http://youtu.be/fpOrUKZ1BT8
PMG Pat Donahoe says there’s a lot to like in legislation designed to help USPS restore financial stability and make basic improvements in its business model.
In his latest state of the business video, the PMG reports the proposal, S.1486, is “a good bill for the Postal Service and the postal industry.” Donahoe believes the bill sets a course for a positive future, with provisions that include:
- The ability for USPS to get back on solid financial footing.
- A roadmap to pay off its debt.
- A strategy for investing in new postal vehicles and processing equipment.
Donahoe also discusses how the Senate proposal will improve health care for its employees and retirees. He says the bill converts retirees’ primary coverage to Medicare and uses Federal Employees Health Benefits plans as a backup — “Pretty much the same way all of America does things today.”
If adopted, Donahoe reports S. 1486 also will change the pre-funding requirement USPS currently faces by reducing the current $50 billion requirement to approximately $3 billion to be paid over a 40-year period. “It’s a win-win for all of us,” he says.
The Senate bill imposes a 2-year freeze on plant consolidation. It also delays conversion from 6-to-five-day mail delivery until volume reaches a level of 140 billion mailpieces per year — now expected to occur in 2018. The PMG says he’s satisfied with both provisions, adding it will give USPS and employees time to plan for the day when these reductions take place.
In his video, the PMG also reviews with employees some of the comments the Postal Service’s Customer Care Centers are receiving. And he concludes by informing employees that 70,000 new scanners soon will soon be available, increasing the ability of carriers to report package pickups and deliveries on a more timely basis.
“Your work on scanning has been tremendous,” he says, adding the new scanners will help improve service and reliability.
Finally, Donahoe urges career employees to “reach out” to the thousands of new employees now entering the Postal Service. He asks them to remember the early days of their careers and to use that experience to welcome their new co-workers into “a great organization.”
new scanners we just got the cell phone ones that the carriers use for the street the show real time tracking but the phones were already old before we got them. I wonder if this has anything to do with Amazon where’s the money coming from for these new skanners
Postal Joe is right- we are getting screwed by Dem Senators that voted for this crappy bill. If you didn’t like that, just wait until Congressman Issa and his wrecking crew get hold of their similar bill to “help” the Postal Service, in the House.
PMG Donahoe urges career employees to reach out to new employees…..to tell them what? Of how the wages USED to be decent and of how the healthcare benefits are soon to be equal with that of Obamacare? I would tell them to RUN not walk to any other federal agency…and apply for a transfer(so they keep whatever time they have)so that they receive the retirement benefits they work their lifetime to earn instead of getting the shaft like Postal workers and retirees are about to get!!!!!!!!!!
WOW how about some makeup!
Did some one punch him in the face?
Did he get caught in the knockout game?
OK Donalouwho, looking back at my first paycheck in 1980 something it says I did pay into Medicare but guess what, it also says I paid my own FEHB benefit too. Quit screwing with retirees, we put our time in just like you are doing. I am glad the consolidations are frozen for 2 years. Priority packages that normally took 3 days have been taking 5 days from the Ok, TX area to NC and further up the East Coast. FedEx has not been the problem for the most part. Getting the extra packages out of the remaining plants has been the problem. No Surprise there!
Senate bill s-1486 (Postal Reform) will ruin healthcare for Postal retirees (Medicare eligible) as we know it today! This is what you worked 30 plus years for? Postal employees are federal workers just like the VA or IRS employees and should receive the same benefits!! If you look at the voting record for S-1486…it passed 9 to 1!! Six Democrats voted for its approval….
Tom Carper from DE
Carl Levin from MI
Mark Pryor from AR
Claire McCaskill from MO
Mark Begich from AK
Heidi Heitkamp form ND
All Democrats that our unions helped get into office only to be double-crossed like this!!! We should all send them a message that we are not happy! One Democrat named “Jon Tester” from Montana had the guts to vote NO!!!
I wonder which office BKizzle works in. Might it be the OIG or Inspection Service. Carriers do not need to go the beach for a tan, but of course you don’t do that.
Shut it down on the weekends so I can head to the beach and get my tan on…… Ain’t nobody got time for that!!!
The way most Americans do it. Do they work nights and weekends. Walk routes in zero weather or 100 degree weather. Don’t think so. We currently have the best health care available. This will not improve our health care! It will destroy it just as Obamacare will. Remember if you like it you can keep it. Hold on we are fixing to get the shaft. Besides if PMG Donahoe likes it will not be good for us.
Issa is having a little trouble in the House.
He turns off the other members of Congress mikes and won’t let speak.
They want him removed…. NOW!
@ Postal Joe
What Donahoe fails to mention is that he will force retirees to pay monthly premiums to Medicare for Parts A, B and D (drugs). What, maybe $ 140. a month out of pocket, plus there are annual deductibles you have to meet before Medicare will start paying. Add that on top. So the only way a retiree is going to save money, as Donahoe claims, is if one of his “new and improved” health care plans has monthly premiums that are a hell of a lot cheaper than what these plans are today. They need to be, in order to more than offset the additional cost of the retiree paying Medicare premiums.
The part about saving USPS big money is true, because they will be shifting 80% of the cost of health care to Medicare. They will be the primary payer, and must pay their 80% first. Then his new plans supposedly, will pick up the difference. But, they may also have annual deductibles and co-pays, and restrictions on what doctor you may go to. It’s just a big cost shift to Medicare, and he will make you pay for it. From the USPS bean counters point of view, it’s pretty sweet. Lots of private sectors employers have this arrangement so they are doing a “me too”. Plus USPS and its employees have been paying into Medicare for decades so they want a bang for their buck.
The bottom line is he is going to force USPS retirees that decline to join Medicare because they took a FEHB plan into retirement to do so. Except if you are an executive, then you aren’t forced to take one of these plans. Leadership by example. Sweet.
This piece of sh*t legislation does not solve the problems and is just a Senate version of Issa’s Postal Destruction Act bill in the House. The Democrats in the Senate need to vote this down and push one of the other sensible bills that have been written.
That’s when I retire
How can Medicare be better? he is about to shove it like Obie did,, without lube!
I am with you BKizzle….why delay the inevitable! WTH are they waiting for!
PMG Donahoe says “senate proposal will improve healthcare for employees and retirees”…Yes, and if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor! Sound familiar?? If this plan is so good why are Donohoe and upper management keeping the old healthcare plan?
5 day delivery now possibly 2018??? Geez!! Just do it already!!!
The separate health plan for retirees requires retirees to sign up for medicare a,b and d to be part of this plan!! This bill will create a separate plan just for postal workers and retirees…why?? If changing postal retirees to medicare is such a great plan why doesn’t OPM do it to all federal retirees…because it is inferior!!