POSTAL NEWS
No 41-2020
Formulated by UNI AproPost and Logistics Sector
|
Amazon launches
food delivery service in India
3.
£400 annual bonus for Royal Mail CE members.
May 19 2020.
4.
Covid update: Swiss Post Quarterly result down as
expected – effects of coronavirus crisis significant.May 18, 2020.
5. China’s Postal Industry reports 14% increase in volume.
May 18, 2020.
|
1. Amazon launches food delivery service in India
Amazon is joining India’s online food delivery
market just as top local players Swiggy and Zomato reduce their workforce to steer through the coronavirus pandemic
and months after Uber Eats’ exit from the nation.
The e-commerce giant,
which has invested more than $6.5 billion in India, today launched its food delivery service,
called Amazon Food, in select parts of Bangalore. The company had originally
planned to launch the service in India last year, which it then moved to March but pushed it further amid the nationwide stay-at-home order the
Indian government issued in late March.
In the run up to the
launch, the e-commerce giant began testing the food delivery service with
select restaurant partners in Bangalore with employees earlier this year,
TechCrunch reported in late February.
“Customers have been
telling us for some time that they would like to order prepared meals on Amazon
in addition to shopping for all other essentials. This is particularly relevant
in present times as they stay home safe,” an Amazon spokesperson told
TechCrunch.
“We also recognize that
local businesses need all the help they can get. We are launching Amazon Food
in select Bangalore pin codes allowing customers to order from handpicked local
restaurants and cloud kitchens that pass our high hygiene certification bar. We
are adhering to the highest standards of safety to ensure our customers remain
safe while having a delightful experience,” the spokesperson added. The company
did not say how soon it plans to expand Food across India.
Amazon’s foray into the
food delivery market could create new challenges for Prosus Ventures -backed Swiggy, and Zomato, a 11-year-old startup that acquired Uber’s Eats business in India in January this year, and Google-backed Dunzo, which operates in Bangalore and counts food
delivery as one of the biggest parts of its business.
Swiggy and Zomato, having raised more than $2
billion together, are still not profitable and are losing more than $15 million
each month to acquire new customers and sustain existing ones.
Anand Lunia, a VC at India
Quotient, said earlier this year that the food delivery firms have little
choice but to keep subsidizing the cost of food items on their platform as
otherwise most of their customers can’t afford them.
Figuring out a path to
profitability is especially challenging in India as unlike in the developed
markets such as the U.S., where the value of each delivery item is about $33;
in India, a similar item carries the price tag of $4, according to estimates by
Bangalore-based research firm RedSeer.
On top of that, Zomato and
Swiggy that have established a duopoly in the market, are facing additional
challenges.
In the last one month,
Swiggy has let go more than 2,100 employees and Zomato has eliminated about 520 roles at the company as many people become cautious about
ordering food online amid the coronavirus outbreak. Both the startups today are
seeing fewer than 1 million orders on their respective platforms, down from
nearly 3 million they were each processing earlier this year.
Swiggy has additionally
scaled down its cloud kitchen operations and some other adjacent businesses.
The Bangalore-based startup today began delivering alcohol in Ranchi, a city in
the state of Jharkhand. Zomato said today that it will also offer alcohol
delivery in Ranchi starting later today. The startups have also started to
deliver grocery items in recent weeks.
Amazon has launched Amazon’s Prime Now and Amazon Fresh platforms in India to sell perishables and
grocery items in recent years and expanded its warehouses in several parts of
the country along the way.
2. AusPost reported 300 cyber incidents this year, but nothing to cause major disruption
The
government-owned postal service also touted itself as having a good
cybersecurity posture.
Australia Post has seen around 300 cyber
incidents so far this year, but it said none were enough to cause the
government-owned entity to suffer the same fate as the likes of Toll.
Addressing the Joint Committee on Public
Accounts and Audit on Tuesday, Australia Post chief information security
officer Glenn Stuttard said from January 1 to March 30, the organisation had no
incidents that were considered to be of "extremely high" impact.
"But we did respond to over 300
individual cyber incidents that we see in our systems and most of those come
from things like SMS phishing campaigns," he said. "Text messages
that bad actors might send to you try and get you to click on a link and give
up your credentials and similarly through email phishing campaigns, so we're
dealing with these types of things on a daily basis, and defending those."
He said it was quite a substantial number and
that the postal service didn't have any "high" or "extreme"
impacts over that period of time.
