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The U.S. Postal Service Nears Collapse (USPS)


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The U.S. Postal Service Nears Collapse (USPS)

  #11 (permalink)
 neilzep 
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Maybe if they shut down on Saturdays,that would be a start. Also most of the mail they deliver is spam/advertisement. Like alot of government enterprises alot of ineff/waste/bloated bureocracies.
Markets change,you have to change to or become a dinosaur.

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  #12 (permalink)
 
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 kbit 
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The U.S. [COLOR=#0033cc]Postal Service[/COLOR], facing insolvency without approval to delay a $5.5 billion payment for worker health benefits, will suspend contributions to an employee retirement account to save $800 million this year.
The Postal Service will stop paying employer contributions to the defined-benefit Federal Employees Retirement System, which covers about 85 percent of career postal workers, it said today in an e-mailed statement. The $115 million payment, made every other week, will stop on June 24, the statement said.
Suspending payments to the retirement account will help “conserve cash and preserve liquidity,” the statement said. The agency estimates it has overpaid by $6.9 billion and has asked Congress to pass legislation to return that money.
Congress must “make bold, quick and substantive reforms,” said Art Sackler, executive director of the Washington-based Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, which represents corporate mail customers. “The USPS is hanging by a thread.”
The agency and U.S. Office of Personnel Management will ask the [COLOR=#0033cc]Justice Department[/COLOR]’s Office of Legal Counsel to analyze the decision, said David Partenheimer, a Postal Service spokesman.
“Regardless of the outcome of the Office of Legal Counsel review, the Postal Service believes there will be no impact on employees,” Partenheimer said in an e-mail.
Union Plans ‘Every Step’

Congress “must act now” to correct pension inequities, and the American Postal Service Workers Union “will take every step necessary” to protect retirement benefits, President Cliff Guffey said in a statement. The postal union, the world’s largest, said it represents 220,000 workers and retirees.
The Postal Service has 563,402 career employees and 469,401 retirees, Partenheimer said.
Postal Service Inspector General [COLOR=#0033cc]David Williams[/COLOR] said [COLOR=#0033cc]in January 2010[/COLOR] that the agency had been overcharged for its pension obligations. The Postal Service had overpaid by $75 billion, and if that was returned, it would create a surplus that could be transferred to a health-benefits fund, he found.
The service wants the authority to reduce pre-payment of health benefits for retirees and has said it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due Sept. 30 for health benefits for future retirees. It also wants to end Saturday delivery.
The Postal Service reported a loss of $8.5 billion in its 2010 fiscal year. It also reported a widening second-quarter loss, to $2.6 billion, on declining volumes of first-class mail.
The service will continue to transmit employee contributions to the pension fund and will make payments to the Thrift Savings Plan, a defined-contribution federal [COLOR=#0033cc]retirement plan[/COLOR], Chief Human Resources Officer Anthony Vegliante said in the statement.
“The Congress and the administration have left the Postal Service with no other choice,” said Gene Del Polito, head of the Association for Postal Commerce, an Alexandria, Virginia- based group that represents postal customers. “The money’s not there, and they can’t get any more from customers that already are fleeing the mail.”

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 kbit 
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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday will release a list of 3,653 post offices that could be shut down.
These locations will be studied for possible closure, according to U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman Sue Brennan. Most of the post offices that are on the chopping block have "lower foot traffic and revenue," she said, and the majority of them are in smaller communities.
In its release, the Postal Service will also outline what it calls a replacement strategy that will have local post offices partner with third party businesses in those smaller communities to create alternative options.
Such arrangements will likely be put in place place in "communities that have existing businesses, mom and pop shops -- some type of local business that could also provide postal services," Brennan told CNNMoney.
The announcement comes as no surprise. In an ongoing effort to battle fiscal concerns, the money-losing U.S. Postal Service [B][COLOR=#004276]announced plans in January[/COLOR][/B] to shut down thousands of stations and branches.
In fiscal year 2010, the Postal Service suffered a [B][COLOR=#004276]$8.5 billion net loss[/COLOR][/B], compared to a loss of $3.8 billion the prior year. Last quarter, the U.S. Postal Service [B][COLOR=#004276]posted a loss of $2.2 billion[/COLOR][/B]. Its fiscal year ends in September. [IMG]http://i.cdn.turner.com/money/images/bug.gif[/IMG]

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  #14 (permalink)
 
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 Big Mike 
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Hmm. Next step is to stop delivering mail on Saturdays, right?

I would be fine with that. The only thing I get in the mail is junk anyway.

Mike

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  #15 (permalink)
 lipton80205 
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This article has some major flaws in it. By morning and night I am aspiring trader, but during the day I work for a printing company. I’m not claiming to be an expert, but because of my current employment, I keep close tabs on the United States Postal Service (USPS).

The major problem with the USPS is it is controlled by congress. Last year the post master general presented to congress a restructuring program to have the USPS revenue neutral to the over all US budget. None of the measures where allowed to move forward. This included doing away with Saturday deliveries, closing roughly 30% of the post offices, renegotiation the union contracts, and early buyouts.

