Posted on 06/22/2011 12:07:13 PM PDT by Justaham
The financially troubled Postal Service is suspending its employer contribution to the Federal Employee Retirement System.
The agency said Wednesday it is 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 business to the Internet. It faces the possibility of running short of money by the end of this fiscal year in September.
"This move underscores the need for Congress to make bold, quick and substantive reforms to the Postal Service. The USPS is hanging by a thread, along with 8 million private sector jobs that depend on the mail," said Art Sackler, coordinator for the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, a group representing the private sector mailing industry.
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. The action is expected to free about $800 million in the current fiscal year. The post office's FERS account currently has a surplus of $6.9 billion, the agency said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Cut Saturday delivery? And not get my advertising fliers? The horror!
Watch the union pitch a fit. Maybe they’ll go on strike. I hope they do then my mailbox won’t get filled up with crap.
Seriously, the union would rather shut the whole thing down than lose one penny.
Cannot get rid of it. It’s in the constitution. We should change it and cut out the waste, but you won’t yet rid of it.
You are mistaken about striking. Postal unions do not go out on strike. You are thinking about the Teamsters at UPS. Next time UPS goes out on strike like they did in the late 1990s, people will be glad that the USPS is there.
Write “Return to Sender” on the crap and put it in the mail box. It gives the mailman something to do on his way back to the post office.
Yes, employer stopped making contributions to the retirement plan. Employer also reduced staff and froze pay for over 3 years, made sure we knew that cutting hours and/or pay were being considered for those who were kept on the payroll. Employer passed along cost increases in health insurance plan. This is very common experience for those working in the private sector over the past 4-5 years.
The folks you see in the Post Office are the “affirmative action people” who could not make a “buggy whip” or anything else.
Gov-mint jobs are filled with these entitlement folks. Go anywhere the Gov-mint is in charge and look around!
Maybe a better idea would be to eliminate residential delivery entirely, and replace it with free post office boxes either in existing post offices or at concentrated off-site locations where people can pick up their own mail.
They should cut back to deliveries every other day and charge more for the junk mail they love to deliver.
Sad. For over 200 years, the US postal service was the greatest bargain around. As a child, I could keep up a great correspondence with distant cousins for 3 cents a letter.
All good things must come to an end, I suppose.
I don't agree. I believe the USPS is the #1 employer of military veterans in our nation. A lot of good, hardworking conservative people who take pride in their jobs are in that organization.
A pension that she worked damned hard for!
Before cutting pensions, why don’t we cut off welfare payments and food stamps to the millions of overfed obese grifters who inhabit our cities?
Huh. There’s a lot of people who create things and receive payments via other than the PO. FedEx, UPS, etc. are doing a brisk business, and those of us in the 21st Century are pushing around online payments in seconds rather than days.
As an adult, you're keeping up a great correspondence with complete strangers for nigh unto free AND enjoying delivery faster than you could affix that stamp.
So if you had ordered the internet service, shopped at Kohl's, possible looked into a sewing machine, and bought an ad for 'self" magazine, all in all you'd have had a great day and so would the businesses that are desperately trying to remain businesses. You would be helping the free market. They mass mail because they don't know whether or not you want or need what they're selling.
Small businesses spend money to advertise, yet you, hanging out on a conservative forum, act like it's a crime to get an ad from a business that THEY pay to mail to you.
they don’t...their ATM “like card” gets re-upped every month...mailing crap ceased long ago...we are in the ATM age...
Our local paper said in the 90’s that the rate increase at that time did not go to the P.O. but went in the general fund. Then the gov’t set a budget for the P.O. if the P.O. operated within that budget it was said it showed a profit, if not, it had incurred a lose. All smoke and mirrors.
No it doesn't. It merely goes into the dumpster. Being snarky clever doesn't fix anything.
come on...
the first federal affirmative action employment program is going BELLY up and you really think that the affirmative action employees will settle for NO JOB or less money...double get real!
YOU need to be responsible for YOUR family...not the tax payer...I have MY family and problems to be concerned about...
HOW sleazy of you to “pass YOUR Mom off” onto the taxpayer...
so sorry that the Biscuit wheels are coming off the gravy train...maybe your mom can take some pointers from the Greeks...and practice rioting...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.