Posted on 02/09/2013 7:13:37 AM PST by Libloather
The U.S. Postal Service's decision to eliminate Saturday delivery could disproportionally hurt minority groups, according to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee.
"You're talking about just this reduction … from six days to five days will cut anywhere from 25,000 to 30,000 employees. And with regard to Asian, African-Americans, and Hispanics, they comprise about 40 percent of the Postal Service employees," Cummings told Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC Friday night. "So it's logical to believe if they were to lose that 30,000 jobs, easily 40 percent of them would be African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans."
Cummings also pointed out that 40 percent of postal employees are female and warned that many are single mothers.
"So you have a lot of women, many of whom are single women — head of household, and they depend upon that decent wage, decent working conditions and benefits to take care of their families," he said. "So, yes, it would have a devastating effect in an economy that is already very, very fragile."
The U.S. Postal Service, which has been losing money for years due to decreased use, announced earlier this week that it would end normal Saturday delivery to save $2 billion in annual costs. Lawmakers have previously fought hard against such a change, and while there is resistance to the idea this time, the outcry hasn't been as loud.
The Senate passed a bill last year that would have forestalled the end of Saturday delivery for at least two years, but the bill stalled in the House.
Cummings admitted the service was struggling because more and more people were using the internet, and said "some downsizing" was necessary to match reality but that "there are all kinds of ways to achieve this without necessarily going through drastic measures."
"Basically, what the Congress needs to do is do a comprehensive bill whereby we have what we call an innovation officer, which is my idea. And that person would keep the Post Office as cutting edge of innovation and bringing in new ways to of making money," he said. "The other thing we`re going to have to do is we are going to have to do some downsizing. But when we downsize, we have to downsize with compassion. Keep in mind we have more than 100,000 people that are right now eligible to retire. And what we have to do now is make sure that they have a decent parachute to land. In other words, to give them some incentive money so they can go ahead and retire, and so that we can right-size the Post Office."
“Basically, what the Congress needs to do is do a comprehensive bill whereby we have what we call an innovation officer, which is my idea. And that person would keep the Post Office as cutting edge of innovation and bringing in new ways to of making money,” he said. “The other thing we`re going to have to do is we are going to have to do some downsizing. But when we downsize, we have to downsize with compassion. Keep in mind we have more than 100,000 people that are right now eligible to retire. And what we have to do now is make sure that they have a decent parachute to land. In other words, to give them some incentive money so they can go ahead and retire, and so that we can right-size the Post Office.”
The level of cluelessness...
Tell ya’ what . . . why not RAISE the postal rates so we can have Saturday mail delivery? Maybe to a dollar a stamp! Why not? Since the post office has been losing money these past years, that’s what they’ve done instead of cutting service.
And here we go with minority and female hardship crap. If my employer were to cut my hours of pay I would probably look for another job. But since this post office stuff is basically a free ride for a lot of dead beats, it’s better to complain.
It will also contribute to global warming and raise sea levels.
Let me offer some insight on how things work out by 2030. Postal mail will decrease by half of what you get today. Coupons? Most will come to you via email. I would predict that we will discuss opening the post office for delivery for three days a week by 2030.
Some jokers keep getting elected.
To: re_tail20
Prediction:
In the near future we will be hearing about the hardship this will place on minorities(large make up of USPS employees per reports)in regard to meeting their financial obligations such as mortgages,car payments etc.This will be stated as being due to overtime being slashed.
As most responcible people know an individual should not base there lifestyle and big ticket items on OT income levels only base pay.
This will become everyone elses problem IMOP
4 posted on February 6, 2013 10:57:22 AM EST by t1b8zs
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Yup. “Postal Service Cut: Women and Minorities Hardest Hit”.
Well...it’s only logical that affirmative-action hiring should result in affirmative-action firing.
Hurts “the elderly” too. Didn’t Dingy Harry say last year that “the elderly” rely on getting junk mail to keep themselves occupied and entertained?
Hurting bastard makers is a good thing
So let me see if I understand this...
The post office is in business to provide high paying jobs to people who would otherwise be unemployable.
It has nothing to do with providing a service that people are willing to pay for.
We need all the minorities and women to keep things running because all the white guys are goofy and incompetent.
At least all of those on TV and in the government.
Basically, it sucks to be dependent on government with no skills or work ethic when that government starts to run out of money.
He's recommending Buyouts to an already-inflated Union Contract golden parachute, and, wants to enhance that even further (at Taxpayers' expense, of course).
Yet ANOTHER fiasco caused by over-staffing and Union-mandated over-compensation and Affirmative Action-mandated hired slugs....so let's get Taxpayers to bail 'em out, so those Union Dues to the DNC don't get adversely impacted.
Besides, we'll soon have 10's of millions of Illegals getting Amnesty, and we gotta get them Unionized, to get those Dues to the DNC maintained......
As long as it doesn’t endanger the Delta Smelt I’m OK with it.
..sounds like an argument for direct deposit of welfare benefits...
>>“Basically, what the Congress needs to do is do a comprehensive bill whereby we have what we call an innovation officer,
This would be a diversity hire. Her primary job would really be to squash innovation because every improvement brings her one step closer to being unnecessary. She will need a staff of many diversity hires selected from applicants with “xxx Studies” degrees from the best schools to assist her in her goals of turning the USPS into the Pony Express minus the horse while she demands bigger budgets for “innovation research” each and every year.
“comprehensive bill”
I’m sick of that phrase! It means screw everyone who isn’t in a government protected minority class.
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