John L. Marcotte, Candidate for APWU National President says “Enough, this guy has got to go!”

“We will align retail footprint, hours, and services to meet evolving customer demands. We will continually evaluate operations at our retail facilities to ensure that services are cost-effective while also providing adequate community access.” -Delivering for America 10 year plan We have been down this road before. Reduced hours, Rural Carriers doing Clerk work and…

 Continue reading

A postmaster has the last word on POStPlan

This is the final week of POStPlan implementation. On February 7, the last of the remaining 13,000 post offices will have their hours reduced, and the last of the remaining postmasters will leave their jobs. The Postal Service postponed the Reduction in Force (RIF) separation date for all remaining impacted POStPlan postmasters from January 9…

 Continue reading

Letter To Editor: U.S. Postal Service problems noted in rural areas

Monday’s column (Jan. 12) about rural mail suffering with new policies of the U.S. Postal Service resonated with me. About Jan. 13, I received a mail notice from my health insurance company that they were canceling my policy in two days because of non-payment of my January dues. It happens to be the first invoice…

 Continue reading

Dozens of Remote Alaska post offices face reduced hours

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Dozens of Alaska Post Offices are potentially facing reduced hours of operation after Jan. 1, 2015. According to the U.S. Postal Service, some of those post offices would be limited to two hours of operation a day. The USPS said it began a plan to close the offices after it noticed a…

 Continue reading

Village Post Offices, part 2: More debut, more questions too

In a previous post, “It takes a Village Post Office, but for what?” we questioned the financial rationale for VPOs and asked why many of them were now being placed in densely populated areas. Now there’s more reason to pose such questions. A couple of days ago, an article in The Press Democrat touted the…

 Continue reading

Fourth Circuit Indicates Employer Was Not Required to Provide Reduced Hour FMLA Leave Due to Business Needs

Job-protected Family and Medical Leave does not need to be taken as full-time absences from work. In some circumstances, the employee will request temporarily reduced hours to deal with a medical issue. In others, the employee requests intermittent leave when the unanticipated onset of symptoms makes scheduled leave impossible. Earlier this month in an unpublished…

 Continue reading

Senator Hoeven: Postal Service Commits to Maintain Service Hours at 30 Post Offices in the Bakken

(September 4, 2014) WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven today said he has received a confirmation from Deputy Postmaster General Ronald A. Stroman that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will adhere to its commitment in April to maintain current service hours at 30 post offices in the Bakken region that were going to have their hours…

 Continue reading

Postal Service to reduce N.D. hours: Heitkamp says it is breaking promise

(September 3, 2014) BISMARCK — U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp accused the U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday of backtracking on its promise not to cut hours at 30 rural post offices in central and western North Dakota. The Democrat started a “Fix My Mail” initiative in January to gather stories from North Dakotans about problems they…

 Continue reading