U.S. Post Office cuts threaten source of black jobs

Reuters ^ | Jan 21, 2013 | Mary Wisniewski

[Lancey Howard]

(Reuters) - While delivering mail on Chicago's North Side, Lakesha Dortch-Hardy spoke about how much she loves her job at the U.S. Postal Service, and how much it would hurt if jobs such as hers were to disappear.

"These jobs are the middle class ..." said Dortch-Hardy, a tall, energetic 38-year-old, who took long strides as she wheeled her cart along a row of two- and three-story brick apartment houses. "Without this job, I don't know where I'd be right now."

The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service has eliminated 168,000 jobs since 2006, and more cuts could result as it struggles to avoid its own "fiscal cliff." As the United States honors Martin Luther King's civil rights legacy on Monday, many African-American workers may be facing new obstacles to achieving and maintaining a middle-class life style.

African-Americans represent 13.1 percent of the U.S. population and 11.6 percent of the labor force, according to a 2012 U.S. Department of Labor report. Nearly one in five African-American workers hold government jobs such as mail clerks, firefighters and teachers, the report said.

"There's a long tradition of the public sector being more friendly, or less hostile, to African-American workers," said Robert Zieger, emeritus professor of history at the University of Florida in Gainesville. "The Post Office is the best example."

[Cronos]

not completely fair. It could also be that “my dad/uncle/mom/aunt worked there, so it’s the easiest thing to get in to”

[Cronos]

Muawiyah, an ex-postie, had some really good ideas. If I recall correctly, the changes are quite simple -- two stand out in my mind:

1. the USPS is nominally supposed to pay for itself, but increases in prices must be agreed by Congress, so getting rid of this is a step
2. Saturday post to be stopped

[Cronos]

Muawiyah, an ex-postie, had some really good ideas. If I recall correctly, the changes are quite simple -- two stand out in my mind:

1. the USPS is nominally supposed to pay for itself, but increases in prices must be agreed by Congress, so getting rid of this is a step
2. Saturday post to be stopped

Must add in the caveat -- I, personally, don't know anything about the way the postal service works, so can't contribute personally to this discussion except by pinging a person (muawiyah) who does know, a lot

[Kickass Conservative]

Buster Brown?

[Truth29]

"Well, the blacks vote, what, 97 percent dim? Where do they think that money for jobs, theirs included, will come from if they constantly vote against the producers?"

Obama's stash - end of analysis ... or maybe I got you reelected, now pay up.

[Kickass Conservative]

Saturday Delivery requires an additional 20% of Delivery Carriers just to provide fill in coverage as Utility Personnel with unassigned Routes. Delivery Carriers have Sunday off and a rotating second day off. S/M, S/T, S/W. S/TH, S/F, SAT/S, repeat.

Add to that the necessary additional Staff to cover Sick Leave and Vacation time and the cost is astronomical.

All scheduled Mail Routes must be completed, requiring the same number of Staff to be out on the road every day. The Logistics require inflated “stand by” Staffing, there is no way around it without disrupting required service levels.

Getting rid of Saturday Delivery would be a big first step, but it won't completely stop the hemorrhaging.

[Soul of the South]

I live in a suburban/rural area outside a mid sized city of 200,000. There are 6 small post offices within 5 miles of my house. All of them could be closed and their retail operations subcontracted to card shops, hardware stores, UPS, stores or other private retail operations.

Saturday delivery is a long needed cost savings that should result in significant savings. Retiree medical benefits should also be eliminated for current employees. Most private sector companies have dropped retiree medical over the last decade. In suburban/urban areas delivery at the door should be eliminated and replaced with curbside boxes (like in rural areas or in unsafe neighborhoods with community stations with locked individual boxes such as those employed in many newer planned communities.

Congress “privatized” the post office years ago but tied the hands of management so it couldn’t execute the kinds of cost savings measures that would result in the elimination of large numbers of jobs or reduce employee benefits. The inability of Congress to privatize this agency successfully suggests there will never be meaningful reductions in agency bureaucracies.

[ReaganGeneration2]

This reporter was obviously racist. Why else would he make that one guy look so ignorant by incluing his opinion that an Executive Order could actually be used to save a Federal program? /s

Seriously, coming soon: here’s why Federal budget cuts are racist.

