PostalReporter.com
At least 25 carriers have been walkout by the postal inspectors accused of wasting deliverable market ads.
A change in life situation has limited my Internet time. However as I was about to post to the Uspeakout Website about market ads. Specifically how even though the customers might not want them somebody does, as evidenced by the fact that I now deliver 5 sets of ads a week put out by 4 competitive companies. I don’t know if anyone else has posted this but ALL HELL HAS BROKEN OUT in the City of Angels. During the past 3 days at least twenty-five carriers have been walkout by the postal inspectors accused of wasting deliverable market ads.
A little background about 6 months ago an AM SOP pre-audit team went to Palms Station, 90034, in West LA and declared it the worst station in the Pacific area. The carrier supervisor was immediately replaced and the area manager moved into the building while the station manager was allowed to work the hot case until his scheduled vacation, from which he never returned. The new station manager had to face representatives from Penny Savers who would pick a route at random and together they went out to open the gang boxes, if there was mail in the boxes there had better been a Penny Saver with its married card or the service refunded the money to Penny Savers.
Wednesday Palms Station was invaded by Postal Inspectors who told them 5 carriers are going down today. The system activated, nobody in LA outside that particular station was that concerned because everybody expected a carrier to go down since the management already had. Stations all over the city were contacted to see if they had any underutilized PTFs to help out in the emergency. Of coarse practically every supervisor said of course not, so some former casual carriers who were just career hired were pulled from case training and sent to Palms. At Palms though everybody was in shock. The “perfect” carriers were walked out. Carriers who always finished their route in 8 with no bad paper in their files. Carriers with 20+ years of seniority. People who finished their routes in 8. Then picked up Penny Savers and still finished in 8, then pick-up the ADVO/Albertson’s and still finished in 8. From a station managers point of view the perfect a carriers. Runners.
Then the next day 12 more carriers were taken out of two others stations, Hancock 90044 and Dockweiller 90037 in South Central . Then the conspiracy theories started : they were after civil service employees to dump payroll. The Palms station manager was brown nosing, since she was the manager at the first two stations hit, Palms and Hancock, and she is the acting area manager right now, etc, etc. Again on Friday 10 more carriers from Pruess 90035 on the border with Beverly Hills and Sanford 90006(just west of Downtown) Stations. This time it was mostly PTFs taken, so much for the civil service theory. It was becoming apparent to all that the Inspectors were going after Los Angeles as a whole. And in my opinion the instigator was our real boss, ADVO and Penny Savers. If the current trend continues over 200 carriers will be suspended facing termination by the next time I am able to post on the net. In my opinion Los Angeles Postmaster James Smith, and/or District Manager William Almarez will follow those 200 carriers into unemployment.
The conspiracies theories are still flying. Like high level managers in the disestablished Long Beach District dropped dime on LA so that they could take over the LA jobs rather then having to relocate to Buffalo or Cleveland. But one thing is certain the Los Angles practice of take half the ads and do it in 8 is dead.. Since taking half of 5 sets of market ads means that you need 10 delivery days a week to get the job done. But management, who my opinion, also just got themselves fired still persist in the notion that delivering a market ad and its married card is one delivery. They refuse to accept that the cards themselves stick to each other , thus slowing us down. That we have to manually roll up the ad into a tube , because it won’t drop in the box, thus slowing us down. That the ad is hard to control in the wind because of the light weight cover sheet and the inserts. And that once that ad is in the box it unrolls and blocks the box so that other pieces won’t drop in the box. So that “single” ad cost as much time as 4 pieces of mail. While being paid ¼ the price for a single piece
The day after the second series of raids we got the standup . “We expect you to case 4 feet and hour and we expect you to be professional and don’t take out more then you can deliver in 8”. Hello, do you want us to case mail to a standard o r do you want us to wait until we know what is in the DPS so that we can put up and deliver what we can in 8 hours (Still not accepting that the minute I start to roll ads to stuff them into little boxes all of the pre conceived time considerations are thrown out). However the only real solution because 4 sets of market ads have been added after the last route inspections is to take at least an hour off of every route with a minimum number gang box deliveries and add routes and carriers to handle the business that the sells reps have generated when they accepted the Penny Savers the second set of ADVO, the LA Times, the Clipper, the ValPak, and all of the other coupon and market ad accounts.