Stuttard said Australia Post has not
specifically seen any evidence in the past few years of state actors attempting
to "hack" or "attack" its systems. But he did say there
would be a substantial disruption to its functions should it fall victim to a
serious attack.
"Obviously our obligation to deliver a
letter service under our obligation would be one business interruption … we run
one of the larger parcel logistics businesses in the country and so our ability
to be able to function as our parcel business does, if we were impacted by an
attack, that service may be impacted and degraded … similar to what you'd see
with Toll," he said.
Australia Post was appearing before the
committee as part of its inquiry to consider the cyber
resilience of government entities prioritising information security.
Specifically, the committee is examining two
Auditor-General's reports: Cyber
Resilience of Government Business Enterprises and Corporate Commonwealth
Entities and Implementation
of the My Health Record System.
The first report followed the Australian
National Audit Office's examination of Australia Post, Reserve Bank of
Australia, and ASC Pty Ltd, an Australian government business involved with
naval shipbuilding.
The audit labelled Australia Post as not
effectively managing cybersecurity risks, with the report highlighting
weaknesses in the postal service's implementation of its risk management
framework.
Since the recommendations were made, Stuttard
said Australia Post has taken a number of steps under a program of work which
is due for completion by June 30.
He said it includes conducting maturity level
assessments against the Essential
Eight controls for mitigating cyber attacks, reconfirming its critical
application list and control scope for assessment of business critical and
security ranked critical applications, and conducting reviews internally.
"We're working very, very quickly to establish
that baseline of controls against our critical applications, have the
appropriate risks weighed, and have the appropriate actions taken where we're
finding critical-high gaps," he said. "So that's the work that we've
been doing off the back of the recommendation."
John Cox, Australia Post EGM of
transformation and enablement, said that from a cultural perspective, staff
have been undertaking formal online training, as well as participating in
simulations to ensure frontline staff have "good cyber awareness".
"As with all organisations, Australia
Post continues to monitor the fast-evolving cyber threat landscape …
continually reviewing and adjusting our tools and our processes to ensure that
we have that right strengths and protections in place to prevent those cyber
attacks," Stuttard added.
"Some of those techniques include
ensuring that we have the best of breed, next-generation tooling in place to
limit risk and impact of cyber threats such as ransomware."
Stuttard said he was confident that the
postal service has "good, broad coverage" in terms of its protective
capability.
As a non-corporate government entity,
Australia Post isn't required to adhere to the Information
Security Manual or the Essential Eight, but it has chosen to
voluntarily incorporate some aspects.
"It is clearly not something that we are
required to do, however, we certainly see it as sound practice, and we take a
commercial lens as a corporate entity that looks at the risks and assesses it
based off our overall investment portfolio, and as a consequence, we've been
gradually working through our cyber risks and building towards the Essential
Eight," Cox explained.
"However, because of some of our
business risks that don't require that, just because of the nature of them, we
haven't applied that consistently everywhere, we've been quite targeted in
applying it, but continuing to work towards it because it is a good
standard."
Source :https://www.zdnet.com/article
3. £400 annual bonus for Royal Mail CE members
May 19 2020
Hundreds
of hard-working Royal Mail call-centre staff will receive an extra boost to
their May salaries, with many set to pocket an extra £400 at the end of this
month, on top of the £200 Coronavirus recognition payment awarded to all the
company’s employees which is being paid in June.
The £400 payment (pro-rata for part-timers),
which was agreed between the CWU and the business, covers the six-month period
up the end of March 2020 and is calculated in accordance with the agreed
performance criteria.
Due to factors beyond anyone’s control, some
of the key targets were not hit, but, explains CWU assistant secretary Andy
Furey, “we proposed to senior management of Royal Mail’s Customer Experience
(CE) division to exclude some of these from the assessment – because penalising
members financially would have been unfair in these very specific
circumstances.”
Obviously, the proposals included the period
during March when the terrible Covid-19 crisis arrived, but also the General
Election period towards the end of 2019, which also impacted negatively on the bonus
targets.
“And following discussions at the highest
levels, we’re really pleased to be able to announce that the company has taken
the same view on this occasion,” the CWU assistant secretary adds.
With agreement having been reached, the
payouts will be made into the end-of-May payroll and this, together with the
£200 special Covid-19 bonus in June, will make for total payments of up to £600
for CE workers.
“They deserve every penny and I’m glad we
were able to get this extra money into their pockets,” says Andy.
“Well done to all and thank you for your
excellent work.”
Sue
Owen, the CWU rep for Plymouth Royal Mail Customer Experience members, says
that the bonus agreement is “very good news.
