11 thoughts on “The Ed Show Video: Republicans Applaud The Slow Death Of The U.S. Postal Service”

1. Well for the most part I agree with Maintenance Worker, but in my opinion, it is worse than that! Almost the total of the Belt Way (Wash. DC) is completely
   corrupt! The worship of the almighty dollar has left us with a gov’t that only bows to the highest bidder… and almost all of the subsidiary groups attached, including the APWU, have already been subverted….

   The only way out is for the people of this country to do what they have failed to do since WWII, and that is to pay close attention to what is really happening in DC, and Vote the insidious, sell-out, money worshipers out and put real Americans, who care about people, back in!

2. There are many reasons why the USPS has failed and I agree with them all. But, I do think one major player in the problems is the ignored infrastructure. Buildings, mail sorting machines, vehicles are the biggest consumers of money. The Postmaster General and Republicans would have you believe that it is the salaries and benefits that are the burden on the system. But for one more moment, let us stay with the management system.

   The managers and supervisors have been under-educated in how to manage Industrial Plants and how to relate to workers needs like procedures and training. In my area it is equipment and tools to do the work as a machine or building mechanics. The contracts have been broken year after year and that will break the spirits of good workers real fast. In this bureaucracy the managers lump the work on the backs of the good workers and ignore the wastefulness of the bad. Is it the worker that is bad or is it the management team? Most managers have risen up from the ranks for one of two reasons, political climbers or the “can’t do the job workers, want to coast and make more money as a manager.” The good new managers usually retreat back to craft because they can not stand the ineptitude.

   The bad management system that has not changed since the post office automated in the later 1960’s. They are responsible for the dysfunction of the USPS. Right from the Postmaster General’s on down to the lowest supervisors over the last 50 years. When the system became automated, the people that had little or no training and skill in mechanics moved into the mechanization of the Post Office. Ofcourse the bean counters control which way the money flows. Now this many years later the system still has unqualified people running the buildings with the title of Plant Manager or Postmaster that came from usually the clerk craft. I have been a industrial mechanic with a degree in Design and Industry for most of my 40+ years of work. I can tell you where the problems start and where they will stop. But I can not work as a manager with this group of mismanagers.

   Then there are the political players in the system at the top. Those are the ones that have hidden behind the cloth of “I care about the Postal Service and I am going to make it better”, but are in the pockets of the Board of Governors and private companies with interests in our profits. There are many corrupt people at the top protecting their jobs using power and the outside sources that want to gut this system. Mail Boxes Are Us (to many to list) and now the New Postal Villages popping up all over the East Coast, all privately run.

   The one big way is the amount of money that is contracted to multinational corporations to build mail processing machines for the USPS and no one ever mentions this. We have seen a decline in mail volume, especially advertising mail over the last 10 years, but they keep building newer, bigger, faster machines. Why not care for the ones we have and stop contracts for new machines. We don’t need them and that might save a couple of billion dollars a year. Then to slow down the efficiency of service, they stopped replacing old delivery and maintenance vehicles. The vehicle fleet is already beyond the normal replacement time they followed for many years as they have used modern vehicles. They have stopped buying the delivery and maintenance vehicles until 2018. I don’t think we will last that long and I am sure the privatization group (Board of Governors and Corporate friends) have projected that also.

   Congress is a weak player in reform of the USPS, but a few of them like Darrell Issa and the Republicans are the main privatizationists. The corporate greed and government officials have intermixed into one big happy family of Greedy Corporatist. By the time the good government officials grow a spine it will be too late.

   From the inside of the USPS, we are decaying very quick now. But, this is just my opinion.

