The long, slow destruction of the U.S. Postal Service is set to continue next week

[marmar]

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/usps_will_begin_plant_closures_next_week_20150101



via truthdig:



The long, slow destruction of the U.S. Postal Service is set to continue next week when 82 mail processing centers are closed and consolidated, despite calls from more than half the members of the outgoing Senate to stall the changes.

The Guardian reports:

Earlier this month, 30 senators, all but one of them Democrats, issued a letter to Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe urging USPS not to move forward with its “network rationalization” program until the agency has completed its analyses of potential impacts.

… Already, the Postal Service has consolidated 350 mail-processing facilities and taken other steps to reduce costs since 2006. In the past three years alone, the agency closed 143 plants and eliminated about 3,800 routes, in addition to reducing hours at more than 9,700 offices and trimming its workforce by 3,000 employees.

… Much of the Postal Service’s financial troubles in recent years stem from declines in mail volume, which have decreased by more than 27 percent since 2006. Nonetheless, some of the agency’s largest expenditures are beyond its control, including a congressional mandate to prefund retiree health benefits to the tune of about $5 billion a year.

Many critics have pointed out that the steady degradation of the U.S. Postal Service is consistent with plans by business and conservative politicians to enable shipping companies to capture larger and larger shares of the money Americans spend on mail delivery.

Read more here.

[world wide wally]

1. I'm sure Benjamin Franklyn is rolling in his grave.

Along with the other founding fathers whose ideas are being perverted and abused by Republicans every day in the name of the NRA and corporate America.

[NewDeal_Dem]

2. I wish a plague targeting millionaires and billionaires would hit.

[Jefferson23]

3. Bastards never let up. K&R

[randr]

4. It is important to note that Bain Capital, large part of Romney's portfolio

is trying to replace our US Post Offices with mail service at their Staple's Office centers. Not to mention the incredible bounty of real estate that would come up on the auction block as POs in prime locations are closed.
Think of it as further gentrification/exploitation of our public properties.

[Scuba]

5. It's the largest unionized workforce in America, so the Repukes have to kill it.

[daleanime]

6. +1

[xchrom]

7. du rec.