Red ink for post office: $8.5 billion last year

[The Northerner]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Postal Service said on Friday it lost $8.5 billion last year despite deep cuts of more than 100,000 jobs and other reductions in recent years.

The post office had estimated it would lose $6 billion to $7 billion, but a sharp decline in mail took a toll. Increased use of the Internet and the recession, which cut advertising and other business mail, meant less money for the agency.

For the year ending Sept. 30, the post office had income of $67.1 billion, down $1 billion from the previous fiscal year. Expenses totaled $70 billion, a decline of about $400 million. The post office also was required to make a $5.5 billion payment for future retiree health benefits.

"Over the last two years, the Postal Service realized more than $9 billion in cost savings, primarily by eliminating about 105,000 full-time equivalent positions — more than any other organization, anywhere," chief financial officer Joe Corbett said in a statement. "We will continue our relentless efforts to innovate and improve efficiency. However, the need for changes to legislation, regulations and labor contracts has never been more obvious."

The post office is currently in contract negotiations with two of its unions, with two more scheduled to be negotiated next year.

The loss of $8.5 billion in 2010 was $4.7 billion more than the previous year.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gXp9eJeQg_4BCnYvK8NG4aQVPu-Q?docId=c03d6c73bb2a47a9ae56a43cba1211f4


Does anyone else think that this report is completely misleading and is grounds for a libel suit?

[SoCalDem]

1. The Post Office is becoming a dinosaur

With more and more correspondence being done electronically, our poor old mailman seems to be delivering sale flyers, with we immediately put in the recycle bin:(

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. That is why they are aggressively moving into the cargo bidness

but it is also management... yes they are a problem... a serious problem.

Oh and the USPS is actually in the Constitution, but here is a shocker, since Nixon semi-privatized it... it's been bleeding red ink... just that the first few decades nobody noticed.

They want them to run like a business... yet they have no authority to raise a first class stamp by a cent... they still need congress to bless it. And last time, Congress said no.

Part of this is trying to get rid of the unions and privatizing it by parts.

Oh and there is more, it depends on what accounting they use this week.

Yes hubby is a postal worker by the way, moral is down the shitter.

[SoCalDem]

4. postage should have jumped to 50cents...DECADES ago..

USPS is always chasing solvency, instead of getting ahead of the game..

Many of my postalworker friends took early out retirement, just to get away from all the bullshit..

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Hubby is going to college

and I am hoping he can go get a good job somewhere else once he is done. Bullshit it is mild.

[cloudbase]

2. Reporting the service's own figures

is hardly libel.

[Roma]

5. I saw this report this morning and tried to remember the last

time I actually mailed something. It was about a year ago and I had a pack of 37 cent stamps in a drawer, I used 2 of them. How old are they?

Now we get 1 paper bill a month and it's not because we have no bills. I'm so old I remember getting a checking account statement with cancelled checks in it that would cost the bank 3-4 dollars to mail. Today we write 0 checks a month and get an online statement.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

6. Well I guess we should of let them have the stamp price increase when they asked for it!

:sarcasm: