Philadelphia
Mail Processing
Problems
APWU Complaint About Falsified Reports
Prompts OIG Audit of Philadelphia P&DC
An APWU complaint that senior managers and other supervisors filed false mail-
The union complaint, filed with the Postal Service's OIG on Oct. 24, alleged that
high-
The efforts to reduce staff – and the elimination of overtime – concerned union officials, who had received notice over the summer that 162 employees at the facility would be excessed in January. “We believe the fake numbers were to help hide the fact that the outsourcing of employees might hurt service,” Ivey said.
In early December, the Daily News reported on the allegations that deliberate low-
When “calls, e-
The Daily News stories told readers that the phony records and a ban on overtime seemed to have resulted in a “chronically understaffed plant unable to process unsorted mail, which sat in overflowing bins for days and weeks.”
Postal inspectors began auditing the facility on Dec. 6 and are expected to take as long as two months before submitting a report.
Plant Abruptly Goes from Backlog to No Mail at All
So where is the Christmas mail?
Where are the packages? Where are the letters? Where are the Christmas cards?
On what is normally one of the biggest mail days of the year, the mail wasn't moving during yesterday's day shift at the U.S. Postal Service's processing plant on Lindbergh Boulevard near Island Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia.
"There was no mail in there," said a day-
"The floors are empty," the worker said.
Postal workers on the day shift were sent home without pay.
"All of a sudden, there's no mail?" asked Gwen Ivey, president of the American Postal Workers Union Local 89. "It's unlikely that the plant wouldn't have mail in December."
New Director Gallagher Tours SW Mail Facility
Where Mail Goes to Die
Slow/no delivery alleged at SW mail site
Two weeks after the Boothwyn Fire Company, in Delaware County, mailed fundraising letters for its volunteer ambulance service last summer, director Tim Murray noticed that no checks were coming in.
The reason?
His fundraising appeals wound up in the U.S. Postal Service's Southwest Philadelphia distribution plant, where mail goes to slow down, and sometimes to die.
And it wasn't only the fire company. Customers throughout the region have complained of late deliveries and lost mail.
No wonder.
Complaints about Service Piling up -
Delayed and missing mail is a major headache and a drain in the pocket for many Center
City banks, law firms and other businesses -
Earlier this year, office manager John Barnett noticed an unusual drop in replies to some of the 150 events that the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce holds over the course of a year.
The chamber regularly sends invitations, brochures and calendars of events to 5,000 members at a time, often enclosing prepaid "business reply" envelopes so recipients can easily RSVP.
Postal Service Manager Gets Canned
The U.S. Postal Service has shaken up its Philadelphia-
Frank Neri, the Postal Service district manager for the Philadelphia metropolitan district, was replaced yesterday by Jim Gallagher, a veteran USPS manager, spokesman Paul Smith confirmed yesterday.
Gallagher "was postmaster here in Philly for six years," Smith said. "He's been in Philly virtually his whole career with extensive operational experience in both mail processing and operations."
New Postal Manager Says He'll Work with Unions to Meet Goals
The newly appointed regional postal manager has two goals: to serve customers better and improve working conditions at the U.S. Postal Service's troubled processing plant in Southwest Philadelphia.
Yesterday, Jim Gallagher, the new regional postal manager, told union leaders that
he had an "open-
"I see this as a very positive first step," said Gwen Ivey, president of American Postal Workers Union Local 89.
Calling the one-
Mail Dumped to Thwart Probe?
Nine days ago, Megan Brennan, the Postal Service's regional vice president, wanted
to see for herself the hundreds of overflowing mail bins, rerouted mail trailers
and allegedly falsified mail-
When Brennan arrived -
A trucking firm had just hauled away 19 tons of so-
"This was workable mail," she said.
Local Post Offices Say the Mail Is Not Going through There, Either
Conditions at some local post offices mirror the problems at the U.S. Postal Service's processing plant in Southwest Philadelphia, according to letter carriers and a supervisor.
