Mind-boggling new tech instantly identifies opioids and drugs hidden in USPS packages

  Mind-boggling new tech instantly identifies opioids and drugs hidden in USPS packages

"...The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are also making use of a mind-boggling new piece of equipment called the Gemini. It’s able to identify 22,000 substances within seconds. “I’m going to activate the laser and within a few seconds, it’s going to take its reading..."

Reference: www.foxnews.com  

NPMHU, APWU and USPS Reach Agreement to Update RI-399 Dispute Resolution Procedures

  NPMHU, APWU and USPS Reach Agreement to Update RI-399 Dispute Resolution Procedures

We are pleased to provide a linked copy of a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding – executed earlier today by the NPMHU, the American Postal Workers Union, and the U.S. Postal Service – that updates the RI-399 Dispute Resolution Procedures that were originally signed in 1992. The parties have been negotiating and discussing the terms of this Update MOU for several years, and its execution marks an important milestone in the history of RI-399 and the process for deciding jurisdictional disputes between NPMHU mail handlers and APWU clerks.

The Update MOU resolves many of the pending disputes now being held at the National, Regional, and Local levels. The Update MOU also requires all local facilities employing both mail handlers and clerks to develop updated or “Revised 9-1-2017 Inventories” to reflect the actual assignment practices in each facility as of September 1, 2017, with a status quo agreement being enforced as of that date on most jurisdictional issues. If the local facilities do not sign their own inventories, then the National parties will send in representatives to complete these documents. The Update MOU provides for certain monetary payments to mail handlers and clerks, with details about the distribution of such amounts still to be determined. And, the Update MOU adopts new procedures to reduce future disputes and to keep the RI-399 process from again becoming a bottomless pit where jurisdictional disputes reside, but never get resolved.

June 26, 2018- Read the NPMHU memorandum to all local union officers and representatives (pdf)

Read the complete Memorandum of Understanding for additional details (pdf)

Reference: www.npmhu.org  

NPMHU REBUFFS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PROPOSAL TO PRIVATIZE POSTAL SERVICE

  NPMHU REBUFFS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PROPOSAL TO PRIVATIZE POSTAL SERVICE

The Trump Administration on June 21, 2018 released its so-called Reform Plan and Reorganization Recommendations – formally entitled the Office of Management and Budget’s Report on Delivering Government Solutions in the 21st Century. The plan includes various Trump proposals for reorganizing the federal government. Buried deep in the Report is the President’s plan to restructure the Postal Service into a “sustainable business model” and thereby “prepare it for future conversion . . . into a privately held corporation.”

“The plan itself is unsustainable,” said NPMHU President Paul Hogrogian after reading through the 128-page report. “It starts by noting that public trust in the federal government has declined over the last decade, but then proposes to dismantle the most trusted component of that government – the Postal Service – and move it into the private sector.” “The inevitable result of such privatization,” said Hogrogian, “would be to destroy universal postal services for every American,” which has been a mainstay of the nation’s systems for communications and commerce ever since the Founding Fathers put the Post Office into the U.S. Constitution. If postal services were privatized, as the Trump Administration envisions, many Americans would lose their daily access to postal services, and the cost of those services for other Americans would increase greatly.

To be sure, the Postal Service currently faces a difficult financial situation, principally caused by the mandatory pre-funding of retiree benefits ordered by Congress in 2006. But there is legislation currently pending in Congress and proposed rules already issued by the Postal Regulatory Commission to address USPS finances. Taken together, these proposals provide a roadmap for sustaining the Postal Service as the cherished American institution that it always has been. Policymakers and others interested in how to ensure the future of the Postal Service should take the time needed to read the materials that all four major postal unions recently submitted to the White House Task Force on the USPS.

That joint submission is linked here:


• Workforce Submission to the White House Task Force on the USPS (white paper)
• An Executive Summary of the Workforce Submission
• Policy Options for Eliminating or Reducing the Prefunding Burden (summary chart)
• History of Postal Reform Legislation
• Delivering Government Solutions in the 21st Century - Reform Plan and Reorganization Recommendations

Reference: NPMHU.ORG  

MHAs receive wage increase of 20 cents per hour effective on Saturday, May 26, 2018.

  MHAs RECEIVE WAGE INCREASE OF 20 CENTS PER HOUR

In accordance with Article 9.7 of the 2016 National Agreement between the NPMHU and the Postal Service, all Mail Handler Assistants will receive an hourly wage increase of $0.20 per hour effective on Saturday, May 26, 2018. This increase is in addition to the general wage increase of 2.3% that will be effective in approximately six months, on November 24, 2018. There also will be another increase of $0.21 per hour effective in May 2019.

The 20 cent per hour increase raises the Level 4 MHA hourly rate to $15.66 and the Level 5 MHA hourly rate to $16.50, which is an increase of approximately 1.3% and 1.2% respectively. These additional increases were included in the 2016 National Agreement to help close the current gap between MHAs and career employees and to reduce attrition among MHAs.

Reference: www.npmhu.org  

Feeling Left Behind? USPS Mail Handler pay is so low it doesn't even make this list by FedSmith

  Postal Service: Highest Paid Employees and Highest Averages
"...Six of the highest paid hourly employees in the Postal Service work in Alabama. Here is the listing..."

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Reference: www.fedsmith.com