Both the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) and American Postal Workers Union (APWU) report on their respective websites that President Obama supports 6-day Delivery. Both postal unions use the following line from the 2011 budget that President Obama presented to Congress to support their argument that President Obama supports 6-day delivery. "That 6-day delivery and rural delivery of mail shall continue at not less than the 1983 level."
If this line implies that President Obama supports 6-day delivery, then it is a peculiar way to say it given that it is written in a form that follows the legislative language written by Congress. The language is similar in structure to language in the budget that describes provisions relating to child support enforcement, and closure of small rural post offices. The identical language is in the budgets of President Bush.
More likely, this language is nothing more than a statement of the law relating to uses of the Postal Service Fund and Congressional appropriations to that fund. So in fact, rather than a statement in support of 6-day delivery by President Obama, this line is nothing more than a restatement of the law as passed by Congress
So if President Obama has not staked a position in regards to 6-day delivery, what does the budget say about its position in regards to Postal Policy. The only indication comes from the language in the budget that was not part of 2010 budget submitted by President Bush.
The Postal Service faces a serious financial crisis due to unprecedented reductions in mail volume. These reductions, in turn, reflect greater reliance on the Internet (a.k.a., "electronic diversion") and the effects of the business cycle, including cost-cutting by businesses and consumers during the recession. The Administration will work with the Postal Service, its employee unions, the Congress, and other stakeholders to make sure the Postal Service has the tools and authorities it needs to remain viable as a pillar of the American economy and a vital public resource through the current crisis and over the long haul.
This statement does nothing more than state that the Obama administration plans to work with all postal stakeholders to ensure that it remains viable over the long haul. This statement provides no indications if President Obama's positions on postal policy are similar to those of any stakeholder. At best all stakeholders, including the APWU, or the NALC, can expect that they will have a seat at the table as more serious discussions about the future of the Postal Service begin this Spring.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
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16 comments:
The first thing the Administration should do to work with the USPS is to give us back the $75 billion dollars that was overpaid for Civil Service retiree benefits, as outlined in a study/investigation by the Postal Inspection Service. $75 Billion. That's a lot of stamps.
As postal workers were becoming complacent again, you splashed the cold water of reality on them. Cuts are inevitable.
At least 1 or 2 days a week I as a letter carrier take out very little mail to deliver. No delivery on Sat. is the answer to saving lots of money.
The truth is if all americans payed the same cost for mailing letters, the people who get discounts now would not mail anymore or less than they did with the “summer sale”! Id love to see one of the big shots with their hands in the cookie jar take all their mail to the internet or pay fedex to deliver a letter to grandma in rural nowhere? Your junk mail comes in my mail box it gets deleted just like every american raised on the internet. No one would read your BS adds! I say leave 6 day its hard enough getting a damn perscription for my pop in 6 days as it is! I don’t think the suits care about nothing but the bottom line! Sure the Post Office has problems, were in a resseion everyone has problems. But if the Post Office is run like a business then no one would be able to afford to send a letter cross the country because it would cost so much and they would fire the people that were needed to do it timely. Just my 2 cents!
The truth is if all Americans paid the same cost for mailing letters, the people who get discounts now, would not mail anymore or less than they did with the “summer sale”! Id love to see one of the big shots with their hands in the cookie jar take all their mail to the internet or pay FedEx to deliver a letter to grandma in rural nowhere? Your junk mail comes in my mail box it gets deleted just like every American raised on the internet. No one would read your BS ads! I say leave 6 day delivery its hard enough getting a darn prescription for my pop in 6 days as it is! I don’t think the suits care about nothing but the bottom line! Sure the Post Office has problems, were in a recession everyone has problems. If the Post Office were run like a business, then no one could afford to send a letter cross country because it would cost so much. Also if it were a business the manpower would be adjusted to make sure the big shots still get their big bonus by handing out pink slips! That’s just what we need to get a letter cross country faster!