Anyway how did the carriers get themselves in trouble? They forgot who the customer was. They believed that the nice apartment manager/resident that they saw everyday was the customer and when they asked the carrier to put the ads in the tray under the box (because nobody wanted that “junk“ anyway) , they did what the so-called customer asked. Once they made that break human nature took control. It wasn’t that hard to get to the gang box and start dropping 10 ads instead of 20 into the tray (in order to keep the mail lighter so they would have to add additional swings to the route) since the apartment manager was going to throw them out anyway. And after the 10 instead of 20 ads were dropped in the box deliver was made and the “extra” ads were excess and wasted. All those ads being taking away as waste caught attention.
Very few carriers actually see our actual customer, the person who paid for the postage. Folks we are part of the advertising industry. Our uniform says USPS but it is Penny Savers and ADVO who we work for. They are our real customers and it is them that we are referring to with the print on the back of our check stubs. What the people on the street call real mail is just what we deliver with our customer’s ads so that the people have to put their hands on the ads incase a letter from Aunt Mimi is in with it.
Sure it is easy for me to pop off and say stuff the market ads no matter how long it takes. I realize that I only have a single , four unit apartment building on my route so I am as safe as any carrier in Los Angeles is right now. We have basically two classes of carriers still working: we have the survivors in the 5 stations hit so far who are thinking that I did the same things those who were walked out did , why was I spared?. And the other group is the carriers in the rest of the stations in the city who are waiting for the postal inspectors to show up at their station to see if they are going to be the unlucky 5 pawns, in this fight between the advertisers and those in management who want to cut routes and/or refuse overtime. The five carriers in each station who are about to be replaced by the last group of people who took the postal exam.
Sad situation for those carriers. They still knew better, but that does not make it easier.
Hey your paid to deliver the mail, and not to make choices about what mail and who is to receive what advertisements, but to deliver the mail.
where was the postal inspection service when the plant mgr of mid-island p & d, li, ny dumped all of ADP's mail in New Jersey.
This is a 160 million dollar account that may now be lost-how come this bum is not fired!
Do you hear me Washington, DC.?
How sad the carriers here were so foolish. Reminds me of a time in FL when 10 carriers were escorted out for using coupons they acquired from the mail. (I guess they thought no one notice groups of them meeting at the same restaurant everyday with coupons that were mailed through the postal service) Glad the hear the managers are going to. I find it hard to believe they did not know and condone what was going on.
I have not known of this on such a large scale, but I have seen similar with an individual carrier. The Ispections Service investigated and stated, "Well, maybe he did get the mail mixed up with his lunch sack." This referred to a carrier throwing deliverable bulk into a dumpster.
It was obvious that the PM and sup refused to allow any discipline. The carrier was a postmaster's and a supervisor's good friend, and the carrier is now a 204b. The Inspection Service does not always do their job.
For those who are ordered or even threatened to commit such acts, it would be very wise to keep notes. Record dates, times, what has been said, to whom it was said, who may have heard it and who potential witnesses are. Usually, these types of managers will hang themselves. If it becomes a problem to write the information, carry a (very small) tape recorder to take dictation. Though, a recorder is prohibited if it is to be used to record conversations within the office. Only the Inspection Service may make recordings within a facility. Make sure that any dictation is taken outside of the office. It does work just fine.
Don't expect the Inspection Service or the OIG to be any help. You are on your own.
Thanks for an informative word on what actually happened. Perhaps it will be a wake up call for others who may be doing the same thing.
Best thing to do is go by the rules.
Sad, Sad, Sad
I'm a carrier who happens to live in 90034 and can say that the mail delivery situation in Palms is horrible. During the election season last year my house received almost no political mail despite having 2 registered voters in the house. Advos are occasionally delivered and sometimes there is no mail delivery at all. When I complained about the situation I got nowhere. Lately it seems that things are far better( maybe last 4 months) so maybe the district cleaned up the mess in Palms. As far as the circulars are concerned- deliver them all and take the necessary time to do it. The LA district people are all over my office writing us up for silly things and changing our cases. The postal managers seem to me to be purposely destroying the service for whatever reasons they may have.
In this case I do feel sorry for those carriers even if they did act improperly.