In some stations in the 191-
* Overtime records are falsified to reduce the hours of letter carriers.
* Mail-
* Daily color codes on mail bins are changed to make it appear as if the mail is not late.
* Mail is delayed for days, especially bulk-
* Tractor-
More Mailroom Screwups
Vets irate over missing medications
Jesse Hill, a Vietnam vet with post-
"I need these meds or I go off the wall," said Hill, 61, who had worked for the Postal Service more than 28 years when he had a stroke and became disabled.
After a month without his meds, he said, "I'm screaming and cursing a lot."
In desperation, Hill turned to his doctor, who checked the Veterans Administration's computer, found the meds had been mailed Nov. 4, the same day they were prescribed, but they apparently had vanished. So Dr. Anders Stone wrote another prescription, Hill said.
Hill's mail-
Office Snooping Pays off
The announcement in late August that the U.S. Postal Service planned to transfer 162 mail clerks made no sense to veteran postal worker Nick Casselli.
3
With hundreds of overflowing unsorted mail bins blocking passageways at the Southwest Philadelphia processing plant and a yearlong ban on overtime, Caselli said, he knew there weren't enough clerks to process the daily mail.
As a new shop steward, Casselli set out to find out why. Using the "eyes and ears"
of co-
"I was shocked," he said.
Senior managers allegedly were ordering clerks to undercount the daily mail volume, reroute trailers of unsorted mail and change the color codes to make it appear that mail was not late, according to a complaint filed by the American Postal Workers Union Local 89.
Workers & Customers Seeing Progress in Mail Flow
The mail is starting to move again, say postal workers and customers.
No longer are hundreds of overflowing bins of unprocessed mail blocking passageways inside the U.S. Postal Service's processing plant on Lindbergh Boulevard near Island Avenue, postal workers told the Daily News yesterday.
In the past week, several local post offices have had an increase in mail volume, possibly from the plant and/or holiday mail, according to postal workers.
"We used to know when they were hiding the mail, because it was only a trickle," said a postal worker.
Postal workers credit regional manager Jim Gallagher for returning to a once-
"Gallagher has been all over the place," said Gwen Ivey, president of the American Postal Workers Union, Local 89. "We talk and he's busy, and he's only been here a week."
Veteran Puts His Stamp on Revamped Mail Operations
n some ways, the $300 million, 930,000-
Gallagher, director of the new plant's activation, shepherded others through the
design, construction and relocation of Philadelphia's processing facility and its
4,000 employees from its longtime home at 30th and Market streets to a 50-
He even made sure that the lobby in the new plant had a massive mural including every ZIP code in the city, with iconic images of Philadelphia.
But now, after one month of a new assignment in Harrisburg, Gallagher's back.
Forget dead letters; worry about a dead USPS
Mail volume is down, a $5B deficit is projected
Top officials of the U.S. Postal Service and the American Postal Workers Union are monitoring the serious mail problems in Philadelphia.
But William Burrus, national president of the APWU, warned of an even worse problem on the horizon than "just the delay of the mail."
With a nearly $3 billion loss in fiscal '08, and a projected deficit of up to $5
billion in the current year, the USPS is "close to not being able to sustain a national
postal-
"I would not use a word as strong as 'insolvent,' " he said. "But they are in enormous debt. They are in very, very, bad circumstances.
"If they continue on a downward trajectory, it may happen sooner rather than later," he added.
Report Backs Daily News 'Dead Letter' Stories
The office of Inspector General of the Postal Service has confirmed key findings
of a Daily News series about alleged mismanagement and mail problems at Philadelphia-
OIG verified the most serious allegation: that the official daily reports of the
volume of mail had been "intentionally falsified" and that delayed mail had been
undercounted at the Lindbergh mail-
No criminal charges were filed against any managers or employees, said OIG spokeswoman Agape Doulaveris.
The findings were in a 43-
