AIPEU,Gr.-C Bhubaneswar, Odisha

Postal News and Information from Around the World

1.                 According to the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), "It is no secret that low mail volume has led to massive excessing. The APWU has responded by fighting relentlessly to protect our members' rights. The battle is complicated enough without the addition of other parties. Recently, however, the installation of Flat Sequence Sorter (FSS) machines has affected members of our sister union, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC). Unfortunately, the NALC recently filed a Step 4 Dispute, which asserts that no Clerk Craft employee should be excessed into a Letter Carrier position unless all APWU positions have been filled — in every installation from Maine to Guam. Needless to say, the APWU disagrees."

2.                 Sofia Echo has reported that "Bulgarian Posts intends to refinance its arrears by raising 15 million euro through a bond issue. The offering, part of the postal operator's development strategy, will have a five-year maturity. Bulgarian Posts has already called a tender to select the financial entities, which will handle its debt restructuring."

3.                 Federal News Radio has reported that "The Postal Service has promised one approach to shrinking its continuing losses. Keep cutting jobs. The announcement of impending job cuts comes as the Postal Service is in contract negotiations with two of its unions, with two more scheduled to be negotiated next year. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who is expected to head the House committee overseeing postal operations, said the loss "only underscores the urgent need for the Postal Service to trim its operating costs to match revenues."

4.                 Globes has reported that "E-commerce buyers and sellers from sites such as eBay or Amazon.com can breath easy. Israel Postal Company Ltd. today announced that it never intended to include its package service at this stage. Most packages arriving from Amazon.com, DealExtreme, eBay, and other deliveries on this service will continue unchanged and no fee will be charged to release the packages from customs."

5.                 Prensa has reported that “ The 800 current employees of the national postal service COTEL will decide next Saturday whether or not to go on strike”. The postal workers are reacting to the recent announcement of President of the Republic Ricardo Martinelli to privatize the institution. Ismael Ruiz, President of the COTEL Employees Association, said that, so far, the future employment status of the postal workers is not clear. Meanwhile, authorities are analyzing the options of privatizing COTEL in its entirety, or converting the institution into a mixed model in which actions are divided between the State and the private sector.

6.                 The Jakarta Post has reported that "State postal company PT Pos Indonesia has stopped express courier service for Yogyakarta, Surakarta and Magelang due to nearby Mount Merapi's ongoing volcanic eruption. Eighty percent of the Indonesian people still use Pos Indonesia's express courier service to deliver their mail and documents."

7.                 According to the Rep. Edolphus Towns, writing for the Federal Times, "The obstruction by key Republican senators who refused in late September to grant the U.S. Postal Service partial deferment of trust fund payments has driven the agency close to a breaking point. Because USPS was forced to make this $5.5 billion payment into its already well-funded retiree health benefits trust fund, its cash reserves now sit at a dangerously low level, leaving it in a precarious financial position for fiscal 2011. The Postal Service is now suffering greatly from years of misguided Bush-era policies. Millions of Americans are relying on Congress to fix these past mistakes, and that's exactly what Democrats are working to do. Our proposal would reduce the annual trust fund payment to a more reasonable level and require the remainder of the payments into the retiree health benefits trust fund to occur in scheduled installments over 40 years, starting in 2017. Rather than play political football with the Postal Service, members of Congress need to put aside their differences and focus on executing a strategy that will keep the organization viable. We must begin the process of imposing a more reasonable and responsible payment schedule for retiree benefits while working in a bipartisan fashion to contain other costs, expedite the pace of innovation and strengthen management. Far too many Americans rely on the Postal Service for Congress to allow it to sink deeper in peril."

8.                 Japan Today has reported that "Japan Post Holdings Co will promote 8,438 nonregular group workers to regular employees on Dec 1. Of about 208,000 nonregular Japan Post group employees, some 34,000 who met certain conditions such as working hours took written examinations and interviews."

9.                 The Stabroek News has reported that "The Guyana Postal and Telecommunication Workers Union (GPTWU) says it has notified the Ministry of Labour of its intention to pursue industrial action if outstanding matters affecting its membership at the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) are not resolved."

10.             The Azerbaijan Business Center has reported that "The branches of Azerbaijan's postal operator Azerpoct Ltd are about to offer two new financial services. Novruz Mammadov, the director of Postal Affairs Office of the Ministry of Communications & Information Technologies of Azerbaijan, says that in 2011 the Azerpoct's branches will start providing services on acceptance of deposits from the population and issuing credit cards."

11.             Hellmail has reported that "Eye tracking research released this week by Royal Mail provides unique insight into how consumers interact with door drops and a blueprint for the perfect unaddressed mail campaign. The study highlights the importance of using bright colours and strong visuals to generate impact and stand out among consumers. Providing a compelling reason to interact with the door drop also came out of the study, with samples and vouchers proving popular."

12.             Rediff has reported that "India Post, the world's largest postal network, is set to become a major partner in financial inclusion. The Indian postal network is the largest in the world with 155,015 post offices in the country, 90 per cent of which, that is 139,144, are in the rural areas. While just around a quarter of the villages in the country have post offices, all inhabited villages have access to postal facilities."

13.             ChannelOne has reported that "The Regulatory Policy Institute has identified serious failings in the way Guernsey regulates its utilities. The Regulatory Policy Institute says they believe the regulatory system has not worked for Guernsey Post. They want issues surrounding the Universal Service Obligation to be addressed - potentially by taxing all postal companies to help subsidise Guernsey Post's delivery service."

14.             Scoop has reported that "New Zealand Post announced today the formation of an independent-majority committee to oversee arrangements for access to its nationwide mail network by other postal operators. The new Postal Network Access Committee, which will have four independent members and one New Zealand Post representative, will hold its first meeting on 22 November 2010. It will operate initially as a four-member committee, with three independent members."

15.             The Jerusalem Post has reported that "the Israel Postal Company (IPC), which replaced the state postal authority remains state-owned but operates as an independent for-profit business. Among the "improvements" it has recently announced to the public is the introduction, from January 2011, of a minimum NIS 38 "service fee" to be paid upon the receipt of any package from abroad. The levy is mandatory regardless of the value of the package's contents and even if said package is exempt from customs duty. The fee could rise significantly depending on "the amount of work" involved in processing the package. Since such determination is likely to be inexact and not based on objective criteria, the charge may ultimately hinge on the whims of individual postal employees."

Source: http://www.postcom.org