PAID TO DO NOTHING [idle postal workers]

Washington Post ^ | September 08, 2009 | Federal Eye

[Timeout]

This article from Federal Times is linked at The Eye: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/09/eye_opener_federal_hiring_sala.html

___________________________________________________

The U.S. Postal Service, struggling with a massive deficit caused by plummeting mail volume, spends more than a million dollars each week to pay thousands of employees to sit in empty rooms and do nothing.

It’s a practice called “standby time,” and it has existed for years — but postal employees say it was rarely used until this year. Now, postal officials say, the agency is averaging about 45,000 hours of standby time every week — the equivalent of having 1,125 full-time employees sitting idle, at a cost of more than $50 million per year.

Mail volume is down 12.6 percent compared with last year, and many postal supervisors simply don’t have enough work to keep all employees busy. But a thicket of union rules prevents managers from laying off excess employees; a recent agreement with the unions, in fact, temporarily prevents the Postal Service from even reassigning them to other facilities that could use them.

[Timeout]

Just think.

These bums now want to run your health care.

[Made In The USA]

“...But a thicket of union rules prevents managers from laying off excess employees... ....in fact, temporarily prevents the Postal Service from even reassigning them to other facilities that could use them.”

They spend over a $1M a week for idle workers. Yeah, unions are just grrrrreat for America. Yes Barry, the USPS is a great example of what Uncle Sam can do... just... great.

[penelopesire]

They look pretty busy here breaking federal law: (eye roll)

[opentalk]

They would be a better fit to carry out the Census , with all this wasted manpower, already paid for ,than ACORN

[Timeout]

I don’t get it....what is that?

[MSF BU]

$1M a week is nothing! Their union will be spending many millions in the weeks prior to the next election trying to retain liberal majorities in both houses.

[penelopesire]

Postal, RTD vehicles seen bearing Obama health-care signs at Louisville parade

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2334631/posts

[penelopesire]

See post # 7

[TChris]

But a thicket of union rules prevents managers from laying off excess employees...

Gotta love those unions. Always great for the customer, the country, productivity and efficiency too!

[sickoflibs]

Will ping this one later. Great example of government spending, and public option too.

[muawiyah]

The vehicle is parked. Go get a picture of the vehicle in the parade. For all anyone knows it was stolen.

[WVKayaker]

How many members of a labor union does it take to change a light bulb?

Nine.

One to fill out the form, one to get the ladder, one to get the bulb, one to bring the ladder, one to bring the bulb, one to take the bulb out of the box, one to climb the ladder and to screw the bulb in, one to collect dues and one to supervise.

[KarlInOhio]

a recent agreement with the unions, in fact, temporarily prevents the Postal Service from even reassigning them to other facilities that could use them.

So they can't even come to my Post Office when three of the four windows are shut down and the fourth one is handling some guy selling all his earthly possessions via eBay.

[sickoflibs]

You posted the wrong link,
try :

PFederalTimes.com aid to do nothing 11,000-plus postal workers idle at any given time

[BulletBobCo]

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

Both have 50,000 loafers.

[massgopguy]

Who, WHO would use a USPS vehicle for taking empty cans to Michigan?!

[Timeout]

Oh, no! You’re right, I meant to post the Federal Times link.

After reading that, I came across this:

We’re hiring hundreds of thousands of NEW federal workers at the same time we’re paying these slobs to do nothing.. Why can’t they do Census work?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/07/AR2009090701987.html

[VOA]

PAID TO DO NOTHING [idle postal workers]

So what else is new?
I remember seeing a show that documented a visit by an (IIRC)
EPA inspector to a converted warehouse on a dock in Monterey Bay,
California. This was at least 20 years ago.

Some enterprising fellow learned how to pump water out of the
Monterey Bay and use it to raise the tasty abalone in tanks in
the warehouse.

Creating a business, raising a desired food-source that was
declining/endangered in the wild habitat, and employing California workers...
what's not to like.

The problem the EPA inspector managed to find something wrong (gotta' do
it to justify the job, dontchaknow).
The only complaint the EPA could bring up was "the water you're
pumping back into the bay is cleaner than the water you draw from
the bay...not good.

OK, there may be some modest merit as the cleaner water might upset
some rare snail or other creature.

BUT, the real kicker was that the EPA guy was finished by mid-day...
but by government regulation, he had to be on-site for the day.
So you see the EPA inspector spending about 4 hours in the break-room
of the company watching TV and reading newspapers.

You paid for this.
(even the documentary as it was, shockingly to me, on PBS)

[nutmeg]

These bums now want to run your health care.

Saw a bumper sticker somewhere on zazzle.com:

Government-run Healthcare:

The Efficiency of the Post Office

The Compassion of the IRS

[sickoflibs]

This is classic. This is where it is nice to have republicans out of power, democrats claim to make government work.