What Postal Workers Want: 'More'
The Postal Service posted a $3.5 billion loss in the third quarter of fiscal 2010, and by any reasonable estimation is in a deep financial hole. That's not the fault of the postal workforce. There are a whole lot of factors contributing to the challenges facing USPS, from the overall state of the economy to increased competition from private delivery services to the requirement that mail be delivered to every address six days a week.
Nevertheless, given USPS' financial condition, the position of American Postal Workers Union President William Burrus on upcoming collective bargaining negotiations with Postal Service management strikes me as somewhat curious.
Here's what Burrus told GovExec's Emily Long about what his union is seeking in the negotiations: "More -- more control over activities at work, more money, better benefits -- we want more. We will try to fashion our proposals to reflect the entitlement to more."
Management, not surprisingly takes a very different view: It wants less--fewer full-time employees and more part-timers, for example. Those ought to be some interesting negotiations.
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Government Executive Editor in Chief Tom Shoop, along with other editors and staff correspondents, take a fresh look at news affecting the management and operations of the federal bureaucracy.
Close the Post Office! I get all my bills and mail online and use UPS or FEDEX. The only thing I get in the mail is junk-mail which does not even make it into the house.
The End Game Posted Thursday, September 2, 2010 3:42 PMCan't close it; have to change the way it asses's costs and charges. High volume mailers (mostly unwanted junk)should be charged according to the incremental average costs of delivery to appropriate cost centers. Zip codes breaks could certainly be one method, and the Postal Service surely has the capacity to break out costs this way. In this way, the very high costs of delivery in rural or other exotic locations (Alaska comes to mind), which would pop out as real cost drivers, could be priced at a cost-recovery level. If too high, service to these areas would gravitate to other alternatives, i.e. internet or private carriers. Such an approach also fits well with the broadband everywhere pitch we're hearing about ad nausium. Flat mail advertising would virtually disappear.
Combine this with a really hard-nosed approach at the bargaining table to get outrageously high legacy personnel costs in line with job demands and responsibilities, and fence off Congressional meddling in facility numbers and locations, and, who knows, the PS might survive and thrive!
ronald somerville Posted Friday, September 3, 2010 10:39 AMRonald Sommerville, you sound like must have gone to one of the colleges that have put out all the economists that have put the USPS and the rest of the country in this mess. I, obviously, work for the USPS, and I live in the so called "fly over states" that are looked down, on but keep the country fed. I agree, that we should forgo any type of raise or increase during this up coming contractual period.But, I also believe that the Executives that are running us into the ground in an effort to take us private, should share in the freezes that could come from thaes negotiations. They have been slicing up the work force at an amazing rate, but the Executives havebeen adding to their numbers at an even faster rate. With the reduction of the work force by 200,000 and a realized savings of $8 billion from it, you would think that basic math would tell them that it would not be fiscally responsible to add to the Executive level 34% and $15 billion in pay and perks. But, that is what they have done. And, I don't want to be forced to send my bills over the internet because some snotty out of touch indaividual on one of the coasts thinks so. The midsection and the out lying areas count too.
Denise Pierce Posted Friday, September 3, 2010 12:30 PMThe tails have been wagging the dog for 20 years, time for the PO management to TELL the union this is how it is and its time for the babies to either go to work or leave
dan ketter Posted Friday, September 3, 2010 12:49 PMThe time has come to demand that management cut itself NOW! Streamline management and replace all the key strategic positions with real people who harbor some intellectual capacity to think logically and who can overhaul the cultural dynamic of the organization to reflect a modern business entity.
A greater load of work is being placed on the frontline workers. We MUST demand greater compensation for greater RESPONSIBILTY. There is NOBODY outside of the frontline workforce who can empathize with the burden to carry out the physical work obstacles and to directly contend with management's placement of policy constraints and foulups. It is time to revolutionize our industry and more precisly our unique public service niche.
Scarecrow Posted Friday, September 3, 2010 10:49 PMAs a federal employee in the Treasury Dept. , and having had an ex-brother-in-law who works for the PO, I know PO workers make good money, many making more than my salary. On top of that, I pay higher Insurance premiums than the PO workers. I think it is time for the PO management to take a stand and fight for decreasing some of the overhead at the PO, such as making the employees pay more for their insurance, the same across the board for ALL federal employees. Cutting down to 5-day delivery also should be good, just one less day to receive the junk-mail! With more electronic mail, the physical delivery could/should be decreased.
mademine Posted Thursday, September 9, 2010 8:51 AM