Mail Sorter Charged With Stabbing Boss At JFK

[tsptalk]

Mail Sorter Charged With Stabbing Boss At JFK (http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Going-Postal--Mail-Sorter-Charged-With-Stabbing-Supervisor-At-JFK-Mail-Facility--96613839.html)

"When the call in from Kennedy Airport (http://www.tsptalk.com/topics?topic=John+F.+Kennedy+International+Airport ) Thursday afternoon reporting that someone had gone postal, it turned out to be little too close to the truth. Port Authority Police sources say a mail sorter stabbed his female supervisor 7 times in a rage during work."
.
.
..."Officials said the male suspect used scissors to attack his supervisor. He allegedly told police he was tired of her busting his chops and he decided he was not going to take it anymore."

more (http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Going-Postal--Mail-Sorter-Charged-With-Stabbing-Supervisor-At-JFK-Mail-Facility--96613839.html)

[crws]

whoa,
The comments are harsh!
This is what EEO is for...
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Going-Postal--Mail-Sorter-Charged-With-Stabbing-Supervisor-At-JFK-Mail-Facility--96613839.html

thanks for post -ing
-just when going postal was breaching positive connotations...

[Show-me]

Some of you have no idea how bad it is in some sorting facilities. Low mail volume and a no lay off clause in our contract makes it a very bad environment between management and labor. Management resorts to horrible harassment and other discipline tactics to get rid of the older more senior employee's that a retirement bonus did not attract.

I am lucky, we have a good environment, so far.

[poolman]

Some of you have no idea how bad it is in some sorting facilities. Low mail volume and a no lay off clause in our contract makes it a very bad environment between management and labor. Management resorts to horrible harassment and other discipline tactics to get rid of the older more senior employee's that a retirement bonus did not attract.

I am lucky, we have a good environment, so far.


I don't know if this is the same situation that we are talking about here but sometimes I have to go to the post office hub to pick up a prescription that I order once every couple of months. I stand at this door that looks like a chain fence with Plexiglas and I can see pretty much the whole big mail sorter room in the background. Everyone looks depressed, quiet and just dissatisfied. The whole atmosphere looks like it could explode at any given moment. What a job is all I can say. They always have help wanted signs in the little room that I stand in for mail carriers with there own vehicle and insurance for some weird amount of pay. ex. $14.13/Hour

Just thought I would throw in my 2 cents.

[crws]

They always have help wanted signs in the little room that I stand in for mail carriers with there own vehicle and insurance for some weird amount of pay. ex. $14.13/Hour

Those are for RCA's (Rural Carrier Associates) contractors, essentially.
But with the Postal Service, it's not like you have a business of your own and get to make decisions based on what makes you money and more profitable.
You are in all actuality an uncompensated employee.
I don't see how the IRS has not delivered a smackdown to the PO regarding this issue, other than the subcontractor contract must be bulletproof.
RCA's are the least respected extension of the PO that cover areas of service the PO deems too high cost for profitability in providing staffing for fully compensated employees.
The only real perk for RCA's was a vehicle maintenance agreement that defrayed some of the expense in driving hundreds of miles a day, but that has been restructured (I don't know all the details, just that now full maintenance is up the RCA).
Otherwise, the RCA has to follow all postal guidelines, as well as be at the beck & call of the PO's distribution schedule and mail acceptance windows,
as if they were an employee.
With essentially no recourse against demeaning treatment by supervisors like employees have, many RCA's (alot of them) say screw this, and quit,
because (more) frequently they are an unwitting whipping post for inept management having a bad day.

Sadly, all pressure rolls downhill, and with carriers being at the end of the delivery chain, vacant RCA positions will never be in short supply.

//begin somewhat political rant
It is important to keep our mail system's 6 day delivery intact, and force congress and the USPS to innovate new methods of generating revenue other than focusing on eliminating carriers.
What you may have heard about 5-day delivery, is just that. Delivery. All other functions within the USPS would continue.
The 40,000 jobs eliminated would be carrier positions, many of whose routes are already approaching levels of physical limitation unless you are 25 years old.
The PO has a baby boomers job force, many of which are disabled vets, and the average age of 60+% of the 660,000 USPS employees is 50.
Please write or call your congesspeople and tell them that the communications system Ben Franklin developed to keep the public securely informed is too important to our nation's history, tradition, and infrastructure to undermined by short-term fixes which need long-term vision and solutions for success.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blmailus1.htm
On July 26, 1775, members of the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, agreed ". . . that a Postmaster General be appointed for the United States,
who shall hold his office at Philadelphia, and shall be allowed a salary of 1,000 dollars per annum . . . ."
That simple statement signaled the birth of the Post Office Department, the predecessor of the United States Postal Service
and the second oldest department or agency of the present United States of America.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/09/AR2010050903080.html
"The value of going to four days -- removing a second day -- is even greater," he said.
Although no such plans exist, Potter said that Tuesdays are the second-slowest day of the week.

National Association of Letter Carriers:
http://www.nalc.org/

American Postal Workers Union:
http://apwu.org/

Thanks
end somewhat political rant//

[PessOptimist]

At one point in my life while looking for new direction, I thought of trying to become a RR carrier in NH. Seemed like a good, worthwhile job with lots of independence and challenges. Like the weather in the winter. I admired the stalwart men (mostly) and women. A lot of them drove right-hand-drive Scouts. Very cool. I also liked the jobs of the postmasters/mistresses in the small rural post offices. Not only postmaster, but sorter, window clerk and sometimes delivery driver too. A lot of these post offices were just rooms in the back of a store. Then I actually started talking to a soon to retire postmistress about the job. This was around 1980. She advised me to be careful because "everything is changing" and "nobody cares anymore".

As I pick up my mail from my "neighborhood box unit" or whatever this excuse for not delivering to my own personal mailbox is called these days, I notice that 95% of my mail is junk. So I ask, is this junk mail profitable to the USPS? Is the bulk rate a money maker?

Every so often we try to reduce the amount of junk by calling the sender and asking to be taken off their list. It never works.

If this junk mail could be reduced somehow, would it help the bottom line, or is it what keeps the PO operating?

[KevinD]

It used to be called Bulk Business Mail or BBM. I call it bread and butter mail. The more of it there is the less a first class stamp costs.

I still contend that the customer of the post office is the person who pays the postage not the person who receives the mail in their mail box.

As far as the nut-job who stabbed his supervisor...he's just a freakin nut-job loser. :rolleyes:

[Buster]

I feel for the day in, day out letter carrier..God bless them...:)

[Show-me]

Junk mail greases the skids for all other mail. It is essential to keep the post office open. If you get rid of junk mail and first class stamp will cost dollar not cents.

[crws]

Correction:
Not quite a contractor- an RCA is for all intents and purposes classified as a postal employee that typically gives the regular rural carrier their day off.
There is no hourly guarantee, and hours other than the regular's day off whose route you cover is day-by-day, via on call.
All the rest applies- no bennies except some annual leave accrual, you use and maintain your own vehicle (Rt hand drive preferred) with a preset mileage and maintenance rate.


Those are for RCA's (Rural Carrier Associates) contractors, essentially.