The U.S. Postal Service is in a precarious financial situation, telling Congress it faces the "equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy." Losing billions of dollars a year, it is considering whether to close more than 3,600 post offices and lay off tens of thousands of workers.
The service faces many problems, including a drop in mail volume in recent years. But the service, which employs nearly 572,000 people, says some of its difficulties are inflicted by the federal government – through a law governing how the agency funds workers' retirement health benefits.
In 2006, Congress passed a law requiring the Postal Service to wholly pre-fund its retirement health package – that is, cover the health care costs of future retirees, in advance, at 100%. The Postal Service, which is a corporation owned but not funded by the federal government, is the only government-related agency required to prefund retirees' health benefits.
"No one prefunds at more than 30%," said Anthony Vegliante, the service's executive vice president.
Sally Davidow, spokeswoman for one of the unions that represents postal workers, calls it a "a ridiculous requirement."
"(The requirement is) so ridiculous, Congress doesn't do it. No other government agency does it. No private businesses do it," she said. "It's $5.5 billion a year, every year, for 10 years. That's what is causing the problem.
"The law was passed in 2006 and lo and behold, ever since 2007, the Postal Service has been suffering a tremendous debt."
The Postal Service reported a net loss of $8.5 billion last fiscal year.
The American Postal Workers Union and the National Association of Letter Carriers don't want to lose the benefits. But Davidow says a solution is possible.
Click the audio player to hear the rest of the story from CNN Radio's Jim Roope, and hear what Davidow says should be done, and why some legislators oppose the plan:
You can also listen to the CNN Radio Reports podcast on 
or 
to the podcast here.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
The post office started going down before you pants-wetters were born. It has nothing to do with unions, or benefits, or any other TP crapola. The PO itself recently admitted if they could not deliver junk mail they would have to close. They made their own bed. Me, I don't want any more junk male.
I have never found a single person who has NOT used some article/coupon, etc that they found in their Junk mail. Keep in mind that the letter carrier has to deliver that to every address on their route. Cost only to the sender. The congress is the biggest sender of Junk Mail at Taxpayer expense. If every congressperson was charged the normal mailing rate for the Junk they send out the Post Offices Budget would look great.
" Me, I don't want any more junk male"
I don't want any more junk males, either. I want quality in my male.
When I got to 'pants wetters' I stopped reading your post. You already shot down your credibility by hurling this insult. You are a perfect example of someone who hides behind your anonymity, in the comfort of your own home or office or mother's basement, and says things filled with hate and anger for no reason other than to show how tough or smart you are. I rarely read the posts after an article, and after reading the start of yours, I'll continue to not read them. Get a life!
The USPS has become the lackey of the junk mail industry. Most of the mail delivered to my mail-box is unwanted, junk-mail and ends up in unopened in the trash.
The post office could become solvant by increasing junk-mail rates to between half and 2/3's of the standard first class rates. But this will never happen with the well funded junk mail lobby. What we have now is a giant bureacricy dedicated to sorting and delivering mail no one wants to receive. I'd be more than happy to see my mail load cut by about 75%.
If the junk mail industry is unhappy, let them form the JMPS (junk-mail postal service) funding it at cost separate from standard mail service with deliverys 7 days a week if they wish. This is known as privitization.
They could also cut Saturday service, and eliminate two of the three post offices in my town of 4,500.
It is interesting that those that do not work for a living find this law great and are always ready to beat up on the Postal System. But if the law is so great why is it not applied to this Congress? Why not to all Private and Public Corporations? Why is it only applied to the U.S.Postal System? The republicans have ZERO idea on Job creation but are First Class in Job destruction. How many good paying Jobs has this republican congress created? ZERO, ZERO.
Why is there NO JOBS BILL??? Is it because the republican's "Masters" do not want them to create any Jobs??
Haliburton-like economics have taken over the helm of the depart of treasury!
Please read the article. It says ince the 2006 congress. Who was the the Speaker of the House in 2006 and which party was in control.
Also if you can read a certain group doesn't want to loose the benefits in question.
True, but the principle of facts remains. Your email are in, any personal info, are in a public domain and you privacy is subject to vendor policy and highest bidder and hacking. You have privacy with US Postal Services mail. You also have to pay carrier fees to access Internet. US Postal operate from cost the private industry operate for profit...your rural areas,
in the boondocks, outta the way places aren't
profitable either will have no services at all or very restrictive service. The old, shutins, handicaps good luck tooya! You need to support your postal service.
You are right. UPS/Fedex does NOT deliver to all addresses in the USA. People do not realize what they have until it is lost and than it will be too late. For the cost the USPS is still a BARGAIN. Try sending a letter with UPS/FedEx for 0.55 cents???
While this prefunding requirement is certainly a drain on the USPS, it is not the only reason they are struggling. Starting at the top, They are extremely top heavy in executive and management positions and not all of them really contribute toward making the USPS better. 1/3 of these positions could and should be cut. Next the unions should be abolished. The unions create jobs that are so specific that it limits what employees actually do. When there is a problem, they spend half the time trying to figure out who's job it is to fix the problem and then waiting around for the correct personnel to have the time to address the issue. In the distribution centers where I have worked 1/3 of the employees could be cut without missing a beat in the day to day service, if the unions were dissolved. Lastly, a flat 25% raise in postage stamps (still only $.55) would give the much needed injection of funding necessary to help with dissolving the unions and other current problems. I know that alot of these postal workers would not be happy with this solution but, If something drastic isn't done right now, alot or all of them will be out of work anyways and never reach retirement.
@Matt you are an elistist and would love to destroy the protection of the working man. Congress reconized the value of the unions. Of course since the republicans love big business and hate the little man...they the republicans also hate unions.
So Matt, were you fired from the PO or just first in line to be down-sized?
From my experience in working in union enviornments, Matt does have a point. Often, the job descriptions are so specific that I have been accused of trying to take away a union job by simply cleaning my office myself. I have seen instances where I was not allowed to move and plug in a lamp because a union maintenance person was required to do that. It tends to create a inefficient working enviornment. To accuse Matt of being an elitist is a BIG stretch.
Like I previously stated, I'm sure my comments might upset a few postal workers but, as with any successful company, the inefficiencies have to be done away with for them to excel. Otherwise the entire USPS might be going away and everyone will be out of a job. If you notice, I also commented about the top heavy management but for the lower level employees the unions tend to protect the slackers and hinder the hard workers from excelling at their jobs. No matter what changes happen, not everyone is going to be happy.
By the way, I do not now and have never worked for the USPS. I provide them equipment and technical training. I developed relationships with alot of the USPS personnel and would hate to see any of them lose their jobs.
Let those thieving rascals go! Their employees didn't think about their future when they were dishing out lousy customer service and stealing customers' mail and packages. I'm a UPS person from now on...
Try sending or getting aletter for 0.55 cents? UPS/FedEx do not deliver to every address in the USA.
Havildar: Right now it costs about $3 to send a letter via UPS or Fed Ex to anywhere in the country and they have to charge that much because the government allows the USPS to run a an $8.5billion loss every year by charging $.43 for that same letter.. If you got USPS out of the way Fed Ex and UPS could probably deliver those letters for under $1 and that would save the US $8.5billion dollars a year.. All those people fired from the USPS will have to join the real world and get real private-sector jobs.. With all the extra mail, I bet UPS and Fed Ex would be hiring..
Sean do you really belive that the UPS/Fedex would ever go backwards from $ 3 to $1 to deliver a letter to ANY address in the USA?? I have a bridge for sale want to bid? (UPS/FedEx does NOT deliver to every address in the USA TODAY only the USPS still does.)
The Postal Service need to do is to deliver mail 3 times a week and raise the stamp price. If it comes down to it change the salary not to min wage just enough to keep it your jobs. If that doesn't work lay off workers.
Post Office should go to 7 day deliver.
None of you people get it. Congress says what we do in the end, and did you ever think what happens if they lay off 120000 workers? We will get huge fat Unemployment checks that will come out of YOUR pockets.
You lose both ways.
Not to mention this useless republican congress cannot create Jobs for the 16 MILLION American workers at this time . Will they be able to add another half a million to the unemployed list??? Republicans are great at destroying American Jobs and FAIL at being able to creat good paying Jobs. (They also hate minimum pay Jobs. evr see a republican CEO work at minimum without benefits or they private Jets?)
I agree HALDIVAR – so many times posters are kicking working people in the head. The 100% funding of retirements has been overpaid and the practice should be stopped. Email and low cost cell phone usage has taken its toll on the Postal Service but what would we do without the Postal Service and how high would unemployment go if closing post offices and resulting layoffs are used to combat this problem. Congress needs to review this – and quickly.
I can't help but agree that a portion of the problem is the union, let me explain why before I start getting hate responses. My husband has worked for the postal service for 26 years. I work in government too but I have to tell you the unions are totally different. The PO union has taken a strong stance against management, therefore the employees have very little respect for management. I have heard of numerous incidents where employees are on FMLA for a sinus infections, (no, not the hospitalization type) or they can't work on Mondays because the volume of work gives them stress, managers try to performance manage these folks out to the point of termination, only to have the union bring them back with back pay and any unearned vacation, sick time, etc. It would be great if the post office would take a look at the dollars lost because of employees abusing FMLA and to have someone investigate the union and their representation of these employees. The other downfall is that more people are using the internet to send mail, paybills, etc. Technology is hurting the postal system, they do need to restructure from the very top of the chain to branches. It would be nice if they could offer early retirement to the good performaning employees and fire the deadweight – lots of deadweight.
