Posted on 09/04/2011 4:49:11 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances.
“Our situation is extremely serious,” the postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, said in an interview. “If Congress doesn’t act, we will default.”
In recent weeks, Mr. Donahoe has been pushing a series of painful cost-cutting measures to erase the agency’s deficit, which will reach $9.2 billion this fiscal year. They include eliminating Saturday mail delivery, closing up to 3,700 postal locations and laying off 120,000 workers, nearly one-fifth of the agency’s work force.
The post office’s problems stem from one hard reality: it is getting squeezed on both revenue and costs.
As any computer user knows, the Internet revolution has led to people and businesses sending far less conventional mail.
At the same time, decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office’s costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency’s expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ben and Elmer had formerly been employed by American Can Corp.
The only corrupt deal was when USPS agreed to take over a large parcel of land owned formerly by NYCentral, and at that time by Conrail.
The funds were then transferred to NYCentral bondholders to complete the sale of Conrail assets.
Now that was a circus. The day all the big dogs went by rail up to the site to sign the bill of sale the New Jersey state police decided to burn all the marijuana evidence for the previous half century UPWIND!
It had nothing to do with the Post Office Department.
I worked at a UPS hub during college. Work for a living we did. Work too slowly, or mis-sort something and life got harder. The work rules were silly, but they were always clear. Working there provided me with a lot of good stories about the kind of odd stuff one can find jumping into the back of a truck.
Thanks for your post. I have total respect for you. You been there done that. KUDOS!
The monopoly is only over "letters" ~ not merchandise, periodicals, etc.
The money comes from postage.
The taxpayers don't pay for it.
You’re almost certainly a racist for believing in archaic/reactionary ideas like the rule of law.
I know you didn’t ask me, but the answer is the private sector can’t afford it either. You are looking for a way for us to keep our entitlements and improve our lifestyles. It can’t be done. What was done before was false and temporary. The private sector can do things cheaper, faster and better, but not enough better to pay for that entire wish list of yours.
Our standard of living is going to be lower until we have some large technological breakthroughs with health and/or energy.
People, even conservatives, keep looking for a painless way out of this situation. There isn’t one. Get ready for pain and suffering unless you are rather wealthy.
So many people love to beat up on the Postal Service for raising the price of stamps--and a rate-increase has ALWAYS been a big news topic. So where's the MSM been every time Hallmark or some similar business upped the price of their greeting cards from around 50 cents to $3.50? Sure don't hear too many complaints about that effort to "remain competetive"!
100% of everything they do or have available is publicly available. Just look up FEDERAL RETIREMENT OPM (that's for office of Personnel Management ~ they run the plans).
Regarding management signing the contracts, postal workers are under a NO STRIKE LAW. Instead the law provides for BINDING ARBITRATION.
The Arbitrators have historically ignored every management offer and all economic studies and imposed, through binding arbitration, the union requests on the organization.
Go see your Congresscritter about BINDING ARBITRATION. He'll answer all your questions (if he's sober).
Have your Congresscritter explain his vote for that piece of nonsense.
At this point at my life I'm afraid you'd have a medical emergency on your hands! Instead of laughing at the former USPS guy you'd be calling for an ambulance.
When I was young and strong heavy mail work was fun and a challenge, and you are right about the getting in shape part. It's also nice to know you're doing something of service for people.
We don’t have cluster boxes or room for them. In our case, you see the postmistress and she keeps your extra mail stuck in a cardboard box. We have a waiting list just to get a post office box. The next town over just had their post office shut. This is just beginning.
For me it's almost 100%. What I don't put on my Amex or pay in cash in person I pay via B of A bill-pay. That usually results in an electronic transfer on the scheduled day, but occasionally causes B of A to print and mail a check timed to arrive on the scheduled day. The latter happens for non-electronic payees, such as the condo association. I only write and mail checks four times a year — to the IRS.
Most of the mail I get is junk or magazine subscriptions (a lot fewer of those in recent years). Anything important and physical arrives via FedEx or UPS.
I use the postal service daily. I like it. Many other people do also. It is a great service, and if the union is busted, it would be a good thing. Merit and talent would rise to the top.
I have watched great postal employees and I have watched terrible and rules driven employees at the PO. Perhaps it should be franchised?
Thanks for the kind words, Route797.
Turned out that an invention of my own (the APC) started achieving widespread acceptance throughout the service and it enabled every postal facility to segregate enough mail by type (pref, bulk, parcel, spr) in an APC or ERMC such that you got just about the optimal handling opportunities everywhere that you might get at a BMC.
The parcel slides were different. They really did need their own place in a different building.
For the mot part by the time we had the BMC network built and operating we really didn't need them ~ but we still needed the space. During the many years of neglect of the Post Office Department by Congress an awful lot of space required for pref mail turned to garbage.
Still, the APC proved that it could be used with mechanized towveyors in BMCs, electric tractors in any facility, or pushed by hand in smaller facilities ~ and, best of all, you could just roll them onto a truck, and roll them off in the next building, without losing the value of the distribution!,p.You could stack bundles, lay in trays, or toss sacks and pouches into an APC. It was all things to all postal purposes!
It’s amazing how the USPS has become a whipping boy in recent years.
Still, the trained workers are waiting around for jobs.
The cost of productivity improvement can be massive unemployment.
Thanks for that VERY interesting—and amusing!—bit of history. The main thing I remember about the BMC was how weird it was during Tour 1 when there were all these BMC containers moving around on rails with no one around. Always wondered if everything was being moved by a computer named HAL!
Yup. My guess is they’ll have to cave in and start closing them down 5,000 a month pretty soon.
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