One thing that I read that makes sense to me is cutting the hours of more rural offices. So if the PO in bum fuck nowhere gets an average of 4 customers a day, they are only open 10-2 instead of 8 or more hours.
They already do this. I had to mail a package while driving across Kansas. Dumb me, I figured that at 11am on a weekday, the nearest one would be open. It was the only one in that town after all. Nope. Only open 2 hours, and they'd already closed up for the day.
The next nearest was 10 miles away, and they were actually open (though not on Saturdays), but the guy had never shipped to an APO, which required a customs form, and it took for freaking ever.
Post by dutchgirl678 on Aug 10, 2012 15:41:44 GMT -5
In the Netherlands our postal service was sold to a company several years ago. There are no stand alone post offices but they are part of book stores and the like. I think this is where it's headed here as well.
As convenient and cheap as the postal service is, I'm always fed up with how long the lines are or how things don't arrive or are damaged by them. The other day I had a big envelope crammed into our tiny mail box. The envelope said in big letters, DO NOT BEND! I was fuming. There is a larger box with a key next to our mail box for oversized items that would have easily fit, but no the mail carrier was too lazy to try that.
I think the bigger problem is that they now have to prefund the pensions and not pay as they go.
Ah, so it's current employees pensions killing them? That's interesting.
Ok, so I'm back to copz not being allowed to hate my gramps.
No, they have to pre-fund future pensions, which NO OTHER agency is required to do. Basically, Congress fucked them over on purpose, probably to make the argument they should be privatized.
ETA: I misread your comment. Yes, these are current employees who will not retire for decades and the USPS has been required to fund those pensions now. Again, this is the only agency saddled with this burden.
Ah, so it's current employees pensions killing them? That's interesting.
Ok, so I'm back to copz not being allowed to hate my gramps.
No, they have to pre-fund future pensions, which NO OTHER agency is required to do. Basically, Congress fucked them over on purpose, probably to make the argument they should be privatized.
Congress put a requirement on them that was from the start much more demanding than any other agency. I am going to look for the details, but it is not their present services (according to the data I read) that is hurting them, but the bind that Congress put them in. Congress did this, knew it, and went on vacation knowing it was a problem and didn't want to address it.
Post by sweettooth on Aug 10, 2012 17:33:35 GMT -5
I personally think the post office needs to be open when people can actually go there after work--say selected ones stay open until 6:30 at least some nights a week. That being said, here is an explanation of the funding issue. It seems that it isn't the amount of the pensions, but the way Congress is demanding that they fund them in such a short period of time--75 years of funding in 10 years.
Congress Fiddles While the Post Office Burns John Nichols on August 3, 2012 - 1:52 PM ET Americans have heard a lot in recent days about the “default” by the United States Postal Service. And the way that much of the media covered the story would lead those who have not followed the wrangling over the USPS’s future to imagine there’s a problem with the post office.
After all, the financial circumstance of the USPS sounds nightmarish.
“The Postal Service, on the verge of its first default on Wednesday, faces a cash shortage of $100 million this October stemming from declining mail volume that could balloon to $1.2 billion next year, “ declared the New York Times. “Confronting $11.1 billion in payments over the next two months for future benefits, the service said it would fail to pay about half that amount, which is due Wednesday, and does not foresee making the other half, which is due in September. An additional $5.6 billion payment due next year is also in question.”
But the real story of Wednesday’s default by the postal service was never one of declining mail volume or inefficiency.
“The ‘default’ is not primarily the result of a bad market or even bad operations, but of bad legislating by Congress,” explains National Association of Letter Carriers president Fredric Rolando.
Honest members of Congress agree. “Article 1, Section 8, Clause 7 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the responsibility to establish and ensure operation of the Postal Service,” noted Congressman Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, on Wednesday. “Today, August 1, 2012—224 years after the Constitution was ratified—Congress is presiding over the disestablishment of the Postal Service. Today a manufactured default created by Congressional legislation is pushing the Postal Service to the brink.”
In 2006, a Republican Congress—acting at the behest of the Bush-Cheney administration—enacted a law that required the postal service to “pre-fund” retiree health benefits 75 years into the future. No major private-sector corporation or public-sector agency could do that. It’s an untenable demand. “(The) Postal Service in the short term should be released from an onerous and unprecedented burden to pre-fund 75 years of future retiree health benefits over a 10-year period,” says US Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont. “With $44 billion now in the fund, the Postal Service inspector general has said that program is already stronger than any other equivalent government or private-sector fund in the country. There already is more than enough in the account to meet all obligations to retirees.”
“The Postal Service should also be allowed to recover more than $13 billion in overpayments it has made to its pension plans,” adds Sanders. “With these changes alone, the Postal Service would be back in the black and posting profits.”
Sanders and other concerned legislators have gotten the Senate to take some steps toward addressing what is, in reality, a Congressional crisis—not a postal crisis. But the disengaged and dysfunctional Republican leadership in the House has failed to act in an even minimally responsible manner.
The Post Office will need to make changes. It will need to evolve as the ways in which Americans communicate change. But it can and should remain the vital source of community and connection that it has been since the nation’s founding. For that to happen, however, the USPS must be allowed by maintain staffing and infrastructure, to expand services, to operate in a fiscally responsible and fiscally sane manner—not required to default.
Now that the default has occurred, the Postal Service enters a danger zone where it’s future becomes increasingly tenuous. The fall election season becomes essential. Candidates for president, the US Senate and the US House need to be pressed on postal issues. And they need to provide specific answers. Those candidates—Democrats or Republicans—who do not defend the postal service should be viewed in the same light as those candidates who will not defend Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. When a vital public service, an essential framework for American communications, is threatened, members of Congress and candidates for Congress who refuse to recognize the crisis should be refused the votes of responsible Americans.
This year, Americans who want to preserve the USPS should cast “postal votes.” Back the candidates who are fighting to preserve the postal service; reject those who are not. And press every contender to take a stand. This is the election that will matter. If Congress does not change, the postal service will be undermined and ultimately destroyed.
Fredric Rolando of the Letter Carriers union, got it precisely right when he said: “Congress has failed to deal with the unfair and unaffordable financial burden of pre-funding, which is the one thing that could provide the Postal Service some much-needed breathing room to address its long-term challenges in a strategic way. In short, Wednesday’s default (wasn’t) be committed by the Postal Service, but by Congress.”
To rectify the circumstance, American cannot reject the Post Office. It must reject the Congress that has failed to recognize or respect—let alone act upon—its constitutionally-defined mandate “to establish and ensure operation of the Postal Service,”
“The Congress has a responsibility to stand up, but here in the USA., under Citizens United, everything is up for auction including the Postal Service,” shouts Kucinich. “Wake up, America. Universal service is on the line. Wake up, America and stand up for the Constitution. 575,000 Postal Service workers and our obligation to the American people to see to it that the Postal Service is rescued from those who want to push it into default or privatize it for their own profit.”
Post by sweettooth on Aug 10, 2012 17:35:52 GMT -5
I see some politicians say that Fed Ex and UPS do a better job in some ways and I like them for what they do, but I can't see that they could deliver a birthday card for less that 50 cents.
Post by sweettooth on Aug 10, 2012 17:46:00 GMT -5
Ok--this is from the postal service union page, so we know it is from their point of view, but the facts are still there about the funding requirement and the fact that Congress isn't helping. Why wouldn't they want the post office to have a requirement like other agencies? Why should theirs be so demanding?
The failure of House Republican leaders to take action to resolve the congressionally-manufactured USPS financial crisis has brought the Postal Service to the brink of default, APWU President Cliff Guffey is warning union members. A $5.5 billion payment is due to the U.S. Treasury on Aug. 1, but the Postal Service cannot make the payment.
The default will have no immediate impact on mail delivery or employees’ pay, Guffey noted.
But the missed payment will focus attention on the Postal Service — and many of the pronouncements will be misleading or downright inaccurate, he warned. “Already there have been editorials calling for drastic cutbacks and privatization,” he pointed out. “Most of these misguided editorials fail to recognize the cause of the Postal Service’s financial difficulties, so they can’t possibly advocate a reasonable solution.”
Although the default won’t have immediate consequences for mail delivery or pay, the Postal Service’s precarious financial situation has forced the USPS to begin the process of closing half of the nation’s mail processing centers, scaling back overnight mail delivery, and slashing hours at post offices, the union president pointed out.
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Guffey said. “Despite what some would have us believe, the Internet is not killing the Postal Service — and neither are costs associated with postal operations. In fact, the USPS continues to be an engine that drives our economy.”
The primary source of USPS financial difficulties is a 2006 law — the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act — that requires the Postal Service to pre-fund retiree health benefits 75 years into the future, and to do so in a 10-year period. No other government agency or private company bears this crushing burden. Since it was implemented in 2007, it has drained the Postal Service of more than $20 billion.
“These payments — not the Internet and not losses from postal operations — are responsible for 82 percent of USPS red ink since the law was implemented,” Guffey said.
“The postal debacle is a manufactured crisis, and it is being exploited by those who want to privatize the Postal Service,” he said. “The House Republican leadership’s bill to ‘fix’ the Postal Service couldn’t be clearer.”
H.R. 2309, which was introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), would require the USPS to close hundreds of plants, shut tens of thousands of rural post offices, end Saturday delivery, and empower a financial control board to tear up union contracts. “It would destroy the Postal Service as we know it,” Guffey said.
“The bill is so bad — as APWU members and others have shown — that House Republican leaders are reluctant to bring it up for a vote before the election,” Guffey added.
“Rep. Issa’s bill will not save the Postal Service; it would ensure its demise. Yet, with typical twisted logic, Rep. Issa portrays attempts to correct the pre-funding fiasco as a ‘bailout,’” Guffey said.
“Clearly, the Postal Service must innovate to adapt to the digital age,” he added. “But the Postal Service cannot modernize while it is struggling to survive this crisis.”
“House GOP leaders are abandoning you — and their responsibility to address the USPS crisis,” Guffey said. “Their failure demonstrates once again how crucial it is to change the political dynamic in our country. APWU members must help wrest control of the House from extremists who seek to destroy the USPS. Union members must vote in November, and they must be actively involved in the run-up to the election encouraging their families, friends and neighbors to do the same.”