2/16/17 Response to Washington Post Editorial Board’s “The Postal Service needs more than a Band-Aid,” February 13, 2017.
The Post has set up a false dilemma for its readers: that we must curtail postal services (including Saturday delivery) and eliminate jobs to save the USPS from certain deterioration and failure. They base this on claims that the Postal Service “can’t pay their bills” and is sluggish to innovate.
In reality, Congress manufactured USPS’ “crisis” by imposing an unfair, crushing financial mandate on the Postal Service that no other government agency or private company is forced to bear. (The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 compels the USPS to pay approximately $5.5 billion per year to fund future retiree healthcare costs 75 years in advance.) Without this unreasonable burden, the USPS would have enjoyed an operating profit of $610 million in 2016 and over $1.2 Billion in 2015. Including the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2017, USPS has seen an operating profit of $3.7 billion since the start of FY 2014. This same legislation holds the Postal Service back from introducing new non-postal services, services that could strengthen the USPS. This crisis was created by Congress, and it can be corrected.
The Post’s rationale for cutting services is one we have seen before, promoted by forces complicit in the drive towards demonizing, destroying, and ultimately privatizing public postal services. But the Postal Service continues to rank highest in public support among all federal agencies, while providing affordable mail service to all without a dime of taxpayer money. Every day, the Postal Service ties together communities, supports commerce and, increasingly, the boom of e-commerce, and provides the foundation for financial stability for workers from all walks of life.
We do not have to settle for the false choice offered by The Washington Post. The more than 100 organizations which make up A Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service believe that the public good must not be sacrificed for private profit. We advocate for an alternative vision, one of expanded and enhanced services that sustain a vibrant public postal service for generations to come. Local post offices could offer non-profit, consumer-friendly financial services, for example. Other ideas include outfitting post offices to serve as hubs for local food banks, internet access, and green energy infrastructure. Let’s continue to work together to bring these ideas into reality.
Source: A Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service
I say you got it… I say you got it all wrong Son!
If this Grand Alliance is out to save the Postal Service then why not work together with the Government Oversight committee in the House of Representatives and have the prefunding mandate from the 2006 law changed. The PO has paid billions into the fund as a result of the 2006 law. Have the Government Oversight Committee introduce legislation reamortizing those remaing payments over a longer period to 40 years. This would be a smarter way to resolve this Postal crisis. The monies already paid by the PO are more than enough to take care of current retiree’s and then some. Forcing current retiree’s into taking forced Medicare A,B and D is is going to hurt the medicare program. Also OPM should be looking at a Postal supplemental health insurance for the proposed Medicare integration. It does not make sense that retiree’s have to pay for comprehensive insurance for PO health benefits and the same from Medicare. I was just reading an article about the AFL-CIO downsizing staff because of union membership decreasing. Postal Unions will be in the same dilemma in they continue supporting HR756.
What is being done to get rid of the windfall elimination tax on csrs employees. Answer….NOTHING.
Again,the U.S.Postal Service,should attempts to make business arrangement,in which missed FedEx and UPS deliveries,could be picked up the nearest USPS station. Suchpick ups,should be strictly,at a FedEx or UPS’s;customers request. FedEx and UPS, appears to be favoring business-originating deliveries only;as they contnually close their relatively recent stores,as well as,other’Authorized Shipping’ locations. Meanwhile,despite some recent closures,POSTAL STATIONS;remain in nearly”Every Town U.S.A.!!
Maybe you employees that want President Bankruptcy, oh I mean Trump to privatize the Postal Service will get what you want. Then you can piss and moan about hard work with little pay and awful working conditions. And when you are called into the office for Jr High school piddle shit, you won’t have that corrupt union to help.
The public is not going to pay for a day care center full of brats.
I have read much of what you said, I know you have talked of history.
You, if anyone knows what the value of civility, and common sense is.
The minute that the issue becomes rudeness, and self interest, all lose.
The reason the USPS has lasted in the modern age is the brand. The
brand over 200 hundred years, and counting. The good part of the brand is like the guy with the stroke who is coming back to a great
public. The bad part are all the losers looking to rip the public one
more time. There isn’t any free ride
What happened to all that extra pre-funding money that we paid for possibly decades to pre-fun healthcare for the future retirees that were even hired yet and secondly how does CSRS go from a 5 1/2 billion dollar surplus to a net loss there playing with our money time to get the lawyers out
The biggest threat to the USPS is its self. Any given day there are so many stories of
waste, and abuse. I really can not under stand how anyone concerned with their
future could not try to correct this mess. The attacks from the outside have always
been there. The thing driving the nails in USPS is self inflected. I know many great
people there, but they are no match to the current mess!.
Nothing but union spin on this article. Funny, but the unions never mentioned how we already deliver 5 days/ week with the 10 holidays were get a year. That’s 2 1/2 months of 5 day delivery and it doesn’t seem to hurt anything. Yet the unions beat the drum that 5 day delivery wont work. Ummmm ok
for the first time I can remember-38 years-I have never seen a loss in the period from Thanksgiving to Christmas. At our dysfunctional PD&C, on East Coast of USA we are second to last. last being the Caribbean, which has its own unique problems being an island. in any case, a big meeting took place, and the mismgt dummies were reamed out again-about the 5th reaming in 2-3 years and they were told they have 3 months to get the plant in tip top shape. You can see the problem in this nonsense, they are in over their head, and nothing this gang of misfits can do will repair the damage they have done. (about 16 years ago another PlantManager TH was in 1st place on a regular basis, with the same worker bees, so it is only the mismanagement that has changed for the worse) doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the clinical definition of insanity. so you have to ask yourself who are the real failures here, the dolts who have run the place into the dirt, or the higher up clowns who keep giving them 4, 5, 6, chances not to screw things up? the morale of workers is nonexistent and they will not help put humpty dumpty back together. we despise the tribe they put in power and let run wild-filling up the place with their 3rd world brethren. if any one in DC reads this……get rid of these low IQ scum, they had more than a chance. I am not surprised in the Billions and Billions this place is losing………I only wonder how long it can go on with a Federal Government 20 Trillion in debt. this PMG has to be a complete moron if she thinks Trump is going to let this go on in perpetuity. If it were me I would rather they bring someone in from the private sector to fix this titanic, instead of the current losers rearranging the deck chairs around, hoping for a different result-it is just sheer madness!
if you follow history, and the rise and fall of government’s and empires for the last 2000 years, you will find a common thread in their demise-they cease to do the business of their citizens and resort to self-serving policies and practices to feather their own nests. I have been employed in this corrupt federal hybrid frankenstein monster agency for 30 years and see all to clearly the sole purpose of the po mismanagement has become to gin the phony numbers to juice the PFP (pay for performance) bonus scam-they could care less about the customer, worse they treat them as an annoyance. (while first class mail is dropping like a rock) this story has some merit as to the cause of imcompetence, but trying to take the ice cream cone away from these bastards is going to be meet with stiff resistance……all the more reason for President Trump to sell half to UPS and half to FDX…….solves the matter of corrupt bonus money and pre-funding of health care in one executive action. USA Taxpayer Citizens trump pointy headed corrupt swamp dwelling bureaucrats. UPS, FDX, Amazon will handle package’s….don’t need a model A Ford Delivery Truck in the mix. A loss of $105 Billion since 2009 (they have defaulted on pre-funding of health care payments since 2009, so much for that canard red herring) is no way to run a “business” UPS $105 a share, FDX $185 a share, AMZN $825 a share! don’t like it, I don’t care! I know, don’t confuse me with the facts.
did you ever see a Janus coin? it is a coin that has the same head on each side. Postal Mismanagement or APWU (or other postal union) are just different sides of the same single Janus coin. so stop crying like a baby and go out and hire a labor lawyer……and like they used to say on TV’s Rowan and Martin Laugh In Show…..sock it to them! other wise you are just spitting into the wind. think the apwu will help you? think again!
I’m back. The biggest issue the PO faces is the fact that the
toolbags and thugs who “run” or should I say “ruin” the service
are unqualified, immoral, unethical, unhuman beings who couldn’t
manage their way out of a paper bag that had holes on both ends.
