“Headlines across the country are shouting that the USPS lost billions of dollars again this year, but that’s a fallacy,” APWU President Mark Dimondstein said after the USPS released financial information for fiscal year 2013.
“If it weren’t for the congressional mandate to pre-fund health benefits for future retirees, the USPS would have shown a surplus of $600 million.” No other government agency or private company is required to make such payments, which cost the agency approximately $5.5 billion annually.
“The USPS is suffering from a manufactured crisis,” Dimondstein said. “But the fallout of the artificial crisis is real. Service has declined dramatically — mail takes days longer to arrive, carriers are delivering mail in the dark, lines at post offices are out the door – and good, union postal jobs are disappearing,” he said.
“The solution is clear: Congress must repeal the pre-funding mandate and allow the Postal Service to develop new services that will provide new revenue,” the union president said.
The recent USPS agreement to deliver Amazon’s packages on Sundays is a good example, Dimondstein said, but the Postal Service must do more.
“The USPS should offer basic banking service to the millions of Americans who want a non-profit alternative to the big banks or who don’t have bank accounts at all,” he said. “This would give the working poor an alternative to the legal loan-sharking they are now victimized by. It also would provide another source of revenue. The Postal Service also should offer notary services and licensing.” There are many other examples, he said.
“Unfortunately, there are some in Congress who want the Postal Service to fail. They are eager to privatize it,” Dimondstein.
But the American people don’t agree. Dimondstein is calling for a “grand alliance” to save the USPS as a public postal service and to protect postal jobs.
The GOP raided the Post Office that has NEVER cost the taxpayer a single dime to run, (BTW)!!
It provided great jobs with pensions and benefits that THEY (postal workers)paid for and earned until the GOP congress ROBBED them of 75 years in Prepaid retirement for people not even born yet in some cases and refused to allow them to expand. Another words, the GOP raided the Post Office account and then blamed them for the “loss” in it’s corporate owned media.
The GOP want to gut anything American, and outsource it to any corporation that pays the GOP enough money, as NO OTHER company could or would have tolerated such a bankrupting stupid idea all while refusing to allow the Post Office to expand to make up and grow as society grows and changes. Instead of blindly listening to Fox trash and Network garbage on CNN, NBC, CBS ABC..People should try looking into what congress has done to lose millions of Postal jobs, millions more in State and necessary government jobs, and have instead raised the US debt by 23 billion in shutdowns and sequester nonsense while not asking wealthy corporate billions to pay one cent more, if they pay taxes at all to begin with in corp America..
This GOP has even ruined this years growth in GDP due to their gutting games. This congress is out of control stupid and behaving with criminal negligent and no purpose other than their own greed. The GOP need to be held accountable for ruining everything they’ve ever touched, and allow the Post Office to expand and continue growing without congressional theft of money that none of these GOP earned or have a right to steal.
sorry Earle, but Postmasters really aren’t allowed to manage until something is wrong then its the postmasters management ability thats the problem. Until then Postmasters are told we can’t curtail mail, a management tool, we are told how many employees we need, we are mandated on how many hours to use by a higher up and only when the plans from higher up don’t work are we even in the discussion. Its those layers of management that the USPS says have shrunk that call the shots not your front line supervisors they are told what to do and are only responsible when that doesn’t work out, cause of course, the Postmaster or supervisor must have done it wrong or the goofy plan would have work.
The Postal Service could make millions every day if managed properly even with the pre funding payment. Most Postmasters aren’t postmasters because they know how to manage.