Sanders to Postmaster General: Postal Service Must Keep Saturday Mail
BURLINGTON, Vt., March 26 –Citing a legal opinion by the Government Accountability Office, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday called on Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe to withdraw his plan to stop Saturday mail delivery.
Sanders said the opinion by the non-partisan GAO unambiguously declared that the Postal Service has no legal authority to end Saturday mail without the approval of Congress. In fact, Congress just last week passed a bill that restated the requirement for the Postal Service to maintain Saturday mail delivery.
Sanders called on the postmaster general to formally withdraw his plan to eliminate Saturday mail beginning on Aug. 1. “I am urging you to make it clear to the American people that the USPS will continue Saturday mail delivery in adherence with the law,” Sanders said in a letter.
Sanders stressed that the major reason for the Postal Service’s financial woes is a congressional mandate to pre-fund 75 years of future retiree health benefits over a 10-year period. “No other government agency, no other corporation in America is burdened with this mandate,” Sanders said. “This pre-funding mandate is responsible for about 80 percent of the Postal Service’s financial losses since 2007.”
Before this pre-funding mandate was signed into law by President George W. Bush, the Postal Service was making a profit. In fact, from 2003 through 2006, the Postal Service made a combined profit of more than $9 billion. “I look forward to working with you to end this onerous mandate once and for all which would keep the Postal Service healthy and thriving for years to come,” Sanders told the postmaster general.
Sanders also said he looks forward to working with Donahoe to lift legal restrictions that now keep the Postal Service from offering new and innovative products and services. “It is clear to me and to many others that there are significant opportunities for increased revenue for the USPS, if given the opportunity to aggressively compete in the marketplace,” Sanders said.
To read the letter, click here.
Hey fed up it sounds to me that you’re the one that whines. Does it really matter if somebody takes a sick day? What does FML have to do with that anyway. That’s ridiculous, yes some may abuse it. However, the people that need it can use it and not have to worry about their job. I have read several good comments and some that were completely absurd. We are in dire straights. Everybody has a comment and none are completely wrong. Sooo fed up why don’t you get your panties out of a bunch and realize other people have opinions too!
Don’t have that many weddings and cookouts to attend every sat. Would rather save 30 thousand jobs and secure the future for our kids to have employment options. Only the self-centered want to rush in to 5 day.
reductions, reductions, reductions, when does the recovery and profits start? no real plan for that.
Hey slug last time I checked fedx and ups doesn’t have the restrictions the service has either. No pre-funding no problem raising rates whenever it needs. Give the service the same level playing field then let’s compare. Six.day needs to stay!
Hey “The Slug says:”…you conveniently forgot to mention that UPS and FedEx don’t need to deliver on the weekends because of those “Last Mile Agreements” they have with the USPS!
It appears that by the PMG’s decision to deliver packages on Saturdays that the last mile is Saturday delivery…Is that “Loud and Clear”?
Wrong on both counts Mad Jackoff.
Bernie is a true politican. Poly Tics: Blood sucking creatures
without any regard for outcome of their actions. 6day street delivery is a wasted cost that is no longer needed. Individual and business no longer need the USPS to be their means of communication as is noted in decline in first class mail volume which resulted in massive loss in revenue.Cost effective operations must be implemented to reduce operating at billions $$$$ losses quarterly. Quarter 1 2013 reveals this data.
5 day delivery for business, 3 day for residential…. git er done!
i would much rather have my boxes at the curb than saturdays off …i can take annual on saturdays
i want weekends off so i have a day to take a shit
YOU ARE A “MAD JACK” THE SLUG HAS SPOKEN!!!
Five bucks says Fed Up is both a thieving scab and a damn Republican!
UPS and Fedex dont deliver on Sat Last time i checked they were doing just fine. Even with return of pre funding the usps will still be 2 billon in the hole. No sat = 2 billon a year. I call that break even. The fact is they hired to many people when times were good now they have excess capacity, so to save the WHOLE SHIP we have to jettison some ballast that includes lazy management and SLUGS LIKE MYSELF!!
I certainly can understand the desire to have weekends off. Going out on a Friday night and not have to worry about getting up in the morning is certainly appealing. Just be honest, if there’s collateral damage so be it. You want weekends off end of story, screw anybody who might be compromised. You attack the union because it’s your way of justifying being a scab. You attack a champion of the working man like Bernie Sanders for fighting to stop what you want. I work in an office with roughly 80 employees, must of whom are decent hardworking people. A few stiffs no doubt. Show me an industry where that doesn’t apply. Defend upper Management, spare me. The Postal Service admits FSS machines are a money losing proposition. Maybe you like the sub standard scanners that can’t scan in the light. How about the 15 MSP scans. And now your going to receive cell phones with GPS technology built in. All courtesy of your friends at L’enfant. A retired co-worker of mine used to say this job is like working for the enemy. He was referring to those at the top. Sadly with so many ass kissing scabs the enemy is now alongside us.
Terry just for your information asshole I have over twenty years in and am one of the ones picking up the slack for morons like you who think sick leave is vacation time. You took the job knowing that you don’t get every weekend, holidays and everything else off. Did you ever think if dick’s like you were at work maybe management could afford to approve letting a few more people off than what is allowed. Its always management when actually most of the problems with the post office are from people with your mentality douche. I have been in more than one building and there is always some worthless loud mouth like yourself
sitting in the break room for hours at a time bitching about how bad it is instead of trying to help improve it. Put you big girl panties on sissy and get to work.