“Whatever
happens in operations has a knock on affect on Customer Experience,” she
explains, praising frontline colleagues for “battling really hard against all
the elements to deliver despite problems with PPE, staff sickness and a huge
increase in items to deliver it was like Christmas only worse.”
This
of course has generated increased calls from customers, which Customer
Experience then has to deal with, creating, Sue continues, “a very trying time
for our members who were taking verbal abuse from some customers that was
really bad and offensive.
“But,
like our operations colleagues, our members kept going and dealt with all this
in their stride – so I am pleased that this was recognised by the management
team and allowances made for this in as much as the bonus was concerned.
“Great
work Andy, and a big thanks from my members for achieving this payment on our
behalf.”
Source
:https://www.cwu.org/news
4.
Covid update: Swiss Post Quarterly result down as
expected – effects of coronavirus crisis significant
May 18, 2020
Swiss Post generated a lower result in the first quarter
of 2020 than in the prior-year period.
Group profit fell by 46 million, while
operating profit came in at 57 million francs below the comparable figure for
2019. The financial consequences of the coronavirus pandemic were already
evident in the first three months and are likely to have a significant impact
on Swiss Post’s annual result. The extraordinary situation has accelerated
relevant developments and shows just how important Swiss Post is to Switzerland
– especially in terms of logistics. It is vital that Swiss Post continues to
drive forward its transformation to overcome its major, longstanding
challenges.
In the first quarter of 2020, Swiss Post
generated Group profit of 84 million francs, 46 million francs down on the
previous year’s figure. Operating profit (EBIT) for the first quarter came in
at 115 million francs, 57 million less than in 2019. The decline in profit is
attributable to two main factors: the continued low-interest situation and
consequent low net interest income (–18 million francs) at PostFinance and the
decline in volumes in the letter business (–5.6 percent) in addressed letters.
Parcel volumes rose by 10 percent over the entire first quarter compared to the
prior-year period. The rise in orders on online retail sites due to the
coronavirus pandemic was clearly evident. In March alone, 16.9 percent more
parcels were processed than a year ago.
Higher parcel volumes unable to offset
negative effects
The first financial effects of the
coronavirus crisis were evident in the result for the first quarter. “And we
anticipate that the coronavirus crisis will have a significant impact on the
result for the current year,” says Alex Glanzmann, Head of Finance at Swiss
Post.
Based on initial estimates, Swiss Post
expects a negative effect on profit amounting to hundreds of millions of Swiss
francs for 2020. However, this is an estimate. More precise forecasts are
currently very difficult to make due to the changing economic situation. The
sharp decline in letter volumes at PostMail and the shortfall in transport
revenue at PostBus will have the greatest negative impact on operating profit
(EBIT). Swiss Post has established a sound financial basis over recent years.
It can therefore still absorb the negative effects of the coronavirus crisis
from its own resources.
The financial consequences of the coronavirus
crisis are likely to have an impact on all of Swiss Post’s business units for
2020 – even PostLogistics. While over 800,000 parcels a day were processed on
peak days in April during the extraordinary situation, employees had to handle
them in accordance with distancing and hygiene regulations which incurred
substantial additional costs. Pressure on prices and margins also remains
great. This means the higher number of parcels is not fully reflected in an
improved result. The growth in parcels does not even begin to offset the
negative effects in the other business units.
Employees have made an incredible effort
since the start of the coronavirus outbreak to maintain the provision of postal
services in Switzerland and to guarantee the universal service nationwide.
Swiss Post had invested almost 10 million Swiss francs in their protection at
the workplace by the end of April. The immediate bonuses for employees amounted
to 10.5 million francs in total.
New strategy addresses challenges
The coronavirus crisis has clearly shown that
Swiss Post is vitally important to Swiss people and a well-functioning Swiss
economy. However, it is being stretched to the limit with the current system –
particularly in view of rapidly increasing parcel volumes. Swiss Post knows
which direction business performance will head in if it fails to act. It needs
to generate profit to remain successful. It will only be able to implement the
transformation over the next few years and invest in the development of its
services with a stable financial basis. In particular, Swiss Post wishes to
continue financing the universal service and the investments required from its
own resources in future, to stop the decline in revenue and to initiate a
turnaround. With its new “Swiss Post of tomorrow” strategy, Swiss Post is
addressing major and longstanding challenges. It aims to stabilize EBIT at a
level of around 400 million francs by 2024 with its new strategy. “To guarantee
that it can fund the universal service, Swiss Post must stabilize its operating
profit again long-term,” underlines Alex Glanzmann, Head of Finance.
