Public Employee Unions Are Our Friends!

I'm going to start with this, because this is far and away the largest financial problem the USPS has. All I'm going to do here is expand the nurabers to drive the point home. The law passed in 2006 requires that the USPS prefund 75 year's worth of retiree benefits in only 10 years, resulting in a $5.5 billion annual payment. Over the last 4 years, the USPS has recorded $20 billion in losses. During that same time period, the prefunding requirement has cost the USPS $21 billion. No other company in the history of the planet has ever been required to prefund so far forward and/or do it in such a small amount of time. In addition, the Post Office's Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) account is now 110% funded, a surplus of approximately $6.9 billion. Federal pension guidlines encourage any other private company in a similar circumstance to use their surplus to fund other post-retirement obligations. However, the Post Office can't just do it because their hanRAB are tied by Congress.

That's it. Those two things, and those two alone, are the reason you're hearing about the post office and its financial trouble in the news. If these things were fixed tonight, the USPS would literally be back in the black tomorrow morning. Mail volume has declined; that's a fact, and there are certainly some long-term financial plans that have to be made to increase revenue down the road, new services that will keep the USPS profitable as the times change, and I think everyone agrees that some changes in management are in order as well. But right now, there is only one immediate problem the USPS has to deal with, and the solution is right there: This problem was created by Congress -- not by unions, not by increased gas prices, not by decreased mail volume -- and it can be solved by Congress. Several measures are already in play; all they have to do is quit screwing around and pass them.

Moving on -- I'm not going to pull a snotty "you don't know what you're talking about", but I am going to say that some of the things you've talked about are incorrect.



I can't say how it works in every other office in the country, but in my office, we have 4 TE's (transitional employee, they don't really use the term 'casual' anymore), and the 4 TE's have been pulling 60 hours every week for a year now. The only time when they might be kicked off the clock early is on an end-of-pay-period Friday. At that point, anything extra is given to regulars that are on the overtime list but haven't hit 60 hours yet. This has nothing to do with alloted time; it's simply a matter of pay -- after 60 hours, we're on double time; it costs them less to find one or two regulars who haven't hit 60 hours yet. Our TE's pull more hours than everyone in the office virtually every week.

And once again, I can't speak for every office, but in my office, there are no regulars that are 'lazy assholes.' They all want to go home just like I do -- if anything, they carry their extra a little faster.



I am one of those non-career TE's, and I'm a meraber of the union, the same union the regulars are in. If I get laid off, it will most likely be because the USPS has successfully convinced the majority of Congress that the problem isn't the ridiculous $21 billion that accounts for 100% of their $20 billion in losses, but instead the real answer is to slash service and jobs. The union, in fact, is the organization that is working the hardest to save my job.
 
There is no benefit. USPS would be laying them off if they could. But they can't. Because of unions ... which is the point of this thread.


You lose. Deal with it.
 
all I know is that I can count on 1 hand the nuraber of times the mail was not delivered that day it was supposed to be delivered.

I guess it becomes less relevant in our world today, but at one point mail was a lot more important than it is now.


the difference between emergency services is they can call another emergency response unit in a pinch.

the post office just neeRAB warm bodies.

I really don't have a problem with it.
 
Obviously, there is no law STOPPING the USPS from laying people off. They avoid doing so, because paying those people as contractually agreed gets them the benefit of not getting sued for breach-of-contract. Moreover, paying these people indisputably gives the USPS the benefit of having trained workers who are readily available to accomodate flexible schedules. kthnx
 
So... The statement that spawned the ban bet was this:

The original offer for the ban bet:

Karen countered with this offer:

TKG accepted:


So... The actual bet you guys have going is whether or not TKG can post proof that USPS pays millions of dollars to workers without having a benefit from paying those workers. Which is much different than paying them millions of dollars to do nothing.

So, as far as I can tell, Karen is winning because he reworded the bet from what TKG wanted to bet about. All Karen has to show is that there is some benefit from having these employees. I believe that their being able to fill in when an employee is on vacation/sick is a benefit to USPS. Note, the bet isn't about whether the benefit outweighs the costs (of paying them). So... inspite of TKG's original statement being correct, I think Karen wins this bet due to trickery.

But... you know... good luck getting a smod to read all that shit by you guys.
 
Yea...except when emergency services call up for help...those people aren't on standby...they're doing fucking work in their own districts.

The post office is paying people to SIT AROUND AND FUCK OFF.
 
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