Postal Woes
It's postal news time again!
Come Oct. 31st, there's going to be a circus centered on the USPS. To understand why, you only need to know a few things.
That's right. The entire problem exists because the post office lacks the autonomy to transfer its own employees money from one account into another despite full support to do so from the union. Congress' bright idea is cutting into operational costs. Management has resorted to cutting so many necessary personnel that there is more work to be done than carriers to do it. We're all routinely forced overtime, often past ten hours, often with no time for breaks, harranged for failed to squeeze that work into fewer hours than possible, harassed, threatened, formally penalized over trivial infractions to generated the necessary paperwork to ramp up the penalties.... There are reports of violence between carriers and supervisors; the hostility is that intense.
Most of use are expecting headlines declaring the post office is bankrupt, that unions are to blame, etc. There are several bills in the House attempting to remedy this ridiculous accounting error level problem which is not the fault of anyone at the post office, but most carry oppressive and grossly unfair riders involving whatever ignorant axe the representing politician wants to grind. With the current atmosphere of union busting (because having decent pay and benefits is selfish and evil and in no way contributes to the very existence of the middle class which fuels the US economy), we're expecting chaos.
Worst case scenario, there could even be a strike. Could you imagine it? 400,000 USPS employees on strike because we're being treated like shit, worked into the ground and then blamed by congress for a problem they foisted on us? But I'm sure that won't happen. Nah, they'll probably just do something foolish like try and privatize the mail service, even though "public service" and "private profit" are diametrically opposed as well demonstrated in other countries that have tried that stunt. Or hey, maybe Congress will even pull its collective head out of its ass and permit the post office to transfer its own funds (even though that will lead to accusations that the government is somehow giving it a "bailout").
Really, all I'm saying is that people are lazy, stupid and self-absorbed but that's hardly news.
Come Oct. 31st, there's going to be a circus centered on the USPS. To understand why, you only need to know a few things.
- The post office hasn't received tax funding since the mid-eighties.
- With the exception of 2009, the post office has remained solvent since then.
- The post office is a non-profit agency. When profit is made it is either sunk back in for improvements or commandeered by congress for its own use.
- The post office has two retirement benefit systems controlled by another govt agency, one old, one new, both grossly over-funded due to bad initial math to the tune of 75 billion. Remember, none of these are tax funds; they are employee funds.
- In 2006 congress created a law that the post office should use any incidental profit to pre-fund 75 years of retirement benefits for employees not yet hired, and do it in ten years. (Existed employees pay as they go). This came to 5.5 billion a year, from a non-profit agency.
- Because the post office doesn't make that sort of incidental profit, certainly not since the most recent recession, it's borrowed money from congress... who imposed the bill... and has since reached its 15 billion borrowing limit.
- On Sept. 31st, if Congress doesn't allow the post office to transfer excess funds from the two retirement funds into the pre-fund (which would more than cover the remaining balance and cover the incurred debt), the post office will default.
That's right. The entire problem exists because the post office lacks the autonomy to transfer its own employees money from one account into another despite full support to do so from the union. Congress' bright idea is cutting into operational costs. Management has resorted to cutting so many necessary personnel that there is more work to be done than carriers to do it. We're all routinely forced overtime, often past ten hours, often with no time for breaks, harranged for failed to squeeze that work into fewer hours than possible, harassed, threatened, formally penalized over trivial infractions to generated the necessary paperwork to ramp up the penalties.... There are reports of violence between carriers and supervisors; the hostility is that intense.
Most of use are expecting headlines declaring the post office is bankrupt, that unions are to blame, etc. There are several bills in the House attempting to remedy this ridiculous accounting error level problem which is not the fault of anyone at the post office, but most carry oppressive and grossly unfair riders involving whatever ignorant axe the representing politician wants to grind. With the current atmosphere of union busting (because having decent pay and benefits is selfish and evil and in no way contributes to the very existence of the middle class which fuels the US economy), we're expecting chaos.
Worst case scenario, there could even be a strike. Could you imagine it? 400,000 USPS employees on strike because we're being treated like shit, worked into the ground and then blamed by congress for a problem they foisted on us? But I'm sure that won't happen. Nah, they'll probably just do something foolish like try and privatize the mail service, even though "public service" and "private profit" are diametrically opposed as well demonstrated in other countries that have tried that stunt. Or hey, maybe Congress will even pull its collective head out of its ass and permit the post office to transfer its own funds (even though that will lead to accusations that the government is somehow giving it a "bailout").
Really, all I'm saying is that people are lazy, stupid and self-absorbed but that's hardly news.