USPS proposes cutting 120,000 jobs, pulling out of health-care plan

[The Straight Story]

USPS proposes cutting 120,000 jobs, pulling out of health-care plan


In an attempt to stem its financial hemorrhaging, the U.S. Postal Service is seeking to reduce its workforce by 20 percent, including through layoffs now prohibited by union contracts. USPS also wants to withdraw its employees from the health and retirement plans that cover federal staffers and create its own benefit programs for postal employees.

This major restructuring of the Postal Service’s relationship with its workforce would need congressional approval and would face fierce opposition from postal unions. But if approved, eliminating contract provisions that prevent layoffs and quitting the federal employee health and retirement programs could have ramifications for workers across the government and throughout the national’s labor movement.

In a notice to employees informing them of its proposals, with the headline “Financial crisis calls for significant actions,” the Postal Service said “we will be insolvent next month due to significant declines in mail volume and retiree health benefit prefunding costs imposed by Congress.”

The Postal Service plan is described in two draft documents obtained by The Washington Post. A “Workforce Optimization” paper acknowledges “that asking Congress to eliminate the layoff protections in our collective bargaining agreements is an extraordinary request by the Postal Service, and we do not make this request lightly. However, exceptional circumstances require exceptional remedies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/usps-proposes-cutting-120000-jobs-pulling-out-of-health-care-plan/2011/08/11/gIQAZxIM9I_story.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Or this can be avoided if Congress retracts the federal law it enactded in 2006

that demanded that the post office pony up its entire pension in ten years without allowing it to raise revenue.

[PCIntern]

2. Among other things, my dad of blessed memory was a postal worker for 38 years...

he had that job sorting Texas(!) mail for YEARS until machines and Zip Codes were implemented... he did it religiously and well, and had literally thousands of hours due him upon retirement, which he never stopped talking about nor did he ever miss a chance to laud the health plan, the APWU plan, which, as he used to say, was the same plan that the Congress had at that time.

His two major incentives were the retirement plan and health insurance - neither he nor my mom had to pay a dime for any HC services except for the TV in the hospital, for almost their entire lives. He knew he could have made more dough in the private sector, but elected not to for the above reasons. He'll be spinning right about now...

[DCBob]

3. the last gasp of the USPS dinosaur.

[mailman82]

5. Yes I am a dinosaur!

Just retired in Dec. after 30 years. My patrons could basically set their clock by me. I had the same route for 23 years. The post office is mismanaged from top to bottom. My biggest worry is that they will do something to my pension.

[DCBob]

13. The USPS only became a dinosaur recently.

Congrats on your retirement. I hope it all works for you and folks like you.

[senseandsensibility]

19. I have a great mail carrier too!

This is not the workers' fault.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. You do understand that the mismanagement is on purpose

right?

And that this was set as a trap in 2006 by CONGRESS

[DCBob]

18. nothing to do with email or competition from Fedex etc?

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. Actually there is a direct correlatiion between the 2006 bill

and this.

As to Fedex, guess WHO delivers the last mile for FEDEX?

[mailman82]

31. Correct!!!!!!

Ding,ding ding we have a winner!!!!!!

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. Welcome to DU by the way

:hi:

[Sherman A1]

35. Precisely

We need the USPS to deliver both packages and the "junk" mail (one persons junk is another one's treasure). I look forward to much of the advertising that comes in the mail and that which I don't, goes straight to the recycle box next to my shredder.

[alarimer]

8. Imagine how expensive it would be to send a package without the USPS

With no competition, UPS and FEDEX charges would then go through the roof. No thanks.

It is not a fucking dinosaur. It is something we need to keep (along with all those decent paying UNION jobs).

[DCBob]

15. Maybe they should focus on packages instead of delivering billions of pieces of junk mail..

to people who immediately throw it away.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. You obviously missed the adds

on their packages, which is a pretty LARGE part of what they move.

You can help too.ANYTIME you order, do so through USPS

[theophilus]

11. Dinosaurs are very cool and effecient. They lasted for tons of

time and would still be here except for some very bad planetary management practices.

[DCBob]

16. its called evolution.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. What century would you lke to go back to?

the 19th, or the 9th?

[theophilus]

30. Great analogy! The USPS needs to evolve. It does not need to

become extinct. They do a great job and need smarter methods. They can provide good competition for Fed-Ex and UPS. They help keep prices for package delivery down. Yes! Evolve...not extinction!

[Bluenorthwest]

12. Disgusting

The government should be an army, a tax collection unit, and that's it, right?

[DCBob]

17. no.

[brentspeak]

21. But why are you flamebaiting here...

...when you could more easily inform in person, to their face, actual USPS employees -- and other members the of labor unions, whom you clearly despise -- how they are merely "dinosaurs"?

If you manage to survive Marie Antoinette's fate, get to back us.

[DCBob]

34. why are you misrepresenting my comments?

the employees are not dinosaurs, the organization is.. and i dont despise anyone. However I do despise junk mail for these reasons..

•The average American household receives unsolicited junk mail equal to 1.5 trees every year—more than 100 million trees for all U.S. households combined.

•44 percent of junk mail is thrown away unopened, but only half that much junk mail (22 percent) is recycled.

•5.6 million tons of catalogs and other direct mail advertisements end up in U.S. landfills annually.

•Americans pay $370 million annually to dispose of junk mail that doesn’t get recycled.

