February 8, 2013
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The post office plans to drop Saturday delivery starting in August. They will probably still have mail sorters, and people to stuff post office boxes. They will still have package deliveries. After all, they will still have to compete against Fed X, and similar companies who will continue their weekend package deliveries.
Why is the post office in a financial mess? People don’t send as much mail these days. E-mail and text messaging is convenient, and cheaper o a per unit cost basis.
The Social Security folks have decided not to mail out retirement checks and disability checks. Retirees, and others getting federal assistance will have to have a bank account to receive their monthly checks. Banks, credit card companies, and some retailers, ask patrons to go ‘paper-less’ – even offering financial incentives to do so.
The post office will save some money in gasoline by reducing Saturday deliveries of regular mail. Staff numbers will probably be reduced. That can be accomplished through normal attrition or early retirement incentives. Some part-time and temporary employee positions can be eliminated. Over-time might well be reduced.
Here, though, is evidence of an individual with a grudge. This opinion was in today’s Wichita Eagle, and it shows how a person can’t see beyond their own narrow view point,
“The only ones against eliminating Saturday delivery are postal unions, which are the reason the Postal Service is broke. When you cannot fire incompetence, incompetence will prevail.”
1. Other persons are also against eliminating Saturday delivery.
2. There are many reasons why the Postal Service has lost money: Competition in services, the reduction in the quantity of mail because people rely on sending and receiving data through electronic mans, and big corporations urging people to opt for paperless statements. There was a time when people’s cancelled checks were returned to them, by the bank, with their monthly statement. Then for years, one would get only their monthly statement in the mail. Now even the monthly statement, in stead of being mailed, can be obtained on line.
3. Actually, being a member of a union does not mean one cannot be fired. There are processes for disciplining employees, even dismissing them. That may take time, but unions were historically organized for two basic reasons – to ensure professional/trained workers, and to have a means of negotiating with management. Before there were unions, we had sweat shops, child labor, no insurance or guarantees of any kind. A man could work for thirty years, lose a leg in an accident at work, lose his job and not be compensated in any manner – for the injury or the loss of a job.
I have never belonged to a union. Even as a teacher, I didn’t belong to a union. I don’t defend unions, not do I object to them. I don’t pretend that unions are perfect, but have seen abuses in those companies where the individual worker is at the mercy of management. There are pluses ad minuses in all endeavors, but the opinion stated above, in the paper, is obviously by someone who wants a single ‘baddie’ to be responsible for all the ills in the world. So sad to be that fucking ignorant!
