From the article: "...The U.S. Postal Service's net loss widened to $5.2 billion during the April through June period, and the cash-strapped agency warned on Thursday that without help from the U.S. Congress it will face low cash and be unable to borrow money this fall...."
From the article: "...But the idea raises a question: If Geddes and the AEI are correct and the USPS is such a bottomless money pit, why would anybody want it? Who ever heard of buying a service company with no upside? What's in it for them? Well, real estate, actually, and Geddes and every commenter hints at this. Privatizing the USPS has the potential of being one of history's biggest -- and most profitable -- real estate deals ever. ..."
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| Marty Grace [www.nydailynews.com] |
From the article: "...An observant postal employee led law enforcement to the arrest of a Sikeston man and the discovery of more than two pounds of marijuana. On July 11, a postal worker thought a package was suspicious and reported it to the SEMO Drug Task Force..."
From the article: "...Deteriorating postal service has begun to affect magazines and other periodicals, even newspapers that depend on timely delivery to their customers. In a recent news report, the publisher of a small, rural weekly newspaper in South Dakota said her advertising business had been hurt because it sometimes was delivered a week late, arriving with a more recent edition. ..."
From the article: "...The FedEx Express unit also has around 5,000 drop boxes at Postal Service locations that will be removed under an agreement that expired in June, the company said in the filing. ..."
From the article: "...Newly hired rural letter carriers will make 10 percent to 20 percent less than current carriers earn under a new labor pact that will affect 111,000 career and non-career U.S. Postal Service employees...."
From the article: "...The APWU has put the Postal Service on notice that their plan to replace Postmasters at small, rural post offices with Postmaster Reliefs (PMRs) is a direct violation of our 2010 Collective Bargaining Agreement...."
From the article: "...The second Postal Vision conference drew 150 attendees to Washington DC’s L’Enfant Plaza Hotel. This was two Metro stops from the real decision makers, i.e., Congress and the United States Postal Service. No one from Congress could squeeze it in but USPS’ new Digital Solutions President and Strategic Planning Manager were in attendance as well as representatives of the two primary Postal Unions for the two-day duration. The USPS, as the core of this intertwined trillion dollar business directly impacting the employment livelihood of nearly 9 million citizens..."
From the article: "..."I can't afford to take retirement unless I would have another good job out there," he said in a phone interview. But in an area with one of Ohio's highest unemployment rates, he said, "there's absolutely nothing."
Others are in similar circumstances, he added.
"I've got postmasters calling me, bawling and squalling, actually throwing up," Sampson said. "They haven't slept for a week."..."
From the article: "...Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) has a new Facebook timeline page up today dubbed "Priority Fail" that tracks how the House has yet to take up a bill that supporters say would reform the struggling U.S. Postal Service. The USPS has lost $1 billion since April when the Senate passed its version of the reform bill, according to Carper. ..."
From the article: "...The United States Postal Service has announced that it will move forward with plans to close up to 229 mail processing facilities nationwide. ..."
From the article: "...Mail Handlers who choose to leave employment with the USPS on or before August 31, 2012 will each receive incentive payments totaling up to fifteen thousand dollars ..."
From the article: "...USPS spokesman Dave Partenheimer declined comment Wednesday on whether the cuts will be accompanied by buyouts or early retirement incentives for affected employees. But the American Postal Workers Union, which represents many plant employees, was notified late Wednesday that the Postal Service is working on an "employee incentive," according to a union spokeswoman...."
From the article: "...Under heavy pressure from Congress, the U.S. Postal Service is shelving plans to close up to 3,700 post offices and instead will offer $20,000 buyouts to 21,000 postmasters as a way to save money. As a result, some 13,000 communities will be able to keep their local post offices, but with reduced customer service hours..."
From the article: "...Bartlett's comments are the latest sign that Republicans will largely ignore the Senate-approved bill, S. 1789, and take up their own bill from House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), possibly as early as next week.
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From the article: "...voted to stave off Draconian cuts and retool the nation's mail-delivery system with nearly $11 billion for buyouts and early retirement-incentives for thousands of postal workers, as well as for paying off a lot of the Postal Service's debt...."
From the article: "...More likely than not, the bill will facilitate the destruction of a national treasure by strangling the principles that support its existence. Postal reform is going to fail because Congress cannot understand the fundamental role of a national post as essential infrastructure. Congress will do nothing to stem the slow evisceration of the network. It will do nothing to prevent the wholesale destruction of the value of First Class mail. ..."
From the article: "...The measure would tap most of an estimated $10.9 billion overpayment in the Federal Employees Retirement System to pay down postal service debt and use up to $2 billion on buy-out packages to entice long-time employees to retire...."
From the article: "...Ochopee, Florida -This closet-sized, 7x8-foot building used to be an irrigation pipe shed for a tomato farm. It was pressed into service after a fire destroyed the Ochopee general store..."
From the article: "...“We hope senators will now use this extra time to carefully analyze the service’s financial problems, so that when the Senate resumes consideration of the bill, it will be prepared to work on real reform designed to strengthen the agency, not dismantle it,” Mr. Rolando said...."
From the article: "...postal management would probably prefer if the public did not know very much about their compensation packages, and they’ve fought the APWU’s effort to find out more about performance bonuses. But as the salary finder FAQ page explains, government workers aren’t entitled to the same kind of privacy as workers in the private sector..."
