The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General intends to award a firm-fixed price contract to a Supplier who possesses specific subject matter expertise in the area of retirement benefits. The purpose of this contract is to compare the U.S. Postal Service’s retirement benefits program to retirement benefits programs offered by major private sector companies.
Under the Postal Reorganization Act, the Postal Service is obligated to provide wages and benefits comparable to those provided in the private sector. However, Postal Service management believes that the FERS system is more costly and does not compare to retirement benefits provided in the private sector. The private sector has the ability to adjust to market conditions through changes in plan design, portability, investment strategy and other factors that reflect “best practices” in compensation and benefit policies.
Postal Service management is proposing a new retirement system, which it feels would benefit both new employees coming on board and the Postal Service. Management believes that by shifting to a Postal Service-administered retirement system, the Postal Service can more fully reflect the private sector trend and incorporate private sector best practices. This change would not impact existing retirement systems for current employees.
source: Federal Business Opportunities
Project Title: Retirement Benefits
Agency: United States Postal Service OIG
Office: Supplies and Services Purchasing
This is sad, so sad. I have seen this so many times in real life and it grieves me to see the frustration. Some people (very close to me) cannot adapt to the institutional environment of the Postal Service. Some of those people are cursed with the abilty to think independently. If that is you, you do not belong in the Postal Service. You are either able to play the irrational game cheerfully, or you can’t. The frustration will eat you alive. If you only realized it, you could be exceptionally successful in the private sector. After all, your curse is your frustrating ablilty to think for yourself. Do yourself a favor and use your thinking ability to plan a way out, and then get the hell out. You don’t belong here. Finally, your spouse and kids are sick to death of hearing about it. They think, after all of these years of misery, why haven’t you done something about it. Washing dishes is better than what you have. Answer this. What the hell do you work for anyway? This ain’t getting it for you. Rent a parking lot for $20 a month on the bad side of town. Open “Lose on Every Deal Dolan’s” used car lot, and be happy following your own drummer.
I believe management is also considering to train monkeys to do our jobs. Instead of money, they will pay the monkey carrier with bananas and pack of cigerates. When the mail gets misdelivered, management will just use the excuse; “what you expect for banana pay”. Oh ya, the training would be simple to, give them a bag and tell the monkey drive to first address of your mail.
It never ceases to amaze me when any discussion of the problems Postal workers are facing gets turned into an attack on Obama and organized labor in general. For thirty years I’ve worked side by side with people who have no problems attacking government workers. You are government workers, you are just as good or lazy as anyone else in the private sector. As far as Republican administrations being better for the worker, Reagan succeeded in destroying one union, Issa seems hell bent on destroying ours. I was hoping to recommend the USPS to my kids and their friends, now that the Republicans have succeeded in weakening or eliminating pensions and health care for non-government workers. The job’s been frustrating and boring, but it put food on our table and our standard of living was pretty good for what is basically unskilled work.
Even a weak union is better than none at all. Management takes credit for “giving” us the wages benefits we have. Do any of you really think we’d have what we have if the union hadn’t fought for it? Will things be better after this “right-sizing” that’s happening, or the eventual privatization that you all can see will be the eventual outcome?
The union movement has been, is, and will always be a movement of the left. As corrupt and in the pockets of the lobbyists as many Democrats are, the only ones pushing for the abolishment of organized labor or the privatization of the USPS are Republicans. And if you agree with them, continuing to work for them is the height of hypocrisy. You supposedly care about your kids and their future? I take comfort in events like the Occupy movement, the student demonstrations all across the country. Hopefully they’ll reject this attack on the working class and undo all the damage my generation has done.
And Cliff “Goofy”Guffey, APWU president is bought and paid for by his friend PMG Pat Downahole and as result,they got the worst negotiated CBA in organized labor history.Wake up APWU members! If you vote to re-elect Guffey and his loser lackeys this month,you will get what you deserve,more givebacks in your next CBA.
“Federal Employee says:
If you look back at our past contracts we always did better when a Republican was in office. The Democrats are no friend to the union worker, they are friends to the non worker. You will not here any talk about cutting the benefits of people on SSI or SSD. No of course not, instead just take everything away from the suckers who worked their whole life.”
WoW!!! One really gets it. The union leaders are bought and paid for by the dems. You follow like sheep to the slaughter. Y’all voted for the boy, reap your rewards now.
If you look back at our past contracts we always did better when a Republican was in office. The Democrats are no friend to the union worker, they are friends to the non worker. You will not here any talk about cutting the benefits of people on SSI or SSD. No of course not, instead just take everything away from the suckers who worked their whole life.
I agree w/ Scott above on a couple of points, above. Obama has been a disappointment. The latest insult is that he offered to the Republicans that he would agree to put all folks on Social Security and federal retirees on the “chained COLA”, not the one that has been used for years – the full COLA. Chained COLA is this insidious little formula that shaves of about 1/2% of your COLA a year. If you live 25 years in retirement, it adds up to the loss of thousands of dollars, even to someone on a small pension. This is the same President that keeps saying he is not going to try to balance the federal budget on the backs of the poor or middle class. That’s exactly what the chained COLA will do. Meanwhile the federal govt will lose billions in revenue by continuing to give oil companies like Exxon oil depletion allowances while they make record breaking profits. Or contining a federal tax code so complex and full of loop holes that companies like GE can hire teams of accountants to game the system, and GE wound up paying zero federal taxes while making billions in profits. As Bob Dylan once said, money doesn’t talk, it swears. The golden rule: the one with the gold makes the rules. So bottom line, Mr. Obama. there is a big disconnect between your soaring rhetoric and what you actually propose. You have some real cognitive dissonance going on there. We are not all stupid. What part are we supposed to believe? This is more hypocritical than Repub. Congressman Ryan. We all know that he and other Ayn Rand types def, want to throw the poor and working class under the bus by taking away everything they can. He’s a flaming a**hole but at least there is no hiding what he believes. You know exactly where he stands.
Second point – the kids today will pay for their ignorance. I agree totally. All these bubble heads, constantly checking their smart phones every 15 minutes. Get a grip – your tiny screen is not real life. You act like individuals w/ the attention span of an amoeba. Stimulus junkies, flitting from one thing to the next, midlessly. These are probably some of the same idiots that don’t put enough into Thrift to get the free, matching money. Financing a big flashy car to impress their friends. In retirement they will be living in a trailer and living on food stamps if they don’t wake up. If they don’t care enough to speak up and fight the dismantling of the P. O. and their jobs then they are in for a nice wake up call in the near future. At least NALC is trying to fight the good fight and if things go south, they went down swinging. Forrest Gump – stupid is as stupid does. Continue to live in your bubble world but no one will listen when you lose your job and whine “you owe me”. No we don’t. Wake up. Get out of the bubble. Turn off your cell phone and start thinking about where you are at, and what is happening right before your blind eyes. Ignorance of reality is not an excuse.
Why not just lay off all the workers, and replace them with inmates from the Federal Bureau of Prisons? That way the work could be done at zero costs. Would mean no retirement, health care, sick, or annual leave costs! That would be great for the maggots that manage the Postal Service. But all of the inmates would plead to be sent back to the joint! The maggots are really pushing for new Postal deform legislation. You had better believe that the maggots will see that they will be protected.
If they want us to be just like any other business then unions would have the right to strike. Another item in the law of unintended consequences.
The only retirement USPS mgmt. needs to be concerned with happening, is their own, asap.
They, and only they, with their corrupt, unethical, stealing ways, are the SOLE cause of the USPS’s problems.
Boy, did this one get noticed! OF COURSE the USPS wants to kill FERS for future employees! Retirement comparable to the private sector as several stated means either no retirement at all or a very piss poor one, with the exception of the upper level echelon. It’s all about turning the Service into a third rate part time meaningless job like working at a fast food restaurant, with enormous turnover, horrible service if you get any, and a faster demise than you will believe.
These bastards at the top are mistaken on several levels: 1) They think they’ll get a big fat share of new found profits, 2) they think they’re quality business people, when they’re all a bunch of ass kissing whoring scum who got where they were by being suck ups and snitches, not any business experience, and 3) that they’ll be employed either when the Service goes private. If I were to buy the Service, the first people out on their ass would be every last manager from District up. They are clueless about the mail, are never around the first level supervisors and craft who do the real work, and have no idea about customer service.
And I echo the post about Obama: for a Democrat, you sure act Republican. You, Mr. President, should have stepped in long ago after seeing the trouble we’re in and thrown PMG Donohoe out on his fat ass. If you can’t figure out what’s going on maybe you shouldn’t have been elected. I had great hopes for you, but you turned out to be an extension of everything that is wrong with Washington.
I’d be very worried about my future if I had a long time to go. I hope the younger employees start paying attention, because they’ll get royally screwed, and in my office, nobody relatively new cares a damn bit about the union, the contract, nothing. It’s all fashion and those fucking smart phones. They’ll pay for their ignorance.
…comparable to those in the private sector and “best practices”….
translation: It’s a rate to the bottom on the degree to which we can cut benefits to Postal employees because gee, look how little the private sector can get away with. If that’s your benchmark, the Republicans in Congress will love it since all fed employees are one of their favorite whipping boys. Donahoe’s latest proposal just wants to give future employees a 401K and that’s it; kind of like what most companies like IBM have forced their employees into. A defined benefit pension is fast going the way of the dodo bird, one where the employer had a fidicuary, legal responsibility to make sure it was safely invested and funded. That didn’t stop many corporations like United Airlines from declaring bankrupcy so they could walk away from those pension obligations to their employees. Take a bath and walk away. Do you think the execs compensation was cut? They stuck the Pension Guarantee Fund (a federal agency) with paying retirees, about 50 cents on the dollar owed. Nice. Corporations have no conscience, it’s all bottom line and legally what they can get away with. Why would you think Elephant Plaza is any different?
