Postal Service and union open talks on new contract

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By TOM RAUM

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service and a major union began contract talks Thursday as the agency continued to face huge financial losses.

The Postal Service's current contract with the American Postal Workers Union expires May 20.

The agency has proposed such cost-cutting moves as ending Saturday mail delivery, only to have them turned aside by Congress.

The union has proposed that postal customers be able to set up accounts where they could get checks cashed and pay bills. Post offices offered some banking services until 1967.

FULL story at link.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/five-things/the-u-s-postal-service/11433/

1. The USPS is not technically “broke” — yet.

Operationally speaking, the USPS nets profits every year. The financial problem it faces now comes from a 2006 Congressional mandate that requires the agency to “pre-pay” into a fund that covers health care costs for future retired employees. Under the mandate, the USPS is required to make an annual $5.5 billion payment over ten years, through 2016. These “prepayments” are largely responsible for the USPS’s financial losses over the past four years and the threat of shutdown that looms ahead – take the retirement fund out of the equation, and the postal service would have actually netted $1 billion in profits over this period.



Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/f765e8b82c8d486a8d9be0ef46096926/postal-service-and-postal-union-open-talks-new-contract

[raging moderate]

1. My, my, that prepaid pension fund could double as a slush fund.

Whenever I hear that our overlords have required that we amass an unnecessary huge fund, I wonder whether a little creative accounting is going on. Just what is the true motive behind this preposterous Congressional requirement?

[guillaumeb]

4. the GOP was desparate

to offset their massive deficits and the Postal Enhancement and Accountability Act let them put some black ink in the budget and attack the USPS

[guillaumeb]

2. The pre-funding mandate is a requirement

that is not imposed on any other business or governmental agency in the US. It was a "poison pill", passed by a GOP Congress and signed by George Bush, that was deliberately designed to kill the USPS. The GOP privatizers would kill a Postal Service regularly rated number 1 in the world, with the fastest and cheapest service as well, to allow private companies to skim off the most profitable services. Do any of these rural Red-state voters think they would get mail service at the current cost under a private system?

Plus UPS and Fed-EX are sending a larger share of their parcels to the USPS for final delivery. These 2 private companies recognize that the USPS is more efficient.

Fact vs. right wing fiction

thanks Omaha Steve from a retired 37 year USPS worker.

[turbinetree]

5. Hassert and Delay

This was voted on by a voice vote in 2006 under these two right wing hypocrites while they were on there job and in power before the democrats took over the House, and people are wondering why the middle class is disappearing, this is a prime example when you have republicans attacking the pensions and going around setting up the problem and then blaming the government so they can privatize the system for greed.
We the public had better get behind these employees because we are next under the SSDI and Medicare and Social Security cuts the right wing republicans want to attack next

[metalbot]

6. Personally, I don't actually want mail anymore

I'm not unsympathetic to those without internet, but we could look at replacing our postal system with universal internet access.

My sympathy for the US Postal Service pretty much died when they killed Outbox. They killed a company, which for a $5 a month subscription, would scan your mail and send it to you by email. Sounds like a great idea, right? Should save the Postal Service money because they don't have to physically go to your house with your mail unless you decide you want the paper copy.

Nope. While they rationalized this in part by saying "nobody is allowed to destroy mail, even when authorized by the recipient", they also argued that Outbox would kill their junk mail business, which is what actually funds the USPS. The vast, vast majority of the revenue from mail comes from the 20 or so companies that are responsible for junk mail, not from one entity sending a personalized letter/message to another.

[guillaumeb]

7. true but

when anyone orders something that has to get physically delivered a delivery operation is required. The USPS delivers to every location in the US for the lowest cost if any postal service in the world. (lowest cost meaning cost adjusted to local currency and adjusted for income)

plus the USPS ran a postal banking system up until 1967 that provided banking services at every Post Office in the country. Many Americans have no current access to banking services. The two major postal unions, APWU and NALC are pushing to reinstate postal banking. Takes the profit away from the banks.

Plus what you call junk mail is over 100 billion pieces of mail a year adding over $96 billion to the economy. That adds up to many jobs as well as helping the GDP.

Plus the USPS provides good paying jobs to over 500,000 people, also adding to the GDP.

[metalbot]

11. I'm not sure what you are arguing on the junk mail

Are you arguing that the average piece of junk mail adds $0.96 to the economy? Obviously some of that is from what advertisers pay to the USPS. Companies are likely still going to spend that money on advertising in the absence of junk mail, they'll just spend it in different ways. The only other component of that would be the amount that it drives consumers to spend, but I'd argue that alternative advertising would likely have the same result.

I agree that the big strength of the postal service is its ability to deliver mail to a house in Idaho that is 20 miles from a town, and to do so in a way that is subsidized by the delivery of packages within large cities. But that's the ONLY strength of the US postal service, and it's in large part propped up by junk mail delivery. I'd be much more interested (as a tax payer) in simply funding a smaller post office that is not financially solvent (because they wouldn't have junk mail to support them) that provided rural service at a flat rate.

I realize there is a jobs impact, but that's also somewhat arbitrary. The government shouldn't be in the business of giving people jobs for the sake of having jobs. Before I get hammered for a right wing talking point - one could make the same argument against any form of defense spending cut. The military provides good paying jobs (or at least jobs with valuable benefits), which adds to the GDP, but I wouldn't argue that we should expand our military simply to create jobs, or maintain it at current levels in order to save current jobs.

I'd be totally ok with the US government starting a bank that was available to ordinary Americans, and if we wanted to use postal facilities for that (and convert to banks), I'd also be good with that. But let's fix the concept of "mail", which is largely outdated.

[Omaha Steve]

12. (as a tax payer???) The US Postal service uses NO TAX DOLLARS!!!

See item #1 below.

https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-facts/top-10-things-to-know.htm

10.The Smithsonian Institution’s National Postal Museum is dedicated to the preservation, study and presentation of postal history and philately. The Museum, located in Washington, DC, was created by an agreement between the Smithsonian Institution and the United States Postal Service in 1990 and opened to the public in 1993. In 2013, the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery — the world’s largest gallery dedicated to philately — opened its doors. The gallery provides an experience available nowhere else and offers something for everyone, from casual visitors to experienced collectors. For more information, go to postalmuseum.si.edu.

9.The phrase by Herodotus etched atop the James A. Farley Building in Manhattan — “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” — is not the official Postal Service motto. The Postal Service does not have a motto.

8.The Postal Service is environmentally friendly and is a respected sustainability leader. It promoted sustainable practices long before doing so was encouraged, mandated or governed.

7.The Postal Service is the only organization in the country that has the resources, network infrastructure and logistical capability to deliver to every residential and business address in the nation.

6.The Postal Service has the country’s largest retail network — larger than McDonald’s, Starbucks and Walmart combined, domestically.

5.The Postal Service can and does compete with the private sector — and it collaborates with it, too. UPS and FedEx pay the Postal Service to deliver hundreds of millions of their ground packages to residences, taking advantage of the Postal Service’s expansive delivery network. The Postal Service pays UPS and FedEx for air transportation, taking advantage of their comprehensive air networks.

4.Mail is a great communication tool. No monthly plans. No signal outages. No roaming charges. Regardless of geographic location, anyone can send a letter for just 49¢ to anywhere in the United States, its territories and U.S. military and diplomatic installations worldwide.

3.Mail is reliable, trusted and secure — more than 200 federal laws protect the sanctity of the U.S. Mail. These laws are enforced by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. U.S. Postal Inspectors are federal agents, mandated to safeguard the nation’s mail — including the people who move it and the customers who use it.

2.The Postal Service continues to improve customer service by increasing access to postal services online, on smart-phones and in the places people visit every day: grocery stores, drug stores, ATMs and local retailers.
And most importantly…

1.The Postal Service receives NO tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

[metalbot]

15. That's sort of my point

I'd be willing to pay taxes to support a leaner postal system that is not financially viable if it were willing to move forward into something that is not primarily funded by junk mail.

[Omaha Steve]

16. Got it

[guillaumeb]

13. You raise some interesting points

Let me address them briefly.

Direct mail companies send catalogs because it gives them the best return on their dollar. Alternative advertising for many mailers and customers involves minimum waged employees placing a flyer on your doorstep. If this system was truly cheaper and made more business sense advertisers would do it.

A smaller, financially insolvent Postal Service that would only serve rural areas assumes that only rural areas need this service. Millions of people receive medication in the mail. The USPS is working on a pilot program to deliver groceries in some zip codes. The USPS delivers construction supplies in Alaska. Delivers millions of pieces of important mail to recipients of government services and beneficiaries of government services. The USPS does far more than this, of course, but space limits.

Internet access is not universal. Access and speed varies widely, as does usage. To assume that EVERYONE does everything online is not supported by the facts. Here is a link you might wish to read.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/19/census-computer-ownership-internet-connection-varies-widely-across-u-s/

Finally, a job impact is not arbitrary to the people who might lose them. Given that 70% of GDP is consumer spending, anything that reduces consumer spending reduces GDP. Be careful what you wish for and beware the law of unintended consequences.

[Omaha Steve]

8. SOLIDARITY!!!

Retired AFSCME

[guillaumeb]

9. in the struggle union brother

even on a Democratic site information is not always available. Luckily Democrats are willing to adjust their thinking as more facts present themselves.

It is called evolution and thus cannot happen on a GOP site. (Not a joke)

[Samantha]

10. It also has one of the largest unionized work forces in this Country

If it were privatized, that would take care of that for the Republicans, right?

Sam

[RufusTFirefly]

3. "Operationally speaking, the USPS nets profits every year."

Thanks Steve!

That particular sentence bears repeating. Most people are unaware of the artificial source of the postal service's financial woes. They typically think, "Oh, I guess it must be because of e-mail" (it's not) and then don't give it too much thought beyond that.

Corporations and their Congressional handmaidens are out to bankrupt the post office in an effort to bust the union, sell off priceless post office buildings and property, and ultimately put one of this nation's proudest public services in private hands.

[Omaha Steve]

14. (Join the) Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service

http://agrandalliance.org/


In the face of aggressive attacks, a wide range of national organizations have come together to create A Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service. These organizations are united in the demand that the public good must not be sacrificed for the sake of private investment and profit. A strong public Postal Service is our democratic right. The Alliance is fighting to protect and enhance vibrant public postal services now – and for many generations to come.


MUCH more at link.