Postal News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 4, 2002
Contact: (202) 268-2155
Remarks By Postmaster General/CEO John E. Potter
Board Of Governors Meeting - Washington, DC
June 4, 2002
Thank you Mr. Chairman. And thank you for the support you and the other Governors have given to me and all the officers, managers, postmasters, supervisors and the 750,000 postal employees across the nation during this past year.
Throughout all these challenging times, postal people across the nation came together to help us preserve and maintain our commitment to universal service for all Americans.
Speaking of one of those challenges, last month, we awarded contracts to begin the work of decontaminating the Brentwood and Trenton facilities which were closed last October.
Tom Day, our Vice President for Engineering, Capital Area postal executives, along with District of Columbia city officials, have begun a series of meetings with employees and residents in the Brentwood area to review our plans and to respond to any concerns. Once those meetings are concluded, decontamination of the Brentwood facility will begin. Work on the Trenton facility will begin afterwards.
I want to thank the customers, postal managers and members of the Postal Rate Commission who participated din the May Rates Summit meeting. The follow-up meeting is planned for June 27th. I am confident that working together, we can improve the rates process.
We are continuing to work closely with our unions, I want to thank Billy Quinn, president of the National Post Office Mail Handlers Union and our Vice President for Labor Relations, Tony Vegliante, who are co-chairs of a successful Quality of Work Life national conference last month.
This joint program supports and encourages Mail Handler union members to identify and resolve workplace issues ranging from parking and personal safety to innovations in productivity, and revenue protection.
I might add that Billy Quinn, president of the Mail Handlers Union, will retire at the end of June. My congratulations and best wishes to him. And my congratulations to his successor, John Hegarty.
I am also pleased to report that the negotiated settlement with the National Association of Letter Carriers has been ratified by an overwhelming majority. This five year contract is the first negotiated settlement reached with the NALC since 1987. My thanks to NALC President Vince Sombrotto and Labor Relations Vice President Tony Vegliante and their negotiating teams.
I am also pleased to introduce 22 men and women who recently were selected to become Management Interns. After 13 years, we reestablished this program this year to recruit and prepare the next generation of postal leaders.
They were selected from over 900 applicants nationwide. Ten of the 22 interns come from within the Postal Service. All have management experience and advanced degrees in business, engineering or management.
At the end of their two year training period, each will be assigned to managerial positions in plant processing, delivery and transportation or retail operations. Please stand so we can recognize you. Thank you.
Our Human Resources group is developing a similar intern program to recruit and develop professional, technical, and specialist positions for the headquarters group. That program will be announced later this summer.
On the news front, I also want to announce that we will expand tests on the Segway Human Transporter. We have been testing this electric powered device in Tampa and Concord, New Hampshire, to determine its feasibility to transport letter carriers on their routes.
Starting next week, we will test 40 more Segways in six different regions of the country that offer different route structures, climates and manpower needs.
Finally, I want to join the Chairman and the Governors in their support of the bipartisan legislative proposal for postal reform that is being sponsored by members of the House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform.
I especially want to thank Chairman Dan Burton, and Representatives Henry Waxman, John McHugh and Danny Davis for their leadership in forging this legislation.
I am encouraged by the Committee's action in supporting the efforts of the Postal Service to continue meeting the communications needs of the American people.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This concludes my remarks.
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