Executive Vice President

Clarence A. Wall, Jr.

Excessing has been with us for many years, since the earliest days of mechanization and automation in postal installations. Without fail, the American Postal Workers Union has responded in the most effective way possible. Every National Agreement has included language that restricts excessing.

While automation has had a dramatic effect on the nation’s mail-delivery system, we have been able to make a solid case for preserving our jobs because our productivity has increased along with USPS productivity. We have responded to increased automation in mail processing by enforcing the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and by making sure that the agreement in turn requires the USPS to live up to past practices and its own rules, regulations, employee manuals, and handbooks.

The informational handbook, When Excessing Occurs, Know Your Rights and Benefits, is a summary of your protection against excessing.

Click here to download a copy of “When Excessing Occurs: Know Your Rights and Benefits.”

Outsourcing

The Postal Service is unable to demonstrate that it saves money by outsourcing, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, because it has no comprehensive mechanism to measure savings.

“Without cost-savings data, postal managers, stakeholders and Congress cannot assess the risk and value of outsourcing,” the GAO concluded. Nonetheless, the USPS will continue to “explore outsourcing opportunities” and is considering another major outsourcing initiative involving its bulk mail processing network, the report noted.

The GAO recommended that the Postmaster General establish a process to track the results of outsourcing activities that are subject to collective bargaining and report the results to Congress. Although the Postal Service generally agreed with the report’s findings, the USPS disagreed with recommendation to provide Congress with the information about the results of outsourcing.