U.S. Post Office cuts threaten source of black jobs

Reuters ^ | Jan 21, 2013 | Mary Wisniewski

[Lancey Howard]

(Reuters) - While delivering mail on Chicago's North Side, Lakesha Dortch-Hardy spoke about how much she loves her job at the U.S. Postal Service, and how much it would hurt if jobs such as hers were to disappear.

"These jobs are the middle class ..." said Dortch-Hardy, a tall, energetic 38-year-old, who took long strides as she wheeled her cart along a row of two- and three-story brick apartment houses. "Without this job, I don't know where I'd be right now."

The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service has eliminated 168,000 jobs since 2006, and more cuts could result as it struggles to avoid its own "fiscal cliff." As the United States honors Martin Luther King's civil rights legacy on Monday, many African-American workers may be facing new obstacles to achieving and maintaining a middle-class life style.

African-Americans represent 13.1 percent of the U.S. population and 11.6 percent of the labor force, according to a 2012 U.S. Department of Labor report. Nearly one in five African-American workers hold government jobs such as mail clerks, firefighters and teachers, the report said.

"There's a long tradition of the public sector being more friendly, or less hostile, to African-American workers," said Robert Zieger, emeritus professor of history at the University of Florida in Gainesville. "The Post Office is the best example."

[muawiyah]

Congress never privatized the postal service ~ it’s still a government agency AND costs virtually nothing in terms of tax dollars. In contrast, Department of Education, which does nothing of value, costs $78 billion per year ~ far more than postal costs paid by folks who pay postage.

[Chickensoup]

Same thing for AMTRACK. Outside of the commuters, it is a black works program.

That is why it will never end.

[muawiyah]

Ever work in a post office? Those headphones solve several problems ~ intense boredom from doing repetitive tasks over and over and over and over all day long ~ AND keeping out the background noise. All that machinery is loud. Postal mail processing operations are an INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY.

The headphones have been demonstrated to improve productivity in that environment.

[muawiyah]

At the same time the volume of mail increased substantially ~ when you were a kid that carrier probably handled 200 pieces a day. Today's carrier, backed by mechanization, automation, computerization and improved work practice does 10 times that ~ easy, if she's young and healthy ~ and at least 7 times if she's old and crotchety and crippled.

His medical insurance will buy him new knees for his retirement!

[Chickensoup]

There is nothing the post office does better than any method of communication and their parcel delivery is substandard to UPS and FedEx. Trust me, never send a 2-3 package to any country using the USPS.

______________________

I have had great service from the Post Office. I remember one year the parcel truck got in late Christmas eve and after closing the office the two postal desk ladies drove all over town delivering the packages.

I work with postal people, good hardworking (overworked) people caught in an antiquated seniority system that traps them. Jobs are not plentiful in our area and never were.

[muawiyah]

in 1969 i personally managed the program to hire returning Viet Nam vets into the Post Office Department. i hired over 100,000 young men!

So what was it i didn't do?

There's always been a postal exam ~ you have to take it irst. Then wait. Turnover has been slow except in 1969 ~ that was when big city employees had to have supplemental welfare if they had children! Pay was low.

[elcid1970]

I was solicited as a vet in 1977 to take the postal exam. Received a postcard that said I maxed it. No dice. No offer.

[Arrowhead1952]

Sorry, but my give a damm meter broke on Nov 6, 2012 and the voters made the same mistake as they did in 2008.

[stylin19a]

"African-Americans represent 13.1 percent of the U.S. population and 11.6 percent of the labor force, according to a 2012 U.S. Department of Labor report. Nearly one in five African-American workers hold government jobs such as mail clerks, firefighters and teachers, the report said....

African-Americans make up about 20 percent of U.S. Postal Service workers - and are the majority in some urban centers, representing 75 percent to 80 percent of the 5,000 letter carriers in the Chicago area, according to Mack Julion, president of the Chicago branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers.

a long way to go to NOT say they are over-represented in the USPS

[Vaduz]

Without this job, I don’t know where I’d be right now.