Source: https://www.posteurop.org/
5. China’s Postal Industry reports 14% increase in volume
May 18, 2020
China’s postal industry registered higher revenue and
business volume in the first four months of this year, despite the impact of
the COVID-19 epidemic, reports several local news sources.
From January to April, the business revenue of the sector
totaled 309.02 billion yuan (about 43.56 billion U.S. dollars), up 5.4 % year
on year, according to a statement released by the State Post Bureau.
The industry’s business volume rose 14 % from the same
period last year to 510.93 billion yuan in the first four months, the statement
said.
The sector accelerated its pace of growth in April, with the
business revenue and volume surging 18.5 % and 31.1 % year on year,
respectively, compared with the 13.4-% business revenue expansion and 23.8-%
business volume increase in March.
The express delivery sector, the backbone of the postal
service, also reported expansion in the first four months, as courier firms
made 19.03 billion deliveries, up 11.5 % year on year.
The total business revenue of these firms registered a 5.6-%
yearly growth to 225.49 billion yuan in the period.
POSTAL NEWS
No 42-2020
Formulated by UNI AproPost and Logistics Sector
|
1.
PHLPost: Post Offices to remain open
despite lockdown.
May 21, 2020.
2. Coronavirus pandemic has accelerated decline in mail volumes drastically – Posti plans to reduce Friday delivery for the summer. May 20, 2020.
3.
Asendia and ZigZag make returns easier.
May 19, 2020.
4.
myDHLi:
DHL Global Forwarding launches innovative one-stop customer portal for
digital logistics. May 19,2020.
5. House Passes New Stimulus Bill- Postal Funding Included. May 16, 2020. |
1. PHLPost: Post Offices to remain open despite lockdown
May 21, 2020
The Philippine Postal Corporation (PHLPost) has said that postal services
will remain operational inspite of the Modified Enhance Community Quarantine
(MECQ) in NCR and the General Community Quarantine (GCQ) which are being
implemented in select provinces in the country as a result of COVID-19.
PHLPost has been allowed to continue with its
services at a capacity necessary to maintain the prompt delivery of services to
its clients through its #PusongPHLPost.
Post Offices will be open three (3) times a week
(Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) from 10:00 in the morning up to 3:00 in the
afternoon for cities and provinces under MECQ while maintaining skeletal
operations.
Acceptance of mails and parcels intended to other
countries are suspended temporarily due to local and international flights
cancellation. However, domestic mail dispatches shall continue to be
transported by land and sea routes until further notice.
Meanwhile, those provinces under GCQ will operate in
full capacity from Monday to Friday from 8:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the
afternoon.
Processing and acceptance of Regular and Rush Postal
ID will start on June 01 to comply with the government’s strict guidelines in
the implementation of health and safety protocols.
PHLPost shall prioritise the delivery of express
mails, medicines, items containing goods/perishable items, items from SSS,
GSIS, and other public and private institutions containing pensions,
checks/loans and leftover mails (vital communications/checks) during the
community lockdown.
2. Coronavirus pandemic has accelerated decline in mail volumes drastically – Posti plans to reduce Friday delivery for the summer
May
20, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic has significantly decreased
the demand for traditional postal services. In April, mail volumes decreased by
as much as approximately 20 percent. Consequently, Postal Services is forced to
plan special arrangements for the summer, with the objective of delivering most
Friday items already on Thursday. In addition, Posti is initiating cooperation
negotiations on possible temporary layoffs concerning operations and
administration personnel within the Postal Services business group and
personnel within Posti Group administration. Personnel in the Parcel &
eCommerce business group are not within scope of these cooperation
negotiations.
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic is clear especially in
the postal volumes of businesses, public authorities and communities, which
together account for approximately 96% of all mail delivered by Posti.
“Due to the coronavirus restrictions, operations in many
service sector businesses have been slowed down or interrupted altogether. As a
result, these organizations are not sending paper invoices or advertisements to
customers in the usual volumes. In April, the decrease in the volume of
addressed letters accelerated to approximately 20%, whereas in January–March
the decrease was 15% year on year. This is a dramatic change, as five years ago
the volume decline was only 6%. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, also
advertisement mail has decreased significantly,” says YrjöEskola,
SVP, Postal Services at Posti Group.
