March 23, 2021 Memorandum to Local Presidents (pdf)

          Earlier today, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and the USPS Board of Governors released their long-awaited ten-year plan for the U.S. Postal Service, setting forth a series of strategies by which USPS management hopes to improve service and ensure financial stability.  The plan reviews the massive changes in mail volume and mail mix over the past several decades, and urges that a series of steps be adopted to deal with difficulties in processing and delivering mail, reducing employee turnover, and addressing long-term financial shortfalls.  A copy of the plan is linked here.

          As with all ambitious plans, its ultimate success is dependent on its details and its good-faith implementation.  At this early point, however, the NPMHU can be supportive of the plan’s emphasis on growing package volume, on using new sources of postal revenue, on the necessity of legislative change (Repeal of the Retiree Health Benefits pre-funding requirement and Medicare Integration), on the establishment of forty-six parcel annexes, and on the need to stabilize the non-career postal workforce by providing a clearer path to career status. 

          To the extent the plan would rely on the closing or consolidation of mail processing facilities, the NPMHU has serious concerns but is prepared to work with USPS management to identify those changes that might make sense, if USPS management is prepared to admit error when its proposals are without foundation. 

          Later this week, Local Union representatives will gather with the National Officers and the National CAD to discuss and dissect the details of this ten-year plan.  Watch out for coming announcements.

USPS Ten-Year Plan for Achieving Service Excellence and Financial Sustainability (pdf)