At the same meeting the Postal Service will present a new financial forecast for FY 2012 that will likely include losses greater than what is now in the public record.
The new forecasts raise an important question that stakeholders need to demand that the Postal Service answer.
When does the Postal Service now expect to shut down operations because it has run out of cash?
In May, the Postal Service stated that the shut down would occur in July, 2012. The new forecasts should push that date up by at least a month or two.
While a Postal Service shut down may have been ludicrous in the past, the state of politics in Congress makes a Postal Service shutdown a real possibility. The debt ceiling crisis and the shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration indicates that Congress is not adverse of allowing gridlock to shutdown a Federal agency or bring the economy to the brink. The FAA example also indicates that if a shutdown of the Postal Service occurs, Congressional gridlock could cause a shutdown of a month or more before legislation to provide financing to cover the Postal Service's cash shortfall passes.
Right now mailers and postal employees need the Postal Service to provide a more current estimate of a possible shut down date so that that they can begin planning for how they will run their business or pay their bills if the Postal Service shuts down. The experience of parcel shippers during the shutdown of United Parcel Service during a Teamsters strike in 1997 illustrated that early planning for the shutdown made the difference between thriving and struggling during the time United Parcel Service was unavailable.
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24 comments:
If the USPS would dis-continue the insane practice of buying homes,when a manager(high level)transfers to a new position,this would help some.But,the bigger issue is to cut-out some of the levels of management in place.The average "Joe" has no idea of the duplicity in the USPS.One can only reduce the number of "worker bees"so far,and the service level really goes to hell!
usps closed 7 disrticts last year saving almost 1billion ayear close 35 districts and save 5 billion ayear
Having worked for the postal service i totally agree with mailman 68b, reduce all these office jobs and make upper management come down out of their offices and work for some of these idiots they put in charge. Maybe then they will see what the problem is.
I agree with mailman 68b, having worked for the postal service for many years they need to eliminate the many layers of management and have online supervisors be held more accountable. Have some of these higher ups come down out of their part time office jobs and work for some of the idiots they put in charge, maybe then they would realize whats wrong with the place. I kind of doubt it though, stupidity runs very deep with in the postal service..
As a retiree, I've seen countless positions in the District that are not needed. With the technology we have, all reports and data can be sent to a central location HQTS and this info can be used to generate all the reports, programs, and documentation needed for Postmasters to locally run their operations. All you would need is a staff of 5-7 people per Area. The best part would be uniformity throughout the PO in policies, procedures, and accountability. Savings=$3-5 billion/year.
Over and over again I have read comments from Postal Employees and/or others, to get rid of the levels of mamagement and the illitrate and uneducated people who are either a family member, friend or significant other promoted to management levels. These are the very people bringing the Postal Service down.
When so many people are saying the same thing there is bound to be some truth in it.
Is there anybody up there willing to make some changes and save the Postal Service from self distruction.
While eliminating management positions will help...it is a drop in the bucket compared to what we need...the problem is that the pricing is out of line with pay. All postal employee receive a very nice rate of pay, but look at what we are delivering...most of it is a discounted price. even the increase in packages is still due to UPS and Fedex of which the post office recieves a very small portion of the money spent to mail. It strating to look like besides get rid of both management and craft employees we will have to take a cut in pay or charge more for these type of services. but that will drive away more business...hard choice will have to be made...we need to stop blaming this person or that person and look at what we can do to help.
They said the telephone and the fax machine would be the end of the PO back in the day. The end of the PO actually comes from Rep. Issa, Rep Ross, and Congress! If Congress continues with the policies that it has pushed since 2006, (PAEA of 2006), next will be private industry! Maybe this is a good thing for America, because Maybe, Americans will finally wake up and smell the coffee! The PO has survived through wars, depressions,infations and tecnological challanges, but do you know that it only took some radical pens in Congress to sink a great institution!
When you start paying $1.00 for stamp, not to mention the tax that will be added on top of that, Americans may remmber the the Historical Instituion, that once deliverd their mail everyday at $.44, everyday, six days a week. Not to mention the presence of that friendly face that said hello to you, maybe even helped you in some way! Watched your house by reporting to the authorities when some strange activity was taking place on your property, maybe even saving your life! All for only $.44!
USPS leaders have done a masterful job of leveraging Congress and the Senate into giving them sweeping powers of reform in the next few months.
We ain't seen nothin' yet!
USPS will get everything Potter asked for in his 10 Year Viability Plan...
5 day delivery
flex the workforce
exigent rate increase
right to close facilities
relief from RHBF
credit for CSRS overpayments
Additionally, Congress may be in the mood to pony up some way to right-size the PO by abrogating negotiated contracts and allowing lay-offs unless the Obama administration draws a line line the sand. How will Obama get re-elected for his second glorious term with 120,000 more mouths to feed in unemployment lines?
