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Letters to Editor
50-mile radius
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USPS To Close Chattanooga Remote Encoding Center in April 2009
The U.S. Postal Service will shutdown the Chattanooga Remote Encoding Center
(REC) in April 2009, leaving 536 people to seek other jobs. The 145 career
postal employees at the Chattanooga REC will be reassigned to other postal
positions in accordance with employee union collective bargaining
agreements. The 391 parttime temporary employees will receive outplacement
counseling to help them find new employment.
(11/20/08)
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Beaumont Postal REC Will Close in November 2007
KBTV
has reported that "The U.S. Postal Service today announced that the Beaumont
Remote Encoding Center (REC) will be closed as part the next phase of a
nationwide consolidation plan. The facility, located at 750 Pearl Street
will close in November, 2007."
Beaumont, Texas -
KBTV4 has
learned that the Beaumont Postal Encoding Center may be shutting down.
Beaumont Mayor Guy Goodson says he has received an e-mail from the union
advising him of the possible closure. Goodson says this is something the
city, local postal workers, and congressional representatives have been
fighting for a long time. He says the center could close this November. The
postal service says there is no official decision yet about Beaumont`s
remote encoding center, which cancels about 150 thousand pieces of mail
every day. The postal service has been streamlining its operations as
technology has improved, allowing computers to do more of the work. Goodson
tells KBTV that the rumors about the encoding center in downtown Beaumont
closing began circulating a year ago. If that center does shut down, mail
collected here would be processed in Houston. The postal service has said
that the shut down wouldn`t create any delays in mail delivery, but about
300 fulltime workers would lose their jobs along with about 500 temporary
workers. (4/18/07)
CHARLESTON, W.Va.
- The U.S. Postal Service is expanding a facility in Charleston
as it takes over the work of a similar facility in North Carolina. The
Charleston Remote Encoding Center will take over processing mail from North
Carolina and South Carolina that currently is handled by a similar facility
in Fayetteville, N.C., which will be closed in March, the Postal Service
said Tuesday. The Charleston facility, which employs 350 workers who
manually read addresses that automated machines cannot read, will hire more
than 100 new workers. Nearly 190 workers are employed at the North Carolina
facility. "It's going to be a significant number of people, and it's going
to have a significant impact on our area," said Michael Thompson, manager of
the Charleston facility. "It's good news." The Postal Service said it also
plans to close a postal center in Tampa, Fla., in March. The agency has
closed 43 of its 55 remote encoding centers since 1999 because of
improvements in technology. Automated equipment can now read more than 90
percent of mail.
(8/29/06)
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USPS Remote
Encoding Centers ( REC) in Fayetteville and Tampa Bay To Close in 2007
 FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — The
United States Postal Service will close a facility in Fayetteville in
February 2007, eliminating 189 jobs. The Remote Encoding Center opened
as a temporary site in 1994. At the facility, workers hand-read addresses
that computers can’t read. However, officials said that improved
technology has created mail sorting machines that can read virtually all
addresses, eliminating the need for the human help. Postal officials said
that because the plant was never intended to be permanent, the workers who
will be laid off weren’t considered full-time postal employees. Over 50
regular postal workers will be transferred to other facilities. According
to officials, there were 55 similar facilities across the U.S. All of them
are now in the process of closing.
WRAL-TV .
Postal
service to close facility
- On Thursday, it announced it
will close the centers in Fayetteville and Tampa Bay, Fla. The move should
save the postal service $3.2 million in the first year after the closings.
Because the centers were meant to be temporary, the employees did not
receive the same job security as the postal service’s traditional workers,
Rice said. The Tampa Bay center has 456 temporary
employees and 121 traditional ones. The traditional employees
will receive postal jobs that will have salaries that at least match their
current jobs at the encoding center. The temporary employees are on their
own.
