Is the US Postal Service Near an End … Another Casualty of Unions

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” … but federal bureaucracy and Unions could certainly put an end to the US Postal Service.

The US Postal Service is near default and bankruptcy and because of decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses that  are increasing the post office’s costs. Who runs a business like this? The Postal Service has been a colossal disaster for years.  Add to this the fact that Postal workers receive better benefits than other federal workers. Why? The US Postal Service should not be bailed out by Congress unless they are made to do many cost containing measures like reducing services, laying off unnecessary workers, and closing locations.

The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances.

“Our situation is extremely serious,” the postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, said in an interview. “If Congress doesn’t act, we will default.”

In recent weeks, Mr. Donahoe has been pushing a series of painful cost-cutting measures to erase the agency’s deficit, which will reach $9.2 billion this fiscal year. They include eliminating Saturday mail delivery, closing up to 3,700 postal locations and laying off 120,000 workers — nearly one-fifth of the agency’s work force — despite a no-layoffs clause in the unions’ contracts.

Read more