Today at my very own Lakewood Post Office in Dallas we learned that letter carriers (and clerks) are not permitted to work off-day overtime, which means on Monday the 24th of December we will have around 11-12 routes down out of 34. That's about 33% on one of the most important delivery days of the year. (Past experiences show that anything beyond 8 routes down is unworkable, and some mail doesn't get delivered.) I'm hearing this isn't just a Lakewood thing. Our station manager reportedly asked the Postmaster of Dallas for authorization to bring in some Overtime Desired List (OTDL) people but was rebuffed. Apparently the Dallas postmaster has orders from above also. How far up? Apparently, according to our supervisors, the no-overtime orders are coming all the way from the top, from the USPS CFO H. Glenn Walker. (See USPS CFO Delivers Corporate Mentality)

Well, Monday will be a total disaster. If we have to split 11-12 routes that means that every remaining carrier will have to carry about one and a half routes - on Christmas Eve! That's if they all show up. Already there is talk of sick calls, because no one really wants to be mandated to work 12 to 14 hours until 8 - 9:00 PM on Christmas Eve (and in the cold and dark). (Communist systems have shown us that the heavy hand of central authority is far less efficient than the "guiding hand" of Adam Smith's free market capitalism, where decisions are best made at the lowest levels. There's probably another post office out there somewhere that has 34 routes and 45 carriers scheduled for Monday.) (However, not sure how the "guiding hand" would work at the lowest levels of the post office, seeing that ASP [Associate Supervisor Program] has stripped the Postal Service of virtually any intelligence in front line operations.)

Now, I understand we should all be thankful for our jobs, but the blanket restriction on overtime is negatively impacting both service and morale.

So the angry talk on the workroom floor turned to the CFO. Not sure where it came from, perhaps the union hall, but the word on the postal street is that the CFO at his prior job at Whirlpool was involved in outsourcing American jobs to China. That was news to me. Did I miss an important news story for PostalMag.com?

I've done some checking (googling) on H. Glenn Walker, not to be confused with H. Walker Bush. It's true that Whirlpool has done some major outsourcing, including to Mexico. But of course it's more complicated than that. Whirlpool is an international company that sells products around the globe. In this age of globalization where some "domestic" cars have more foreign parts than foreign brands such as Nissan, it's hard to draw the line between foreign and domestic. Plus, whether companies like it or not, outsourcing is the only way many companies can compete in a global market and stay afloat.  

Below are a few links I found that reference Whirlpool and outsourcing in regards to the "word on the postal street" about Walker and outsourcing. Overall, it doesn't look like Whirlpool has done anything that many other major American companies have done, which doesn't necessarily make it right for America. But that's a very complicated argument involving politics, economics, tariffs, globalizaton and more.

Links:

Understanding Lean at Whirlpool (with info about outsourcing to Mexico)

"You can learn all you need to about Whirlpool if you go cruising the sites that celebrate the beauty, wisdom and power of Six Sigma. They have six sigmaed their way to plant closings all over the country, leaving themselves as the final assemblers of Asian components in a big plant in Ohio - which they proudly describe as the epitome of lean. In fact, they are the epitome of professional managers who worship at the altar of numbers ... and are slowly destroying another once great American company. They already consumed Maytag, and now they are eating themselves." (link)

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2005/jul/1168137.htm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1797939.cms