Has anyone read the new whistleblower rules? If our managers try to push us into a position where we will have to act improperly are we now free to tell on them? How far does this go could we report the Postal Service to the local newspaper or a congressperson?
Moe -- carriers know they are to deliver the mail, all of it. Still, a senior carrier going out the door kisses his pension good bye. Not much of a market for fired postal employees.
I used to tell my employees they are not required to do anything that would put their job in jeparody. They were told id any mgr asked/told them to do anything wrong to say "they will be happy to comply with that directive, just give it to me in writing".
A sad, sad, sad, situation. Who is to blame? The whole system, sadly. In my office, the rule is and always has been, that all advos/occ shall be delivered, where required, and into A MAILBOX!!! However, when you have 5 or more weekly, {I consider that advos and the cards are 2 different items} I see where shortcuts rule. I don't live in the zip where I work, but in my apt. bldg, this dumping of occupants by any/all carriers to this building just begs for this to happen where I live. cartero, I've seen your stuff on the other site, keep up the good work!!!!
To add to Cartero's information...the ex-manager and supervisor at Palms were not put up for removal...They were just shipped to smaller stations...
Bottom line...the good 'ol days at the USPS are ending. We are in a transitional phase of working for the government to working for bulk advertisers. I think we all know how well they pay.
Sorry, no sympathy here. It was a Mail Handler who busted his or her buut to get that mail to the cases, unloading the trailer, bringing it to the work area, spreading it to the carriers for delivery. At least we aren't getting blamed for it not getting delivered. I don't blame the companies one bit.
can anyone tell me if these carriers were put out on admin leave or none pay status until the invetigation is completed!
Hope their fired the slackers.
To all my fellow Postal Employees, I hope we can be more sensitive to our brothers and sisters who have fallen by the wayside...as the workers, we understand better than anyone that a lot of injustices are done to the employees in the Postal Service..."An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."...Today it is them, tomorrow it might be you...Yes, these individuals wasted market ads...Yes, the Advo Company, Pennysaver, LA Times and Albertson bring in large revenue for the Postal Service...In which, it helps to pay our salaries...However, it doesn't mean that we should be controlled by these large companies dictating to us on how their products should be delivered...or forcing the carriers to place all of these advertisements in mailboxes, in which most people immediately throw them in the waste basket or on the ground of the apartment buildings...I believe the Postal Service is a greedy organization and take on more than it can bite...It's an organization that's a jack-of-all-trade and a master of none...The Letter Carrier's shouldn't have to do it all, it's a ridiculous idea, to believe that one can do it all, and do it well...It's people that continue to go on with this madness...that change never take place...it's the mentality of the slave-master...hoping that he can oppress individuals, to intimidate him in to do what he wants him to do...it's called controll...Imagine, if Rosa Park gave up her seat...Blacks probably would still be riding on the back of the bus...Every now and then, we need the Harriet Tubman's, Nate Turner's, Frederick Douglass' and Martin Luther King Jr's to come around...to set the oppressed free...Let us stand with our fallen brothers and sisters, instead of criticizing them...Let us stand with them in unity...Or are you afraid what the Oppressor might do to you?...No justice, no peace...Remember, "Where you find numerous rules and regulations, there you will find also the greatest injustice."...
Tee...they were placed on a non-pay status...According to Article 16-Discipline Procedure...Section 7-Emergency Suspension...An employee may be immediately placed on an off-duty status (without pay) by the the Employer, but remain on the rolls where the allegation involves intoxication (use of drugs or alcohol), pilferage, or failure to observe safety rules and regulations, or in case where retaining the employee on duty may result in damage to U.S. Postal Service property, loss of mail or funds, or where the employee may be injurious to self or others. The employee shall remain on the roll (non-pay status) until disposition of the case has been had. If it proposed to suspend such an employee for more than thirty (30) days or discharge the employee, the emergency...
With fewer clerks and more managers/inspectors guess who's being watched now?
In my town the Postal Inspecters came into a station,went over to a route where they suspected addresed circulars werer being thrown away. they gathered the circulars the carrier threw in the waste (UBBM) and cased them into his case and found that a very high percentage were going into dividers without vacant case blocks. It had been going on for sometime and the carrier was fired.
They won't stay fired, if that is what happened. I hope they enjoy their vacations. They will be reinstated with back pay. Don't worry!
