US Post Office looking to lay off 120,000 employees to be saved

[bigdarryl]

This shit is a result of the republicans a couple of years ago with that legislation slipping by without no one knowing about it. http://blacknews3.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/post-office-looking-to-layoff-120000-workers-2/

[Life Long Dem]

1. More union busting.

[FrenchieCat]

2. Premeditated Union Busting.....

Passed into law by the GOP congress in 2006 right before Nancy Pelosi took over as speaker in Jan of 2007.

[DCBob]

3. if I were in charge of the USPS I believe I simply stop making the pre-funded retiree payment..

what's the worse that could happen?

[former9thward]

18. According to the link they are not going to pay this month's payment

to the retiree health fund.

[wain]

4. USPS is a good guy

Its product is for all of us, six days a week. We all benefit and USPS has always looked to bring in technology to improve productivity. Take what's needed out of the other huge Federal budgets such as defense, education, energy. Obama increased the Federal budget by 25%; move some of that to the USPS. Don't even begin to compare to FedEx and UPS. Neither can do what USPS does; neither come close combined to the volume and number of customers of USPS. Stop making USPS the bad guy. They are the hard working good guys that should be supported.

[OwnedByFerrets]

8. Amen

[win_in_06]

5. Probably has more to do with the fact that many PO function are

becoming obsolete. The Postman may eveuntually go the way of the Milkman.

[totodeinhere]

6. No, it's about the post office becoming obsolete. Everybody uses email or

text messaging now. I haven't sent any snail mail for a long time. And just about the only snail mail I get in my mailbox is junk mail. It's too bad that those workers are losing their jobs. But what is the post office supposed to do if there just isn't as much demand for their services anymore? Should they keep people on their payroll that they don't need anymore?

[SharonAnn]

7. You say this just as I received a letter from my aunt today. She has no email, can't afford it.

She'd have to have some kind of computer and some kind of internet access. That's simply not in her Social Security budget.

I always have to remember, when I email the family members, to print out the email and send her a copy. I know she's an exception, but she's an important one to me.

And how would one deliver wedding invitations?

And how would one keep up with the continual change of email addresses by individuals?

I think we need the post office.

[bigdarryl]

9. A lot of senior citizens don't have computers to e-mail

[totodeinhere]

12. No, I am not advocating that the Post Office shut down. Far from it.

And let's be realistic. There is absolutely no way that the politicians in Washington will let that happen. They will eventually come up with a way to save it. But first class mail volume is way down. I'm not saying that the Post Office should shut down but it might need to scale back to keep up with the times.

[Jakes Progress]

30. Scaling back is a neo-con solution.

Laying off 120,000 union workers is not something that Democrats should be supporting. Just fund the Post Office. It is a service. It is part of what makes the country work.

[Jakes Progress]

11. Oh well. As long as you don't need it, I guess we can fire all those people.

You know how the republicans are big on I-got-mine-to-hell-with-you? You might want to think about it.

[totodeinhere]

13. That's not what I'm saying. I just used my circumstance as an example to illustrate how demand

for services from the Post Office is down. That's a fact. First class mail volume is down. Does that mean that the Post Office should shut down? No, of course not and I am not advocating that. But with a lot less demand for their services they might need to make adjustments which include cutting back their labor force. If that is necessary I hope that it can be done through attrition rather than layoffs.

Then there is another factor. The GOP is demanding that the Post Office fully fund their pension obligations for a long time into the future and everyone knows they are doing that in an attempt to cripple the Post Service. Democrats in Washington need to insist that that doesn't happen. But even so snail mail volume will continue to decrease over time and the Postal Service needs to recognize that and adjust to it.

[Jakes Progress]

29. So, are you against funding the contracts with union workers

that the government entered into?

Without "snail mail", business would not work in this country.

The solution is not to go all neo-con on the problem. Just fund the damn post office the way other civilized countries do. They all copied our postal system and now we have demands to do away with what others prized.

You do know that the problem began when they turned the running of the post office over to private concerns.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[totodeinhere]

15. The fact that you use it a lot doesn't change the fact that mail volume is down

and the Postal Service must adjust to that reality. I can't understand why people object to my saying that. What do you propose that the Postal Service do to cope with such decreased volume?