I remember when the post office delivered twice in the same day.
Think cutting it down to once a day outraged many people?
The American public in 5 years, won’t even remember having mail delivered on Sat. They will just scratch their head and say, “They really delivered mail on Saturdays? What took them so long to stop?”
Oh, wait, unions and Democrats that get “outraged” about stuff, but never actually make sound and rational decisions.
What do the Democrats do to save jobs?
They get “outraged.” That’s it, nothing else. But that is good enough to get them votes.
“See, I was outraged. I stand with you. Vote for me in the next election. I will be become me outraged, I might even become ENRAGED….
….Paid for by….Bernie Sanders for Congress.
Terry,
You say. ” Management could be the problem moron. They like to deny vacation slips because of service needs forcing working to call in sick to get the day off for a wedding or a funeral for a their children’s birthday etc…. There is people with lives out there…”
Don’t you think that if people had Saturday’s off they could schedule those for the weekend like the rest of the civilized world? Thereby reducing the need to put in for annual or calling in sick for those events.
Fed up is a part-timer with benefits and he has the post office figured out even though he has been with the company less than five years and only works in one building and he believes that is the way it is in thousands of buildings. You fool are building is not that way your egotistical moron. Management could be the problem moron. They like to deny vacation slips because of service needs forcing working to call in sick to get the day off for a wedding or a funeral for a their children’s birthday etc…. There is people with lives out there and i have almost thirty years in and have seen alot more than you have fed up. You need to resign and go work for walmart as your a perfect fit for that company that does not care about it’s workers
Slug wants saturdays off!!!!! Your parcels won’t be delivered on saturday’s goofball as that is a loophole that pmg donahue is using to appease those that are on the fence as far as the vote coming up. Carriers might have a rif with the junior’s being let go. Slug probably thinks there will be a vera so he can leave the postal service and that is a 50/50 chance with the other side of the coin being a rif with the junior carriers being let go. He might also be thinking that there will be more overtime because of it. The postal service needs to expand goofball not downsize and if the red tape is removed it would allow the postal service to kick the competitions butt easily hands down. Because you only see yourself in the mirror and not the good in delivering to every household six days a week mandated by the constitution not by slug you should just resign and go work for walmart. We are lacking true leadership is the postal service problem and if we had somebody in charge that really cared about the company he would not be trying to privatize it. The pmg and his wantabees are crying because they don’t make enough as they feel they should be paid at least three million dollars a year like a private company ceo and they are doing there best to try to make that happen of course they don’t care about the employees working the mail as they are in the way of making that happen.
This is all just a bunch of political and union bullshit. The unions dangle that money carrot in front of these congressmen and they jump. None of them could care less about the American people, it is all about the almighty dollar. If you think any different take a walk through the postal plants some time and look at all the dead weight in those places. If the 25 dollar employees are not out sick they are standing around watching the part time help doing their same job for half of what they get paid and no benefits. What has Bernie Sanders or anyone else done to try and help the Post Office, who needs junk mail on Saturday anyway? Get rid of the unions and FMLA which is the biggest scam this country has ever seen and you will probably see a much better work force. There is a need for some fmla but hangnails are no reason to be out sick 3 days a week. If anyone thinks that is crap look at the sick leave percentages for the post office and all the overtime they use to cover all the slackers. Privatization may be its only savior.
IT’S TOO LATE MY GOOD FRIENDS ON CAPITAL HILL!
THE PMG HAS PLEADED FOR HELP IN THE PAST, THIS MAN HAS MORE POWER THAN ALL YOU TURKEYS PUT TOGETHER.
Maybe the active word in the headline should be “formally” and not “formerly”?
Tell it like it is Bernie, not that this Ceo wanna be or others in your House will listen eventhough its the fact!
Bb, you need to get in the real world and stop thinking that there is red herring to begin with.
Sharon, you need to research the fallacy of the slippery slope, aka: the red herring!!
How long ago did the post office stop delivering on Sundays? By your argument we should be down to zero days of delivery already!
i wonder why nobody in congress has addressed donahoe’s plans to end delivery of overnight first-class mail? once again donahoe’s plans call for screwing over the customer and giving less service. and then donahoe blames all the revenue declines on the internet/technology instead of taking his credit for driving previously loyal postal customers to other sources. i believe donahoe’s latest ‘postal suicide plan’ calls for this reduction in the delivery standards to happen in jan ’14.
this action will certainly lead to a significant loss of revenue and may be the catalyst for the ‘death spiral’ you hear folks talk about.
If they get this, then the next will be 4 day delivery, then 3 day delivery…..and so on.The problem is that Donahue does not have the power to enforce the rules for the PO.
american voters have not spoken. mail gets manipulated on saturdays
I believe in the 6. Day delivery. I have been a carrier for 27 years.I think cutting service will destroy the po. I think selfish employees who want saturdays off or early outs will hurt this institution. The volume is picking up the loss is half of last years. There are other options
union money talking !!!!
its time for 5 day…. the American voters have spoken
Right on Slug! Well stated!
DUH!!! we will deliver 6 days, Sat will be parcel only day stupid!!!