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."
Gee, how many "minorities" will be affected by the Defense cuts and proceeding layoffs? Won't a lot of those laid off be "minorities", or will all those laid off from Defense cuts be white males? So who cares about them, right?
Distraction and deflection. Typical Lefty tactic. Sequestration was zero's idea. Now, all of a sudden, he doesn't want it? Didn't think the Repubs would go through with it? Repubs and Right-leaning commentators need to mention that sequestration was zero's idea every chance they get - like every other sentence. Low-information voters have thick heads, tin ears, and mushy brains - it takes a lot to get through to them (and keep it simple!!).
Hey LL, you need to “dial up” Muawiyah” our resident FR minority rep for the USPS to tell us all why good old Elijah is right on the money! Surprised he’s not already posted a diatribe in support of keeping everyone over at the USPS on the dole!
Personally, if it weren’t for the Constitutional requirement for a Post Office, I’d favor shutting the whole thing down. But then what would we do with the 500,000 odd government “sponges” that would have to live on their generous government pensions? And just think how it would affect the auto industry not having to build all those funny jeep thingies they drive around in! What a dilemma!
” If they had their way we would still be using operators to connect our telephone calls.”
And the streets would be covered with horse manure!
Noted!
Perhaps they should hire some new non-minority employees for the expressed purpose of cutting them so some idiot of a Congressman won't make a fool of himself.
“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.”
Really; I don’t know why they don’t see this as an admission that running a business with a bunch of tokens is just impossible. Any company with a workforce of similar composition failed decades ago...
“How about the white people who were turned down for those jobs in the first place because of their race? Oh, nobody cares about them.”
That’s right, and as that affirmative action atmosphere (”hire x number of minorities and women or we’ll sue you”) spread throughout the private sector we’ve reached a point where any white man in a position is good at it. Any that weren’t were replaced with a token years ago.
The flip side of that is that as that any female or “preferred” minority is suspect until they prove themselves; until then they are useless window-dressing tokens.
“You were HIRED because you were minority....you will be dismissed because you’re a wothless Union slug.”
The lean economy has forced most companies in the private sector to cut loose the dead wood in the last few years; a lot of tokens that had deluded themselves that they had/contributed value received a slap of reality. Now in the tight job market they realize how useless they are. I’ve received resumes from some that include “African Student Union”, “Hispanic Student Association” and such in the forlorn hopes that anybody cares anymore.
“Obviously, the USPS has been operating as a government make-work program. No wonder it’s sinking, with all this dead wood on board.”
When Obama was first elected I stopped smoking (lasted a long time at it) to starve the beast of taxes; when he was re-elected I started online bill payments to do my part in reducing the fed workforce.
I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to see so many Obama voters kicked to the curb; to Hell with them.
“Since any job cuts will be based upon lower seniority, only the old white guys will be left.”
Nice; any white guys I know who went to work for the Post Office 20 years ago left after a few years. They couldn’t stand the atmosphere.
Cummings obviously doesn’t give a damn about the other 60%, presumably WHITE employees that may suffer.
Racist SOB!
No snow in Central Florida also NO MAIL!
The only thing i usually got in Saturday mail was Doctors’ bills, mailed Thursday.
I ordered office supplies from Staples 02/07/2013, 12:45pm and they were in my hands, by UPS at 2:15pm 02/08/13. If Staples relied on USPS then I might have got them Monday 0212/13!
Government efficiency at its best!
We could gut the IRS and keep the USPS like it is. How would Elijah like that proposal? /s
“It has nothing to do with providing a service that people are willing to pay for.”
You have it! That is how everyone in DC thinks. That’s the problem!
Tough rocks if they end up in the dead letter office.
Leni
It’s false that downsizing would affect disproportionately affect minorities because the Postal Service has a “no layoff” policy. People leave through normal attrition, buyouts, and retirement.
What the complaint is about is that the unions will have fewer Obama/H. Clinton voters in the future workforce to replace the ones leaving.
Notice how the whole country seems to be sliding down the P.C. toilet?
It seems that almost nothing gets done correctly the first time - or the first two or three times. Sometimes I just give up and do without or go back to doing it myself where possible.
We now have more people walking around with college degrees than ever before but seem to have fewer competent people.
“Single mothers hardest hit’’. Has Laz been at it again?
“I’m a very charitable kind of guy, I do a lot of work with single mothers, I help them to get their start.” - Steve Martin
Can anyone tell me of another business that cut their service 16.7 % (one day of six, which is pretty much not needed) that needs to cut 30,000 jobs out of 583,000 employees...?
Privatize the post office and it will be solvent in 18 months...
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