[1010RD]

"There's a long tradition of the public sector being more friendly, or less hostile, to African-American workers," said Robert Zieger, emeritus professor of history at the University of Florida in Gainesville. "The Post Office is the best example."

No professor, there's a very, very short tradition. The history of government and black people is slavery. What a dummy.

[Altura Ct.]

So why should I care? Do blacks concern themselves with jobs for whites?

[1010RD]

People vote their pocketbook. So how do you regain just some of those voters? GOP outreach to minorities is near nil. Yet, the big city policies of unionism, licensing and permitting coupled with the fly-paper economics of the welfare system are the KKKs dream policy.

They target the poor and minorities. Undoing them is a winning ticket. Why should you need a half million dollars to drive taxicab?

Until the GOP gets the guts and long term strategy to regain the urban vote we’ll continue to struggle to win national and statewide elections.

For conservatives it will mean expanding our tent to hold some pols like Giuliani. He’s the type of Republican urbanites can tolerate. We need one in the top ten biggest cities in America. Our bench is empty.

[1010RD]

The Left leapt on the privatization bandwagon and then muddled it with regulations that castrated competition. Now privatization has a bad name.

In Chicago the Regional Transportation Authority and the Chicago Transit Authority regularly abandon bus routes, but by law, by law, you cannot replace them with a private bus service. No doctor’s office or hospital can open without government permission. Health care is ruled by government and hasn’t been free market in a half century.

Over and over again government has failed in its stated goals and made things worse. A captive media and pro-government school system keeps this information out of the minds of the people.

Government doesn’t work, yet we’re trained from Kindergarten that if something is broken government will fix it.

[1010RD]

Think how a competitive market system would have cured that. The lazies would be out of work or newfound hustlers and the hustlers would be better paid.

[Kozak]

“Obamas Stash”
Seriously do you think they have the capacity to understand this issue?

[rlmorel]

I know there are good and decent people who work for USPS. I know that every industry has its hard workers and dregs of the workforce.

But this enraged me when I opened my door to find this, and the USPS truck pulling away fast:

This was pathetic. NO explanation. NO instructions on how to proceed. No words of apology for this abortion of "service". This was a large box full of expensive hot sauces. It had been crushed, the box had been wrapped with plastic tape to try to keep it in one piece, then the entire mess had been shoved in a gray plastic bag to "keep all the juices in". There were several bottles still unbroken and usable inside, and after much careful cleanup to ensure I didn't get any habanero sauce in my eyes (opening the damn bag and merely looking inside made your eyes water) I was able to salvage them. This was the last bottle I pulled out:

When I called the post office, they denied all responsibility, and said it was between me and the seller!

That made me hopping mad. The shipper sure as hell didn't drop it off broken, taped and in a plastic bag. It was pretty easy to determine responsibility here.

But, they will be bailed out with MY hard earned money. How galling is that?

[napscoordinator]

The Post Office will lose “Black” jobs and the Federal Government will lose “Vet’s” jobs because they are the newest hires. We are in deep trouble!!! Something has to be done and Obama is going to do what he always wanted to do “Screw the Vets”....he will say it must be done.

[kearnyirish2]

“many African-American workers may be facing new obstacles to achieving and maintaining a middle-class life style.”

Thankfully this isn’t happening to “white America”.../s

[kearnyirish2]

“It is about how to sustain an ongoing wealth transfer to a minority group that lacks the education and marketable skills to compete in the private economy.”

Absolutely; they reduced the host (whites) to serfdom now, so they are trying to squeeze blood from a stone trying to rob from Peter to pay Taniqua. Peter’s tapped out, and doesn’t give a darn what’s happening to Taniqua’s people.

[kearnyirish2]

“So why should I care? Do blacks concern themselves with jobs for whites?”

A natural reaction to today’s affirmative action environment; blacks support those that would give a less-qualified minority candidate a job (or promotion, or college seat) over a white man solely because that man is white.

I have never been as indifferent to any sob stories involving anyone under the affirmative action umbrella as I am now.

[shoff]

I believe the joke you are looking for goes like this:

What does a shoe store and the post office have in common?

Both contain thousands of black loafers.