Neither Rain nor Sleet....

Hello my dear friends. You've probably heard about the nationwide protest by Postal Workers trying to stop planned job cuts and service reductions. I have nothing but respect for the men and women of the U.S. Postal service but I also have a few questions. First of all, who's idea was it to call your protest "Save America's Postal Service"? You know the acronym for that is SAPS, right? Anyway, The U.S. Postal Service loses billions of dollars every year. Their union would have you believe that is due entirely on the 'pension pre-funding requirement' established in 2006. That does have something to do with it. That fund currently funds postal service pensions for the next 30 years. When complete, it will fund pensions for 75 years in the future. The problem is that the postal service was required to fund that in just 10 years. Thus, the deficit. One option would be to waive your pensions. (LOL) That would save all of the current jobs and services! What? Not an option? Of course it isn't. Protesters say the currently proposed cuts would lead to 100,00 job cuts, loss of Saturday mail delivery and the end to door-to-door service. Let's take a look at this. Use of the postal service has declined steadily each year. Less mail, less jobs, right? Well, not exactly. Are you familiar with "standby time". You're not? Gee, I wonder why the protesters weren't talking about that. Standby time is the union negotiated practice of paying employees to sit in a room doing nothing when business is slow. You see, union postal workers can't be laid off when business is down. So, they get paid to do nothing. Granted, this is a small portion of their budget problems but it's a start. Did you know that a 2009-2010 audit found that the postal service neglected to cancel nearly 2500 credit cards issued to former employees (53 of whom had died)? They're still trying to recoup the $37 million dollars that was charged on those cards. One postal employee had charged 326 nights lodging in 20 months. I guess you really can't go home again. Another had made 50 charges at adult entertainment establishments. We might want to rethink that whole employee credit card system. As far as ending door-to-door delivery, or charging people for it, the postal service claims it could save billions. According to their own figures, it costs approximately $353 per urban household per year to deliver mail to your door. It would cost approximately $224 per household per year to deliver curbside (not getting out of their truck) or just $160 per-per if they left the mail in a central location (like mail areas in apartment buildings) and you go get it yourself. This begs the question, "how much does getting off your ass cost"? Apparently is costs $125 per house, per year. That's amazing. Now that I have totally pissed off the entire postal workers union (Sorry Donna!), let me answer a few questions you're probably asking yourself. Mail carriers and processing clerks make, on average, $51,000 plus full benefits a year. That's a median salary and the aforementioned pension. They all get 10 paid holidays each year. After 3 years they get 20 paid vacation days and 13 sick days. Not ridiculously excessive but better than most jobs. Anyway, it's all up to Congress now, so rest easy. Congress always does the right thing! Enjoy the Weekend!
Po