Postal service to close "temporary" facility
(8/24/06)
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300 data-entry positions offered with Postal Service in Glendale
The U.S. Postal Service is accepting applications for up to 300 new postal
data-entry positions in Glendale. These operators type address and ZIP Code
information into a computer so mail unreadable by a machine can receive a
bar code and be sorted more efficiently. Starting pay is $12.43 an hour.
Part-time and full-time shifts are available but the positions carry no
benefits. An open house will be held for applicants from noon to 3 p.m. Feb.
25 at the USPS Glendale Remote Encoding Center, 5260 W. Phelps Road,
Building C, inside the 51 Bells Office Complex. Job seekers unable to attend
the open house may apply online at www.usps.com/employment or by calling
toll-free 1-866-999-8777, referring to Announcement No. 142802. The
application deadline is Feb. 28.
(2/16/06)
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Remote
Encoding (source: USPS)
During the past several years
computer-based image recognition improvements have been realized which
significantly reduced the amount of images requiring manual keying at the
RECs. As a result, the Postal Service has been able to reduce the number of
RECs in the national network from a high of 55 in 1998 to only 15 today.
Additional image recognition improvements are expected over the next few
years which will allow the continuation of the REC consolidation effort.
Three more RECs will close in 2006. Letter and flat mail image volumes
continue to decrease as improvements are deployed, while ongoing deployments
of APPS machines and the Postal Automated Redirection System (PARS) are
providing new images to the RECs. The keying requirements for each are
different and the REC handles them as separate operations.
The Postal Service is pursuing the
integration of letter and PARS image coding operations as part of a larger
effort to develop a replacement for the end-of-life image processing
subsystem for letters. The Remote Encoding System (RES) will enable
unresolved mailpiece images to be sent from a facility to multiple REC sites
instead of just one designated REC as is done today. The RES architecture
will be flexible to accommodate different requirements at small, medium, and
large facilities. A funding decision for RES development is expected during
2006.
(2/08/06)
Comprehensive Statement on Postal Operations for FY 2005
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The Postal Service has hundreds of job openings in Beaumont
The Postal Encoding Center in Beaumont is now taking applications for 300 to
400 jobs.
Those hired will help process mail for Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma,
New Mexico, and the East Coast. To apply you can call 1-866-999-8777. You'll
have to enter exam announcement number 145347. You can also log onto the
agency's web site at
www.usps.com/employment
(1/09/06)
Beaumont's postal center to fill up to 400 jobs
Examination: 710 Clerical Abilities
City, State: BEAUMONT, TX
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APWU: REC Site Dispute Resolved - USPS
Agrees to Pay Up to $500,000
-
A long-standing dispute
between the Postal Service and the APWU regarding the use of
Transitional Employees to the detriment of career part-time
flexible employees at Remote Encoding Centers (REC) was resolved
late last year. The settlement , dated Dec. 21, 2005,
requires that the USPS “cease and desist” from the practice, and
awarded payment to affected PTFs not to exceed a total of
$500,000.
(1/05/06)
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San Bernardino (Calif.) Remote Encoding Center to Close
Automation prompts mail-sorting
closure- A Postal Service mail-sorting center in San
Bernardino will close as technology to sort mail automatically
reduces the need for a human set of eyes, the postal service
announced Thursday. The San Bernardino Remote Encoding Center
will be phased out between now and February. About 257 part-time
employees will be laid off, and 43 career employees will be
transferred to other jobs in the postal service, postal
spokesman Mike Cannone said. The part-time employees will
receive outplacement counseling. The center opened in 1995 and
reached a peak of 675 employees in 1997. Mail that had been
looked at in San Bernardino will now be sorted in Topeka, Kan.,
and Salt Lake City. (5/21/05)
USPS to Expand Salt Lake City (Utah) Remote Encoding Center
Employment
at the U.S. Postal Service's remote encoding center in Salt Lake
City is expected to grow from 710 workers to about 1,300 by
year's end. The Postal Service center is moving in September to
a new 74,000-square-foot facility at 1275 S. 4800 West. It now
operates from a 28,000-square-foot facility at 254 N. 2200 West.