As much as we hate to admit it, boys and girls at L'Enfant Plaza deserve kudos for gamesmanship in response to Congress's apparent lack of interest.
Did someone say take a pay cut? I'd like to point out that management was more than happy to cut jobs, reduce staffing, and close any post office it could before it gave up it's Pay-For-Performance psuedo-bonuses. That got taken away by the OPM, not by any voluntary effort by the execs. It wasn't until last month or so that it happened, so don't be in such a hurry to go under the knife on your check.
management is the huge reason the po is in trouble, these stupid management is nothing more than babysitters, they dont figure out more efficent ways to move the mail or go out to buisnesses and try to market our products. they f-ing sit in these ac or heated offices and watch the craft do there work, its f-ing bull shit, i am a city carrier i work every saturday there is no supervision but the job gets done every saturday what im saying management has no place in the po also rural carriers need to start working 8 hour days, there dogging the system
110,000 management/'support' jobs and 465,000 clerk/carrier jobs. Job cuts since yr 2000 of about 200,000 (vast majority clerk/carrier positions. Any 5th grade kid knows what is wrong with those figures: too many managers (and they need 'support'? damn hilarious).
I would say now that some presidential arm twisting would be in order to prevent USPS from totally running roughshod over their workers (and by workers I refer to those who work the mail, not the do-nothing parasites in their offices who were hired by their relatives or provided other unseemly "services"). Change is coming, but it must be not be a wholesale slaughter of people's lives.
stop running your routes youre destroying the workforce we must stick together!!!!
stop running your routes your destroying the workforce we must stick together!!!!
yay
As a retired Postal employee, 30 years work experience, I would say the problems are because of 'prefunding retirees health benefits' which congress enacted in 2006. We, as retires, pay our health premiums, which are sky high. I don't see that we receive any 'benefits' from this inaction. Also, the Postal Service is top heavy, always has been, most of them are in HQ, Wahsington, DC, probably twiddling their thumbs. Their numbers could be greatly reduced, with 100K craft being out of a job, many of the top brass could go too.
Another cost cutting would be to not pay so much overtime to carriers, but then they would have to hire more carriers, which means more benefits. So the Postal Service runs the carriers ragged, instead of adding staff.
Also, almost nobody who works for USPS has an "easy job", they are short-staffed at the counter and the delivery as well. But upper management is double and triple staffed. What's wrong with this picture? And top execs have travel expenses, per diem, moving expenses all paid by the P.O.
they r doing this to make the usps privitzed! read between the line people, but let it happen and you will see this ecomomy crash!!
As a city letter carrier in the Pacific NW, it is easy to see why the post office is losing money. My office recently cut 4 hours of clerk time that translated into at least an additional 45 minutes of carrier time - multiply that by 40+ routes and you'll see that management failed basic math. The criteria for making decisions seems to be if it's bad for the customer, bad for the employees, and bad for the budget, they choose to do it - consistently.
Manage it! I speak for the tens of thousands of Hard working Postal Employees and in memory of the ones who have lost their lives for the service. The toxic managers need to be sent packing and we need to have good business managers in to replace those who are not held accountable for their hostile actions. The Postal Service is a great service and trusted by many, whether people want to hear that or not! It has done well since the 70's without tax payer dollars and can continue with the correct team of leaders. The managers along with congress are doing a fine job brainwashing the public into believing Postal Workers are not hard working or dedicated. The pay is not even comparable to UPS or FED-Ex and the harassment and toxicity the employees face under the crazy power freak managers is outragious. Employees and the Public need to band together to get the job done.
we have a Postmaster getting level 21 pay in a level 15 office. His position in the plant was eliminated so he was assigned to our office until they find him a new position. He hasn't actually been to our office, nor will he. The USPS is paying him more than our OIC. And they're crying over craft hours and replacing regulars and PTF's with PSE's. What a load of crap!
As a former employee of the USPS and now retired for 6 years a suggestion would be to halt mail delivery to 4 days a week OR at best 5 days; Monday thru Thursday or Monday thru Friday. No weekend delivery. Also, close those small, unprofitable branches and contract stations that are losing money. There are too many higher level executives making BIG$$ and collection too many "fringe benefits".
Please sign the petition to save the USPS at change.org: http://www.change.org/petitions/dont-let-the-usps-be-destroyed If Congress allows the USPS to break its contracts with the postal unions and go to a 5-day-per-week delivery system, the end result will be that the Post Office will be privatized, which will deprive many U.S. postal customers the postal connections they need and will have a devastating effect on the already embattled U.S. economy.
Darrel Issa is worth $220 million himself so why take it out on the postal workers?
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