Compared to 2Q08, the starkest drop in volume was for Standard Mail, which declined 4.9 billion pieces this quarter, a change of nearly 20 percent.

http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/library/resources/documents/PostalReform/q2_fy09_trendwatch.pdf

BTW, I don't appreciate your saying that I sound like a "fucking repuke." According to DU rules we are supposed to be civil with each other.

[Modern_Matthew]

16. I agree with you. With exponential growth in technology... losing dinosaur systems is inevitable...

It's kind of preposterous to keep things going just for the sake of a few. At a large scale, anyway.

But it's also preposterous to just push these employees and people that rely on the antique service to the side.

Maybe the USPS can change roles somehow?

[ghostfox]

19. A Little Harsh Don't you think..

I don't think that was the poster's intention - calm down! :)

[Jakes Progress]

10. Win, win for the neocons.

Bust a union. Insure the privatization of the postal service. Obama already working on privatizing schools. Next will be police and firemen.

120,000 families without an income. What a great way to fix the economy.

[ghostfox]

17. I Joined DU Just to respond to this comment...

I've been lurking here for probably two or so months - I love reading everyone's take on the election here, because to here the media tell it, it's like Obama has no chance. It's comforting to see ACTUAL unbiased information.

Anyway, I finally made an account because I HAVE To respond to this post. You stated "Obama is already working on privatizing schools, next will be police and firemen."

It would be my absolute DREAM for police to be privatized. I think the police force in our country is HORRIBLE. Yes, we have a select few that are brave, and go out and work hard to keep people safe....but the vast majority abuse their power to the point that the American people are TERRIFIED of the police. In many other first world countries, citizens love the police - they aren't afraid of being tazered for simply saying the wrong thing, or being beaten to death for waiting to find a good place to pull over. Seeing police should make us feel safe. Even the ones that don't abuse their power to the point of hurting others seem to think that because they are police they are superior - that they can talk to citizens rudely or yell simply because they have a badge. It's pathetic.

If we could privatize the police force, companies might actually make their policemen receive more training. They might actually teach them ethics instead of just how to shoot. With private companies, we could call customer service and have a rude cop fired. The system would be so much more efficient, and our working relationship with police would be a happy one. If police were owned by private companies, maybe we could actually feel SAFE when passing a police car instead of terrified we might do something wrong and be attacked.

Just my two cents.

[Suji to Seoul]

20. one word: BLACKWATER!!!!

Are you willing to pay the bill when the private police investigate?

Why not stop there?

1: You get the bill for housing the criminal in jail because your complaint put them there！
2: Every piece of the investigation is billed to you!
3: You are billed hourly by the DA's office
4: You pay for the judge, jury and courtroom

If you can't pay, the criminal is set free!

no thank you!

[ghostfox]

21. Private Companies Payed for by the US Gov.

So companies have a reason to have well-trained police - states pay for state police, government pays some, counties pay for county police, and so on. They can pick and choose their own companies, so companies with a lot of "bad" cops (dirty, abuse, etc) wouldn't be hired. We wouldn't pay anything - the only change would be that the police wouldn't be so abusive.

[Suji to Seoul]

22. tell that to the innocent Iraqi civilians they murdered that the Bush Admin covered up for

I do not want hired mercenaries as my police.

[Nostradammit]

24. I have begun to doubt the sagacity of your decision to sign up.

Let's ask these folks what they think of for-profit police forces.

[Jakes Progress]

28. You are woefully uninformed.

[Skittles]

23. LOL, you have WAY too much faith in private companies

:rofl:

[Suji to Seoul]

25. most conservatards do.

[Skittles]

32. YOU ARE SO CORRECT, SUII TO SEOUL

*ABSOLUTELY*

[karynnj]

26. You sound like a troll to me

When has a privatized police ever been a good idea - or better trained?

[Jakes Progress]

27. You joined to denounce the Democratic party principles?

You really don't know what you are talking about. There are countries that have private police departments. The rich are protected and the poor are not.

You have way more faith in the corporate model than any thinking person should. Do you understand how corporations work? Can you name a public function that has been privatized and improved? You sound more libertarian than liberal, more reagan democrat than real democrat.

Oh. Welcome to DU.

[golfguru]

31. The real cause of USPS shrinkage is the Internet

E-mail has reduced first class mail letters by 90% or so. Blame the inventor of internet.