Employees at the center handle mail from Utah and other Western
states that cannot be processed by optical machinery. Job
candidates are required to pass a written exam and a keyboard
test. (5/19/05)
Akron, Peoria Remote Encoding Centers to Close in 2006
 Nearly 700
To Lose Jobs-More
than 400 workers at an Akron, Ohio Remote Encoding Center were told
that they will be out of the job by February 2006. Also approximately
250 postal workers at the Peoria, Ill. REC are slated to lose their
jobs next year.
Postal officials said
the Remote Encoding Centers at one point in 1997 numbered 55--Now
there are 17.. Princeton, NJ and Duluth, MN REC sites also are slated to
close (5/6/05)
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Akron REC to Close |
Outmoded postal center in Akron to close in '06
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Peoria
REC To Shut Down |
Duluth REC to Close
- Congressman
(R-Peoria) : 'It was handled very rudely'
(pictured )
Employees leave the USPS Remote Encoding Center on
Thursday in Ohio. After weeks of rumors, workers were told
yesterday the facility will be closed by Feb. 3, 2006. Machines
are reducing the need for the centers, where workers decipher
writing on some mail.
Illinois
U.S. Reps. Senators Request Answers from USPS Regarding Peoria
REC Closure-Peoria's
remote encoding center was consistently one of the most
productive in the country, Bob Gunter, Local APWU president said
Tuesday. Gunter, said productivity was the chief criteria USPS
said it would use when deciding which remote encoding centers to
keep open. The productivity factor is one of the reasons
why U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Peoria, and U.S. Sens. Barack Obama
and Dick Durbin, both Illinois Democrats, are demanding answers
from the Postal Service as to why the Peoria center is being
closed. (5/11/05)
Encoding Center faces long-term prospect of closure -The United
States Postal Service is continuing with a consolidation of
Remote Encoding Centers (REC) across the country, which could
possibly close the Selma (Calif) center in the coming years. The Selma
Remote Encoding Center, located in McCall Village, employees
about 500 people according to David Buckley, a supervisor for
the center.
(5/10/05)
TWO RECs TO BE PHASED OUT.
Advances in
automated mail-processing technology — making it possible for
today’s sorting equipment to “read” 92% of addresses — are
reducing the workload, and the need, for two USPS Remote
Encoding Centers (RECs). As a result, operations in Akron, OH,
and Peoria, IL, will be phased out by February 2006. The
workload at the two centers will be absorbed through the gradual
transfer of operations to other RECs so that local postal
operations will not be affected.
From USPS
Newslink (5/6/05)
Princeton
NJ REC to Close July 8th-According
to a APWU Steward at the Princeton, NJ Remote Encoding Center, " We also are
slated to close on July 8th, with most of our careers moving out as early as
March 5, 2005. There are 77 careers, myself included, who will be losing their
jobs in this "postal downsizing" not to mention the TE's who
will be also jobless. Good luck to all those in Duluth (MN) &
the other REC sites who may be announced to close in July. "
Postal Service to close Duluth (Minnesota) REC July 8,
2005
Tampa
Remote Encoding Center Transitional Data Conversion Operators (DCOs) Wanted
Test is open from
March 25, 2005 to June 10, 2005. Please
reference exam announcement number 121996.
Totals
860 Transitional
Employees will lose jobs
244 Career Employees
will be reassigned
21 EAS will be reassigned
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Remote
encoding centers
Three more will close by Spring 2004
USPS today announced the closing of three more remote encoding centers (RECs):
Bowling Green, KY, Fishkill, NY, and Albany, NY. All three facilities will
end image processing operations and shut down in March 2004.
Work at the Bowling Green facility, where 77 career craft, 240
transitional and six EAS employees work, will gradually begin to be
transferred to other RECs beginning in November 2003.
Workload at the Fishkill center will be gradually transferred to
other centers, beginning in November 2003. There are currently 92 career
craft, 141 transitional, and seven EAS employees at the Fishkill
facility.
