Last week Helen left a comment here, in part about her husband, a postal worker:
his pay is based on MAIL VOLUME and when they do the yearly mail count and they see that the volume of mail has dropped they cut his pay without cutting his territory . so all you winny complainers out there who dont like junk mail just know that that helps support a postal workers family.
Helen says that we’re complaining about junk mail, and well, she’s right. And we’re also complaining about the environmental impacts of junk mail that nobody wants.
But in general, we’re complaining about the nonsensical system which Helen’s husband, as well as the rest of us, are beholden to.
Is this “mail volume” arrangement really protecting jobs? Right now there is no Do Not Mail Registry anywhere in the United States. Yet postal jobs are being cut and given to private carriers. Postal jobs are being given to automated machines. The USPS is giving financial discounts to junk mailers for presorting and delivering mail closer to their final destinations.
Not only is the USPS not looking out for the postal worker, they’re working around the postal worker six days a week.
Helen:
SHAME on the postal service for always doing the count in feb/march when you know the volume is at its lowest and putting families in financial dires.
Agreed. The USPS is giving breaks to junk mailers, and the shaft to postal workers.
Their junk mail strategy is not protecting jobs. The government’s decision to make the USPS a for-profit entity was unwise, but the fact that the USPS reacted to this development by delivering their customers more junk mail– precisely what they don’t want– is just nuts. And as we’ve noted before, the USPS itself is hemorrhaging money.
In the words of my colleague, Do Not Mail senior campaigner Ginger Cassady, we need deep systematic changes in order to preserve jobs while at the same time lessening its environmental impact.
People are getting more, not less, frustrated with junk mail’s annoyance and environmental impact. The USPS needs to prepare for that.
Helen’s comment is a distortion of reality. Postal workers are paid by hours, no mail volume. If there’s less volume of mail of course there will be fewer hours (especially overtime) required. Postal mail is going to go the way of smoke signals and telegraphs a lot faster than anyone ever predicted, spurred on by this economic crisis. Postal workers would be wise to take early retirement packages and start new careers sooner rather than later. USPS will start laying off workers by the tens of thousands shortly. They’re headed for insolvency in six months. Congress is getting tired of subsidizing the whole operation, not just for direct marketers’ discounted rates.
mann, I don’t know where you get your information, but I’m here to tell you that you’re dead wrong. Not ALL mail carriers are paid by the hour as you state in your post. City Carriers (like me) are paid by the hour, but Rural Carriers are paid by a system known as evaluated routes and it is based on mail volume for a one-month period. The rural carriers in my office just went through one, and they are going to take a hit right in their paychecks as a result of the volume being lower than normal. Oh and as to your predictions about layoffs, again you are dead wrong. We have no layoff provisions in our contracts (anyone with at least six years service can’t be laid off) so don’t look for that to happen. I suggest you get your facts straight before you post your inaccurate ramblings about the Post Office as gospel when in fact they are only your inaccurate opinions!
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Thanks everyone for the great insight and post here.Its great when everyone can share ideas and expirence with others and when it makes a differnce as well.i will be making a contribution here as well.thanks
Good report. I have been feeling the same recently – its just stupid to use taxpayer monies to fund the USPS shortfall when they are giving pricing breaks to companies that send out insolicited junk mail that nobody wants. The USPS should either charge them the same as first class postage, or stop asking taxpayers for monies to fund their losses ($7B this year).
If the USPS does go bankrupt, I do not see how their union contracts will protect them from significant personnel reductions. My guess is that they will go to a three day a week delivery schedule before the USPS goes bankrupt.
I really can’t fathom how a “service” as purely incompetent as the usps is still in operation. They are by far the worst delivery company around, no close second.
there are thousands of horror stories all over the net.
let the usps DIE already, any other business as horrible as they would have gone under years ago.
These conversations always amaze me. The USPS has delivered consistently competent service for so many years at a very reasonable price. Does anyone realize how many employees work for USPS? Does anyone care? It’s true that email has changed the way we communicate, but, in my opinion, is very impersonal. Just like society has become. Why are people so worried about how ‘junk mail’ affects our environment? That just seems silly to me when those same people drive around in gas guzzling vehicles that pollute our environment even more. Some of us actually enjoy getting catalogs and other ‘junk mail”. I mean, chill out people! It’s just mail. Throw it out if you don’t want it!