Slashdot Mirror
USPS Losing Battle Against the E-mail Age
An anonymous reader writes "An article in the NY Times explains how the United States Postal Service is in dire financial straits, and will need emergency action from Congress to forestall a shutdown later this year. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said simply, 'If Congress doesn't act, we will default.' Labor agreements prohibiting layoffs are preventing one avenue for reducing costs, and laws forbidding postage rates from surpassing inflation rates keep income down. On top of that, the proliferation of e-mail and online bill-paying services have contributed to a 22% reduction in snail-mail volume since 2006. They're currently hoping for legislation that would relax their economic requirements and considering an end to Saturday delivery."
Yeah that's because a rethuglican Congress required that the USPS fund both the retirement program and the health plan at 100%. The average for the S&P 500 funding is 80%. Other federal employees is 41%; the military is 24%; and the SAME GOVERNENT bureau which requires the USPS to fund at 100% does not fund its retirement and health plans at all. The $75 billion dollars needed to fund both the retirement program and the health plan at the 100% level is equal to a year's income at the USPS. The stated intent of these rules chages were to make the USPS look like it was losing money. Not so strangely the year the rule changes were enacted FEDEX/UPS were complaining that USPS had an unfair advantage because they had to fund their employees healthcare and retirement at the 80% level, but the USPS was only at 41%. Strange that the sponsors of the bill requiring 100% funding received large campaign donations from FEDEX/UPS. Futher you might check the FEDEX labor cost. FEDEX says it's higher and they don't include the costs of all the part timers they hire around christmas. USPS is has far better service than the FEDEX/UPS. At least USPS delivers the package rather then sending you an email that says come pick up your package since it couldn't be deliverd. USPS actually pays for damages to a package rather than telling you to f**k off which I ALWAYS get from UPS when UPS punctures packages
More anti-union bullshit. Try looking at what FEDEX puts into health care and retirement (80%) and then ask your self why FEDEX gave large campaign donations to the sponsors of the bill that required USPS to pay 100% of FUTURE EMPLOYEES health and retirement. Yes that is FUTURE employees. We want to make sure we can all possible contingencies you know just in case somebody we MIGHT hire might get sick or retire. Try looking to see if FEDEX/UPS actually ever deliver a package to the address on the label, or maybe they just send an email saying come pick up your undeliverable package. This is nothing more than TeaTerrorist/Libertarian/Rethuglicans attempt to destroy the functioning parts of the governement. The intent of TeaTerrorist/Libertarian/Rethuglicans is to sell the USPS for pennies on the dollar so their sponsors can buy a second gold-plated yacht.