Early-morning newspaper
delivery as well as magazine and parcel delivery continue normally
The planned special arrangements in operations would introduce
a new rhythm to item sorting and delivery, as delivery volumes have decreased
by approximately one fifth when compared to last summer. Early-morning
newspaper delivery, magazine delivery and parcel delivery will continue
normally according to customer agreements. In addition, Posti service points
and customer service are not affected by the planned arrangements.
For mail recipients, the changes during the summer (June 1 –
August 31) would be visible as the earlier sorting of items scheduled for
delivery of Fridays – these items would be mostly delivered already on
Thursdays.
Only very few items would be delivered on Fridays. For some
items, the delivery date could be changed to Monday, if Monday is an agreed
delivery day for the given item.
According to Eskola, mail volumes have fallen by 50% during
the past 10 years due to digitalization, and this trend is continuing
inevitably, as the role of traditional mail decreases in people’s everyday
life.
“The current trend is similar in the postal industry across
Europe – the coronavirus pandemic is accelerating the adoption of digital
communication tools. Furthermore, in Finland the public sector is giving up on
paper mail and also the state is accelerating this process. The impact on
Posti’s revenues is dramatic,” Eskola emphasizes.
Mail volumes are
significantly lower during summer
The rescheduling of deliveries is easier during the summer,
when mail volumes are even in normal times significantly lower than during
other seasons. Posti has adjusted the service rhythms and staff allocation
based on mail volumes also during previous years.
Posti delivers newspapers seven days a week and parcels six
days a week to pickup points. Other mail, such as letters, magazines and
advertisements, is delivered five days a week. However, not all items are
delivered on every weekday, as some products have differing delivery schedules
agreed with the sending customer. For example, some products have a fixed
delivery day on a specific weekday, while other products have a delivery window
of several days.
Negotiations on possible
temporary layoffs at Postal Services and Posti Group administration
Due to the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Posti
is initiating cooperation negotiations on possible temporary layoffs.
The current plan is to initiate temporary layoffs among
operations and administration personnel within the Postal Services business
group and personnel at Posti Group administration. In total, approximately
8,000 persons are in scope of the negotiations.
Personnel in the Parcel & eCommerce business group are not in scope of these negotiations.
Personnel in the Parcel & eCommerce business group are not in scope of these negotiations.
The planned temporary layoffs will be scheduled in a manner
ensuring that they will not affect the service provided to customers.
“Posti operates without any public subsidies. These measures
will allow us to maintain the profitability of our operations and thereby
ensure that citizens and businesses will continue to have access to postal
services also during the exceptional situation cased by the coronavirus”, says
Eskola
3. Asendia and ZigZag make returns easier
May 19, 2020
Asendia is working with ZigZag Global to make returns easier
for consumers in France.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, France was placed in a
strict lockdown with high street stores closing and distribution centers being
disrupted.
Asendia, the joint venture between La Poste and Swiss Post,
has been maintaining shipping services within France, and the partnership with
ZigZag will manage returns for retailers.
ZigZag’s online portal lets customers return items from
their order, choose the most convenient carrier option and produce a return
label.
Al Gerrie, CEO of ZigZag, said, “Asendia’s services via
Colissimo are a welcome addition to the ZigZag platform and allow us to offer
fast refunds and cost-effective returns to consumers in a sustainable manner,
with new paperless services coming soon.”
Simon Batt, CEO of Asendia UK, said, “Many of our online
retailer partners have noticed their French sales soar through this period of
uncertainty, because they understand that ease of return is key. By extending
their returns window to 60 days and offering the convenient ‘Collect From Home’
option they are boosting sales while keeping their customers safe at home.”
4. myDHLi: DHL Global Forwarding launches innovative one-stop customer portal for digital logistics
May 19,2020
myDHLi's highly intuitive
user interface makes it easy to use and ensures that customers have all
relevant information at hand.
DHL Global Forwarding, Deutsche Post DHL Group's air and ocean freight specialist, has launched myDHLi, the only fully integrated online platform for freight forwarding customers. myDHLi's highly intuitive user interface makes it easy to use and ensures that customers have all relevant information at hand. Reflecting already well established social media functions like follow and share, relevant information can be easily accessed across organizations and trading partners.
