Union leaders urge quick action to address Postal Service problems

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_5437

17 February 2013

WASHINGTON - Since Congress must start all over again to fix the money troubles at the U.S. Postal Service, it should do so the right way, two postal union leaders told lawmakers. And that doesn’t mean eliminating all Saturday pickups and deliveries or firing tens of thousands of workers, they add.

Instead, National Rural Letter Carriers Association President Jeanette Dwyer and Postal Workers President Cliff Guffey told senators on Feb. 13, it means stopping a $5.5 billion yearly congressional mandate that USPS prepay future retirees’ health care costs. And it means returning billions the agency overpaid for workers’ pensions, and it means letting USPS explore and exploit new lines of business.

The two union leaders laid out those alternatives at a Senate Government Affairs Committee hearing on the USPS’ financial woes and how to solve them. With the start of a new Congress, drafting a law to solve the service’s deficit must begin anew.

The hearing was dominated by Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe’s scheme to cut an annual deficit he estimates could hit $20 billion, up from $15.9 billion last year. He wants to kill all Saturday pickups and deliveries, except for parcels, for starters.

FULL story at link.