Vote on Tuesday.
Do the right thing.
Posted on 11/02/2002 6:33:38 AM PST by Pern
(Washington, D.C.) -- The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today reacted with outrage to reports that a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) executive has been forced to resign amidst allegations that she attempted to manipulate postal service resources to punish a candidate for the U.S. Senate who had been critical of the mismanaged government mail system.
"There has long been much to criticize at the USPS, from financial losses and taxpayer subsidies to regular price increases amidst poor service and low productivity," CCAGW Vice President Leslie Paige said. "But this is a new level of corruption and mismanagement. Taxpayers and their representatives in Congress should be up in arms."
USPS Senior Vice President Deborah Willhite resigned abruptly Friday amid allegations she used the federal mail budget to hurt the re-election chances of Arkansas Republican Sen. Tim Hutchinson. According to U.S. News and World Report, Willhite, the postal service's top lobbyist, pushed to have the budget of Arkansas post offices cut--and Hutchinson blamed. The dollars were to be transferred to Georgia's post offices, allowing supporters there to credit Democratic Sen. Max Cleland. The outcome of the Arkansas and Georgia races could tip the balance of power in the Senate.
"Since this spring, CCAGW has been calling for a complete and public audit of USPS books to root out the millions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse we know exists," Paige continued. "We have reiterated that call today with letters to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of both the House Committee on Government Reform and Senate Governmental Affairs. This latest scandal confirms that not only do postal officials lose, misspend and abuse the postal budget with impunity, they may also be using their scarce resources to manipulate elections, which is clearly prohibited by the 1970 Postal Reorganization Act. It's time for independent third party to get to the bottom of where all our money is going."
The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation's largest (one million members and supporters) nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.
And at least half of those slugs are in management or EEO positions.
I have a friend that works in Cleveland's main post office that could tell you some stories...
I used to be a letter carrier. I doubt you friend could tell me anything that would shock me.
Enjoy your VERY long nap, Rip Van Winkle!
Thanks to the Klinton years, the EVIL that is DemonRat now has taken hold in the institutions that make up the USA.
G.W shows no interest in purging thses scum, or even prosecuting and pursuing the criminals.
Those rather EXTENSIVE F.B.I files rear their ugly heads everyday. Until we vote out ALL the current members, and elect new ones, we all are hostage to the Klinton era.
-PJ
This is true. Are you knowledgable about the USPS? Your remarks convey a familiarity with the postal service disaster. The "culture" of the USPS went from white to black during the period of the 1970's and forward to today and is now in the throes of terminal decay. The real story of the decline of the USPS needs to be written, but I doubt any publisher will take it on. The repercussions would be too explosive. I know all about what has happened since I am soon to retire from the USPS after 45 years of service.
I reckon you're right. I remember one time when my own carrier had a "supervisor" auditing his route, following him around with a clipboard and presumably taking down times in an effort to see if the route could be lengthened or some such nonsense. What really got me about it was that the neighborhood has not changed in 50+ years. The same number of homes on the same sized lots with the same mailbox locations. So why the time-motion study? My carrier told me later on that these "supervisors" were just positions created to promote folks based on quotas. The poor carrier busts his butt every day while they promote these yo-yos to follow them around.
The helper did not volunteer to carry the bag.
I have to ask the obvious question, why does the government have a Vice President of Government Relations?
While it is very unfortunate that they give a good piece of their pay to the dems, at least the UPS folks keep busy. Or a good percentage of them anyways.
He also had a stop watch with him,and was timing every move the letter carrier made. The purpose of this was to find ways to get the carrier to work more efficiently so they could demand he deliver more mail in fewer hours. They try to get you to do stuff like walk across yards and step over hedges. When you first start at the post office,it's not unusual for one of these birdbrains to tell you,"Here is 10 hours worth of mail. I want you back in 8 hours." They expect a replacement to be able to handle a route as quickly as the regular mailman,despite not knowing all the "shortcuts". As you can probably guess,this didn't work too well with me. I'd come in after 8 hours and ask them what they wanted me to do with the other 2 hours worth of mail. This is the kind of crap that gets people to do stupid stuff like throw away K-Mart and other advertising circulars in a attemp to pleae their supervisor so they don't get fired.
None of the above applies to anybody who isn't white and/or hetrosexual,though. The only non-white carrier I ever saw get fired was a Philapino shop steward who got caught stealing government checks and trying to use them to frame a white woman carrier who wouldn't join the union. Even then they kept him on the payroll all the way through his trial and up to his sentencing. Hell,union dues even paid his way to the convention.
What really made it look stupid to me was the fact that the route had been the same forever. I mean, if the route efficiency hasn't been figured out in 50 years, it surely isn't going to be when one "supervisor" tries to reinvent the wheel.
They tried that "lawn-cutting" rule in my neighborhood, and I told my carrier that he was "officially" no longer allowed to cut across the lawn. Unofficially, I told him he could cut to his heart's content. The point being, he was a very good carrier and deserved the 45 seconds he'd save by cutting across. The USPS, however, did not.
None of the above applies to anybody who isn't white and/or hetrosexual,though. The only non-white carrier I ever saw get fired was a Philapino shop steward who got caught stealing government checks and trying to use them to frame a white woman carrier who wouldn't join the union. Even then they kept him on the payroll all the way through his trial and up to his sentencing. Hell,union dues even paid his way to the convention.
Of course not - its beginning to look like its the white folks, particularly white males, that have to work twice as hard to gain half as much. Why they can't judge folks strictly on their job performance is beyond me.
Sorry,I didn't explain the reason why they do this. They do it to try to find a excuse to add stops to the route. This is why they try to pick a day when the weather is almost perfect,and the mail load is light. If they can intimidate the carrier into running and rushing on this one day,they hold him to this time when the mail is heavy and it's 102 degrees outside. The supervisors are always desperate to eliminate having to authorize any overtime hours because they get paid cash bonuses for coming in under budget. If they can add 100 stops to each route while still paying for he same man hours of labor,they are heroes. I can GUARANTEE you that route has changed in the last 50 years,and I can guarantee you it will change again.
Well, I actually did understand the intent - increased production. But, there's a limit to how fast and far one can walk, particularly when the bags of junk mail aren't getting any lighter. I fully understand now what you're talking about. Under perfect conditions, people can perform perfectly, but under adverse conditions, it isn't going to happen.
I used to be a meter reader for the power company up in Cleveland. We had some similar efforts to increase our meters-per-hour rate. Though we didn't have to carry the bag, we did see some increases in the length of our routes at times. But, for the most part, once a route was established, it tended to remain the same.
I was a young man back then and had no problem walking at full pace for 5 hours straight. I don't think I could keep that pace and time now. The body just would not hold up. Does the USPS account for the carrier's age when they consider the size of these routes? I didn't think so.
Do the right thing.
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