Wednesday, November 14, 2012

New Poll: How Many Postal Workers Will Take the USPS/APWU Buyout Incentive?

Offering 115,000 APWU-represented employees $15,000 to quit will clearly be one of the best investments the U.S. Postal Service has ever made.

What's not clear is how big the investment and payback will be. In other words, how many eligible employees will take the buyout? Dead Tree Edition is asking its readers to make their own prediction (the poll is near the top of the right-hand column) on the early-out incentives that could yield $1 billion or more in annual savings.

When it announced the program a month ago, USPS said it expected 15,000 to 20,000 employees to participate.

Former APWU President William Burrus soon countered with his a much higher estimate -- "in the range of 35,000" -- and advised postal workers not to hold out for something better. (See Take the Money and Run, Burrus Tells Postal Workers.) But the Postal Service's chief human resources officer indicated recently that his estimate had hardly changed; it's now 16,000 to 20,000.

Eliminating a position held by a full-time career postal worker probably saves USPS at least $60,000 annually. And a new employee is likely to cost USPS only half of what a veteran career worker does, according to Burrus.

That means that if half of the early retirees are replaced, a total of 15,000 buyouts would save USPS nearly $700 million annually. But if 35,000 take the package, the savings could be nearly $1.6 billion.
So here are the five choices in the poll, with a description of each one:
  1. "Fewer than 16,000": Who can afford to retire in this economy?
  2. "16,000-20,000": This is what USPS officials predict, so it must be true.
  3. "20,001-30,000": USPS has underestimated how badly some employees want out.
  4. "30,001-40,000": Bill Burrus nails it on the head.
  5. "More than 40,000": Katie bar the door!
Voting ends on Nov. 28.

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13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Give it to carriers and 50000 will go in a heart beat,

Anonymous said...

What can you do with 15,000 dollars these days...I hope no one takes the tiny offer.

Anonymous said...

Carriers will not get any incentive, sorry. Why would they - they are short of carriers now. Stop being greedy usps workers - just retire when you want and can.$ 15,000 isn't going to change anything. If you haven't saved for your retirement its your own fault.

Anonymous said...

I retired August 31st and my paperwork still has'nt been assigned to anyone yet.I took the mailhandler incentive.

Anonymous said...

If they really want folks to leave, then they need to get SERIOUS with the money! $15,000 - $20,000 just won't get it done.

Anonymous said...

Greedy? Give me the option of retirement RIGHT NOW... AND I'M GONE! They have offered to EAS, Postmasters, Mail Handlers, and now APWU...

Give NALC Employees the chance next! (and you can KEEP your 15,000 bux too!)

Anonymous said...

truthfully....they need to start with the BIG DOGS!! higher up that make 6 digits start with them 1st. THEN SUPERVISORS...we have way tooo many. put 204b back walking. get rid of TEs. they milk routes and make more $$ than us regulars. give us carriers $15,000. we are the 1s who work our butts off& work in the weather why TOP DOGS sit on their butts.

Anonymous said...

This is for "why should they offer carriers any incentive.They are short now." DUH. If you offer buyouts to the CSRS carriers you get rid of the most expensive workers AND it gets rid of the most expensive retirement system for the USPS!Then you give the jobs to the junior mailhandlers and clerks. It is that simple.....But that is why it hasn't been done.

Anonymous said...

A retirement incentive for letter carriers and any plan to backfill these carrier positions with employees excessed from other crafts, just wouldn't work in my opinion.

During my postal carer of som e37 years, I've had several occassions where I've worked with employees who "voluntarily" transferred over as letter carriers. In every case, they just couldn't cut it and wound up resigning.

Delivering mail isn't just a stroll in the park, and while it's not exactly rocket science, it does take a certain amount of experience to do the job accurately and correctly. Again in my opinion, one of the problems with today's management of the carrier craft is that too many supervisors don't come from the carrier craft. That, and the fact that even those that were carriers usually have so little work experience that they don't understand the work they are supposed to be managing. Think "one year experience required." Used to be 15 years before an employee could take what was known as "The Boss's Test." That might be too long, but one year? All you're getting for the most part are people who were too lazy to do the work to begin with.

CLERK ( AND PROUD OF IT ) said...

Its funny that you letter carriers think they are the only ones that can do that job. In my opinion carriers are the lazy, not too smart, full of themselves, and the biggest whinners in the post office. If only you carriers would have gotten a higher score on the memory part of the test you could have landed a clerk job. Thats why you were hired as a carrier, you look at address and put it in a box, NOT TOO HARD. AND MANY CAN'T EVEN DO THAT RIGHT.
P.S. - Carriers you are just pack mules and nothing else, so just get over it - you are nothing special.

Anonymous said...

so if you go you get 10 grand the first year and 5 the second but if you stay and give your supervisor grief (which is priceless) you can make 20 grand in one year and if you make your supervisor more aggrevated and stay the second year that is 40 grand in 2 years why go. still not old enough but i have 35 years. why take an early out and a penalty when i have alread suffered this long. the money is not enough to cover the penalty if i live to be 80.

Anonymous said...

Well, I live in a rural area, small town, and my carrier gives me the neighbors' mail and gives my mail to the neighbors. When I leave her a note, I get a reply "sorry, mistakes DO happen!" Really? How difficult is it to glance through each bundle BEFORE putting it in a mailbox? And no, this carrier isn't rushed; she sits in her running vehicle for 10 minutes sometimes and chats with my next door neighbor. One should take more pride in their work; I'd love to have the job; she gets to drive up to boxes, so there's no walking and still she can't get it right.

Anonymous said...

Dang there is a lot of craft on craft crime going on here! Well im a letter carrier and you clerks think you could do our job? Is that why you are all 100 lbs overweight? You think you are smarter than us? I tell you what until we no longer have to give parcels and letters to other carriers because you cant sort them correctly i would say shut your mouth. Try walking 10 miles a day with 20 lbs on your shoulder like i do than we will talk. We are the backbone of this company! You remember that!