WASHINGTON, March 21, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ – Letter carriers will hold rallies around the country Sunday in a day of action for a strong U.S. Postal Service and continued Saturday mail delivery. They will be joined by others in their communities who recognize the importance of maintaining universal mail service six days a week.
Fredric Rolando , president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said the following:
The plan to shrink the Postal Service and end six-day service is an attack on the future of this great institution and on the customers who need it. Many Americans – including small-business owners, the elderly, rural and urban residents, veterans and the tens of millions without access to reliable Internet service – would suffer if the strength and service of our Postal Service is compromised.
Eliminating Saturday delivery is a step toward dismantling the world’s most affordable and efficient delivery network, which is older than the country itself and based in the Constitution. It would add costs to small businesses and greatly inconvenience many Americans – without saving taxpayers a dime, since the Postal Service doesn’t use taxpayer money for its operations. It funds itself by the sale of stamps and other products.
It would hurt the Postal Service’s bottom line, by driving mail out of the system, lowering revenue and thus requiring further cutbacks – leading to a death spiral for the USPS. It also would affect the economic recovery. The Postal Service is the hub of the $1.3 trillion mailing industry, which employs 7.5 million Americans in the private sector.
And degrading service doesn’t even address the Postal Service’s financial problems. In 2006, Congress mandated that the Postal Service pre-fund future retiree health benefits for decades to decades into the future, and pay for it within 10 years. No other agency or company is required to pre-fund, and this unfair mandate accounts for more than 80 percent of all postal red ink – $11 billion last year alone.
Instead of cutting services, Congress should address the pre-funding problem it created. Then the Postal Service can do what it has done for more than 200 years – develop a business plan to meet the needs of an evolving society.
Six-day delivery has been the law for 30 years, with bipartisan support in Congress. We ask all those who support a strong Postal Service to make your voice heard by joining a Delivering for America rally on March 24 to preserve six-day delivery. We need to send a clear message to Congress: Don’t dismantle our Postal Service!
To find a rally near you, visit the Delivering for America website: http://action.deliveringforamerica.com/page/event/search_simple
keep fight for our rights and saturday delivery
Glad I didn’t attend. Time much better spent enjoying some great college basketball. Rolando should be fired
Hmmmmm I see only 54 people have signed up so far to attend this farce of a rally in my state. Where are all the rest of them? Oh wait this is Spring Break so guessing that rather than worrying about Saturday delivery they are spending time with their families on vacation as they don’t Saturdays off to share weekends with them!
Really! What a waste of a day! Let it rain on your parade because the majority of the people could care less about letter mail on Saturdays!
Since the rally was to save Saturday delivery and Congress passed the bill will you still rally? If so…why?
NALC President Fred Rolando is rallying the Troops to protest the elimination of Saturday delivery and the end of the line for T-6 Positions fine. Too bad he was`nt just as committed to keeping both active and retired Postal Workers in the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan with OPM! Seems he (might) be receptive to a “Postal” run Health Plan just as long as his NALC Health PLan is the one thats picked, huh, what`s that all about? Since the Union Health Plans are the “Cash Cow” for all the Postal Unions, he wants to make the first pitch to PM Donahoe (before) the NPMHU or APWU submits their Plans. Thanks Fred, with Union friends like you, who needs enemies?