All the naysayers talk about is competition in the marketplace. Let's deal in some facts about 3 types of mail that would not be priced where they are today should the PO be run like a business in this so called marketplace. The Tuesday Advo mailing. The most labor intensive piece we handle. Charge per piece to Advo to mail? .02. Do the math. The average take in a station with over 10,000 residential deliveries is right around 200 dollars. Those stops interspersed with business delivery maybe be spread over 29 routes. For the sake of argument lets bump that down to around 25 routes with 6 hours of delivery. If you take the business out and assume they could have 12 guys with paper bags at 6 hours each it would cost ADVO 540 dollars paying those guys 7 an hour-where is the savings. Every carrier across the country would give back 10 bucks a week to not carry that mail piece. Non profits at .068 per and the minimal cost for the political mailings. When these are addressed then we can have the real conversation on operating in a fair and equitable marketplace.
Postal employees are grossly over paid compared to private enterprise and my I add they have excellent benefits. Some in the work force make over $100,000.00 a year at processing centers. Maybe that should be looked into, as ways to save money. The unions have become outrageous in their demands.
outrageous in our demands?
Um, no. It's called collective bargaining. I don't think a 1.2% raise is an outrageous demand. I don't think paying more and more for health care is an outrageous demand. The only outrageous demand we have is to be treated with dignity and respect, which falls on deaf ears. We demand a fair days work for a fair days pay, which again, falls on deaf ears. We demand to have a SAFE working environment, free from threats, bullying, and intimidation. And, you guessed it, falls of deaf ears.
We do however, also demand that 15% of the people, who never touch the mail ( management ) be shifted to a position, that has a meaningful position, and/or be "nudged" to retire. All 204b's go back to the craft. With GPS, MSP's, and DOIS, there's really no need for 6 supervisors per day, to "supervise" 80 employees. You want to know where we are? What we are doing? Ask the computer. It knows more than you.
there is no craft employee that makes 100,000 a year. the Plant Manager might, but no worker does.
Where do you people get this $100,000 a year crap at? I've been a rural carrier for 8 years. I don't make, including benefits, and I have a 45 hour a week route. The only way anybody is making 6 figures is if they are working over 50 hours a week, way over 50, or are in management.
Hey Anonymous,
What price tag would you place upon yourself for doing a service to your community that risk you life everyday? I love what I do for my community and feel I do it very well. My salary is well deserved for what I have to do to see that my people receive their mail Monday through Saturday. I pay for part of my negotiated health insurance. I pay ALL my taxes, including social security. I have to provide for my retirement by investing. My body takes a severe beating and I still get up and get out that door to uphold my belief in the United States Postal Service. When others depend on me, I have to depend on myself. Not everyone has a computer to pay bills online. And, thank God, there are people out there who do not trust the computer with private information of themselves to be misused. I could keep going on, however, I have other responsibilities to tend to at this time. Please, give me your best shot. Hey, thank you for using this postal site to post your comments, Anonymous.
Why stop at 5 days? Imagine the savings if each zone was split in 2, one half receiving mail on Mon, Wed, Fri, the other on Tue, Thur, & Saturday.
Just a naysayers rant .
To the one who thinks postal workers are over paid. It would take you only one day of doing carrier work to admit we are just the oppisite. If you even made it through that day. There is no job that you can compare the carrier craft pay to. You obviously don't know what your talking about and or are bitter torward postal employees.
The top pay for a supervisor in January of 2005 was $63,970. The top pay for a supervisor this Janury is $72,019
their boss an MDO -24 made $92,517. This January that same MDO makes $104,408.
The new TE's they hire to deliver the mail make about $40,000 or less and don't get benifits.
My brother-in-law at 28 years of age and only 4 1/2 years into it, made $59,000 as a city letter carrier. He gets a hefty uniform allowance and a postal vehicle provided. He is in the FEHB which is funded by taxpayers. He gets sick, annual leave and 10 paid holidays. He only holds a high school diploma.
As for the postal sympathizers, what about the fact the USPS gets a huge property tax break and they have a monopoly on first-class mail and mailboxes? It is written that any other carrier would have to charge at least double for each letter.
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