Postal Service Finances Bleak | Washington Post

[patriotvoice]

Postal Service Finances Bleak
Agency Is Counting on Congress to Deliver Major Change

"There is trouble at the post office.

The U.S. Postal Service's financial outlook is bleak and getting bleaker, according to members of Congress, a presidential commission, the General Accounting Office and postal officials themselves. It is bad enough that some federal officials are warning of a huge taxpayer bailout -- or dramatic increases in postal rates -- if Congress does not reorganize the $67 billion-a-year entity soon to help it operate more efficiently."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16137-2004Mar22.html

--
At what point does Congress declare the U.S. bankrupt? My vote: now. Reorganize the whole lot of them, sell off the debt, start over.

[w4rma]

1. USPS spends too much money on advertisements, imho. (nt)

[KissMyAsscroft]

2. No shit!

They are the postal service! Why the hell do they need to advertise?

[AP]

3. As an excuse to give money to companies whose execs give to GOP

.

[mobuto]

12. Speaking for me personally

I find myself writing a lot more letters now that I see them sponsoring Lance Armstrong.

;-)

[Born Free]

18. USPS is being pressured to privatize

Just as the bush team is pushing to privatize social security they are also pushing to further privatize the USPS. As for FedEx, they already has "priority" mail, the USPS only takes it to the house, they tried something similar with Avery but it cost more money then if the USPS did it and the USPS had to pay the bill to Avery. One of the more recent promotions by the bush team is the USPS pay for military retirement for any vets working at the USPS, which by law is a very high percentage of postal workers. The privatization movement has been very strong since the bush team took over. Ironically the USPS does not use taxpayer money, they must exist on their own income, but the bush team wants to use the USPS money to help subsidize other efforts. Now if you wan to hear the best part, most postal workers are republicans where I work, they just love the bush team kicking ass around the country, and they accepted privatizing the USPS as well as social security is a must ect. They, for some strange reason think they are all going to be rich some day and don't want to pay taxes. For all the bad publicity , the USPS does have an pretty good record.

Disclaimer: I am a postal workert but do not speak for the postal service, the views are mine and not any official statement

[Skittles]

20. they have sponsored him for a long time

before he got cancer, after, and today.

[Yemp4734]

7. I totally disagree

they have VERY good reason to advertise. In case you haven't noticed they are in competition with FedEx, UPS, Airborn Express, etc. Eliminate FedEx, UPS, etc and the USPS would be in great shape.

That is why they need to advertise.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

13. FedEx, UPS....et al ...

... are the reason for the ads, to remind people that the USPS can get your two day mail there cheaper than the afore mentioned companies. The GOP has been trying to gut the USPS for decades, using it as a cash cow if they have a bit of a surplus to carry over to the next year to apply to new facilities, computers, etc...

Do some research on the Board of Governors for the USPS and you will see that anti-USPS persons are appointed to the board and conflict of interest is rampant.

[Desperadoe]

4. The part the WP ignores

<snip>Last year Congress passed a law lifting a requirement for the post office to overfund retirement benefits, a step that resulted in Potter's pledge not to raise rates until 2006.

But that bill also shifted the obligation to pay the military requirement benefits from the Treasury to the Post Office and required that $3 billion be placed in escrow each year until the agency reported to Congress on how it should be spent.

Davis, chairman of the House government reform committee, said that when that report has been issued the money should be released.

However, Treasury Secretary John Snow opposed release of the money without some balancing savings, saying that placing it in escrow counted as a positive when toting up the national deficit and releasing it would count against the deficit.>snip>

<snip>Snow also contended that the military retirement obligation should remain with the post office, suggesting the agency find new efficiencies to save the money.

"You want us to act like a business and be independent. Other businesses don't fund military pensions," said Fineman.<snip>

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040323/D81GCFD80.html

Everyone likes to use the USPS for a government whipping boy but too few realize the real problems are created by the politicians who use the agency for their BS programs.

[oasis]

5. Corporate vultures are waiting in the wings to privatize the Post Office.

[hang a left]

14. My thoughts exactly.

Didn't bonehead commission a study on privatizing the postal service a couple of years ago?

[oasis]

16. Chimpy's commission delivered their report last July. They recommended

that the post office be put under a postal regulatory board. I believe the ultimate goal is to do away with collective bargaining.

[Occulus]

6. I am a postal employee.

There are several problems with the USPS. One is the epidemic of over supervision. We have far too many floor supervisors, and not enough actual workers. In addition, many of the employees on my shift are not full time. They do not enjoy the benefits of vacation time, sick leave, and medical insurance that we full time employees have. Additionally, they have no union representation. Postal management routinely claims "casuals have no rights."

To tell the truth, we floor employees could easily perform our jobs without any supervision at all. This is literally true; I often work without any supervision and have no problems sorting the mail. And to be honest, this is NOT an easy job.

Even in a distribution center, where I work, sorting mail can easily become a backbreaking job. The tray of mail we sort weigh anywhere from one to forty-five pounds, and we often don't know the weight of the tray when we try to lift it.

Running mail on Electrocomm Automation's Delivery Barcode Sorter machines isn't exactly easy. Oh, feeding the mail into the machine is relatively simple, as is sweeping out the stackers; the problem lies in the weight of the mail. It's something of a joke in the USPS that there is no standard for 'standard mail.'

Imagine lifting thirty pound trays with your legs for four hours straight, or pushing around 1100-pound containers all day. And for all that we have a very important job, a job that guarantees your right to communicate with whomever you please. Yet, by law, we cannot strike in response to the actions of the postal commission or the * administration.

Want an effective act of civil disobedience? Mark every piece of mail you receive "REFUSED: Return to sender." Even your bills. Make that a national movement and you will send a message on so many fronts it will NOT be possible to ignore it.

The people have the power on SO many fronts. I, and others like me, must convince them to use it.

I invite you all to join me.

[alfredo]

9. My body is broken from my years of carrying mail. I am on postal and

SSI disability.

I have heard they are pushing you guys even harder, micromanaging you to death, at least that is what they are doing to the carriers.

The scanners were in their first year or so of use when I broke down. I am glad I am gone. From what I hear, they are using the scanners to track your activities.

[hang a left]

15. you have any more details on that?

[oasis]

17. Bar coded strips are located within certain mailboxes along the carriers

route. When the carrier scans the strips, he records his time of arrival at different points. The scanners are downloaded when the carrier returns to the station and the information is relayed to a central computer and recorded.

[alfredo]

19. They hadn't started the scanning of boxes by the time I was retired.

Being watched never set well with me. I resented the peepholes, and the supervisors hiding on the route, taking stopwatches and counting the number of steps I take a minute. So what if it took more than three seconds to put the mail through the door slot. Sometimes it takes less.

After working 48 years, the tolerance level for bullshit has changed. I don't think I will ever return to the workforce. Anyway, my arms are too damaged to bust some lazy-ass supervisor's jaw. Not being able to do that takes all the fun out of being fired.

[mac56]

8. I've always contended that if they sold ads on postage stamps -

they could run at a profit forever.

[DulceDecorum]

10. Don't give them any ideas.

Hitler made the German postal service print up stamps with his face on them. Then he charged the German government for using his image.
I hear he raised a lot of money that way.

Here is another fundraiser.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/fundraising_020514.html

[Yemp4734]

11. No thanks

I don't want corporations involved in government anymore than they already are. All we need now is the NASA shuttle to have a giant pepsi logo on it.