US Postal Service moves to cut 50,000 jobs

[Hannah Bell]

The US Postal Service (USPS), moving to stem large operating losses, has demanded greater “flexibility” to control labor costs and has proposed ending delivery of most mail on Saturdays. US Postmaster General John Potter and other officials outlined the cuts at a Tuesday news conference.

USPS has already shrunk its workforce by 200,000 in the last decade, even as the number of postal addresses in the US has increased by 18 million, Potter said. Last year it reduced its staff by 40,000. It will target job cuts of 30,000 in 2010, along with reductions in overtime payment to workers that would be equivalent to another 20,000 job cuts.

The Postal Service has been losing money since 2007, a consequence of the economic crisis and Internet communications displacing paper mail...

Though it is a government agency, the Postal Service now receives no federal funding...The Postal Service’s main private competitors, UPS, Federal Express, and DHL, which last year abandoned the US market, have also suffered enormous operating losses.

Potter is also demanding that Congress end the Postal Service’s mandate to prepay workers’ retirement health care plans, through which he estimates USPS could accrue annual savings of $5.5 billion. In other words, Potter is demanding the “right” currently enjoyed by most federal, state, and local agencies to intentionally underfund, and thereby bankrupt, these benefit plans...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/post-m03.shtml

[Double T]

1. Yep. Economy is getting better.

Can't wait until November.

[sufrommich]

2. "with reductions in overtime payment to workers

that would be equivalent to another 20,000 job cuts". The headline is misleading, lack of overtime is not a job cut.

[ixion]

3. fair enough... 30,000 jobs, however, IS a job cut

so it's sort of a moot point.

[mmonk]

4. Workers always pay.

[wroberts189]

5. "Internet communications" has increased revenue for them.. Amazon/Ebay etc ..that is a LIE. nt/knr

[liberalhistorian]

9. Umm...no, it hasn't. Because those two companies, as well

as many others, have deals with UPS and FedEx; some don't even allow you to request postal delivery anymore, even if you want it. That's a major reason why they're losing money.

And I'll take the postal service any day over UPS and FedEx. Especially living in a rural area, private delivery companies suck here. Of course, they sucked when I lived in an urban area, too.

And all these anti-government yahoos in rural areas who might be cheering this need to realize that private companies might not even have any operations in their areas if the USPS shuts down or goes belly-up. Because their only concerns are profit and the bottom line, they're not going to pay much attention to rural and remote areas, it would cost them too much.

[arcadian]

12. My amazon and eBay purchases are always delivered by the postal service

The shitty service I've ever received is always from subcontractors of the USPS. The federal employees I've encountered always take a certain amount of pride in working for the postal service.

[wroberts189]

17. In most cases you get to choose your shipping method. With amazon it is USPS. nt

[Dr.Phool]

32. I've got a package coming from Amazon today. UPS.

But, they're fulfilling the order from another supplier, so that could be it. Books usually com USPS.

[951-Riverside]

15. I've always wondered about that too wroberts189

The products I order from Japan, Hong Kong, UK, etc always come through the USPS and more people are shopping online than in stores so I don't get their reasoning for 1. Cutting Saturday deliveries 2. Canning thousands of employees.

Something tells me that the postal service has very bad accounting practices.

and BTW, the lines are still long at every post office I visit.

[wroberts189]

16. My wife ships out 20-40 packages a day..used books .. USPS

All prepaid and segregated( priority,media,etc) through Endicia. All they have to do is drop them into bins.

Now that so many more are jobless they are in on the biz... so we see them in line as well. Ebay sellers line up at the Goodwill stores every day (their manager told me this)

It is always busy at the PO ..except on rare occasions.

You are right ..someone needs to to look at the books. Retail bookstores and movie rental stores plus others are going belly up in the face of online sales.

It just does not sound right ..gas has dropped...no it is not 124 but it is not 360 either anymore.

[Mudoria]

6. Why don't they consolidate post offices?

I live in an area with three small towns, each with it's own post office, and all three have less than 1500 people living in them (one has around 500 residents). In addition these three towns are within 5-10 miles of each other. Wouldn't one central post office make more sense considering the upkeep and staffing of three separate offices? I'm sure this situation is repeated all over the country, not just my small corner of the universe.

