Posted on 06/22/2011 9:12:35 AM PDT by The Working Man
Edited on 06/22/2011 9:54:30 AM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
WASHINGTON (AP) - The financially troubled Postal Service is suspending its employer contribution to the federal employee retirement system.
The agency said Wednesday it was acting to conserve cash as it continues to lose money. It was $8 billion in the red last year because of the combined effects of the recession and the switch of much mail to the Internet. It faces the possibility of running short of money by the end of this fiscal year in September.
80 percent of the bills and recurring monthly payments I used to pay by conventional mail, I now pay electronically over the internet.
Here in Hollywood, I have 6 locations that I can drive to in 5 minutes, in each direction. And all 6 of them have 2 clerks with 8 (and more) windows to ‘serve” the public. The retirement contributions is just the tip of the iceberg.
That is a shocking unprecedented move.
The letter carriers and all must be pooping their pants right now as reality hits them like a ton of lead.
The Post Office is broke, bankrupt. First on the chopping block, pensions.
suspending contributions beginning when?
It’s not going to happen with this administration but the next one will have to reduce the number employees and the number of days the post office is open.
I read a report not too long ago that in 2010, the USPS paid out 1.18 BILLION in overtime alone. Sounds like bad management to me.
No idea when they are going to start the suspension. The article didn’t say.
My own personal guess... Immediately. Before the Union can apply political or judicial pressure.
Whoa. They pay into a shared Federal Employee fund, not just a Postal worker fund. Imagine one agency after another pulling back. It will make Social Security’s problmes look miniscule. I wonder how much all of those monies have been managed over the years....
The Post Office is one of the few institutions provided for in the U.S. Constitution.
“The post office said it has informed the Office of Personnel Management that the $115 million FERS payment made every two weeks will be suspended effective Friday”
Sounds like everyone, not just new hires.
How interesting. I just moved into a new community where the Post Office is 3 blocks from my house and they do not deliver to my house; I have to get a PO BOX. That has caused non-stop havoc in my life trying to figure out how to get things shipped to me correctly.
That makes the Post Office LESS of a plum job; but it is still a plum job.
To my good friends who work there; please don’t make a scene over this; count your blessings as you survey the devastation to those now career-less citizens across the fruited plain.
Last October I bought a sheet of 20 stamps. To date, I’ve used 2.
“Sounds like bad management to me.”
Not so much bad management, but a HORRIBLE, archaic Union Contract, and unheard-of benefits. The USPS is literally sinking under the weight of it’s Union.
As noted in the Federal Times in 2009:
“union rules prevents managers from laying off excess mployees; a recent agreement with the unions, in fact, temporarily prevents the Postal Service from even reassigning them to other facilities that could use them.
So they sit — some for a few hours, others for entire shifts. Postal union officials estimate some 15,000 employees have spent time on standby this year.”
What is surprising is how long this issue has been going on without any attempt to correct. If UPS and FedEx can be profitable why can’t the USPS?
We MUST have a Postal system, but it DOES NOT have to be the bloated, union-destroyed nightmare we have today.
There are so many ways to cut, and change the operation to make it more modern, but the AFL-CIO, that runs the Letter Carrier Union, simply won’t allow it.
I’m told USPS employees have 4 unions depending on job title,
NALC, APWU, NPMHU and NRLCA
Meanwhile, In 2009, USPS paid out 45,000 hours A WEEK in ‘Stand-by time’, because Archaic AFL-CIO Union rules don’t allow managers to use employees efficiently.
ML/NJ
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