Cheap Labor Conservatives hit the Post Office

[Armstead]

My mailman menrioned a report supposed to come out today from a panel on post office "reform." He was livid, as he said it's going to screw postal workers, among other problems.

Lo and behold, Bush and his fellow cheap-labor conservatives are indeed trying to make the postal service more like a business, and make postal workers run faster just to keep up.

While any organization -- including the postal Service -- can always improve, the fact is they have effectively provided a basic and necesary public service for a long time. But the Cheap Labor Conservatives believe there's more blood to be squeezed from this stone too.

-------------------
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36591-2003Jul23.html

Panel Recommends Leaner Postal Service
Pay-for-Performance System Is Also Urged

By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 24, 2003; Page A19


The financially troubled U.S. Postal Service can become leaner and more efficient with a smaller workforce, time limits on collective bargaining and a pay-for-performance system, a presidential panel said yesterday.

The President's Commission on the United States Postal Service also recommended loosening limits on executive pay and requiring postal managers to justify their jobs and the size of their staffs.

"We're asking the Postal Service to act more like a business, and incentives -- pay for performance -- is part of being a business," said panelist Joseph R. Wright Jr., president of PanAmSat Corp., a provider of video and data broadcasting services. Later, he said: "We really do believe there is too much structure and too much staff."

The recommendations did not go down well with William Burrus, president of the American Postal Workers Union, who said they would hurt workers. He said union members will take their case to Congress to "ensure that none of this sees the light of day."

"It was indicative of the slant of the committee; they went into it with an intent to reduce labor costs," Burrus said. "And while they would say they 'adjusted' the collective bargaining process, they shredded it. . . . They've declared war on postal employees..."

<snip>

MORE

[alfredo]

1. I can't wait to

talk to my carrier. I am so glad I am retired from the PO. They were starting to get chickshit again. It was nice for a while right after the rash of killings. They realized that if they screwed the workers, the workers would get even. The post office decided that the best way to keep supervisors from getting killed was have them treat their workers like humans. I guess they decided it is worth a few bodies if it mean higher earnings.

[Bandit]

2. "They've declared war on postal employees..."

Along with middle America. Every single unionized job is under assault. Wake up America. The Looters are busy Looting. Fat Cats are a smiling.

[Brian Sweat]

3. Cheap Labor Conservatives hate the post office

First of all, it is a way for average people to make a decent living without selling their soul and it is a hotbed of unionism.

Republicans hate unionism for obvious reason, but they also hate decent paying jobs that don't require you to worship at the altar of capitalism. Don't get me wrong, I support the free market economy and capitalism, but I think you should be able to make a decent living without being a salesperson, entrepreneur or a top lever executive. Republicans tend to believe that these are the only types of people who should make a decent living.

[nedlogg]

4. Conservative just don't get it!

The more money people make, the more they buy. The more they buy, the more stuff producers have to make to meet the demand so the more people they have to hire. The more people who are hired, the more stuff they buy, and on and on and on. It's benevolent cycle in which everyone (including the taxman) wins.

Don't these cheap labot conservatives see that? Are they stupid or just short sighted and greedy?

[drdigi420]

7. It seems to me

that cheap postal rates benefit businesses too.

More 'biting the hand that feeds' from the Repukes.

[Bandit]

12. "Are they stupid or just short sighted and greedy?"

Do you really need to ask that question??? I'm pretty sure everyone here know about the greed of the Red Ink Republicans.

[pw]

14. Conservatives get it just fine

At least the rich ones do. If you increase inquality enough, you don't need a mass of people with enough money to buy things to have a "healthy" economy. You just market lots of stuff to that thin slice of rich folks at the top.

And it's easier too: you can convince someone making $300K a year that they need to trade in their car for a cooler, hipper model much more easily than you can convince someone making $20K a year to ditch their beater while it still runs fine.

[dweller]

5. hmm, and just after i've applied for RCA

(rural carrier associatte) in my area here. Took the test yesterday, and it was a room full of potential applicants.
We were told the positions were open all over my area, now i wonder if we will be crossing picket lines to work.
These were temp positions anyway..but it made me wonder why there were openings when everything else is so scarce.

dp

[madrchsod]

6. let me see

i can mail a letter anywhere in the united states for 37 cents.try that in any other country this size...if the post office was run like a "business" they would be out of business...but..they are a "public good" if the cost were really factored into the post office as a business stamps would be in the dollar amounts. also notice that they want to give top managment more money...to much struture and staff? sounds like a repubilcan cut everything but top management...

[stopthegop]

10. if the post office was run like a "business"

you mean like FedEx?

[gristy]

8. This administration's arrogance is just mind-bending!

They bend mine every f***ing day. This is just too amazing.

More evidence that they plan on stealing the election next year. Because there will be NO ONE left to vote for them.

on edit: good use of "Cheap Labor Conservatives". The new moniker fits so well in so many situations.

[Psychoblues99]

9. Marvin Runyon succeeded with this program in 1988 in the Tennessee

Valley Authority. He attempted several times to do the same in the Postal Service during his tenure as Postmaster General. The TVA experiment cost the taxpayers and ratepayers millions, destroyed thousands of good solid career type jobs, rewarded with millions of wasted dollars the contractors and consultants that supposedly were there to "save" money, I could go on and on. This is a puke ploy to undermine our work, our jobs and our ability to sustain a level of middle-class comfort while also creating new pukes from those, like myself, that tend to respect efficiency.

The theory is great and makes good sense. The application is where the real waste, fraud and abuse is allowed to run rampant. The remedy? More contractors and consultants, wage reductions, warm fuzzie meetings, out-sourcing of everything, more layoffs, etc., etc. Get the picture? Get rid of government/civil service and the regulations they imply so that the gates to the hog troughs can be opened to the profiteers, unimpeded by governmental oversight in their lust for unearned income. Who pays/suffers/dies and is forgotten? Just us guinea pigs. Dig it, Armstead?

Psychoblues

Dems Gotta Keep On Truckin'.,...,.,.,..,.,.,.,,.,..,,.,.,.,.,.,,,.,.,.,.,.,..,,.,..,.,.,,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,..,.,.,.,.,.,

[Armstead]

11. Theory and reality

>>>>The theory is great and makes good sense. The application is where the real waste, fraud and abuse is allowed to run rampant.<<<

Exactly. Enron sounded like a good idea to a lot of people at the time.

[ElementaryPenguin]

13. Cheap Labor Party allienates yet another group of voters!!!

As often as Cheap Laborites shoot themselves in the foot - you know at this point the Cheap Labor Party is depending EXCLUSIVELY on rigging the elections!!

[nolabels]

15. Here is one from the horse's own mouth

Not written yesterday but still relevent
http://www.hpe.com/2001/02/07/opinion/207letter3.html
(snip)
I suppose Angel’s beef was the rate increase, which he attributes to mismanagement and inefficiencies. I wasn’t thrilled to hear we were having another rate increase. When my neighbors ask me about the additional penny, I just tell them they had to pay for my bonus somehow. That was the easy way out. Perhaps they would like to know the real reasons there is another penny increase. Perhaps they don’t know all the facts, like Angel.

Does he know each increase, whether letter, priority, express, business or bulk mail, must be approved by a board of governors that must answer to Congress? Does he know that the Postal Service is struggling with intense competition such as e-mail, the guys in the brown trucks, the overnight guys, the look-alike postal stores? Does Angel understand that the cost of fuel and other energy forms has gone up astronomically (we do transport mail and maintain facilities)? Does he know how much those efficient private-sector corporations have raised their prices in the last few years?

Perhaps there are positive attributes about the Postal Service of which Angel and others are not aware. Does Angel know that the U.S. mail offers one of the most affordable prices in the world for mail delivery? Does he know the Postal Service is the only government agency, other than the IRS, that does not use taxpayer money?

Speaking of efficiency, is it common knowledge that the Postal Service has operated in the black for the last 10 years, plus (how many private sector companies can say that)? Does he recognize that we deliver mail to 134 million delivery addresses daily, including 20 million post office boxes, and about one million new addresses are added each year (maybe downsizing isn’t the answer)? The Postal Service handles 46 percent of the world’s card and letter mail volume. We forward more than two billion pieces of mail a year, at no charge. The Postal Service avoided about $15 billion in labor costs since 1987 because of investments in letter automation. Service performance for on-time local delivery of first-class mail ended 1999 at 93 percent. Nearly 93 percent of the nation’s households also rated their overall satisfaction with the Postal Service as excellent, very good or good.
(snip)

Workers and all the other honest people need to unite and oust them people that would wish to take America back to the Guilded Age

[sinkingfeeling]

16. Here's the solution....

Just sell it off to the highest bidder (maybe one of the panelist)!! Let's just all calm down and follow the plan to 'privatize' all of the government.

[Cassandra]

17. If pay for performance were really part of being a business

why are Bernie Ebbers, Ken Lay and many others so rich even after they've run their companies into the ground.