continue to rise, yet craft employee wages with the USPS continue a trend of near stagnant wages as health insurance continues to outpace any pay increases by far. On the average, health premiums will rise on the average of about 7.4%, far above increases for working class Americans. According to Mercer's 2014/2015 US Compensation Planning Survey, the average raise in base pay for U.S. workers is expected to be 3.0% in 2015. In comparison, USPS workers are being left far behind while pay raises for U.S. employees continue to grow steadily. While Mail Handlers take the brunt of negative economic impacts by being forced to relocate, often more than the contractual 50 mile limitation, during the USPS consolidations and closures.

We can only hope that the upcoming National Contract negotiations will garner more realistic wage increases. The Postal Service is doing exponentially better in its profitable parcel business and employees should realistically expect our employer to share some of this profit. That may or may not be the case. If the higher waged APWU employee contract negotiations are any sign in an 'apples to oranges' comparison of negotiations, things may look as gloomy as they have the past.

Most employers outside of the Postal Service have come to realize that large wage increases equate to higher productivity.

The PMG, in video after video, continues to inform employees how great our employees are doing and how great our customer service scores are. We can only hope these accomplishments, born through mail handlers doing more with less, will be appropriately rewarded. Our National Union has a strong team to lead us into the future and we are in hopes we will reap the benefits of our sacrifices and our families sacrifices of forced moves, fewer employees and little information being shared about our futures. - Chief Steward, Huntsville, AL

Reference: NPMHU 317  

NPMHU Prepares for National Negotiations

  NPMHU Prepares for National Negotiations
With formal negotiations between the NPMHU and the Postal Service over the terms of the 2016 National Agreement scheduled to begin in February 2016, preparations for bargaining are moving forward in the National Office. One critical aspect of those preparations is now completed, as the Field Negotiating Committee met during the third full week of October at the NPMHU's National Headquarters. During those meetings, hundreds of potential bargaining proposals — previously submitted by members, stewards, officers, and Local Unions across the country — were reviewed and analyzed by the Committee.

The proposals submitted from the field not only contained many useful ideas, but also provided the National Office with important information on the priorities and concerns of 43,000 mail handlers from across the country. And in the course of studying these proposals, members of the Committee also had the opportunity to generate many of their own ideas for new proposals that may be submitted to the Postal Service at the onset of this year's bargaining.

On behalf of the entire membership, National President Paul Hogrogian met with the Field Negotiating Committee to express the Union's appreciation for the invaluable work performed by all of its members.
Reference: www.npmhu.org