Nepotism is rampant. Favoritism is rampant. I am ashamed to admit
that I work for these scumbags. They have run us into the ground.
They ruin peoples lives with slander, lies, made up stories, false
statements from “vermin” etc etc etc. Hopefully, someday they will
answer to a “hire authority”. Fire them all. Restore respect and dignity
Although craft specific issues are complicated at times, as a show of unity and a sign of the times, hopefully the Unions are moving in the direction of joint bargaining committees. I’ve never met a rank and file member who didn’t think this is a good idea…freedom of speech and freedom of association, it’s in the constitution, and that’s not an alternative fact, and that’s not fake news.
The “A Grand Alliance” can’t be trusted. They are a group of Postal Unions and mailers who are trying to push their own agenda. They want you to believe that legislation currently in the House of Representatives will be the save all for the Postal Service. Specifically bill HR 756 if passed would require all retired Postal Employees at age 65 to enroll in Medicare parts A, B, and D. This would also apply to your spouses. If you don’t enroll you would loose your FEHB. No other federal agencies are doing this. Call your House of Representative and ask them to vote no on HR 756. Tell them that that having to pay for FEHB and Medicare is too expensive and you don’t need both insrances.
USPS might actually gain customers by arranging business alliances with their competitors,such as FedEx and UPS. For example,persuade FedEx and UPS,to permit customers;at their request to pick up,any missed shipmentl,at the nearest USPS Station. FedEx,has few places to retrieve missed shipments. AND UPS,once tried to send me to a warehouse,after I missed two”delivery attempts”. Despite,several rounds of closures, USPS Stations,are still in virtually”Every Town U.S.A. As for fears that these shipping-competitors,would covert USPS,they’ve shown absolutely ZERO interest;in handling USPS Flats and Letters. This is,while they gladly filly utilize the VAST USPS shipping-networks-as needed.
I am not wrong when know that I recieved a fraudulent document from a union business agent that stole 2 years of my backpay. I am not wrong when I say Apwu saw that fraudulent document before I found out the truth. I am not wrong to say the abuse of retaliation and harassment was done to me by the Union and a manager. I am not wrong to say what they did to me was wrong. I want and will share my story. What they did has and will forever have an horific presence in my life. I am fighting for my home and my life.
I would love to hear your story! I am in the beginning stages of writing a book about the Postal Service abuse of employees. 626-915-6644
Charles Bukowski has success with that subject.
you could probably write a series of books about the abuse that is given on a daily basis at post offices across the country
The usps SHOULDbe paying for retirees healthcare… What a concept paying ahead of time for future obligations…. PAY UP and get rid if all the useless managers..One more thing why all the sour grapes when the bill passed didn’t anybody in the usps brain trust read it?….Thats why we are in trouble.. Managers who have ZERO business knowledge,They only got the job because they have a friend or relative who got them in..The postmaster general was a window clerk that sez it all..We are doomed the only guy who was any good was Marvin Runyon,he got the shaft because he was gonna clean house.If he succeeded We would be in great shape.The whole presorted flats are a joke saves ZERO time etc… Amazon will give us the goodbye wave we will buy all new trucks that will be empty…Maybe we can turn a profit delivering circulars,and pennysavers very sad end
Of course the facts will be wrong. When postal management won’t give correct figures themselves, the information will be skewed and twisted under tons of spin. Everything that comes out of Washington is spin, and it’s a wonder they can give a weather report without having a news show on Sunday morning full of talking bullshit heads all disagreeing on whether it’s partly cloudy or partly sunny.
Thinning the ranks as far as craft is concerned is wrong. Carriers, clerks, and mail handlers deal with chronic understaffing all the time while they watch management hire more and more to their ranks. Some are good – some are terrible. But the ranks of management is ridiculously bloated when one considers district offices call all the shots and local supervision and postmasters are basically powerless to make their own policy decisions. So trimming the fat of management that is redundant and useless is merited.
The Service once relieved of its pre-funding retirement obligations, which is nothing but free money for Congress to steal and then refuse to reimburse, would be making a mint thanks to the exploding parcel business. So basically whatever comes out of D.C., whether it be media or some federal agency, take it with a lot of grains of salt.