[liberalhistorian]

13. Whenever they've tried to do that here in rural areas,

people bitch and scream and piss and moan, until the USPS cries uncle and drops the plans. Then these same people bitch and scream and piss and moan about the eeevil fedrul' gubmint and how it wastes and steals money, etc., etc., ad nauseaum, you know the drill.

[wroberts189]

21. We have a PO in our local conveniance store....

And the other PO's are brick buildings designed to last a hundred years.

They should be making a fortune.

[msongs]

7. world's largest processor of trash = raise the rates on trash "mail" nt

[njlib]

14. As someone who used to work in that industry

YES!! I agree 100%! You have no idea the amount of money that is spent on list rental, printing, etc. The place I worked for managed & brokered lists and if the general public knew how much some organizations spent on fundraising, when 99% of it is going to get thrown in the garbage or recycling heap, people would never donate again! We used to get calls constantly from people who wanted to be taken off "the list" and would have to explain the whole procedure to them....junk mail is a long, involved process! We'd also get calls from family members of the elderly who felt they HAD to donate, but really couldn't afford it, because they received some piece of crap medal or religious token assembled in China, otherwise they'd burn in hell.

Unfortunately, the Direct Marketing Association is a powerful lobby with lots of money to throw at our elected officials...and we all know how that works.

[Johonny]

8. Internet communications displacing paper mail

I guess not enough people shop on line to counter act the decline in letters?

[wroberts189]

20. According to them email is the issue.. they need an audit. They have been raising prices so fast ...

Now they sell "forever" stamps ..buy them now and if the price goes up ..as it always does every 6 months..you do not need to go buy 2-3 cent stamps to use up your old ones.

[tammywammy]

24. Postal rates have only gone up once a year since 2006

http://www.akdart.com/postrate.html

[wroberts189]

30. That chart does not look right to me but I stand corrected if true..

I was going on memory ..gotta remember not to do that. I would look it up myself and confirm but what for? I just do not buy that they have to fire so many. I see these guys work hard (gals too).


It does not make sense.


on edit... this is why as in other posts I would like to see a real audit.

[Contrary1]

25. It's not just the shopping...

Many people pay their bills online. People no longer send greeting cards like they used to. The decline of more national newspapers that used to be mailed, etc...

It's a combination of several different things.

[tammywammy]

27. Plus, paperless billing

I get notification of bills via email, only my water comes to the house (they don't have a paperless option).

[blindpig]

10. Completely fucked up

Postal service should not be based upon a capitalists model(really, nothing should), it is a public good and should be funded as such.

k&r

[arcadian]

11. Another indication of the right worming corporatism into the Federal government.

How many times did you hear this at town hall meetings: "I don't want healthcare run like the USPS"?

[CornerBar]

18. Is this

part of the jobless recovery?

[JTFrog]

22. Are you

back again?

:eyes:

[upi402]

19. Neocon utopia, starve the "beast"

I've heard conservatives cry for privatizing the USPS so many times that I now boycott FedEx and use the USPS a lot.

[wroberts189]

23. "UPS, Federal Express, and DHL"..should not be affected to any great degree by email. nt

If they are going down its the economy.

[Hubert Flottz]

26. "Them people just don't want a job!"

That's how the GOPers would defend that plan. Maybe the folks in Washington can save enough money to invade Iran?

[Craftsman]

28. I hope no one goes "postal"

[4lbs]

29. The USPS is considering eliminating Saturday mail delivery. At least in my area, SoCal.

They cite that mail volume has dropped about 6 or 7% last year and attribute it mainly to people doing more online bill paying.

I think it could also be that with a million more foreclosures, that's a million fewer homes to deliver mail to on a regular basis.

[Canuckistanian]

31. The U.S. has mail delivery on Saturdays?

I never knew that.

Here in Canada it's only weekday deliveries,

[tranche]

33. Obama did it.

[Starry Messenger]

34. I didn't know they didn't get federal funding

That's ridiculous. I'd much rather my taxes went to the mail than to the military industrial complex.

[earth mom]

35. Potter is out to destroy the USPS & it's workers-no mistake about that.

:grr:

:puke: