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USPS Announces New VER, Management Reductions
Burrus Update #04-09, March 20, 2009
In response to significant deficits caused by a substantial reduction in mail volume, the Postal Service has requested and received approval to offer Voluntary Early Retirement (VER) to 150,000 employees nationwide.
The application deadlines, effective dates, and the categories of affected employees will be announced in the near future.
Retirement is a personal matter, and the union defers to the decisions of employees who meet the qualifications. However, the APWU continues to challenge the Postal Service’s authority to offer VER without including severance pay.
The Postal Service also has announced plans to close six District offices and to reduce administrative personnel by 15 percent. A new ratio of supervisors to employees will be adopted, which will decrease the number of postal supervisors.
The APWU takes no pleasure in the reduction of management positions, but I have repeatedly warned management that the affect of declining mail volume cannot be focused exclusively on craft employees. Over recent years, tens of thousands of craft jobs have been abolished, while the number of management positions has remained unchanged.
Employees simply will not accept one-sided complement reductions.
The craft employees, especially those represented by the APWU and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, already have experienced severe cutbacks. In the Clerk Craft, part-time employees have suffered significant work-hour reductions, and thousands of full-time employees have been notified of excessing — often hundreds of miles away. Through “route evaluations,” many Rural Letter Carriers have suffered salary reductions of up to $8,000 over the past two years.
I have repeatedly informed postal management that workers understand that the severity of the financial crisis makes change inevitable; however, the sacrifices cannot be limited to a few.
William Burrus
President
