Featured News

April 24. 2020

Greetings fellow UPMA Members:

Once again we have reached another Friday.   Thank you to all of you that are heading into your offices every day and taking care of your customers and showing leadership to your employees.    As I listen to the many telecoms that I have the opportunity to participate in during the week I am continually hearing how many thank you notes, chalk messages and other displays of thanks that you are receiving from the customers.    That is good to see and very much deserved.   Remember always that you are indeed essential, vital and dedicated and you and the employees that work with you deserve a very deep and heartfelt vote of thanks from each and every citizen in this country.

One of the issues that I hear about from some of the leadership at the District and Area levels is the concern that when there is a positive COVID-19 case and the Occupational Health Nurse does their investigation it is coming up in many offices that the people working there are not practicing the proper social distancing.    Please make sure that you are first practicing social distancing and that you are enforcing these requirements in your office wherever possible.   It is important that as the leaders in your area of influence that you set the stage for what should be happening in the office and on the street involving your employees.    I understand that this can be difficult at times, but I would ask that you would do the best you can.

As we continue through the COVID-19 pandemic we are going to find that people (especially children) are finding it harder and harder to stay inside.   Also, as the weather gets better we will see more people and animals out and about.  We all need to make sure that we are paying attention whenever we travel to watch for these individuals so that we can hopefully prevent any accidents from happening.

As you are aware, I am sure, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to create issues for the United States Postal Service.    In order to really deal with this situation, it is essential that we get some help legislatively from Congress.    I would like to encourage each and every one of you to reach out to your Representative and your Senators to encourage them to get on board to make sure we receive some relief in the next COVID-19 response package.

Here is a suggested message that you could use in those contacts:

Dear Representative _________ (or Senator _______):

 As a member of the United Postmasters and Managers of America (UPMA) I am contacting you with a request that you work with the leadership to make sure that the United States Postal Service (USPS)  is included in any future COVID-19 response package.  The COVID-19 crisis has created an urgent threat to Postal Service operations that requires Congress’ attention.  

 Postal reform has been one of UPMA’s top priority for the past 13 years – but the circumstances today are far more urgent and threaten not only the livelihood of all postal employees, retirees, customers, but the core functioning of the US economy, where the Postal Service plays a crucial role. The USPS’s role has never been more important to the livelihood of this country than now, when so many of our fellow Americans are at a stay at home order to flatten the curve of infections.

 We urge Congress to act immediately in the interests of the Postal Service’s 620,000 employees.

 The USPS is the only entity—public or private—that visits every American home and business on a daily basis. Over the past 14 years, the agency has survived its unique quasi-public model, despite Congressional and regulatory limits on its operational choices and rate-setting practices that dramatically affected the operations and finances of the USPS. Not acting on the requests of USPS leadership, management groups and workers in this time of need would disrupt the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans who depend on the biggest and most effective postal service in the world.

Thank you for your time and your consideration of this most critical request.

Thank you,

Name

City, State and Zip Code

If you need to find out who your representative is, here is a link that can get you to the proper website: https://www.house.gov/htbin/findrep.

At the national level we continue to evaluate the national convention.    Gerri and I had a telecom with the representatives from the hotel yesterday and we are moving ahead with our plans at this time.    We are going to be meeting with them on a regular basis from now until it is time for the convention to begin.    We will continue to evaluate and make adjustments as necessary.    You can rest assured that the St. Louis Marriott Grand is taking steps to make sure that their hotel is ready for us when we arrive.

As the pandemic continues, I pray that you, your families and your employees are all staying safe during this most critical time.    With the opening of some businesses in a few of the states we will see where this takes us and if that trend does indeed continue.    As always, I urge you to stay safe, use the safe practices that I hope by now have become a part of your everyday life and make sure you let all of the people closest to you know how much you love them.

Thanks,

Dan Heins
National President