Workload at the Albany center will be gradually transferred to other
centers, starting in October 2003. There are currently 75 career craft,
479 transitional, and eight EAS employees at the Albany facility.
Career postal employees at
these RECs will be reassigned to other postal positions in accord with
national collective bargaining agreements. Transitional employees will
receive outplacement counseling to help them find new employment.
When the RECs were opened, it was explained that the data conversion
operator positions were temporary and would be phased out as enhancements
were made to the Postal Service’s automation technology, enabling more mail
to be processed electronically.
Today, nearly 89% of all letter mail and 90% of all flat mail is read by
automation equipment. Additionally, funding was recently approved to further
upgrade the automation equipment to increase overall system read rates to
93% for letters and 95% for flats over the next three years.
As new technology emerges, the Postal Service will continue to look for
opportunities to reduce operating costs and it’s likely additional REC
consolidations will occur.
source: USPS
Remote
Coding Centers were never meant to be permanent June 1999
NAPFE
Closing of postal facility will leave hundreds out of work
Rec Career/ Transitional Employee Work Hour
Ratio FY 2003 and FY 2004
 
Reassignment
Memos from National APWU
Reassignment Memoranda of Understanding
The Clerk Division entered into a
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) [pdf] with the USPS on April 2,
2001, regarding the deployment of the following automated equipment:
 Automated Flat
Sorter (AFSM 100)
Time and Attendance
Collection System (TACS)
Flat Sorter Machine
1000 (FSM 1000)
On April 18, 2001, the
APWU and the USPS entered into three separate agreements regarding
implementation of the MOU:
A series of
Questions & Answers [pdf], negotiated by the union and
management, to ensure the proper application of the original
Reassignment MOU;
An
agreement [pdf] that clarified the saved grade provisions in
Section A.3 of the Reassignment MOU when clerks are moved to
lower-level positions; (This agreement applied those provisions on a
one-time basis to all clerks on the rolls at that time in a saved
grade status, regardless of the reason.)
An
agreement [pdf] that granted saved-grade provisions
prospectively to certain other clerks.
On May 5, 2001, the APWU
provided an
explanation [pdf] to help clerks understand their obligation to
bid in order retain saved grade.
On May 31, 2001, the APWU
and the USPS entered into a
Memorandum of Understanding [pdf] that amended Section C of the
original Reassignment MOU to include all unencumbered and full-time
flexible clerks, regardless of how they became unencumbered.
On Aug. 15, 2001, the
APWU entered into a
Memorandum of Understanding [pdf] to apply the provisions of the
April 2, 2001, Reassignment MOU to the Standard Accounting for Retail
(SAFR) program.
Sections A and B of the
original Reassignment MOU were linked to specific events which have
occurred and are now moot except for the saved-grade provisions.
Section A of the MOU dealt with reassignment within an installation of
clerks who are excess to the needs of a section.
Section B. dealt with
excessing outside of the installation.
Section C. addresses the
ongoing assignment of unencumbered employees and is still relevant.
REMOTE ENCODING CENTERS
When all electronic means of resolving address information have been
exhausted, the mailpiece image is sent to a remote encoding center (REC)
where operators use video display terminals and keyboards to process the
address information.
Providing partial RCR results with the image often allows the operator to
process the address with minimal keystrokes. The RBCS sends barcodes
electronically to a barcode sorter, where the barcode is applied to the
mailpiece, keeping it in the automated mail stream.
In 2002, we closed an additional five of the original 55 stand-alone RECs
due to continued improvements in our automation read rates. This brings the
number of stand-alone RECs to 20. We continue to look into other
consolidation options that could result in the closure of additional RECs in
the future. At the same time, we began the process of moving flat mail
keying from the plants to the RECs and are planning to key parcel images
generated by the Automated Package Processing System (APPS) program at the
RECs. source: usps.com
mou |
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