Posted on 07/21/2011 12:15:35 PM PDT by Heart of Georgia
There was a thread on FR not long ago regarding the post office going under, so I realize all that has been hashed out in the recent past, but this is pertinent information and comes straight from the horses patoot just this past week.
I despise unions. They use scare tactics and lies to take the worker's money, live like kings, dole it out to democrats, and are in collusion with management against the workers.
I believe we benefit when darkness is exposed to the light, so here's the latest scare tactics from the APWU...
*Privatization *Threats to Collective Bargaining *Attacks on Our Jobs, Pay, Benefits *Postal Service’s Shaky Finances
The Postal Service Is In Danger of Going Under…And So Are Our Jobs
The Postal Service is in danger of financial collapse, and could shut down as early as July 2012. A battle is brewing on Capitol Hill over what to do about it, and one thing is clear: We are in the fight of our lives. Our jobs, our pay, and our benefits are in danger!
Every postal employee must join the fight! We can’t win without you!
The Postal Service has suspended its payments to FERS (Federal Employees Retirement System), and is expected to default on a $5.5 billion payment due to the Treasury on Sept. 30 to pre-fund health benefits for future retirees. By July 2012, the Postal Service may not have enough cash on hand to make payroll.
The Postal Service’s financial crisis was created by Congress, and Congress must fix it.
Unfortunately, some of the same politicians that are trying to gut Medicare and limit collective bargaining for public employees are pushing the Postal Service into default.
The chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform recently introduced a bill (H.R. 2309) that would be devastating for the Postal Service and for postal employees. It would do nothing to correct the cause of the Postal Service’s economic difficulties.
· USPS pension plans are overfunded by billions of dollars, and · The USPS is required to pre-fund healthcare coverage for future retirees – at a cost of more than $5 billion annually. No other government agency or private company bears this burden.
H.R. 2309 wouldn’t correct these glaring problems, but it would establish a “solvency authority” that would have the power to unilaterally cut wages, abolish benefits, and end protection against layoffs. Sponsors of the bill claim postal employees are overpaid by 34%!
The bill also would create a board that would order $1 billion worth of post office closures in the first year and $1 billion worth of facility closures in the second year. Would that include your office or your facility? Would that wipe out your job?
The Postal Service is essential to American life and commerce. It is at the heart of industries that employ 9 million people in mailing, printing, and related businesses. But some politicians are willing to destroy it, and many people who care about the USPS would be quite content to solve its problems on the backs of postal workers – eliminating our protection against layoffs, slashing our pay, and cutting our benefits.
Only the union is fighting to defend the Postal Service AND postal workers. And the union needs you.
ARE YOU IN? JOIN APWU NOW
These folks get paid very, very well, and only have to work 20 years to collect full benefits. It's about time someone reigned them in. It's a scam. The taxpayers are getting fleeced.
ROFLMAO!!
I appreciate your comments, but not true. Postal workers do not collect full benefits after 20 years. Also, the benefits they do collect are paid for in part by biweekly deductions from their pay, not tax dollars. Workers are paid through postal sales and the only way the taxpayer contributes is if they use the services.
As I said, it’s all been hashed out, yet so many want to believe the propaganda that’s been spread regarding employees.
Here are some of the most popular statements to post to any FR thread about postal workers, with my opinion in parentheses. Enjoy, and feel free to come up with your own. :-)
Postal workers are uneducated (Except those who are well-educated and are required to know how to draw and read schematics, know how to wire commercial buildings, repair computers, keep machinery running that is sometimes as big as a house, etc).
They make too much money (The PO could definitely use improvement there - a janitor should not make anywhere near what a skilled/educated worker makes, but the APWU won’t have that, which is another reason I despise unions!
They’re all lazy (*sigh* conservatives know better than to generalize like that. The Postal Services offers preference of employment to veterans).
They shouldn’t have a retirement/health care on the taxpayer’s back’s (They don’t. They contribute to their retirement and pay for family insurance premiums just like those in private companies).
They shouldn’t be paid with tax dollars (They’re not).
They should be privatized (Maybe there’s an argument to be made there, but then who would the other carriers contract to?) :-}
The USPS receives plenty of taxpayer subsidies. The USPS is a government monopoly able to increase postal rates to cover any shortfalls.
The USPS as part of the government has huge unfunded liabilities. The argument about liabilities is just a shell game. The taxpayer is on the hook for unfunded liabilities of the USPS just like the entire federal government. There is no portfolio to support the retirement of postal workers just like there is no portfolio to support the retirement of other government workers. The argument that the government owes the USPS money for retirement funds is completely bogus. The USPS is part of the government although with the ability to raise revenue through postal fees. This retirement argument is a ruse to curtail rational action on postal reform.
All I wanted to do was expose some idiotic union propaganda and have it float around in cyberspace for the next 100 years. Oh well.
Regarding your link to Issa’s statements - I noticed there were actually quite a few relevant facts left out of that article. It happens, but I always wonder why - intentionally? Who knows.
However, I don’t disagree with you that the whole thing is a messed up, slimy shell game, and reform is badly needed, as with ALL things the federal govt is involved in. For my part, I could care less if they shut down or privatize, but I don’t believe either one is going to happen any time soon.
One thing, though, the Postal Service has always been a highly profitable cash cow for Congress, even during not-so-profitable years, and it’s my understanding that any subsidies the USPS has received are for purchasing of multimillion dollar machines, etc., during a non-profitable year, and it’s required to be repaid during a profitable year - shell game, yes I know! Remarkably, the USPS non-profitable years coincide with APWU contract negotiation years.
Regarding a portfolio? I’m not sure what that’s about, but the postal employees who hired on before 1980 or so have paid into private individual accounts, and those funds should have been left alone and not treated like a giant piggy bank. [This is not FERS I’m speaking of here. As far as I can tell, FERS is altogether different and involves employees who hired on under a different package/different retirement after 1980, and a few old-timers who were able to be conned into FERS].
At any rate, regarding the stolen retirement money, I was recently told that the USPS was ordered [by court?] to replace these funds. Again, I don’t believe this includes FERS, but who knows, it’s all one big shell game after all and the lines between Congress and the USPS are blurred.
BTW, I use the services of the post office as little as possible because I don’t like the fact that they do arbitrarily raise rates. But for when I need to use it, I do think a postage stamp is a pretty good deal.
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