NPMHU CHALLENGES BID REVERSIONS AND ABOLISHMENTS
A recent deluge of bid reversions and job abolishments is being implemented by USPS management across the country, in many cases fueled by the Function 1 Scheduler that the Postal Service uses to determine staffing levels at the large mail processing plants. Postal management has argued that these reversions and/or abolishments are necessary because of the continuing decline in mail volumes: recent figures (for the period from October 1, 2016 through May 31, 2017) indicate a decline of over 6 billion pieces in total mail volume from the same period last year.
But the NPMHU believes that these recent reversions and abolishments are an extreme overreaction to the mail volume figures. When USPS Headquarters directs all Postal Areas to assess their current workforce complements and make necessary adjustments to reflect the decline in mail volume, as has been done recently, the Area Managers not surprisingly require their plants to revert or abolish jobs, whether or not such reductions are justified on a plant-by-plant or case-by-case basis. In other words, the plants require reversions or abolishments in response to the initial overreaction by USPS Headquarters, when plants and their managers should be carefully examining their employment needs.