3. I worked for the Postal Service for 21+ years. I remember the day that the PAEA passed the “really lame” duck Congress in 2006. I mostly remember it because my supervisor was so excited about it that he made a big pot of Chili that evening for his delivery of the information to his subordinates the following day. As a shop steward for the American Postal Workers Union, I was absolutely outraged by his attitude. He was a pretty good supervisor compared to the other maniacs in charge, so I believe he was given the “snow job” speech by his superiors and fell for it hook, line and sinker. I felt the breath taken from me as if I had fallen on my back when he gave his crew the key provisions of the new law. Most workers present ate the chili and did not consider the long term effects of this legislation, but I sure did. Eventually the supervisor did too and actually quit (retired from) his Postal career to undertake a carpentry position in the private sector because the handwriting was on the wall–the P.O. was closing OUR plant, a mail sort and distribution plant in Northern California. They are closing hundreds of them. Why? The new law requiring that the P.O. fund 75 years of its retiree health benefits in a 10 year time frame totally gutted the profit margin of the institution, a business that had been profitable since its inception in 1971! Well, no more. This law needs to be rescinded immediately, and Darryl Issa sent back to the third grade. I am ashamed that he is a Californian and is involved so heavily in ruining such a fantastic organization, one that keeps over 500,000 individuals out of poverty and the welfare rolls. This country needs to WAKE UP and write their congress men and women demanding not only that the Republican law be reversed, removed and rescinded, but also that the funding be returned to the Service. Look around at your local distribution center if it is still open and viable. How many cars are in the lot? I recall the entire lot being packed with autos, and having to park off premises during the Holiday season. DON’T LET FEDEX AND UPS STEAL OUR MIDDLE CLASS JOBS. Once they do, it will be done forever, and if you live in a rural area, you will pay dearly for your “postage”–forever.

4. Jackie…you must be too young to have been at any job any legnth of time. Your future job could end up this way see if you say who cares then

5. We bust our butts everyday! The post office motto used to be customer service…but they have stripped that away…for years we upsold to priority mail 2-3 day service and the supplies are free. I had to sign a paper saying I could no longer use priority tape to close a priority box because we sell tape. Are you kidding?? not only do we have to listen to the complaints of the stamp going up 1 penny in a year. I now have to fight with people over tape that we used to give as a service. United States Postal Service….take away the service and people do not need us. I take great pride in my job and have people that travel to our post office because we help people, smile and are nice??? THANKS REPUBLICANS

6. Laziness!!!! Are you kidding me. I bust my butt everyday here working. Its all about wasteful spending and lack of good supervision. The craft employees know how to do the job more efficient, but cant because management wont listen to their ideas. At our plant, I handle the same tray of mail 3-4 times, where if I were allowed to implement my idea, it would have to be handled once with the same results.

7. You said it all Scott. Come to my post office and carry my mail with me. You will see the dedication and professionalism of a group of capable and non-complaint individuals. Grateful for their jobs, grateful to be a part of this proud institution. We will prevail, she will not go down on our watch. 1775 to present, 1863 to now six day delivery. We will not fail her. We will carry her torch

8. Come look at postal workers in action and you’ll see why the P.O. is suffering. Lack of concern and laziness are the real issues.

   Come see for yourself.

   Disappointed P.O. worker.

9. who cares ? let it mess up

10. I have never watched Ed Shultz before, but he did a great job of explaining to the public what most postal employees already know, that a) Issa and the other Republicans want to destroy the USPS, b) that the prefunding requirement for retirement and health benefits is incredibly wrong and is primarily responsible for the mess the Postal Service is in, and c) it will negatively effect all people should it have to severely cut its service.
    Like practically everything else Republicans do, they want to wipe out the middle class, period. They are too short sighted to see that by doing so they will become in time beggars like everybody else because nobody will be able to bank, invest, afford costly medical procedures or insurance, or buy big ticket items. They don’t seem to understand that money can only be made when people have it to spend.
    There simply is no body of law so blatantly greedy, corrupt and dangerous as the Republicans. One hopes younger voters who can still change their minds will understand how bad the GOP is. Old timers brought up as racists and illiterates and brainwashed evangelicals will never see their party as the evil they are, but they can be replaced.
    The five day week I feel will be implemented, but if the prefunding requirement can be overturned, maybe the gutting of the USPS can come to a halt.

11. Should be required viewing for all Americans!

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