You know the economy sucks when...

… the USPS asks congress to allow 120,000 layoffs. I’ll let that sink in now.

120,000 layoffs… Of USPS workers.

EW YORK (CNNMoney) – Hundreds of thousands of postal workers could soon lose their jobs, or face drastic changes to their benefits.

According to documents obtained by CNNMoney, the United States Postal Service is appealing to Congress to remove collective bargaining restrictions in order to lay off 120,000 workers. It also wants congressional approval to replace existing government health care and retirement plans.

The post office claims it needs to eliminate 220,000 positions, or more than 30% of its staff by 2015, but only 100,000 of those positions can be made through attrition. The other 120,000 must come from lay offs, according to the documents.

“To restore the Postal Service to financial viability, it is imperative that we have the ability to reduce our workforce rapidly,” the USPS wrote.

The USPS is also asking Congress to change legislation that requires postal workers to get federal health care and retirement benefits. Instead, the Postal Service would replace them with its own benefit plans.

Currently, postal employees participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, the Civil Service Retirement System and the Federal Employees Retirement System. If given congressional approval, the Post Office would replace those with new plans that would save money, while offering comparable benefits to employees, according to the documents.
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In the documents, the USPS lays out the harsh reality of the situation: mounting losses, declining mail volume due both to the recession and the shift toward digital alternatives, and the need for drastic measures to cut costs.

“The Postal Service is facing dire economic challenges that threaten its very existence and, therefore, threaten the livelihoods of our employees and the businesses and employees in the broader postal industry and overall economy” a document on workforce reduction said.

It’s no secret the USPS has been struggling, but it’s a move that’s likely to put Postal Service unions up in arms. USPS mail volume declined 20% in the four year period through fiscal year 2010 resulting in net losses of over $20 billion.

In fiscal year 2010, the Postal Service suffered a $8.5 billion net loss, compared $3.8 billion the prior year. Last quarter, the U.S. Postal Service posted a loss of $2.2 billion. Its fiscal year ends in September.

In July, the Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe released a long-awaited “post office study” of nearly 3,700 potential closings in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Yea, so much for pension/retirement and good federal benefits. Noone will want to work there, what’s left? :rofl

I’m waiting for this to happen to state workers, it has to be coming… no retirement, etc.

Need to plan for yourself, noone will take care of you anymore.

I hope my brother doesnt get cut. freakin crazy. 120k…ouch

This isn’t completely related to the current economic problems. The U.S. postal system has been losing money for a very long time. This had to happen eventually. Not that I want to see people lose their jobs, but atleast one government agency is doing something to move towards a sensable direction.

i stood in line for 25 minutes at the post office today.

wow.

Lots of people about to go postal up in this bitch

And I’m sure its only the beginning.

and there were how many clerks?

I assume that the prices for shipping will rise wont it? Less people to handle the packages (no homo) and if the time frame to deliver is the same they will have to work harder (wont happen because they will ask for higher pay) so the quicker shipping times will come at a higher price, and ground bottom of the barrel delivery times wont drop in price, only take a hit in quality and taken longer to get there.

once again, government tries to save the quick money in one chunk, and shoots themselves in the feet for the long run.

USPS is already close to or more expensive than UPS. If they raise their rates it will effectively lessen their throughput of packages, because people will look to UPS or what ever else. And if UPS was smart when USPS jacks their prices, they could drop them a little, make the drop in price public and a big deal, and steal a lot more business.

10lb pacakage 12010 to 90210

UPS ground: $20.44 expected August 19
UPS 3 day: $50.78 expected August 17
UPS Next day: $109 expected August 13

USPS ground: $31.60 (paid on location) $29.57 (paid online) expected Aug 15 <- no way
USPS Express: $73.40 (paid on location) $57.98 (paid online) expected Aug 13 <- no way

For commercial customers, they will pay for speed anyways so it doesn’t really matter, but regular joes always look for “cheapest possible” to ship things as long as its not NEEDED to get there.

Also keep in mind that they want put a stop to Sat deliveries too. so forget about USPS express getting there when they said its “expected” to. Taking away even more from their services. And their “expected to delivers” never seem to be on time, I would say 1:3 I get/send are accurate. I move about 15-20 packages a month easy.

Just one. Post office in Cobleskill.

This was a long time coming. Snail mail was dying for a while.

Majority of mail is is just spam and advertising.

One of the first smart things I’ve seen the gov’t do recently, trim down programs that are no longer relevant.

Yup. Not going to stop campanies from using “green” as a lame excuse to tell you to opt in for electronic billing, yet at the same time keep spamming you with their not so green paper advertisments or send pre-approved creditcard applications to you for the exact same creditcard that you already have…:rofl

I wanna murder whoever is in charge of the mass mailings at CapitalOne. Not a day goes by where I do not get some offer from them.

You guys remember that article where the guy would use the Prepaid return stamp from spam mail to send them back garbage and useless junk? :rofl

Just gotta sell drugs.

Is there really any need for USPS at this point? All I get is junk mail in my mailbox, everything else I handle electronically. Bigger packages I ship UPS.

Precisely.

I rarely need to use USPS or rely on it’s services.

Old geezers love the place, new generation doesn’t need it.

Geezers drain out country in many other ways, not wanting to get with modern tech shouldn’t be one of them.

Die snail mail!

Jesus took a shit and called it USPS.

Another reason why working for someone sucks… Work for someone till youve got enough cash to open your own shit up… Make money and invest into something that will bring you residual income…