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Impending RIF Actions Will Impact Our Members

Impending RIF Actions Will Impact Our Members
By Ivan D. Butts
NAPS National President

Hello, NAPS brothers and sisters. At the writing of this column, we just received notification of what could be many reduction-in-force (RIF) actions in 2024 that will impact NAPS members across the country.

This is coming as the staffing model—part of the “Delivering for America” plan—is being implemented for the Regional Processing and Delivery Centers (RP&DCs). As the only postal management association with rights under federal law to directly participate in planning and developing pay policies and schedules, fringe benefit programs and other programs relating to supervisory and other managerial employees, NAPS has consulted with the USPS concerning this staffing model.

At our consultation, NAPS noted that the proposed USPS staffing model was inadequate for managing the new “state-of-the-art” mail processing facilities. This staffing model is the same model that has failed in the Processing and Delivery Centers (P&DCs) since its ill-advised creation.

This same staffing model has led to millions of workhours being used yearly for 204(b)s (craft) employees to cover this managerial shortfall. Of course, there is a ripple effect in this: the created need for overtime and penalty overtime to backfill moving craft employees off their jobs versus hiring the appropriate number of EAS employees under the proper staffing ratio.

This same staffing model used in P&DCs partly is the cause for the massive service failures and mail backlogs reported nationwide. The data reported on the USPS Network is clear: First-Class Mail delivery scores are at levels not seen since the past century.

Additionally, the USPS has maintained another process that has been detrimental to mail processing equipment capabilities. This is in regards to the projected productivity of purchased equipment versus the actual capacity in which it functions post-acceptance. We can look at the various phases of barcode sorters with a 35,000-pieces-per-hour capacity operating at around 18,000 per hour.

I could speak about the over-$1 billion Automated Flat Sorting Machine 100 experiment. The machine that was purchased, despite failing critical beta testing and also failing to survive. We now have new package sorters that can process 60,000 packages an hour (while at the Richmond RP&DC, we noted it was about 8,000 per hour).

Here is the problem: Failure is imminent when you build a run plan based on a projection instead of real-world processing environments. So, what happens when the projected one-hour run becomes five hours?

Although our network processes are in a dark place, we continue to do everything possible to keep America’s mail moving. NAPS Headquarters, with the assistance of the Executive Board, will work with USPS Headquarters leadership to ensure all NAPS members identified as potential RIF impacts find a landing spot in the first seven 2024 RIF impacts.