Post office has cut 25,000 jobs this year

[marmar]

Post office has cut 25,000 jobs this year
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP


WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service has cut its staff by 25,000 this year as it struggles to reduce massive deficits, Postmaster General John Potter said Monday.

Postal employment is now below 635,000, Potter said, down from about 800,000 in 1999.

Thousands of carrier routes have also been eliminated as mail volume declines, he said.

"We have an infrastructure that, quite frankly, we cannot afford based on the income we're receiving," Potter said.

The agency still faces a potential $6.5 billion loss this year, Potter said, and even with increased borrowing and other changes it could finish the year with a $1.5 billion shortfall.

Postal rates went up last week by 2 cents to 44 cents for a first class stamp. That isn't expected to be enough to offset the likely losses. Regular increases are limited to the rate of inflation the year before and officials feared a larger, emergency increase would result in even more declines in mail volume. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.comcast.net/articles/finance/20090518/US.Postal.Woes/

[JuniperLea]

1. No wonder the service has become so horrible...

Even at work! A 60+ story highrise... with pathetic mail service.

[Hannah Bell]

2. "potential" deficit. The last time i looked at the PO figures, they were running in the black.

For some years. I believe they're mandated to do so, in fact.

Smells like attempt to paint them as hapless ineffective deficit-running "government workers" to justify the job losses - which in fact are the result of cuts in their funding & privatization of the most profitable parts of their service.

[earth mom]

3. Yep, those bastards are trying to privatize the Post Office which is why they are running it

into the ground. :grr:

[Hannah Bell]

4. they've already privatised most of it. currently it's mainly a subsidy for junk mailers.

when i was young my friend's dad was the local postmaster & the PO building was beautiful (built in the Depression, gorgeous building).

Now it's run-down & the mail carriers drive 20-year-old vehicles with bad paint jobs.

it's painful to see. symbolizes all that's wrong with the country.

[orleans]

5. maybe they could save a few jobs if they would stop buying those

houses (and those multi million dollar houses at that!) and then selling them at a loss, and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for the closing costs.

[dysfunctional press]

7. i wasn't aware of the post office doing this kind of thing...do you have any links?

:shrug:

it sounds fairly intriguing.

[orleans]

8. here you go

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/05/postal.service.relocation/index.html

[dysfunctional press]

13. that is ridiculous.

in this kind of employment market- why should they be transferring people around the country anyway? surely they could find qualified people in the locations where they are needed.

and even if they do have the home-buying program, they should have similar limits on home values as other government agencies do.

[SoCalDem]

6. FIVE of my friends who worked for the post office have taken early retirement . nt/

[Greyhound]

9. This barely scratches the surface. Potter has been actively destroying his organization

since he was appointed. From "contractor stations" to forcing it to subsidizing UPS and FedEx by forbidding USPS from owning essential equipment and paying exorbitant lease fees to move the mail, the USPS is going down the drain at an alarming pace.

The worst part is that once it is gone, private carriers have nowhere near the capacity to take over and will have to charge so much that mailing a letter might become a status symbol. Ben would be spinning in his grave if he isn't laughing his ass off at the fools this nation has spawned.

[old mark]

10. Takes over 10 days for a letter to go from PA to Boston MA area -

"First Class" my ass.
Be faster to send it with a hiker.

mark

[Skittles]

11. I get postcards from Dallas to Baghdad faster than that

pitiful

[old mark]

12. Wife's broither lives in Brookline MA, my brother lives near Natick, MA,

we live in SE Pennsylvania. Regular letter takes 10 days or more either way. Takes less time to send mail to my sister in Texas.

mark