Post office wanting to stop Saturday mail delivery

[Randi]

OK, when I was a child, we had the postman deliver mail at 8-9 in the morning and then again at 1-2pm - and he was nice too. These days it's once a day (including sat. though) and we don't even get it in our letterbox we all have in the door - oh no, now we have to go down the staircase to open a box with a key to get our mail. They recently put that up. What if people are sick or old and live on the top floor! What a service!

[Asiel]

We've never had a Saturday postal delivery. Can't say that we miss it, we're used to it I guess. Nothing seems that important that it can't wait a few days. Here pension cheques or others are sent to make sure they come before a weekend so no one is out anything. For holidays the cheques come in earlier than their usual date. I also use the post for greeting cards only.

[momoffuzzyfaces]

Well, when you are as isolated as I am, getting mail every day gives me something to look foreward too.

[king2005]

Canada doesn't have Sat/Sun deliveries, but the plants are still open. The postmen collect the mail, people sort it, & prep it for monday madness

With the internet n such, it is wise the USPS stop delivery on sat. It's such a waste of money. I get about 3 pieces of mail/month & I send out NO bills/yr. I only send out about 10 xmas cards. Thats pretty much no $ for the CPC from me. & how many others are in the same boat as myself? Hundreds? thousands?! The only thing I get int he mail on a bi-daily bases is junk mail that I don't even open. I toss it into recycling. Why open it when I can look at the one store I shop at online? It's so wasteful

[Lady's Human]

Am I correct that the unions are not willing to make any concessions?

Do the unions ever do without? Have they cut their payroll and pensions and lifetime health coverage?

These are sincere questions for which I have no answers. This isn't intended to start any arguments!

Concessions?

In the last contracts the Unions agreed to an expanded temp workforce, doubling the allowance as a percentage of the workforce (from 5% to 10%) and changed their terms of employment from 90 day contracts to 365 day contracts.

In the last APWU contract the union agreed to a 1% raise with quarterly COLAs, which is the lowest pay increases by any federal workforce.

Over the last 10 years the USPS has cut the workforce by almost 200,000 craft employees.....while the ranks of management have actually risen. Fewer employees=more management? They forecast shedding another 30,000 employees this year, with no cuts to management ranks. As a glaring example, right now I'm fighting a staffing cut in the department I represent from 41 employees to 29 employees.......yet the FOUR supervisors stay in place.


In the last contract the APWU changed the formula for the health cost allocation.

Lifetime health care? It's part of the federal pension system, which, being government employees, we have the same right to access as any other federal employee.

So yes, the postal unions have made concessions, but they still sounds the drumbeat of labor costs when they go in front of congress.

The USPS continues to give major mailers an over 50% discount on first class bulk mail......they pay between 7 and 20 cents per piece for mail. I don't have the precise figures in front of me, but the cost to the postal service to barcode and do the primary sortation on mail is far, far less than the 50-75% discount they give the mailers. To add to that, a fair percentage of their barcodes are out of spec, so we wind up barcoding the mail for them anyway.

Follow the executive trail....look up where retiring postal service executives go, and in one glaring case, where they come from. One of the current Postal Veeps still serves as a corporate officer for a bulk mailer.....but there's no conflict of interest there at all.

In 2005 the Postal service stated crying poverty because of the cost of fuel, yet continues to make "network adjustments" which do nothing more than increase their fuel costs.......in the case of consolidating some mail from the plant I work in to another plant, they assumed a static fuel cost, and still calculated that the move would cost them $140,000 more in fuel annually.

We're required to buy supplies from single vendors where possible, theoretically to control costs, yet when I notified management that they were getting raked over the coals on the cost of one item, nothing was done. $700 hammers for the military? Try $700 rolls of network cable.......that I can buy for 1/5 the cost.


I could go on, as I said, for pages, but I'll end this here for now.

[Lady's Human]

Canada doesn't have Sat/Sun deliveries, but the plants are still open. The postmen collect the mail, people sort it, & prep it for monday madness

With the internet n such, it is wise the USPS stop delivery on sat.

The postal service likes to claim the Internet is causing the decrease in mail volume..........but the high water mark for number of mailpieces was in 2006. Did they JUST invent the internet?

[Lady's Human]

One more item:

When you get your magazines dogeared and torn up? (It happens now, but it's going to get worse)

No, your carrier isn't reading the magazine..........it's the new equipment they have handling flats in some areas, which actually increase the cost per piece for handling, increases damaged mail by 50%, the internal auditing arm of the USPS has told them to halt deployment and further purchase of these machines, yet the Board of Governors has directed the USPS to actually accelerate the purchase of the machines.

[Cinder & Smoke]

When you get your magazines dogeared and torn up?
(It happens now, but it's going to get worse)

... it's the new equipment they have handling flats in some areas,
which actually increase the cost per piece for handling,
increases damaged mail by 50%, ...

Izzat Why some magazines and even some catalogs are now wrapped in
"protective" plastic baggies?

MORE plastic to dispose of!

[Lady's Human]

That's precisely why more and more are being wrapped in plastic.

They used to be hand fed into the sorting machines, one at a time. Inefficient, but the mail didn't get damaged much.

Now they are fed into the machines automatically, and if the piece isn't lined up perfectly with the feed mechanism, well................stuff happens.

[pomtzu]

The postal service likes to claim the Internet is causing the decrease in mail volume..........but the high water mark for number of mailpieces was in 2006. Did they JUST invent the internet?

No, but I do believe the hold-outs on using the computer for banking, bill pay, etc, has decreased dramatically. I was one of those hold-outs for a long time before I trusted the internet enough to use it for these purposes.

[Lady's Human]

Also, as to their claims about decreasing mail volume........

Mail volume for December was 9% OVER last year.................Tell me again that mail volume is decreasing.

[lvpets2002]

Ok I would not miss Saturday deliveries.. Buttttt here is my Soap Box Issue = they also want to go up on Stamps Again!! They have gone up how many times now in the last 2-4 yrs?? Now then they print all kinds of diff people, cartoons & ect of the stamps.. Hello that cost money.. They also pay the Postal Workers Very Very Good Saleries.. So Again Hello just think of the cut backs that could be done.. But all they can say is we are Broke.. Well you know So Are the Rest Of US in the World.. Now that was my soap box gripe.. I am done now.. Thanks

[Lady's Human]

Postal salaries?

Let's see.........

TO get my job, Electronic Technician. I have to be able to pass a test which is roughly the equivalent of a bachelor's degree in electronics........but I also have to be able to repair everything from scales to heavy machinery, troubleshoot anything they toss at me, and maintain and troubleshoot networking equipment. (We have 2 separate LAN structures in every plant)

We're also cleared, every employee working for the USPS has been through a background check, so if you've got anything over a misdemeanor or traffic violation on your record, look somewhere else for a job.

I think just maybe I earn my salary.

[pomtzu]

Also, as to their claims about decreasing mail volume........

Mail volume for December was 9% OVER last year.................Tell me again that mail volume is decreasing.

I believe that!! Junk mail is constantly on the rise.........

[Lady's Human]

That's First class volume, Pom, not BBM.