Completely transparent management of freight rates, offers, transport modes, carbon emissions, and all other relevant shipment data is readily available with just a few clicks and can be displayed in detailed analyses and reports. One of the most unique aspects is the benefit of full visibility and control over all shipping and transport modes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
"Despite accelerating
digitalization and super-fast connectivity customers have a need for reduced
complexity. And that is exactly what our tool does," says Tim Scharwath,
CEO DHL Global Forwarding, Freight. "We have created a one-stop customer
portal that is tailored to the needs of our customers. By combining services
like online quotation and booking with shipment tracking, document
accessibility, and data analyses we are creating not only 360-degrees
visibility, but also have laid the foundation for customers to manage their
logistics - anytime and anywhere. We strongly believe that digitalization bears
the potential to ease and improve the daily business of shippers and freight
forwarders simultaneously.
This is even truer during
unpredictable and challenging times such as those we are currently facing with
COVID-19, and which might now act as an accelerator for digitizing the
industry. That is what digitalization means to us and why we made it a
cornerstone of our strategy 2025."
The platform merges existing
online services like myDHLi Quote + Book and myDHLi Analytics with new services
and features, and incorporates them into one innovative platform. Services like
a very efficient search capability enhance the user experience. On top,
developed completely in-house, the new tracking service uses end-to-end
information to make shipments across air and ocean visible nearly in real-time.
This gives users complete control - from pick-up to final delivery. The service
also offers raw data Excel extracts. Another new feature is myDHLi Documents,
which offers quick and easy access to downloadable shipment documents. All
documents - quotes, commercial invoice, packing list, house bill, invoice,
proof of delivery, etc. - are stored in one place. The designers adapted a
mobile-first approach for seamless use on all devices. Built-in popular social
media features like follow and share functions simplify communication along the
supply chain by enabling customers to exchange information with colleagues,
customers and suppliers. Furthermore, data can be easily analyzed and exported
or directly integrated to own systems, based on a suite of APIs.
myDHLi features a modular
build-up. Users can individualize their portal by selecting the specific
services they want. Thanks to the single sign-on registration process, all
services are available from the beginning. No additional registration or
sign-in processes are needed. myDHLi is free of charge for all DHL Global
Forwarding customers.
The launch begins with a pilot
phase including selected customers from five continents (North America, Europe,
Asia, Australia, Africa). myDHLi is being rolled out in waves to ensure a
smooth region-by-region transition. Interested customers can register for
onboarding to myDHLi. Regular updates based on customer feedback will be
shared. The previous customer portal, DHLi, will be available until the myDHLi
roll-out is complete.
Global Forwarding, Freight is
continuously working on new services to offer its customers a state-of-the-art
experience - all in line with Deutsche Post DHL Group's Strategy 2025 goal of
"Delivering Excellence in a Digital World."
5. House Passes New Stimulus Bill- Postal Funding Included
May 16, 2020
On May 15th,
the House of Representatives passed the fifth COVID-19 response package. The 1815 page Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus
Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act (H.R. 6800) provides some resources
to lessen the impact of COVID-19 including direct stimulus payments to
Americans, aid for state and local governments, and emergency appropriations
for the Postal Service.
“There is
a big, bold movement taking place across rural and urban American to make sure
postal funding is included in the next stimulus,” said APWU President Mark
Dimondstein. “Postal workers and our labor/community allies have come
together to protect this national treasure and ensure it can continue to serve
the country in both good times and times of crisis.”
The
postal provisions in the House legislation will need to be passed by the Senate
before it goes to the White House to be signed into law.
A snapshot
of postal provisions in the House bill, include:
· An emergency $25 billion appropriation for lost
revenue due to COVID-19
This emergency appropriation will ensure that USPS has the financial resources to continue serving the nation thru the end of the year and beyond.
This emergency appropriation will ensure that USPS has the financial resources to continue serving the nation thru the end of the year and beyond.
· Ensures that USPS has access to the $10
billion line of credit with no strings attached;
· Provides postal and other essential frontline
workers the hazard pay they deserve.
· Protects the democratic process by
ensuring that every voter can access no-excuse absentee vote-by-mail
in the upcoming election, and every federal election thereafter.
“We are
encouraged to see that postal funding was included in this House legislation,”
said Legislative and Political Director Judy Beard. “Our focus must now
turn to the Senate where we will continue to educate Senators on the importance
of the Postal Service and its’ essential workers who are on the frontline of
this crisis each and every day.”
Senators
need to keep hearing from our members about the role the Postal Service is
playing during this crisis and its’ ongoing value to the American people.
Call your Senators today and tell them to adopt
postal funding as passed in the House! Call 844-402-1001 to be
connected.
On a
broader front, we will continue to support our brothers and sisters in the
labor movement and beyond in the fight to obtain adequate health and safety
measures and economic justice.
Source :https://www.apwu.org/news