Game on! The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee just officially announced what is certain to a highly charged hearing next Tuesday afternoon, titled “U.S. Postal Service in Crisis: Proposals to Prevent a Postal Shutdown.”
The focus is expected to be the Postal Service’s recently unveiled bid for the freedom to lay off some 120,000 unionized employees, along with creating its own retirement and health insurance programs. No witnesses have been announced yet, but they will presumably include U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe or a stand-in, as well as labor and mailing industry representatives.
Unsurprisingly, all three proposals have not exactly been embraced by the Postal Service’s four unions. This, however, will be the first formal gauge of congressional sentiment. The hearing is set for 2 p.m., Sept. 6. For those who can’t attend in person, the committee usually webcasts its hearings live; the panel’s homepage is http://hsgac.senate.gov/public.
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I have been an Electronics Technician with the USPS since 1988, and have NEVER been assigned a click (1/100 of an hour) of standby time. The postal service has more management/supervision than any state requires for day care centers, many of which only serve to provide cronies with a nice fat paycheck. Over the last 4 years they have reduced employees by more than 100,000 yet only managed to shift management jobs around. reduced employment should result in a reduced need for supervision.
I am a retired Postal Worker (Management – 37 years) I agree that there is far too much supervision and management at the top. It was my experience that support position were always cut but not the upper management positions. PCES positions are a joke. These individuals are always on travel or temporary assignments, drawing perdium and travel expenses. They would get real excited when their annual bonus was in jeopardy. Everytime there was a reorganization the layers of upper management just moved around and got blurred. Leave the workers that process and deliver the mail alone. They are not the problem. Get rid of those $150K plus executives that do nothing but travel and run up their expense accounts.
thats the postal way….crush the workers…..who will they write up when we are gone??? Letter Carrier 9 years
POedET10: That’s insane! No wonder they’ve run out of money!
First off, i highly doubt those goofy proposals will be the ‘focus’ of the meeting. The PMG already said the 3 things he needed to bring the post office in line months ago (hint: he’ll probably only get 2 of them). Secondly, the layoffs mentioned ’employees’. That means everyone as i understand it. You really think the post office will lay off 125k average workers but zero supervisors or execs? The fewer there are of us, the fewer supers and execs they’ll need.
For years, the top execs have been bleeding our service dry for their own benefit. They have cut craft employees to the bare bones which is affecting service. Overtime to cover these shot staffed offices is costing millions. Contract violation grievances and lawsuits are costing billions. Yet the execs remain unscathed. I’m tired of hearing about loss of volumes, maybe first class is down, but all other types of mail volumes are up. I’m tired of the BS they feed the media. Craft employees suffer the abuse of their bosses daily, in an effort to “make the numbers” that increase their bonusus. Why has no one looked into their wasteful spending; benefits {including 100% healthcare costs} perks, huge salary and retirement packages, cars, homes, timeshares, travel and food expence accounts, bonuses, incentives, lavishly catered meetings, etc. Wake up and hold them accountable for their selfishness.
Come on folks.. If its not hot enough now lets see If PMG Donahoe squirms, lies, begs, cries and finally – constantly have to go to the restroom cause he has diarrhea while on the stand while being questioned. Look folks, Congress needs to man-up and take back the Postal Service and fire the top executives. Get rid of 15000 – 20000 small offices located in areas that are bounded by Post Offices within a 3 – 5 mile radius of each other. Next go down to a 3 day a week delivery. Congress wants no part of the Unions especially when there are elections in the wind. UP the price of stamps. I agree that PMG Donahoe has problems but not solutions other than the Grim Reaper. Bring in OMB to go through the books and look for waste and mis-management. Finally, stop hiring back retired employees. As a retired Management employee I saw the rolls decline to be brought back up again to staggering numbers. Finally, ask if the PMG has offered to take a cut in pay and How many VPs and PCES have had salary reductions or offered to take one. Last, get rid of Postal IT and outsource or transfer all IT and accounting functions outside Postal to another Govt Agency or to a contractor firm. Licensing, hardware and above all else expenses associated with data centers can be eliminated. Get rid of the Forever Stamp cause it makes no sense – some PCES should have been fired a long time ago over that mistake.
Last Pray for Brother Donohoe as he dont know the meaning of of being in the hot seat until he meets with Congress. Anybody that old with dark hair either dyes it or it is a wig.
If Congress buys this latest Ponzi scheme these USPS clowns have dreamed up, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell them!!! Within 5 years of handing over retirement and health care monies to USPS so-called “executives”, the money would be gone and a class-action law suit would be filed against the government by the 1M+ workers hung out to dry. These USPS PCES Executives could not manage the business of moving the mail!! How in Heaven’s name could they manage health care and retirements??? If the USPS is able to pull this one off, then the citizens of this country really need to rise up and get rid of EVERYONE in Congress because they will PROVE BEYOND ANY REASONABE DOUBT they are nothing but a bunch of idiots.
Ever since Congress demanded that the USPS prefund retirement health benefits for future retirees, there has been a stream of new “most important things” that the carriers and clerks have to now do as a priority over everything else, including the last most important thing. I’ve finally come to realize that all these new most important things are designed to give upper management individuals something to do (such as searching through records to check if the new most important thing is being done) so that they can justify having a six-figure income.
@POedET10
I am also ET and I can hear thousands of postal workers all over the country laughing at your comment. Just because you “have NEVER been assigned a click (1/100 of an hour) of standby time” doesn’t mean you havent spent thousands of hours standing/sitting around doing nothing! Haha that was a good one man, I can’t believe you said that in public.