customers to place bar codes in the address or virtually anywhere on the envelope. The first 25 remote bar coding sites will also become operational during calendar year 1992. In order to complete the initial letter automation network, two more phases of major equipment purchases are planned; one in the spring of 1992 and the other in early 1994. These purchases will focus on providing the equipment to support over 200 additional remote bar coding sites and several thousand additional bar code sorters necessary to achieve the network savings. Flat mail automation begins in late 1991 when wide area bar code readers will be added to the existing flat sorting machines. This provides an opportunity for mailers to realize a rate reduction for including bar codes in flat mail addresses beginning in early 1992. The next generation automated flat sorting machine will undergo testing and evaluation this spring. Operational deployment of several hundred of these new machines will begin in late 1993. The implementation of automation will have an impact on postal employees. In accordance with the appropriate provisions of the collective bargaining agreements, employees who are affected by the implementation of automation may be reassigned in the same craft, retained for other work assignments within the craft or other crafts in their present installation, or reassigned to other installations in the same craft or other crafts. 9. Mr. Hoyer: What steps does the Postal Service take to ensure cooperation between union organizations and automation efforts? How are the workers involved in automation efforts? Mr. Frank: Postal Service policy and contractual obligations require that dislocation and inconvenience to our employees be kept to the minimum consistent with the needs of the service. In accordance with the appropriate provisions of our collective bargaining agreements: 1. The unions are notified at the national level as far in advance as practicable of technological and mechanization changes which could affect jobs, including new or changed jobs, in the areas of wages, hours or working conditions. For example, we began briefing the appropriate national unions regarding the Remote Bar Code System in early fall 1988. 2. When employees may be subject to reassignment at the installation level, the affected unions are notified at the regional level as much as six months in advance, whenever possible. 3. Affected employees are given not less than 60 days advance notice, if possible, and receive moving, mileage, per diem and reimbursement for the transportation of household goods, as appropriate. In addition, one-on-one counseling generally is conducted or available for employees to explain the various options open to them. Throughout the above notification procedures, the affected unions' input and cooperation are solicited to minimize the impact upon employees. The Postal Service is sensitive to the needs of our employees (both supervisors and craft), and attempts to lessen any apprehensions regarding the deployment of automation and the impact it may have on the employees' present work assignments. It is the Postal Service's policy to provide our employees with available information regarding automation deployment and any reassignments that might occur. In a February 5 memorandum to Field Division General Manager/Postmasters, Deputy Postmaster General Michael Coughlin emphasized the Postal Service's policy on communications with employees on automation deployment matters. In that memo he stated: we owe our employees absolute candor about our intentions and their prospects, to the extent we are able to forecast excessing and reassignment scenarios. I want it clearly understood that we shall, without exception, share with our employees on an ongoing basis all that is known about the automation program-performance expectations, deployment schedules, projected workforce impacts, personnel policies, etc. Given the level of anxiety that exists in the field, we can no longer afford to defer the commencement of an earnest dialogue in these matters. I expect each Field Division manager to assume a highly visible and proactive role in this communications process. |