Instead, says Letter Carriers President Frederic Rolando, the agency should first recoup $75 billion that the 2006 postal reorganization law forced USPS to pay into the federal Civil Service Retirement System – a payment in full for future retiree health care costs well in advance of when the workers involved actually retire.
Then USPS should work on initiatives to expand, not contract, its business, Rolando added. The union wants to work with the Postal Service to accomplish that.
Rolando spoke after the April 15 House Oversight Committee’s hearing on Postmaster General John Potter’s “business plan” for the Postal Service. Potter, named to head USPS during the Bush administration, claims USPS faces a $238 billion deficit over the next decade. Another Congressional committee will take up Potter’s scheme on April 22.
The plan would kill Saturday mail pickups and delivery, raise postage rates, close hundreds of post offices, cut thousands of jobs through firings or attrition, make others part-time with no benefits, and have post offices in supermarkets – including Wal-Marts – and pharmacies.
"Congress should not be stampeded into making a short-sighted decision to
slash Saturday service when the solution to the Postal Service\'s short-term financial problems is obvious: It should repeal the rigid and unaffordable schedule for pre-funding retiree health liabilities adopted in 2007, by far the most important cause of the Postal Service\'s financial losses,” Rolando said.
“Congress should allow the Postal Service to fund these liabilities the same way every other agency and company in America does and recognize we have already pre-funded more than virtually any other company,” he added.
As for killing Saturday service, companies that use the USPS for key functions – like sending bills – won’t do so if the mail takes longer to get there, he added.
"At a time when online billing is eliminating a key segment of traditional letter mail, cutting Saturday delivery will do more harm than good,” he said. “It will simply chase away more mailers, especially those that are growing the fastest, including DVD rentals, mail order prescription drugs and small packages from electronic commerce."
Other witnesses objected to other parts of the Potter plan. But the non-partisan Government Accountability Office went some way towards validating it by calling the agency’s current business plan – which Potter would replace – unsustainable.
This article was written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
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Instead, says Letter Carriers President Frederic Rolando, the agency should first recoup $75 billion that the 2006 postal reorganization law forced USPS to pay into the federal Civil Service Retirement System – a payment in full for future retiree health care costs well in advance of when the workers involved actually retire.
Then USPS should work on initiatives to expand, not contract, its business, Rolando added. The union wants to work with the Postal Service to accomplish that.
Rolando spoke after the April 15 House Oversight Committee’s hearing on Postmaster General John Potter’s “business plan” for the Postal Service. Potter, named to head USPS during the Bush administration, claims USPS faces a $238 billion deficit over the next decade. Another Congressional committee will take up Potter’s scheme on April 22.
The plan would kill Saturday mail pickups and delivery, raise postage rates, close hundreds of post offices, cut thousands of jobs through firings or attrition, make others part-time with no benefits, and have post offices in supermarkets – including Wal-Marts – and pharmacies.
"Congress should not be stampeded into making a short-sighted decision to
slash Saturday service when the solution to the Postal Service\’s short-term financial problems is obvious: It should repeal the rigid and unaffordable schedule for pre-funding retiree health liabilities adopted in 2007, by far the most important cause of the Postal Service\’s financial losses,” Rolando said.
“Congress should allow the Postal Service to fund these liabilities the same way every other agency and company in America does and recognize we have already pre-funded more than virtually any other company,” he added.
As for killing Saturday service, companies that use the USPS for key functions – like sending bills – won’t do so if the mail takes longer to get there, he added.
"At a time when online billing is eliminating a key segment of traditional letter mail, cutting Saturday delivery will do more harm than good,” he said. “It will simply chase away more mailers, especially those that are growing the fastest, including DVD rentals, mail order prescription drugs and small packages from electronic commerce."
Other witnesses objected to other parts of the Potter plan. But the non-partisan Government Accountability Office went some way towards validating it by calling the agency’s current business plan – which Potter would replace – unsustainable.
This article was written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.