The senior executive officers have a sweetheart deal set up for themselves, thanks to the Board of Governors. Current fed law doesn’t allow their salary to exceed what a Supreme Court justice or the VP makes. No problem. the BOG has set up special deferred compensation accounts for these officers, in which they stick big wads of money each year. Then, when these guys hang it up, they walk away millionaires. Potter just did this. Tony Vegilante just did this recently. Nice huh? Lead by example. Why Congress allows this is beyond me. It’s the same deal on the new proposed USPS health plan – the senior execs make a provision to allow themselves to stay in the FEHBP. So don’t talk to me about austerity or how wonderful the USPS health plan is because with all this self-serving, you have no credibility.
Like the POTUS said at a news conference recently, most of the White House staff are 30-somethings…………they haven’t lived enough in the real world to understand what makes a robust middle class. These WH aides can take all their university knowledge and combine it with the President’s educational background, and we end up with the gang that is so far in over their heads, that they can’t understand why things don’t end up the way they thought they would. Take a look at who really controls the Congress and the Executive Branch, and then they will know why things happen…….(hint: NY investment bankers)!!!
Anyone who thinks the potus gives a rats rear end about the working class is gravely mistaken (and it would not be any better our worse if the other half of the republicrat hydra were in office)
Keep the TSP, give me a 10% match with the option to continue heath benefits at the group rate and call it a day.
Anything that captain incompetent implements should be mandatory across the board for ALL usps employees.
Gman: USPS pays 6.2% into SS. along with the employee also pays 6.2%.
I’m A little confused about the OIG opinion that the fers retirement is too costly.In 1984 when they created Fers they shifted more of the costs onto the employee,by going from a pension fully funded by the postal service to a pension broke up into 3 parts. Social security funded by the employee and not paid by the postal service,tsp which is funded by the employee with a nice match from usps,and then a reduced amount paid out by usps. I do not have exact numbers or percentages, but the employee pays more of their own way which in fact is cheaper since 1984 for usps. Sounds like someone wants to give our pension/tsp accounts over to an ivestment co.(ie: fidelity/vanguard).I wonder what kind of kick back would be involved or whose brother-in law. This idea smells really bad.
shut down and sell it ,problems solved
” when bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one”
Edmund Burke
Of course the “new” Retirement plan WILL NOT apply to the PMG and Postal Execs. They will continue under the Federal Retirement System.
Well,well if your wanting to be like the so called private parts 🙂 then do like FedEx did by offering a RIF 4 weeks pay for every year of service up to two years
Oh BTW Fuck Issa an the rest of the GOP with all do respect.
Hey Meany. Go suck on some crack.
Hey IG,s. Just wanted you to know I’ve fucked the P.O. like a two dollar whore. Right under your stinkin noses. $80,000 in one year just collecting mail. Plenty of sleeping time too. Used every minute of my sick leave and spent every dime of my uniform allowance before retiring. You don’t scare shit. In fact lets do it again slimeballs.
POTUS could not find his way out of a tent with the sides rolled up. I don’t care what your politics are, if you cannot see “NOW!” that we hired a tweed jacket, buffoon professor to run this country, then your smokin some gooood sheet. He does not live in reality, nor could he point in its direction.
don’t pick up the soap
When is the POUS going to cut the PMG loose? How can the President put up with this Republican lackey? Why is he allowing this scum bucket to ruin good paying jobs and decent benefits? Obama is a democrat right? Please Mr. President get rid of this nit wit, and give the hard working Postal workers some proper leadership.
what to save donahoe?close 6 Montgomery ave in Gaithersburg md 1.2 million for offices,also cut HQ to 10% of what is today,7000 people at HQ doing what?
So the Postal Service wants to treat it’s employees the same way private employers treat their employees? Just read the book “Retirement Heist”. Why not just abolish the 13TH Amendment and make all workers slaves? That way the maggots that run the Postal Service can keep every thing for themselves! I only hope his royal majesty King DONAHOE can keep his limousine. The Postal Service only paid The Boston Consulting Group big bucks for all the ideas on how to screw the lazy employees! Maybe the Postal Service can pay the soon to be slaves in Vaseline!
The dum bastards in congress created this system in 1984. There cost for this retirement system far outweigs the cost of the CSRS.
What management always fails to realize is that the whole “comparable to private sector” idea and the desire to “consider the financial health of the post office” during negotiations can definitely bite them in the azz later. They’re only thinking of right now when times are kind of tough.
What happens later on when management is rolling in money after Congress makes changes? What happens when the private sector skyrockets in wages and benefits as it sometimes does (always ups and downs). There won’t be any excuses for the unions not to get a fat share and make changes. Be careful what you wish for, management boys.
It will not include us,you can be sure of that!
should be including everybody, every single employee of the usps starting from those ignorance mgmt!!!
Compare retirement benefits offered by USPS to private sector companies? That’s easy. 99% of private sector companies do not offer their employees a retirement plan!
All this talk about mimicking the “best practices” of the private sector. The #1 focus of the private sector is screw the employees. The USPS is saying, “They screw their employees. We want to screw ours as well!”
So, postal mgmt. scum.
If you want to play the “like in the private sector” game, then lets start with you.
You, everyone of you, would have been on the street years ago, in the private sector, with the “skills” you exhibit in the postal service.
So, what’s it gonna be scum ?