The reason is plan and simple, members of congress did not want to upset their voters.

I challenge any current CEO of a fortune 500 company to try and run the USPS and turn it profitable. Instead of a board of directors you have to report to congress. Board of Directors are concerned with profit, not getting reelected. The USPS can not be a nimble as FedEx or UPS because of the lengthy delays and own political agendas of members of congress.

Junk mail is the reason why it only cost $0.44 to mail a first class letter. Without junk mail, the cost to send a first class letter would be expediently higher, think FedEx and UPS higher. Additionally, if the USPS closed or rates where drastically increased for junk mail, marketers would be forced to start sending out more email blast and sms, which equals more spam and sms spam. There have been many studies done by marketers as to which way customers would prefer to be contacted, and mail is always the number 1 method. Personally, junk mail is much less intrusive then email or sms.

Besides laying off a half million postal employees, there is the trickle down. In the US, commercial printing (think junk mail and marketing items) is the 3rd largest employer in the manufacturing sector. Most of these companies are small business, less then 100 employees. I can only think of 3 publicly traded companies in this sector. Over half of the commercial printed pieces are mailed solicited and unsolicited. I am guessing you can connect the dots on how this would create some major challenges to printing industry and supporting industries.

Is the USPS in trouble? Yes. Uncouple it from having to have congressional approval and I think they would be just fine. One interesting fact, political campaign mailings (politicians postcards) are mailed at the lowest rate the USPS rate. I believe its equal to or lower then non-profit mailings cost more.

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 kbit 
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The US Postal Service warned on Friday that it could default on payments it owes the federal government, just days after the US government itself narrowly averted a default.
The government's mail service said it lost $3.1 billion in the period from April to June, blaming "the anemic state of the economy" and the growing popularity of electronic communications over old-fashioned letters.
As a result of its mounting losses, the US Postal Service said it would not be able to make a legally required $5.5 billion payment in September to a health-benefits trust fund.
"Absent substantial legislative change, the Postal Service will be forced to default on payments to the federal government," it said in a statement.
Dating back to 1775, the US Postal Service was once a crucial branch of the federal government, but in recent years it has come under increasing fire from critics who consider it bureaucratic and inefficient.
In July, it unveiled plans to identify nearly 3,700 under-used post offices around the United States for possible closure. The Post Office has been hemorrhaging billions of dollars in recent years.

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  #17 (permalink)
 RM99 
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Like I said, it's not excessive wages and benefits that are the real company killer with respect to unions (although that certainly puts them at a competitive disadvantage)....

It's inflexibility and the company's inability to quickly and efficienty adapt to the changing marketplace.

The UAW crippled the Big 3's ability to keep pace with foreign auto manufacturers. Every plant closure, every new plant that's opened, every restructuring and retooling, virtually every personnel change associated with structural changes, has to go through the union.

The irony is that having watched the com. hearings on C-Span about this issue, the PWU claims that it's workers are getting paid "comparable" wages and benefits to the private sector, so my obvious question would be..."then what purpose does it serve." We see it's purpose, to protect jobs at the expense of company competitiveness and effectiveness.

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 kbit 
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[COLOR=#1d637d]Washington Post reportHovering on the brink of insolvency, the U.S. Postal Service wants to break its union contracts to cut 20% of its workforce and withdraw its employees from federal worker healthcare and pension plans, according to a published this afternoon.
Without a major financial restructuring, the USPS will be broke by next month, the Post reports. The agency is now seeking Congressional approval to break its labor contracts, which prevent layoffs, and create it's own benefit plan for postal workers.
The USPS has [COLOR=#1d637d]lost $5.7 billion this year[/COLOR] and is on track to exceed its projected $8.3 billion deficit. The agency has already [COLOR=#1d637d]stopped making its congressionally-mandated contribution[/COLOR] to the federal worker benefit system.
USPS has taken drastic steps to slow its financial hemorrhaging, cutting more than 100,000 positions over the past four years. Last month, the agency announced plans to close more than 3,000 post offices across the country. The Post Master General has also called for halting Saturday delivery. But declining mail volume and rising pension costs have bled USPS dry.
The agency's financial proposals will doubtlessly face intense opposition from federal worker unions. If Congress does approve allow USPS to unilaterally restructure its collective bargaining agreements, the decision could have a widespread ripple effect for federal employees and public-sector workers across the country.


Read more: Postal Service Wants To Lay Off 120,000 Workers, End Pension Plan[/COLOR]

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 liquidcci 
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Prime example of government ineptness. UPS and Fedex do it profitably and efficiently. Bureaucrats can't do anything well accept take tax payer money and waste it. Yet they want to take over healthcare.

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I still don't get why government run entities need a union? It makes no sense to me? If someone could show me why then I get it, but considering all the choices one has to find employment, then why is one forced into union laborship?

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