•On average, Americans spend 8 months opening junk mail in the course of their lives.


http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/junkmail.htm

[Sherman A1]

4. We need to help the corporations help the USPS

by sending back to them (empty) all the postage paid envelopes we receive for credit card offers and alike. I sent five off the other day and will continue to do so as they come in. I think of it as a method of those "Corporate Persons" doing their part.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. I like it... will start doing that

:thumbsup:

[mmonk]

6. The reason is a prefunding mandate of retirement put in by Congress

Obviously meant to bring this about.

http://www.postalreporternews.net/2010/11/18/nalc-the-real-story-is-usps-losses-amounted-to-500-million/

[suffragette]

10. Exactly so. This part is especially informative

http://www.postalreporternews.net/2010/11/18/nalc-the-real-story-is-usps-losses-amounted-to-500-million/

The first complication is one that should sound familiar to all letter carriers by now. A 2006 congressional mandate legally bound the USPS on September 30 to once again make a $5.5 billion payment toward pre-funding its Postal Service Retiree Health Benefit Fund. This 10-year mandate to front-load the PSRHBF is both highly unusual (no other corporation or agency is required to pre-fund benefits at such an onerous level) and unnecessary (before September 30, the fund was already contained enough cash to cover current and future retiree health benefits for decades to come).

~~~


But this year, a second complication entered the equation. An adjustment was made in how workers’ compensation costs are calculated, based on the government’s assumptions about interest rates and long-term predictions regarding compensation and health care costs. Even though no actual money changed hands, generally accepted accounting practices forced the Postal Service to recognize on its balance sheet a non-cash expense of $2.5 billion.

Using simple math, you take the $5.5 billion for pre-funding the PSRHBF, add $2.5 billion for future workers’ compensation costs, and you get an $8 billion loss. Add the actual half-billion dollars’ worth of business losses, resulting mainly from still struggling mail volume (thanks to the country’s deepest recession in nearly 80 years), and that’s where the marquee $8.5 billion figure comes into play.

(It’s worth noting that, under very trying circumstances, the Postal Service is actually doing very well. Over the last four years, if it hadn’t been for that pre-funding requirement, the Postal Service would have recognized a net $700 million profit.)

[SoCalDem]

20. without ebay & junk mail, the USPS would probably fold up

most other ventures use UPS/FedEx, but ebayers usually use USPS..

Letter writing is not all that popular these days. People used to write because it cost too much to use the phone to stay in touch with far-flung family & friends, but that is no longer the case, since more people have unlimited calling..and of course email , facebook, etc has taken a lot of business from USPS too.

[suffragette]

23. Actually, the don't look to be doing that badly, except for the aggressive

push to do them (and thereby, another union) in.

http://info.outputlinks.com/insights/bid/59949/Despite-Its-Dire-Financial-Situation-USPS-Sees-a-Bright-Spot

The U.S. Postal Service ended its third quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2011 (April 1-June 30) with a net loss of $3.1 billion, compared to a net loss of $3.5 billion for the same period in FY 2010. Total mail volume declined to 39.8 billion pieces for the quarter, compared to 40.9 billion pieces in the third quarter of FY 2010.

Despite an overall dire financial situation, the Postal Service reports increased revenue for the quarter in certain areas. Standard Mail revenue increased 1.7 percent in the third quarter, and Package Services revenue increased 3.2 percent. Revenue from Shipping Services, including Express Mail and Priority Mail, increased 7.3 percent for the quarter.




Looks like Issa is one of those pushing the hardest to decimate and sell of what's left (privatization of formerly public assets0:
http://www.politicususa.com/en/darrell-issa-usps

Enter Darrell “I Stole Several Autos” Issa, who recently introduced the Postal Reform Act of 2011, the boldest and craftiest attack ever on the Postal Service that didn’t involve anthrax. Not surprisingly, the Tea Party is on board. At 132 pages, Issa’s bill is a bit longer than his rap sheet, and the crimes therein are considerably more sophisticated as well.

Incredibly, the small-government fiscal realist Republican wants to set up two new agencies to oversee the Postal Service, and authorize billions more in borrowing. As USPS said in a recent statement:

“We strongly oppose a provision in the bill that provides for an additional $10 billion in borrowing authority from the U.S. Treasury. The Postal Service does not need to incur additional debt — we need the money back that is already owed to us. We also strongly oppose sections of the bill that would create more government bureaucracy and slow our progress on streamlining our operations.”

In a nutshell, Issa’s plan is to not let the Postal Service fix itself. Issa’s plan is to set up two new agencies—one to smash the Postal Service into a wall and one to sell off the pieces. One to loan them money and one to slap their hands for taking it. One to force them into bankruptcy and one to “renegotiate” salaries and collective bargaining agreements afterward.






When Issa's involved, it's sure to be slimy business with a profit motive.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. Alas when people pay for FedEx the last mile is delivered

by USPS

[SoCalDem]

28. huh.. when something comes to me FED EX, it comes in a fed ex truck

:shrug:

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. And many a times it come from your mailman

USPS has a contract to deliver last mile. In theory it was for rural areas only, but hubby has processed more than one package, at the USPS processing station, for DOWNTOWN san diego.

Hell one my neighbors went on my mailman and charged him of THEFT, for delivering that packet from Fed Ex. I recently called a company that gave me no choice... guess who delivered it? And Fed Ex is laughing all the way to the bank as well

[SoCalDem]

14. They are forcing people to retire "early"

I have many friends who have chosen to bail early during other times of "belt-tightening"..

If they can get enough of the higher paid 40-somethings to jump ship, it helps their bottom line, and then they dump the extra work onto the lower paid people who have fewer years in..by the time the next round of tightening happens, many of them bail out too,

[Rex]

25. So what will the economy do with 120k new unemployed workers?

This is like watching cancer eat away at a very good friend. :cry:

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

33. I think the USPS should have gotten into the e-mail business...

at the beginning of the intertubes age. They could have made it so that every person had an official US e-mail address.


Now, how exactly that might have kept them out of this fiscal mess...I have not a clue.


I just thought I would share my idea.

[blkmusclmachine]

36. THAT'S "Change you can believe in:"

:thumbsdown: