On Monday, the Postal Service announces that its governing board has given orders to accelerate cost-cutting measures. On Thursday, the Postal Service notifies the National Postal Mail Handlers Union that it is speeding up the shutdown of mail processing operations at 18 plants.
Contrary to what some might assume, though, “the decision is not part of the package directed by the USPS Board of Governors,” postal spokeswoman Sue Brennan said in an email. “But because we have had the flexibility to consolidate operations in the past—when we could do so—we’re following through now as the opportunity exists.”
For employees at the affected plants—which include facilities in Florida, Texas and Wyoming—that may be a distinction without a difference. Under the Postal Service’s three-year plan to halve the size of its processing network, the 18 were supposed to be axed next year. Under the new timetable, they’ll join 82 other facilities set for consolidation between this month and July. In an interview, John Hegarty, president of the mail handlers union, was hopeful that the departure of thousands of workers under two early-out programs in the last year will lessen the number of employees who will have to move to keep working for the Postal Service. In any case, he said, the union will continue to stress that dislocation be kept to a minimum.
For anyone who’s wondering, incidentally, postal officials still aren’t saying exactly what they will be doing in response to the Board of Governors directive. Information on that score will come “as soon as possible,” another spokesman said.
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Simple business. Charge enough to cover your cost plus profit margin. USPS can’t do that. Congress under GOP control morphed PRC (Postal Regulatory Commission) into master agency above Postal board of Governors & Postmaster General. PRC has blocked rate increases to cover Congress mandated business costs. GOP solution. Create additional layers bureaucracy over USPS operations. Never mind that USPS actually has never fired anyone for agency losing money. That managers in national management have been in place for sometimes 40+ years. This will take President Obama declaring an emergency & issuing Executive order(s) changing USPS operating standards. Then GOP can complain that Obama is over reaching (again).
why is the USPS still failing? the answer to that in a nutshell is that the management of the united states postal service is saturated with incompetence, waste, fraud, and corruption. the office of the inspector general of the USPS brags that their
role is to maintain the integrity and bring accountability to the united states postal service. if the office of the inspector general was doing its job, the levels of waste, incompetence, fraud, and corruption would be significantly lower within the management of the USPS. case in point, the office of the inspector general recently announced that they discovered that postal management paid out over $600,000 in ‘questionable bonuses’ in 2011 and 2012 to (2) ad agencies!
furthermore, the OIG reported $2.3 million paid by USPS management but with improperly certified invoices. all told, the OIG claimed there were $7 million dollars of ‘questioned’ costs paid by the united states postal service
in just this one instance relating to USPS’s advertising. what did the office of the inspector general do about all these questionable costs and improperly documented payments and ‘suspect’ bonus payments? well, the OIG put out a press release of course! why wasn’t anyone fired or charged with a crime? why does the office of the inspector general even bother to investigate anything if they don’t intend to do ANYTHING ABOUT IT? postal management is littered with incompetence, waste, fraud, and corruption BECAUSE THE OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL IS A MISERABLE FAILURE AND ALLOWS IT TO CONTINUE.
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This includes Same Dy Delivery Service which is being tested RIGHT NOW and employing our honorably discharged military Veterans – more than 22%.
Twoguns is right in that mailers have to pay their share. If you go to USPS.com find the standard mail calculator and input numbers. Large mailers pay as little as 12 cents a letter! The post master general refused to tell congress how much mailers that have contracts pay. Is this because the amount is even less? In the past there was more first class mail than junk mail, now it is the other way around. Standard mail is sill growing, while 1st class is shrinking. These large mailers make donations to congress every year in attempt to privatize the postal service. What they really mean is cut the workers pay and allow the new owners to make millions! A private corporation also would not have price controls. Critics of the P.O. say that prices would drop, but we only have to look at Japan and Germany that have already privatized. They pay a lot more for postage than here in the U.S.