Amtrak it’s a gov funded job.

[OldPossum]

I go to the post office a couple of days a week and the people who work there are minorities but they really are nice and they do work hard.

Your experience and mine and the Freeper who posted #5 differ. On the rare occasions when I have to go to the post office I hope to get a white clerk for the transaction. I have noticed that the black clerks clearly frost over when a white client appears but become all sunshine and roses when they service a black person.

[DH]

almost every time I have posted an anti-USPS message here on Free Republic I have received a FRe-mail from a post office worker. A nasty one!

---

That’s the union thug’s brown-shirt way of taking constructive criticism.

I own an online and 1 to 1 business that manufactures industrial welding machinery controls and I absolutely will not ship via the totally inept U.S. Postal service. I’ve done this since 1980. To date, no package has been sent since then through the USPS. Before then, I learned my lessons painfully as (1) shipments of product were lost and to track them was impossible, (2) no package lost was ever found, (3) their attitude was “screw you! Who the hell do you think you are?”

I still have customers who send products in for repair that use the USPS and without missing a beat, they will call in to see why the repairs have not been made and the product returned. My answer to them is “we have not received your package yet and I told you not to use the Postal service but use FEDEX or UPS. You can actually track it and it will be there when cited when you sent it.” With the Postal service it could be anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks before it’s received....if it’s received at all.

We are industrial and the loss or delay of a package (either shipped or received) is an emergency and work is shut down for the customer. With retail sales (or repairs) it’s simply an inconvenience so we absolutely require a professional service to transport our products and services to and from the customer.

The USPS is an absolute example of a government run business. Don’t say it isn’t either....it is! Check to see who actually controls it and it’s funding....CONGRESS!

[muawiyah]

That was the Carter Regime at work ~ your problem was the economy ~ not USPS. Inflation was running high ~ housing prices were spiraling out of sight ~ we probably had ten times as many job applicants then as we had employees!

The day Ronald Reagan was elected that all changed ~ it was instantaneous.

[DH]

The headphones have been demonstrated to improve productivity in that environment.

---

Yeah, sure, whatever.

I’m sure their minds are strictly on their business.

Now, I have to go feed my unicorn.

[DH]

Gee, I can instantly tell that your are either an EX postal employee or a current one.

Am I right? Sure I am.

I hate to bust your bubble but “when you were a kid that carrier probably handled 200 pieces a day” is a pathetically stupid statement. That carrier served much larger area than you give him (or the real postmen back then) credit for. You have to remember, that was back when postal employees actually worked for a living.

[muawiyah]

As i suggested you have no idea what you are talking about. Those employees are mail distribution clerks. There is NO intellectual content to their jobs. On the other hand they have to be able to read and write ~ and must be able to pass a drug test and pass an examination.

The fact you cannot imagine a job so stultifying you'd do better with headphones is telling ~

Hope you've never been in supervision.

[Kickass Conservative]

>”I didn’t know jobs came in colors”<

Yeah, the Rolling Stones did a song about it way back when.

[DH]

First, answer my question and I will answer yours.

Are you a postal employee or an EX postal employee.

I know the answer but I just want you to tell me and the other FR membership so that we can judge if your responses are biased toward the postal service.

I’ll be waiting.

[FreedomPoster]

My local PO is crap, also. Mail delivery is really quite good, however. Most mail gets across town in one day, and we’re talking ATL metro here, so it’s a pretty good sized “town”.

There is obviously a lot of room for improvement / cost cutting. I’m all for eliminating Saturday mail delivery, for instance. Move the big stuff behind the scenes, keep the Saturday hours at the PO, but kill local delivery.

[untwist]

Exactly right. Under normal conditions, Peter accepts the status quo as a kind of cost of the sins of the forefathers. Now the bill has come due and the recipient really doesn’t care about Peter’s problems even though he’s got no more means to pay. Liberals can cry all they want, but there is a social Darwinism that will not be evaded.