Gonzalez, the APWU Western Region Coordinator, insists Pacific Area Human Resources Manager Manuel Botello told him at a May 17 meeting that the program had been temporarily halted in the area.

But McGovern told APWU Human Relations Director Sue Carney that Botello denies telling Gonzalez the program was put on hold.

The purpose of the Reassessment Program is to cull injured workers from the payroll by dumping them on Workers' Compensation and then retraining them for private sector jobs.

"I went back to review my notes taken on the 17th of May," Gonzalez said in an email received yesterday. "At that meeting I was prepared to discuss issues of Rehab Reassessment . . . It was Mr. Botello who expressly stated, 'Oh, that is on hold pending review of the impact of EEOs, MSPBs and grievances.' Of course, they deny it."

Gonzalez also said that a story of mine, which quoted him telling delegates to the California APWU Convention on May 18 that the program had been put on hold, failed to report that he also told delegates "I believe management like I believe Bush."

In a June 22 posting on the web site 21cpw.com, Gonzalez dismissed the USPS denial as hearsay, noting that the source of the story, APWU Human Relations Director Sue Carney, "said that USPS Manager McGovern said that Botello said he denied telling Western Region Coordinator Omar Gonzalez the Rehab Reassessment project was on hold."

The Postal Service has refused requests for interviews about the Reassessment Program, referring all questions to the union, which they say has been briefed on the project.

Gonzalez said he rejected a request from USPS Pacific Area management that the two sides sit down and review general issues arising from the controversial program instead of the union filing multiple grievances.

"I informed them we needed to intervene not just review. I also informed them the withdrawal of a limited duty job offer could generate a grievance over violations of the Rehab Act, a grievance over a violation of the ELM 540, a grievance over failure to make a real effort to find work, a separate grievance over non accommodation of deserving employee and a host of other related issues."

Gonzalez believes the union must aggressively oppose the Reassessment Program.

"Not only do we have to assist injured employees, fight dirty management and their HQ bosses, but we must also educate able bodied members that it is the rights of all employees we are fighting for," he wrote on 21cpw.com.

"The fact is we know we are under attack whether the attack is on hold or not. We can't trust management will do the right thing."

The piece of vinyl siding was hidden beneath 3 inches of snow when Mike Vinci accidentally found it while delivering mail in Caledonia, NY.

It was like stepping on a sheet of ice.

"My feet went straight up in the air," he remembers. " Like an idiot, I hung onto the mail and landed on my elbow."

Mike finished his mail route that day. But the pain wouldn't go away.

"I worked for almost a year with shoulder and neck pain, not knowing I had damaged two discs in my neck and partially tore my Achilles tendon in my left ankle.

"I went out of work in February of 1992. It took eight months to even get an OWCP claim number and my first comp check. I had $75 to my name."

Mike had more than money problems.

It turns out he needed surgeries to repair his ankle and neck. But, like the wheels of justice, the bureaucracy moves slowly. After his ankle surgery, it took another three years to get approval from the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP) for surgery to fuse his 4^th and 5^th and 6^th and 7^th cervical discs.

His days as a letter carrier were over.

But the Postal Service has always provided work for employees hurt on the job. So when he recovered from his surgeries, Mike was given a position as a part-time flexible clerk at the nearby Geneseo post office. Eventually he worked his way into a regular position.

His work involved the usual clerks' duties, sorting and distributing letters and flats, clearing carriers and handling accountable mail. Mike has done everything, in fact, except work the window, where the college kids often bring in large parcels too heavy for him to lift because of his medical restrictions.

The story would end here, if the Postal Service hadn't come up with a scheme to get rid of injured workers like Mike.

Called the Reassessment Program, the plan is being tested in the Western New York District and a couple other areas of the country. The purpose of the program is to cull injured workers from the payroll by dumping them on Workers' Compensation and then retraining them for private sector jobs.

Mike got his walking papers on May 24, when it took five postal bosses coming down from the Western New York District Office in Buffalo to tell him he was no longer needed.

"A mail carrier had to come in off the street to take over my duties delivering all of the guaranteed overnight mail so that I could attend the meeting," Mike says.

"They took my badge and walked me out the door. It was 2:00 p.m. They don't even let you say goodbye to your friends."

The Geneseo Postmaster, Tammy Kelley, disagreed with the big shots who said there wasn't any work for Mike.

But what did she know? She was only looking out for Geneseo and wasn't able to see the big picture.

Tammy insisted to them that, not only was I doing a great job and an asset to the office, but the work was there for me to do and had not changed. She also emphasized that I was included in the office budget hours, compiled by them, and that the office had made budget last year and is continuing to do so."

For obvious reasons, Postmaster Kelley was reluctant to speak about Mike's situation.

