Dream on!

The contractor allowing postal employees to work on the fss yet? If so, which
craft?

Has any other facility had the hatch act enforced on the employees? my facility is telling employees that they are not allowed to wear their Obama 08 t-shirts. in 20 years management has never enforced these rules. are they that desparate to keep Obama out of the White House so they can destroy the postal service?

l300 mh: In Mesa, AZ. Management mentioned the "no buttons, stickers, sign, bumper stickers (if you are a rural carrier etc)" in a stand-up and they posted the Hatch Act reg's along with its clarification from some western area VP, on the time clock.

I asked my MDO just that last night since I just bought an Obama t-shirt and button yesterday. He said that we would be asked to change our shirts or be sent home. Oh well... I was pretty much hyped about wearing it.

Hatch Act for Federal Employees:
http://www.osc.gov/ha_fed.htm#may_not

You have to pay for those? They can't give those away where I work.

Yeah, we got told no buttons, shirts, etc. also. We were told this Tuesday. 2 rural carriers were wearing Obama shirts and were told to go home and change. They turned them inside out and stayed.

Also first time we got talked to about it.

We were told today that the 2nd phase of FSS has been cancelled. Is this true? Boss said they tried to halt 1st phase also but couldn't. Heard that the 1st phase area is going to expand and take in more offices than before. Transportation is the nightmare to get it to some of the farther out offices. Anybody know anything? They said flats are down so much, and not expected to come back, that the whole thing is looking like a bust and they are scrambling trying to stop the expense damage.

Which city are you referring to?

Detroit/Pontiac.

Here at the Springfield BMC, expansion of our facility continues for the FSS machines. We seem to be swimming in mail, overtime lately has been steady; after tour and a dozen plus or minus three a day for day off. A hasp operation at or near Worcester was shut down and appox. 100 mailhandlers were excessed to our facility. Rumors are flying about other smaller buildings to be shut down and a consolidation of others, who knows what the future holds for all of us, these are strange times indeed.

Who know what will happen for sure, but I would be willing to bet, there will be no firm and hard decisions till October to be effective sometime in November, just prior to the Christmas rush.

It seems that over the years this is when management wants everything in place, just before all the casuals come on board for Christmas.

Memphis update: Letters went out September 19 with details on the six day work week. I have not received my letter yet, but the union tells us that the implementation date is 1/19/2009. If I understood the union rep correctly, 55% will get sat/sun off, and 45% will get sun/mon off. No word on maintenance. It looks like our schedule will remain unchanged unless they do a stunt to bring tour 3 in after midnight to cut out the sunday premium for sunday night.

The new rumor is that Memphis may get a couple of APPS machines instead of the FSS machines, and continue to run the singulator, inbound, and the secondary sorters. That might put the Memphis P&DC in a tight spot as well as Jet Cove. Two APPS machines would render at least one facility unnecessary.

Of course, the other rumor is that Atlanta BMC will be getting all of the Memphis mail, and the BMC will be mothballed. Who knows? Atlanta BMC folks, you seeing any Memphis mail???

M,

Funny, I heard the same thing today in Memphis (FSS phase 2 cancelled).
This was the explanation I was given: When the Postal Service stopped purchasing the APPS machine from Lockheed Martin, it was over the price jump having to do with software or something. Lockheed had already built up to 25 of these in anticipation of the Postal Service purchasing them. These units have been sitting for a year or more now, and Lockheed wants to make a deal to get rid of them, getting close to the original price. The Postal Service prefers the APPS to the FSS, because you can run multiple schemes simultaneously, and also run a larger variety of mail. I believe they are considering purchasing more of the APPS machines in a modified RDC approach.

More as I hear it.
DISCLAIMER: This is what I heard from a person usually in the know. It may or may not be true.