U.S. Postal Service leaders gave members of Congress some of what they wanted with today’s announcement that widespread post office closures are off the table. But what about plans to shutter or consolidate almost half of some 460 mail processing plants?
Wait until next Thursday for word on that, Postmaster General Pat Donahoe said at a news conference this morning. That’s two days after the Postal Service’s voluntary freeze on any plant closings expires. Although many lawmakers want that moratorium to be extended, the Postal Service will go forward, Donahoe said in a brief interview after the conference.
Although no wholesale closures are immediately in the works, “we’ll have some consolidations in the summer, the majority after the first of the year.” Donahoe said. “From a fiscally responsible standpoint, we have to move ahead on this. We’ve lost too much [mail]volume and we have to address the infrastructure.”
The final plans, though, are still being hammered out, said Donahoe, who declined to say whether the Postal Service will offer buyouts or early retirement incentives to processing plant workers. The agency has scheduled an announcement for next Thursday, May 17.
Tomorrow, incidentally, the Postal Service will reveal its second quarter financial results covering the three-month period from January through March. Both operating revenues and expenses will show a little improvement, Donahoe said, “but we’re still losing volume.”
24 Comments
Oh dear GOD,
Just act responsibly House of Representatives. Don’t let “Goons”, like Issa and Fox news call the shots. Wake up people will vote in an austerity mode. Get the lot of BUMS, OUT OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
What does Fox news have to do with Congress? And the law was passed 5 years ago. Where were the unions when the law passed and Democrats controlled BOTH houses of Congress from 2007-2010. Union money wisely spent!
save our career postmasters
He is not fiscally responsible at all!! No cuts in the upper leadership at Headquarters or District levels. I haven’t noticed any cuts in local management. If the PMG continues with his plan on the consolidations, I would like to know what his “plan” is to do with all the EAS employees?? Sitting around in empty plants??? Oh wait, they do that already!!!
why don’t the house of representatives act on the postal bill and stop this nut postmaster general from destroying the postal service. everybody needs to get and vote the replublicans out of the u.s.house, because all they care about is themselves and to heck with anybody else. THROW THE BUMS OUT!
If USPS is in such dire straights why are they not trying to reduce the # of mail processing employees? There are employees who have been waiting for a worthwhile incentive from USPS for years. Within HR 1789 is just such an incentive 1 year service time added for CSRS, and 2 years service time for FERS. Management just needs to act. They have the right to hire lower paid workers thanks to the new APWU contract to replace the older workers, which WAS the plan anyway, DO IT!!! I will leave, as will many other longtime employees that I know.
Well, its obvious Mr Donahoe does not have a clue what he is doing or how he is going to do it. Every few weeks he releases a statement regarding a major crisis or news release of USPS imminent demise if we fail to do this, or fail to do that. Therefore we must do this and that. Then at the end of his press release he tells us, “You are doing a great job. Productivity is higher than it has ever been and we appreciate your hard work.” Mr. Donahoe, please dont shower us with empty praise, while behind closed doors, you are trying you best to get rid of us.
is this the same postmaster general donahoe that recently
publically insisted he never used the word ‘closure’ when refering to post offices? i believe it is and i believe he is nothing more than a habitual or pathological liar. i believe nothing that postmaster general donahoe says because his track record of being untrustworthy and lying is way too extensive to ignore.
Tell our lying Postmaster and his henchman to give up their LARGE bonuses, when we are “supposedly” losing money.
Perhaps the financial salvation of the USPS lies in the usual Democratic endeavor of confiscating the wealth of the successful folks to support the rest.
All we can do is pray that Congress FORCES a national audit of the post office before ANY changes take place.
DONAHOE..MUST GO!!!!!!
the reason;must be in the 1%..doesn’t care about anyone or any thing unless it pertains to him or her!
Your doing a great job Donahoe!! Consolidate and close those mail processing plants! Great job on attacking those 13,000 post offices by reducing the hours from eight down to six, four and two! That away Donahoe!
Just close ’em. And eliminate Saturdays while you’re at it. Sens. McCain, Corkle and Coburn all stated that no meaningful reform between the House and Senate is in the near future. All these delays by Congress are stall tactics until after this falls elections. Meanwhile, clerks and carriers are being beat up daily on the work room floor. Vacant jobs and routes go unposted as the U.S.P.S. looks to downsize the craft employees even further. Article 12 prohibits any hiring to cover these vacant positions so even more “fictional undertime” is created by the front line supervisors to get the mail delivered. For those that don’t know, these offices have become hell holes to work in. The arguments that ensue are daily occurrences. The NALC at the national level has been all but castrated and lacks any will/ability to intervene into the problems Article 12 and DOIS have created. I was a loyal union member for 32 years and a steward for alot of those years. I will not be giving the NALC another penny now that I’m retired.
Face it….the FOX NEWS propaganda machine has won!
Most people still don’t realize that American Taxpayer will not be on the hook for one dime….to let the US Postal resolve it’s financial problems.
That is if Congress will simply untie the hands of the USPS and let us do what we have to do.
Our system is very top heavy. We have people submitting reports upon reports that duplicate the previous reports. The Postal Service is data rich but information poor. It almost seems as though the reports are created to keep all the heavy hitters’ employed. How many times do we have to count mail, weigh mail, measure mail and scan mail?
Also, not one other business in this world would ever give out any bonuses if the business didn’t make money. So why is it that the Postal Service gives out bonuses to management? Finally, why is it that a Postmaster supervising 5 or less people in a facility is making more than 70K a year?
The PMG gives a VER to Postmasters, yet continues to excess/ Kick out clerks and mail Handlers, a VER should be across the board to both crafts, let them go , now, what is this PMG doing ?, if you want to downsize then across the board VER for APWu and Mail Handlers!
Reply to- the reason…. confiscating wealth???
Oh, you mean taxes?? I am very very far from wealthy, but the good old US Government “confiscates” 23% total of my “wealth” every year, regardless. And not one penny of my “wealth” goes to the USPS. Unless I buy or ship something.
Actually the opposite is true, since the USPS is supplementing the US Treasury, so us “successful folks” can keep more of our “wealth”.
So, if your wondering whether we are asking you for your “wealth”, no we are not.
Us “successful folks” working at the USPS would like our “wealth” returned from the US Treasury, so we no longer have to supplement you.
Reply to – readytoretire. I was a letter carrier for many years, then promoted to Delv Supv, but I never forgot where I came from. As they are yelling at you and your co-workers, they are also being yelled at by their bosses and it continues to roll uphill. Ive been on both ends of the shouting.
DOIS is a good program (in my carrier and manager opinion)because it takes into consideration what the carrier has already shown he/she can do. Demonstrated ability. Rather than a one size fits all. When DOIS came out, parcels were part of the calculation process and the workhours were pretty accurate. Then they removed the parcel factor completely, which totally distorted DOIS. One parcel? You have 30 mins undertime. 50 parcels? You have 30 minutes of undertime. Thats was the end of DOIS accuracy for me. But if the info in DOIS is not correct, or the daily volumes are not correct, then DOIS will not be correct. What alot of managers do not understand is, when they short change the carriers, they in turn short change themselves, their operation and the whole office.
I have seen very few employees retire with a happy attitude. USPS is not life. Its just a job. Enjoy your freedom and walk very very slow, so you can smell the flowers.
Enjoy your retirement. You earned every penny!!! and then some!!!
i just had an “OFFICIAL DISCUSSION” about my street time.. doesn’t matter if i have 2 or 20 trays of dps, or a circular, or1 or 100 parcels, my street time is 6hours 10 minutes.. and they tell me that with a straight face.. i told them they are either high or stupid. so when we have a light day, i will still take 6 hours 10 minutes. there will be NO undertime.. u can tell these people never carried mail in their career.. in the case of my boss, she carried for 2 weeks, then transfered to be a clerk cause “carrying mail was really hard”..if DOIS says my route can be done with 30 min undertime “LET DOIS DELIVER IT!”
With all the closings and personel cuts we have been hearing our Postmaster speaking of, and planning, as usual has only been coming from the bottom. From the trenches, from the front lines. When is he going to start telling us and the country, his plans of saving the Postal Service, I’d guess a few million dollars a year, with cuts form the top. With the suits (the waste we have behind desk), that make no contributions to our great organization. All the unnecessary extra “”Chiefs we have always had. Thank you.
It’s time for another useless mismanagement teleconference to try to figure out why the last two teleconferences accomplished nothing.