"I can't really say too much, except this is all new. It's beyond me. It involves staffing decisions by higher-ups," the Postmaster says.

But she wasn't reluctant to praise Mike's work ethic.

"Oh, Mike was an excellent worker. I can tell you that."

The bosses at postal headquarters who came up with the Reassessment Program have been mum about the scheme, referring all questions to the American Postal Workers Union, which they say has been briefed on the outsourcing program.

According to APWU Human Relations Director Sue Carney, the Postal Service claims it wants all limited duty and rehabilitation jobs to consist of "necessary work," not make-work assignments.

So it seems like an obvious question to ask: Why dump Mike Vinci back on Workers' Compensation when the Geneseo Postmaster has plenty of real work for him to do?

The postal big shot who apparently decided that Mike wasn't needed at the Geneseo post office is Mary McNeill. She has an important title: Western New York District Manager of Injury Compensation.

Mary wasn't in her office when I called to ask why Mike was put off the clock and unceremoniously shown the door. Or why it took 5 postal bosses to deliver the news. The person who answered her phone said she was on the road doing reassessment interviews.

I have to assume she must be quite busy trying to help other injured workers, because she hasn't returned my call.

Mike is now 54 years old and in 11 months he'll be eligible to retire. Until then he's going to fight to get his job back.

He's written his Congressman and filed a grievance with the American Postal Workers Union over his dismissal.

As you can imagine, he doesn't have much good to say about the Reassessment Program and the bureaucrats in charge of it. But he's grateful to Geneseo Postmaster Tammy Kelley for "being truthful and maybe jeopardizing her job" for him.

And he has this bit of advice for other postal workers who think it can't happen to them:

"Even the people who aren't injured should be against this program because anyone can get hurt at work.

"If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone."

Within 2 to 4 weeks the Postal Service plans to begin implementing a nation-wide program examining the status of workers injured on the job who are presently on medical restrictions in limited duty and permanent rehabilitation jobs. The goal of the program is to set up a process to place injured workers off the clock on compensation and then refer them to the Office of Workers' Compensation (OWCP) for possible employment in the private sector if no work can be found for them in the Postal Service.

Before that, though, Anthony Vegliante, USPS Vice President for Labor Relations, must give final approval for the controversial plan.

Not much is generally known about what the USPS is now calling its 'National Reassessment Process.' Postal officials contacted at USPS headquarters refused to talk about it for this story, referring all questions to the American Postal Workers Union, which they say has been briefed about the program.

In its monthly magazine, the American Postal Worker, Sue Carney, the union's Director of Human Relations, says that under the Reassessment Program USPS will review medical documentation for injured workers, request updated medical information if required and then renew job offers or make new job offers "where adequate work is available, based on operational needs." Where work isn't available, injured workers will be put on compensation and referred to OWCP's vocational rehabilitation program.

Carney also says that USPS representatives told the union in March 2004 that the Postal Service had "partnered with OWCP in the Long Island District regarding the Outplacement Program and that OWCP was in agreement" with it. But OWCP officials told the union that they "were not party to the USPS Outplacement Program" and a spokesperson for Shelby Hallmark, Director of OWCP, also says the agency has nothing to do with the Postal Service Reassessment Program.

A spokesperson for the Department of Labor, which oversees OWCP, confirms that the agency has nothing to do with the USPS outsourcing plans.

"That's a Postal Service project," she says.

The Postal Service has yet to respond to a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking details of the injured worker outsourcing plan.

The program - first called the 'Outplacement Pilot Program' and later the 'Reassessment Initiative' - has already been tested in at least two places: In the Long Island District and in San Diego.

In April 2004 in the Long Island District, postal officials attempted to withdraw limited duty work from 12 employees and put them on the OWCP rolls where they would be paid compensation until work could be found for them in the Postal Service or in the private sector under OWCP's vocational rehabilitation program, a process that can take up to two years.

Paul Hogrogrian, President of Mailhandlers Union Local 300, says the outsourcing - then called the 'Outplacement Pilot Program' - was mainly aimed at letter carriers.

"There were 3 or 4 mailhandlers in the program. The rest were carriers. In all but one case, we got the Post Office to back off by identifying work the mailhandlers could do within their restrictions."

In the lone case where a mailhandler was placed on compensation the union filed a grievance, which the Postal Service blocked from going to arbitration by referring it to the national level of the grievance-arbitration procedure. To date, no decision has been made on that case.

In San Diego last year the name of the program had changed, but not its goals. Now billed as the 'National Reassessment Process' the program began with a look at 329 clerks in limited duty or permanent rehabilitation jobs. On February 28 of this year postal managers notified 27 of those injured clerks that there was no longer any work for them in the Postal Service. The clerks were handed compensation forms to fill out, stripped of their ID badges and shown the door.