Posted on 08/12/2011 8:20:45 AM PDT by Hojczyk
Hundreds of thousands of postal workers could soon lose their jobs, or face drastic changes to their benefits. According to documents obtained by CNNMoney, the United States Postal Service is appealing to Congress to remove collective bargaining restrictions in order to lay off 120,000 workers. It also wants congressional approval to replace existing government health care and retirement plans.
The post office claims it needs to eliminate 220,000 positions, or more than 30% of its staff by 2015, but only 100,000 of those positions can be made through attrition. The other 120,000 must come from lay offs, according to the documents. "To restore the Postal Service to financial viability, it is imperative that we have the ability to reduce our workforce rapidly," the USPS wrote.
The USPS is also asking Congress to change legislation that requires postal workers to get federal health care and retirement benefits. Instead, the Postal Service would replace them with its own benefit plans.
Currently, postal employees participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, the Civil Service Retirement System and the Federal Employees Retirement System. If given congressional approval, the Post Office would replace those with new plans that would save money, while offering comparable benefits to employees, according to the documents.
In the documents, the USPS lays out the harsh reality of the situation: mounting losses, declining mail volume due both to the recession and the shift toward digital alternatives, and the need for drastic measures to cut costs.
10 job killing companies
"The Postal Service is facing dire economic challenges that threaten its very existence and, therefore, threaten the livelihoods of our employees and the businesses and employees in the broader postal industry and overall economy" a document on workforce reduction said.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Damn, I didn’t know Scott Walker is running the post office while also being Governor of Wisconsin! The cuts the Post Office is proposing make Walker’s Act 10 seem like nothing.
I am interested to see if the union wackos occupy the Capitol Building in Washington DC like they did the one in Madistan, Wisconsin.
Hmmmm....wonder if they’ll have them put their retirement money into the stock market? Have to save the stock market so that all those other government retirements don’t crash.
why don’t they just privatize the post office?
oh, that’s right the unions and management allowed the most lucrative pieces of the businesses to escape.
I can already see the post of joy over this bit of news.
FYI..the postmaster general, and the other 9 members of the USPS board,are appt by the president, and confirmed by the Senate. The ehad of the USPS was appt by Obama last year..( not sure how many of the current board was also appt by Obama) but this will drive the unions NUTS!!
If you are talking about packages, you should carefully check some of your own postal mail. They actually use FedEx to carry some of their smaller mail now. It goes by FedEx from the post office of origin to the delivery post office and can even be tracked on-line.
Don't ever be so foolish as to send something uninsured through the U.S. mail even if you think it isn't something of high value such as boxed chocolates and used books. My wife made the mistake of doing that to avoid a baggage fee payment on a flight from California last year.
When the package showed up, it was three weeks later than normal, had clear signs of tampering and about half the stuff was missing. The local post office refused to even do a cameo investigation. I guess when you brag about having a diverse third world workforce in your package sorting facilities, you get third world values along with it.
The FedEx partnership allows the USPS to bypass their own sorting facilities for insured packages. Now you know just one reason why.
thanks.
ever notice since the ‘70s that usps hires recent immigrants over americans?
Get the foodstampers and welfarians to deliver the mail for their keep. The Gov can send out test letters and packages to select locations and if they don't show up, then no welfare or food stamps for those that are supposed to deliver them. Change the USPS motto from "If it fits, it ships" to "If it arrives, your family survives." Just think of the reality show possibliities this idea could give rise to.
The head of their union was just on radio railing about this.
Believe it or not his name was Cliff. LOL!
Oh, yes. But ain’t diversity grand?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.