Retired Postmaster Mark Jamison responds to Bill Burrus’ article Reform or What?
You presume that the goal is an economically stable Postal Service. At this point I’m not sure that concept has anything approaching a universally accepted definition. Many, for instance the folks at Post.Com would consider an economically stable Postal Service to be one with very low rates that are created or subsidized by marginalizing labor. Others have other definitions or expectations including more than a few that would like to see postal services essentially privatized.
You ask, “What is Congressman Issa waiting for?” and I respond that he’s waiting for the same thing that PMG Donahoe is which is the degradation and dissolution of the network and the system to an irreparable degree. Donahoe and the BOG say that they want reform, they even appear to plead for it at times but the obvious fact is that the status quo serves their interests and the interests of the privatizers better than any legislation possibly could. With each passing day labor is weakened a little further, the network is degraded a little more, and the public becomes inured to the inevitable.
Legislation actually takes the issue off the table. The presumption is that once legislation is passed, and we have a fairly clear general framework as you indicate above, that we’ll not hear of further postal crises for some period of time. Once legislation is passed Donahoe and the BOG have less room to maneuver, less ability to use a crisis to roll back the the institutional and public qualities of the Postal Service and postal system.
Those who wish to see a less public postal network have been around since the PRA. PMG Potter’s 2002 Transformation Plan was little more than a wish list for a privatized postal system. The current “crisis” which is nothing more than an accounting fraud manipulated by the opportunistic for fairly obvious ends serves its purpose much more than any comprehensive reform legislation ever could. What is happening to the Postal Service is the culmination of thirty years or more of an assault on the basic integrity of our public institutions. President Reagan’s famous aphorism that the government wasn’t the solution but the problem may have been a facetious attempt at humor but a great majority of the Right in this country take it quite seriously. A significant portion of the Republican Party believes that government and the institutions of government are, in fact, the enemy. Voices from LaPierre to Nordquist undermine “We the People” in favor of me, me, me.
Labor has been marginalized and vilified in this country; private sector unions represent 7% of the labor force, lower than in generations. And with the evisceration of Labor we’re also seeing a constant assault on public goods, an elimination of basic consumer protections, and a fundamental questioning of principles that many thought settled by New Deal response to the Great Depression. We’ve regressed and a whole political party celebrates that while the other party consistently concedes and shifts rightw
thirty-seven years as a clerk in the post office has shown me that greed and corruption are rife in this organization. marginal and worse postal clerks who have been disciplined, fired, etc. have somehow seemed to find their way into the management ranks and they have prospered. reminds me of the middle ages with lords and serfs. the postmaster general began his career as a clerk. he seems to have forgotten that! now he wants everyone but him and a few of his cohorts to be placed in a questionable health and retirement system, seperate from the federal plan that he is in. since he is the general that makes us the troops and he should set the example by being the first to sign up for the plans that he has for us!
but that won’t happen! hopefully someone on capitol hill will put these bad actors in their place and the postal system in this country will continue to serve the american people as a SERVICE and not as a CORPORATION as they would like it to.
the postal service management ranks should be purged of all the phony “management” and “executive” types after a top to bottom investigation is done BEFORE they can retire.
All true why fix the P.O. when those in charge stand to gain far more by sinking the ship.
If a bill were to be proposed that would make it illegal for postal managers,and regulators to jump ship to the mailers side, and thus profit by their demon like mismanaging would that be interesting.Much like the stock market bandits who pump up a stock then sell it for huge profits.Lets see how quick these former postal manager would be to from behind the scenes buy bargain basement properties unloaded by a sinking P.O..Also the huge contract fees to be reaped by the now former postal mangers paid by the competing shipping companies, and mailers.See a criminal conflict of interest here Congress men/women?
I hope and wish that you’re wrong but in my heart I’m sure you’re right. I’m just an everyday postal worker who feels that all of the forces in power are against me. Of course our customers are supportive but it doesn’t seem to matter.