[February 24th]

Boxler Scholarship Application Available to Download

The availability of this scholarship for members' children is courtest of PPWU, the Pennsylvania Postal Worker's Union. You can find a link to their website on our Labor Links page.

The application form and accompanying rules of entry can be downloaded from our site in Adobe PDF form.

        [February 20th]

Postal Unions on Panel of 2/24 Senate Hearing

Preserving a Strong United States Postal Service: Worforce Issues, Day 2

The hearing has been rescheduled from the original date of February 3, 2004. This hearing complements the February 4, 2004, 2:00 PM hearing, "Preserving a Strong United States Postal Service: Workforce Issues, Day 2"

Panel 2

William Young , President , National Association of Letter Carriers
Dale Holton , National President , National Rural Letter Carriers
William Burrus , President , American Postal Workers Union
John Hegarty , President , National Postal Mail Handlers Union

        [February 9th]

Bush Budget Proposes to Eliminate Research on Decontamination of Toxic Buildings
By JOHN HEILPRIN, The Associated Press, Friday, February 6, 2004

President Bush asked Congress to eliminate an $8.2 million research program on how to decontaminate buildings attacked by toxins - the same day a poison-laced letter shuttered Senate offices.

Critics said Thursday they were surprised by Bush's request, included in his 2005 budget proposal. Its release coincided with the discovery of the poison ricin in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's office on Monday.

"It is a stunning example of the budget choices this administration has made, where tax cuts for elites are more important than public health or adequate homeland security," said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

Daschle's office was the target of an anthrax-laced letter in October 2001 when he held Frist's job.

Buried in documents justifying the Environmental Protection Agency's budget plan is an acknowledgment that Bush's proposed research cut "represents complete elimination of homeland security building decontamination research."

In the documents, the agency said that losing the research money would "force it to disband the technical and engineering expertise that will be needed to address known and emerging biological and chemical threats in the future."

Continue reading this at the Washington Post. The entire article is on their website.

        [February 8th]

The Postal Service Commits to Removing OCRs, BCSs

The Postal Service's Board of Governors approved the funding this past Tuesday that is needed to begin the removal and replacement of MLOCRs and BCS machines. Most of this will come as enhancements to the AFCS and DBCS machines, which will reroute mail and remove the need for the MLOCRs and BCSs. "New machines" with enhanced capabilities will be brought in, but the current 646 MLOCRs will be removed, and only a predicted 395 "new machines" will be deployed.

Read more on the USPS page
POSTAL HIGH-TECH SORTERS TO GET 'BRAIN TRANSPLANTS'

        [February 8th]

Window Clerks Take Note

We have added a set of new "Dos and Don'ts" to the Thru the Window page, so take a few minutes to look them over, and while you're there, it wouldn't hurt to review other important issues regarding your job position. After all, it's tax time and you may want to claim those Miscellaneous Deductions, right?

        [February 4th]

Senate Hearing on Postal Reform Postponed
(APWU President William Burrus, from the Burrus Update, # 03-04)

"Committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate have scheduled public hearings, permitting interested parties to express their views on proposed changes. The APWU has been invited to testify before the House Special Panel on Postal Reform and the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. The Senate hearing scheduled for Feb. 3, 2004, was postponed, due to the discovery of ricin in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, where the hearing was to take place. The hearing will be rescheduled."

"The House Special Panel hearing is scheduled for Feb. 5, 2004, in Chicago, and I will be testifying on behalf of APWU. The testimony will be posted on the APWU Web site, and excerpts will appear in the upcoming issue of the American Postal Worker magazine."


Please read the entire Update on the APWU website page, where President Burrus outlines the APWU position he will be presenting to the panel.

        [February 3rd]

A Slap in the Face to America's Veterans
(from the AFL-CIO)

Vietnam-era veteran Randy Fleming says the Bush administration is breaking the deal Fleming and other military veterans made with the government when they enlisted.

"When I signed up in 1973, the Air Force and I made a deal that I thought was fair. They got a chunk of my time and I got training to help me build the rest of my life. There was no part of that deal that said I would have to give up my overtime pay."

But Fleming and other veterans face the loss of overtime pay protections because of the Bush administration's nearly yearlong battle to eliminate overtime pay guarantees in the Fair Labor Standards Act that could cost as many as 8 million workers their overtime pay.

Fleming, an engineering technician at the Boeing Co.'s metrology lab near Wichita, Kan., says the training he received during the five years he served his country qualified him "for a good civilian job. Now they are using this 'military penalty' to cancel that bargain."

On Jan. 22, Bush and Senate Republican leaders killed a filibuster against a massive spending bill. Backers of the filibuster had fought to include an amendment to block the overtime pay protection attack that previously had been approved by the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao says the U.S. Department of Labor plans to implement in March sweeping rules that could deny overtime pay protection to as many as 8 million workers, but AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says the fight against the Bush overtime pay protection elimination is far from over. Several senators have vowed to keep up the legislative fight against the Bush proposal by seeking to add amendments to upcoming bills that would block the rules.

The military penalty aspect of Bush's overtime assault received little press or congressional notice until AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka's Senate testimony.

Please read the entire article at Bush Overtime Plan: A Slap in the Face of America's Veterans. You will find a petition there that you can sign to count your voice in opposition to this newest insult.

        [February 2nd]

Impending Postal Retirements To Expedite Expense Cuts
from the Federal Times Online, Stephen Losey, 1/29/03

About a quarter-million postal employees will be eligible for retirement in the next five years, Postmaster General John Potter told the House Government Reform Committee Jan. 28. And the U.S. Postal Service plans to take advantage of those impending retirements to further reduce the work force, Potter said, though he did not offer any estimates of how much the payroll might be cut.

The Postal Service has cut the work force by 80,000 through retirements and early outs since 1999, Potter said. The reductions are part of an effort to reduce costs in the face of declining mail volume and revenue– a crisis that has many questioning the viability of the Postal Service.

The Postal Service now employs more than 820,000 career and noncareer workers.

Potter's remarks came at the first of three House hearings scheduled to help lawmakers create a bill intended to overhaul the Postal Service. The Senate has similar hearings scheduled for Feb. 3 and 4.

A White House commission last July offered 35 recommendations on how to improve the Postal Service, some of which are expected to make it into the bill. Among the commission's recommendations were proposals to give the Postal Service more power to set postage rates and close facilities, open employees' health benefits to collective bargaining, and involve private mailers more in mail processing.

Read more postal news on the Federal Times Online.

        [February 2nd]

Vacation Procedures for Clerk and MVS Craft 2004
(Reposted from the January Bulletin Board)

Detailed information is now available for both crafts, so members, take a look. There are a few changes to keep in mind, but perhaps the dates are the most important to the majority of you.

Clerk Craft Procedures

Motor Vehicle Craft Procedures