Possible Layoffs For USPS Workers Ahead!

I read in Linn's Stamp News that Wm. Burrus-the President of the American Postal Workers Union- says there may be layoffs in the near future due to economic problems in the US. He indicated that the 16,000 workers who have been with the USPS for less than 6 years would be the first to be "discharged". The pressure also is on to "Privatize" the Postal Service.

Gussyboy1

Looks like we better start using the mail more.

Good idea, but I think it would be too little ,too late, mkfarm. The internet
has taken it's toll on the USPS.

Gussyboy1

Privatizing can't be worse. Everything the U.S. Government has a hand in is ineffective, inefficient, and a financial sink hole. I guess that's why I'm so glad they're taking over the banking industry, mortgages, GM and Chrysler (in today's newspaper), and probably health care before long.

OK, I'll get off my soapbox and shut up!

Roger that..can you imagine if they had gone to people investing their own money for the future instead of social security ???

Anyone come accross any decent matchbook cover collections recently ????

What is a matchbook cover?

When I lived in town we did not have home delivery. I had to get a Post Office Box, which doesn't work so well Monday - Friday when you get home after the Post Office was closed.

Now I'm rural delivery so they drive around in a car to make the delivery.

The last time I had home delivery was when I lived at home (family house where I grew up) and that was in the early 1980's.

I still send out as much through the mail as I did 20 years ago. Believe me I still get as much junk mail as I did 20 years ago. The only thing that is different is that I average 6 pieces of mail a day and only two stamps a week.

Just that, the cover from a book of matches. Some people collected them
and maybe still do. During the 1950's Ohio Blue Tip used to have some
very colorful ones with birds, flowers and things. I would walk around
at family gatherings where all the men smoked and pick them up to send
to my Korean pen pal who collected matchbook covers as well as stamps.

Okay... soapbox time...

Here's what I don't understand. The U.S. is ten times the size of us, and they have a post office going into the red? Our small (by comparison) post office, with a small population of 33 million, spread over a huge nation (largest in the free world, geographically), consistantly posts a profit each year. Mail is delivered to remote communities across the north, as well as across town. The profits are well in to the millions of dollars, I may add... in a nation which has the highest per capita internet/e-mail users in the world.



Okay, I'll shut up now... off my soapbox.

Ok I thought it was some type of a stamp thing.

Easy answer on the US Mail. Anything the US government gets involved with is guaranteed to cost too much, have more employees than they need, have more holidays than there are workdays and well I think others can add more.

Just saw an Obama ad on TV. He wants everyone to take election day off!

And if he gets his way, everyone who works will be working for the
government and the government will distribute the fruits of their labor
as it sees fit. It will be time for Atlas to shrug and see if the
socialist dream that has failed everywhere it has been tried beginning
with the Plymouth colony in the 1600's, can be self-sustaining in what
was a land founded on liberty.

David Giles, one reason for being in the red could be the vast number of employees out on disability...my nephew was a state trooper but now has a better paying job..postal inspector..he goes around taking pictures of postal employees out on disability roofing their neighbors house or lifting weights in their garages...he loves his job !!

I agree, David. It seems crazy that the USPS isn't turning a profit--and a poss rate hike again next year! They should be making a profit with all the junk mail that gets sent out--I bet I receive 6-8 letters for credit card applications a week--I tear them up immediately.

Go figure?
Thanks!
Gussyboy1

It's tough to be laid off, especially in this economy. Gasoline prices have ruined their budget. That was hard to anticipate.

Private corporations have not been well-managed either. Mismanagement of risk in these companies combined with some events beyond their control has put them in dire straits. It has never been the intention of the US government to "take over" the banking industry, mortgages, GM and Chrysler. The mismanagement and failures of these private corporations has forced the US government to take action. The US government is providing a safety net. The alternative was to let all the financial institutions collapse.

Abuses of the system and mismanagement can occur in both public and private sectors. Abuses in the private sector and insufficient government oversight has caused the current worldwide financial crisis.

Our government is far from perfect but does provide a lot of essential services. One of these is cleaning up the mess when the private sector spins out of control.

Indeed, not everything our government does is ineffective, inefficient, and a financial sink hole. On the whole I think the postal service is doing a pretty good job. The mail is delivered in a timely fashion even during the holiday season. And we don't have large scale theft of the mail as occurs in some other countries. Another example is the FDA, which ensures that our food and medicines are safe. We don't have babies dying in this country from contaminated milk supplies.

I'm not for "big government" or for "small government". Both can be disastrous. There needs to be a balance. The tough part is getting the right balance to avoid both burdensome over-regulation and the abuses of completely unregulated companies.

We should take pride in our government and work together to optimize it.

Don't be so quick if the covers have bulk-rate stamps on them... they are tomorrow's postal history... save them!

David