I work at a Government Facility as a Contractor. Yes most Governemt Employees are some of the lasiest, do nothing idiots I have ever met. They promote ignorance and tolerate subpar performances from their employees. When they do try to do something about a poor performer the union steps in and protects the slackers. I've seen managers actually get in trouble for trying to discipline poor employees. I've never seen something as simple as warehousing run so poorly. Also the systems they use for selecting and inventory are like stepping back into the 1960's.
I completely agree. I have heard of many incidents of managers getting in trouble from the UNION because they disciplined an employee. I actually witnessed a few employees laughing at their managers because of it – total disgust and disrespect. If you really want to know who is running the postal system into the ground...a huge % of it is the union.
I know a Government Manager who had an employee sleeping in the bathroom every day for atleast an hour. When he tried do something about it he got in trouble for harassment because he started following the employee and tracking his work performance.
572,000 more workers left without a job, the situation is already hard as it is all this will just bring more problems along. we alll get lazy at times due to work, school, etc. we dont want to get our mail but id rather get up and get my mail instead of recieving it online that is for lazy people that willl turn out like the people in the movie walle, sure the post office may not be the best place for some but it gives people a job and others a place to send their cards to their loved ones because some belive a card is more valuable than an email
@ Mmmmm:
I don't know whether Matt is an elitist or not–I didn't read his post–but I certainly am an elitist.
I think that everybody should strive to be elite. Some of us will achieve that status, and every single person will be better off for striving.
Only the lazy would deny that.
Many are saying let the PO become non-existent since there is UPS/FedEx. Well, maybe Burger King should be closed also since we have McDonalds. Maybe every Target, Kroger should be closed since there is a WalMart. There is always a need for a company when other options are available. There is so much being missed in all of these posts. If mail delivery was reduced to 5 days, what would the up to 80,000 employees who would be displaced do? Get on the unemployment roles? Your tax dollars at work. How about 3 days?
There is no easy answer. The Unions aren't to blame. The benefits many employees enjoy now are because of Unions. That's fact. If as an employee you don't like your benefits, fight to get better ones, or like many on here would say "Quit and get another job." That isn't the answer. Some career paths in life we "fall into", not plant for.
The USPS doesn't have a wonderful retirement like you may think. I'm under the FERS retirement plan. I've worked for the Post Office for over 15 years and guess what...I only have $5k towards my retirement. I however contribute towards my retirement in other ways. Health benefits cost US, the employee. I've paid over $300 a month for my insurance plan. I don't expect many to understand the complexities of the financial situation that the Postal Service is in. I don't expect many to care about it's employee's either. However, understand this, there are thousands of us dedicated employees who enjoy our jobs. Yes, we have bad days like everyone else. We make mistakes in delivering your mail. Every employee makes mistakes in their job. When you look at thousands of pieces of mail a day, sometimes a misdelivery will happen. I'm not going to quit going to a restaurant because I received the wrong plate of food.
We Postal employees take the negative to heart. I hate reading how my fellow American's want to see my employer shut down. How would you feel as an employee if I wished your business was closed and you were out of work. Have we lost compassion for the middle class work force? I hope to God we haven't!
Most people have little idea how things in the USPS work. Even more have no clue that Congress makes the big decisions on change. And like I posted above, if they do lay off 120000 workers....well. That's ALOT of big Unemployment checks that will pay better than most jobs today....... sadly.
For the Hard Job the postal employee does I take my Hat off and Thank you. Remember that when you go into the polling booth to Vote. I will remember and I Vote.
18 Million Plus Americans out of work yet this useless republican congress Fails in creating JOBS and now want more Americans to be laid off. Shows congresses true colours.
Post Office does not depend on Taxpayer dollars unlike the congress.
As a carrier who's been reading comments to a lot of articles regarding USPS this week, my eyes have been opened to the general disillusionment of the public towards the USPS. I feel my job is slowing becoming obsolete thanks to the internet, and I've felt this way for quite a while. Yet, my wife (also a carrier) and I keep doing what we do and to the best of our abilities. It's sad when you're on a sinking boat, and no one wants to figure out how to save it. They pass the buck, they take absolutely no responsibility, and it's extraordinarily frustrating. But with so much time invested in our careers, what are we supposed to do when the boat goes under completely?
@ almy37:
Your post reveals naïvete'.
What the post office needs to do is cut overhead. Most of the buildings are too large for the decreasing mail volume. The USPS should operate out of grocery stores much like banks do.