Find Your Branch

EAS Employees Set the Standard

EAS Employees Set the Standard
By Ivan D. Butts
NAPS National President

As we move from Thanksgiving to Christmas, I want to wish my entire NAPS family a joyous and beautiful holiday season. This time of year always poses challenges to us as managers as we deal with employees who may be struggling with personal issues.

We recently witnessed the devastation of these struggles with the death of a young 204-B in Chattanooga, TN, at the hands of a mail handler. Such problems can be magnified due to the holidays. We all must deal with our personal life issues. But, through it all, we must remain the guiding force to ensure the Postal Service continues to move the mail during this critical time of year.

Your efforts bind our nation together by connecting families across the world. You do this by managing the operations that process all the letters, cards and packages received. I have seen these results firsthand when my son received care packages I sent during the holidays he spent in Iraq.

Because of your dedication to providing the highest-quality service possible to the American public, the lives of not only my son, but also the lives of others in his unit, were blessed. I forever will be grateful to America’s Postal Service for being there for our men and women in the military.

Your commitment to excellence is further demonstrated during this period of the agency’s constant change and subjective leadership. We still operate in an age where the words “dignity and respect” are empty and seldom spoken by postal leaders. They appear unable or unwilling to make them more than just two nouns with a conjunction in between when it was the flavor of the month.

This disengagement, understandably, could harden our hearts as it impacts our lives and how we manage day-to-day operations. However, day in and day out, you prove yourselves to be the best of the best, giving your all to get the job done. Thank you.

There is a good reason why we never can give up serving America or fighting for the members of NAPS, despite being pressed down in service. On March 23, 2021, the USPS unveiled its 10-year plan. The agency admitted, “We have failed to meet service commitments to our customers for many of our mail and package products. In particular, we have not met First-Class Mail service targets in eight years. This is due to both unattainable service standards and a lack of operational precision.”

Despite NAPS voicing this issue to the USPS since 2009, we have seen no action to address and correct this postal fact that has led to the suppression of EAS pay for years. What was most striking to me was this text from the 10-year plan was an unsolicited statement being used to justify diminishing service to America. We must continue to stay strong, brothers and sisters.

I thank you for all you are doing to keep the United States Postal Service moving in the right direction as you provide the services constitutionally promised by law to bind together the people of America. And thank you for your pledge to support our efforts to live up to the mission statement of our great association. God bless, merry Christmas and best holiday wishes to you and your family.

In solidarity…