Cheaper allaround if a service talk was given instead.
exAPWU he was terminated.
But supervisor I perform a service to my customers.
Retired & Smiling:
Carriers do understand that they are required to deliver all the mail, but I have seen time when they are orderd to not deliver all the mail. I recall when our carriers were ordered to stop delivering if they were to run over eight hours. The order was to bring all the mail back that would cause them to be over and put it on a supervisor's desk. There were homes that did not receive any of their mail for five days. The carriers were furious. This is just one instance. There are many more. The managers were reproted to the Inspection Service, in another instance involving certifieds. Nothing was ever done.
You know and I know, just like all these carriers, mail must be delivered and not delayed. Not every manager has the same sense of duty that many of us have. I am not NALC, but nearly all the carriers in the office are my friends. As a friend, I advised them to do just exactly as I have suggested in my previous post. When management found out that their actions were being logged, they stopped delaying delivery. Still, the craft should always protect themselves.
By the way, I haven't seen your posts lately. You must have been out fulfilling your job description. I am trying very hard to follow in your footsteps and loving it.
665.16 Behavior and Personal Habits
Employees are expected to conduct themselves during and outside of working hours in a manner that reflects favorably upon the Postal Service. Although it is not the policy of the Postal Service to interfere with the private lives of employees, it does require that postal employees be honest, reliable, trustworthy, courteous, and of good character and reputation. The Federal Standards of Ethical Conduct referenced in 662.1 also contain regulations governing the off- duty behavior of postal employees. Employees must not engage in criminal, dishonest, notoriously disgraceful, immoral, or other conduct prejudicial to the Postal Service. Conviction for a violation of any criminal statute may be grounds for disciplinary action against an employee, including removal of the employee, in addition to any other penalty imposed pursuant to statute. Employees are expected to maintain harmonious working relationships and not to do anything that would contribute to an unpleasant working enviro
Call South Jersey District Manager
Joann to protest PM Joe K getting away with misconduct.
800-858-0493 ext 4400
The previous two posts wouldn't be bordering on entrapment, would it? Just remember: Jacobson v. United States, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 90-1124, Decided April 6, 1992, 503 U.S. 540. Just in case it is.
LA Update.
The mass station raids have ceased but the Postal Inspectors have continued to take down single carriers during the week. Being cops they are just using the power giving to them to prevent a disgruntled AK47 wielding employee from entering the work floor to “suspend” the carriers. President Brown (NALC Branch 24)says that will be the first line of defense. Rumor says that 50 Inspectors were sent to LA on TDY just for this mission and now they are being moved to other duties.
As of Friday President Brown has reported that District Manager Almarez doesn’t know what is happening and nobody has been put up removal yet simply because the Inspectors have not turned over their investigative reports (they are still sweeping up carriers). It seems that no matter who initiated this drive it is out of the hands of management. The actual Area Manager, returning to his duty at this time of stress, was giving a standup to one of the hardest hit stations was actually telling the survivors that the Postal Inspectors were looking at everybody and since you are still here you are okay. Either by pure chance or some perverted sense of humor at that moment a Postal Inspector stepped onto the work floor and gave the station manager the come here look. Later another carrier was pulled off of the street.
Branch 24 at this time still is thinking of this as individual cases and intends to defend each case according to its merits. I think that it is a system problem and should handled that way but I am just a carrier so I will support and report. An example of the systematic problem: The public face of the LA Post Office Postmaster Smith hasn’t been heard from except to give his supervisors instructions that there was to be no own route overtime on Fridays. Now we have a market ad commitment on Friday, Pacific area auditors are writing up stations for not making the commitment (the taking half and make it back in 8 mentality) means that either Saturday or Monday of the next week OT will have to be used to make up those half sets of ads anyway.
I am a BMEU clerk who sees all the grocery ads that I help weigh out being sent to the recycle trash bin the next day. I spoke with the customer and they said that these ads should all be deliverable. I understand that some stations where I'm at they leave the ads at the back door and have the carriers pick em up as they walk out. This is the supervisor's fault. I can also see many carriers going down in our city over this matter. These customers pay to have their ads delivered. They should get what they're paying for. If carriers have a problem with delivering them, then maybe that isn't what they should be doing
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